ABSTRACT
After the First World War ended in November 1918, two intertwined trends affected the United States military for the next two decades. One can be seen in the international arena where victorious French, British, and American leaders hammered out the Treaty of Versailles and established the League of Nations in 1920. The second trend occurred as the American military demobilized from 4.7 million personnel in 1918 to 250,000 in 1920. Throughout the interwar years, American officers debated the viability of armor and aviation in warfare. In the 1920s and 1930s, recruiting advertisements lured young American males into the military with promises of travel, adventure, employment, education, or rites of passage into manhood. The Army War College and the Naval War College devoted significant portions of curricula to planning and simulating conflicts. Apart from manpower issues, the National Defense Act of 1920 transformed many other structures and functions of the War Department and the Army.
