ABSTRACT
Air power derived its appeal by promising to place the glitter of modern technology in service of traditional values, above all the nation's long-standing distrust of standing armies. American security had never been effortless, and especially since the 1890s prominent Americans such as Theodore Roosevelt, moved by visions of empire abroad and unity at home, had forged a stronger army and navy. Mitchell, however, promised something more comforting. Air power, as he usually described it, would provide inexpensive security for a new generation of Americans, leaving them free from militarism and its accompanying evils-taxation, conscription, and tyranny.7
