Dem
47
GOP
53
And here comes history lesson #3. We have now reminded folks several times, both today and in the other posts this week, that the Founding Parents were very leery of military power. They saw the abuses that resulted from George III's use of his armies and, not long after the Constitution became a done deal, they got to witness the abuses that resulted from Napoleon's use of HIS armies.
Consequent to this, people like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were very sensitive to the trappings of European militarism, and trying to avoid those things as much as was possible. We've already written this week about the desire to keep the standing army (and thus the number of professional soldiers) small, and to rely mostly on citizen-soldiers. They also disliked mercenary soldiers, whose loyalty—by definition—is available to the highest bidder. And they were really wary of all the military pageantry that Europeans indulged in. This meant, for example, that the Revolutionary War generation (and several generations thereafter) disapproved of medals and other military decorations, such that the U.S. basically did not have ANY of them until the Civil War (and even then, only the Medal of Honor). And they really, really disapproved of military parades.
Consequently, the U.S. does not have much of a history of military parades. That's not to say it has NO history, however. So, we're going to give an overview of the subject, and we'll try to be reasonably comprehensive. That starts by noting that there are three different general types of events that might plausibly be called "military parades."
The first of those is parades that just happen to have some participation from current or past military personnel. The parades at presidential inaugurations are in this category. So is the Rose Parade and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Local parades often include local veterans/personnel; this was particularly true in the 19th century.
The second category is drill presentations that are called "parades" because there's no better word for them. For example, on Fridays in the summer, the Marine Corps Barracks stages a one-hour parade that involves about 200 personnel performing drill and concluding with a 21-gun salute. The Marines do a similar thing at the Lincoln Memorial on Tuesdays in the summer; that one's called the Sunset Parade.
Neither of those is what we will be seeing this weekend, when the nation ostensibly celebrates the 250th birthday of Donald Trump, and the 79th birthday of the U.S. Army. Er, correct that, it's apparently the 250th birthday of the Army; to our surprise, it's not Trump that's 250 years old. Anyhow, this is the rarest kind of parade, at least in the U.S., though it's not entirely without precedent.
Far and away the most famous military parade of this sort is the Grand Review of the Armies, which took place over two days in May of 1865. In essence, every Union Army unit that could plausibly reach Washington after the cessation of hostilities in the Civil War headed to the capital. About 80,000 men marched down Pennsylvania Avenue on the first day, with 85,000 marching on the second day, as still-new President Andrew Johnson and General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant looked on:
The goals here were: (1) to celebrate victory in the Civil War, (2) to reward the men for their service and (3) to allow them to bid adieu to each other and to the military, as most of them were mustered out a week later. Donald Trump presumably would not have enjoyed this parade, as Confederates were verboten.
Nearly all of the other large-size parades in American history were also victory parades. There were a bunch of them after World War I, with the largest being held in New York. There were a bunch of them after World War II, with the largest again being held in New York. There was also a victory parade after the Persian Gulf War, and there was a parade in 1943 (in New York, naturally) to raise funds and rally support for the war effort. None of these parades came close to the 165,000 men who marched in the Grand Review; they all featured between 8,000 and 20,000 soldiers. The Trump parade, incidentally, will have about 6,000.
So, if you want to do some squinting, the parade this weekend is within the general ZIP Code of "normal," in the sense that it commemorates a momentous event. Although you actually have to do some more squinting to make that part true. The 250th birthday of the Continental Army is on Saturday; the 250th birthday of the U.S. Army, by contrast, is on June 3, 2034. Undoubtedly, the White House staff carefully weighed the historiographical arguments, and decided the June 14, 2025, date showed more fealty to the historical record. There couldn't possibly be any other reason they preferred June 14 now, as opposed to some other June date 9 years in the future, right?
In the end, Trump may end up very disappointed. There is a 60% chance of rain, D.C. hotels are reporting that they aren't getting very many reservations, and there are ads on Craigslist for seat fillers. Those ads might be fake, we suppose, but given the weather and the lack of reservations, they might not be. Plus, the birthday present Trump really wants is the opportunity to crack down on some protesters, and to give them a taste of what L.A. is experiencing right now. He probably won't get it. The "No Kings" folks are specifically telling people to stay away from D.C., and to redirect to Philadelphia (for locals) and to all the other cities that are holding events. We will see how many freelance protesters decline to take that advice.
Let us conclude by noting that if readers happen to attend the parade (not too likely for the readership of this site), or if they attend one of the "No Kings" protests, we would welcome reports and/or photos at comments@electoral-vote.com, ideally with the subject line "No Kings." (Z)