The American Legion Weekly

Articles from The American Legion Weekly

The Dwindling A.E.F. (American Legion Weekly, 1919)

The intended readers for the attached article were the newly initiated members of the American Legion (ie. recently demobilized U.S. veterans), who might have had a tough time picturing a Paris that was largely free of swaggering, gum-chewing Doughboys gallivanting down those broad-belted boulevards, but that is what this journalist, Marquis James (1891 – 1955) intended. At the time of this printing, the A.E.F. (American Expeditionary Force) had been shaved down from 4,000,000 to half that number and re-christened the A.F.F. (American Forces in France) and the A.F.G. (American Forces in Germany). With a good bit of humor, the article concentrates on the antics of the American Third Army in Germany as they performed their Bolshevist busting duties in the Coblenz region.

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A Tribute to General Pershing (American Legion Weekly, 1924)

Six years after the last shot was fired, war correspondent Frederick Palmer (1873 – 1958) typed up some sweet words of praise for the American W.W. I Commanding General John Pershing:

When the people at home were thinking in terms of thousands, Pershing planned for an army of a million men overseas…He was organizer and molder of the A.E.F.. The stamp of his character was upon it in so far as any one man can put his stamp upon a vast, modern army.


During that brief period of the war in which Pershing’s Doughboys were at bat against the Germans, Palmer worked under the general as the press liaison officer and censor for the entire A.E.F. (a job he hated). His bitter recollections of W.W. I were recorded in his 1921 memoir; click here to read the review.


Click here to read an article from 1927 by General Pershing regarding the American cemeteries in Europe.

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The Popularly-Elected Senate (American Legion Weekly, 1920)

In 1913 a very strong, anti-Federalist step was taken to amend the Constitution and alter the manner in which U.S. Senators were to be selected and replaced in the event of vacancies. The 17th Amendment was passed: it guaranteed that senators would no longer be elected from within the legislative bodies of the state governments, but would be elected directly by the citizens of their respective states, just as the representatives are. Historian Everett Kimball pointed out in this article how the 17th Amendment altered the very nature of the U.S. Senate.

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General Billy Mitchell: Advocate of American Airpower (American Legion Weekly,1921)

This is one of the editorials written by U.S. Army General Billy Mitchell (1879 – 1936) that only served to annoy the senior army leadership and their civilian overlords in Washington. On these pages General Mitchell made his case for the creation of a unique branch of the military confined entirely to air power that was distinct and independent of the Army. He points out that numerous armies are doing just this and the U.S. would be wise to do the same. He was particularly keen on seeing to it that everyone know that that the Imperial Japanese Army was doing the same thing.

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A Puttee Advertisement (The American Legion Weekly, 1919)

This advertisement was placed in an American veteran’s magazine as an attempt to produce some profit from the vast surplus of uniform items that remained in all the combatant nations at war’s end. Puttees, unlike other uniform items, enjoyed a brief moment in fashion’s spotlight during the late teens and much the twenties as an accessory for those who enjoyed camping and hunting (or simply wished to affect the look).

Also included is a fashion photograph of puttees from a VANITY FAIR fashion editorial from 1917

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