ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
The U.S. Army is getting a birthday party this month. The Army was established on June 14, 250 years ago. So a military parade will march through the streets of Washington on that day, which also happens to be President Trump's 79th birthday. This kind of procession has been on Trump's wish list since his first term, with troops in uniform, tanks and howitzers rolling through the streets. The Army says its bill for the birthday celebration and parade could be up to $45 million, and the total public costs could be higher. The Capitol has not seen a military parade like this in decades. So for some perspective on where this fits into American tradition, I'm joined by historian Joshua Zeitz. He's a contributing editor for Politico magazine. Welcome.
JOSHUA ZEITZ: Thank you so much. It's great to be with you.
SHAPIRO: When was the last big military parade like the one planned in D.C. for this month?
ZEITZ: That would have been 1991 to mark the end of the first Gulf War. And even at the time, it was seen as being somewhat of a break with American tradition. There was a fairly heated debate within George H. W. Bush's administration as to whether it was appropriate. And ultimately, the president determined that it would help Americans get over the so-called Vietnam syndrome, to be able to celebrate, you know, a victorious Army.
SHAPIRO: When the U.S. has had military parades like that one, whether it was 1991 or stretching all the way back to the Civil War, you note that they marked military victories.
ZEITZ: That's exactly right. There's a long tradition in American history, and certainly with the founding generation, which viewed with a lot of skepticism the idea that kings or parliament should keep permanent military of so-called standing armies. And so the instances in which we did have large military parades, it came at the end of wars and it celebrated the demobilization of large armies. So that would have been 1865, right after the Civil War, 1919, after World War I, 1945, after World War II. These never occur during peace time.
SHAPIRO: But there are a couple exceptions. John F. Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower both had parades with troops and weaponry to mark their inaugurations. Even so, Trump is receiving criticism for this parade, beyond the cost, for the message it's sending. So what do you see as the problem with this parade that the president has planned?
ZEITZ: You raise a good point. I mean, prior presidents have used military regalia to celebrate or mark other moments. There are obviously military ceremonies that happen, for instance, at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day. There's a military presence at inaugurations. But that's very different from what we're doing here. This is something that you would expect to see in countries like North Korea or the old Soviet Union or today's Russia, where, you know, strongmen effectively paraded their military and its equipment in an effort to intimidate perceived enemies abroad and at home. This feels much more like that than it does the large-scale military parades that occurred after the Civil War or World Wars I and II, not only celebrating a victory but also marking the end of those large standing armies. Because they swiftly demobilized right after those parades.
SHAPIRO: You say this is reminiscent of dictatorships, but Trump was apparently inspired by a Bastille Day parade that he saw in France, which is a Western liberal democracy.
ZEITZ: Yeah.
SHAPIRO: If France can do it, why not the U.S.?
ZEITZ: No, I mean, listen, there are other countries that are not part of that sort of access that do parades of this sort, but it's just sharply out of step with American history. Our country was born of a very particular opposition to state power, state authority, to standing armies which could enforce that type of authority and power. And so even since the Cold War, with a large standing Army intact, most presidents have shied away from these types of displays because they really run counter to the founding ideals.
And it's hard to take this in isolation. One has to take it in tandem with other measures that the president has taken to really vastly expand the authority, the powers and the deference accorded to the presidency. He's really reinventing the presidency as something that doesn't resemble what it has traditionally in American history, and the military parade is part of that.
SHAPIRO: We've been looking at some of the coverage of the parade that took place in 1991, at the end of the first Gulf War, and it's clear that it was very meaningful not just to troops who served in that war but also to some Vietnam veterans. Here's a quote we found from a soldier named Captain Ben Clapsaddle (ph). He was quoted in NPR's coverage.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
BEN CLAPSADDLE: I grew up in the '60s and '70s. My father was a Vietnam veteran. And the thousands of soldiers and service members that came home from that war didn't receive anything like this. I mean, this is a celebration for all the American people.
SHAPIRO: The people who served in the last two wars that the U.S. fought, in Iraq and Afghanistan, didn't get anything like this when those conflicts ended. And the Trump administration says this is about honoring all who served. What's wrong with having a parade like this to honor people who served in the military?
ZEITZ: It really depends on how this parade is organized and ultimately what the message is behind it. The fact that it's being held on the president's birthday would suggest that this is less about them and more about him. I think that one can be forgiven for looking at this parade with a little bit of skepticism.
SHAPIRO: Joshua Zeitz is a contributing editor for Politico magazine and author most recently of "Lincoln's God: How Faith Transformed A President And A Nation." Thank you very much.
ZEITZ: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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