Department of the Army
Historical Summary
Fiscal Year 1972
Compiled by
William Gardner Bell
CENTER OF MILITARY HISTORY
UNITED STATES ARMY
WASHINGTON,
D.C., 1974
Foreword
An annual report is one of the more traditional and useful ways of communicating the affairs of an organization, public or private, to interested agencies and individuals. Periodic compilations are especially binding upon government departments in the light of their obligation to inform the public. The United States Army, for example, has reported upon its expenditures, work, and accomplishments for the past century and a half.
The Department of the Army Historical Summary continues a series of periodic reports issued by Secretaries of War and the Army since Secretary John Calhoun's report to President James Monroe was published in 1822. In all editions it represents a primary source of reasonably comprehensive and quickly retrievable information about the Army.
Certain other official reports supplement or are supplemented by the Department of the Army Historical Summary. Readers seeking the broad service context that was formerly available in the Annual Report of the Department of Defense, where from 1949 to 1968 the Annual Report of the Secretary of the Army appeared, may wish to consult the annual posture statements issued by the Secretary of Defense and presented by the service secretaries before appropriate Congressional Committees. Those who wish to follow civil defense details reported under Army auspices since 1964 are referred to the annual report of the recently redesignated Defense Civil Preparedness Agency. Other reports published by various defense agencies furnish extended treatment of such subjects as supply and reserve forces.
Within the Army, several reports are published which supply depth on technical subjects that are covered in abridged form-for purposes of context-in the Department of the Army Historical Summary. The Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers on Civil Works Activities provides coverage of Army operations through the Corps of Engineers in such important areas as irrigation, flood control, navigation, hydropower, and resources management-all matters of broad environmental impact. The Annual Report of the Canal Zone Company and Canal Zone Government addresses in detail an Army function covered only briefly in the Historical Summary. And the Annual Report of The Surgeon General provides a wealth of detail not only on the health and medical care of the Army but also on a variety of activities in the field of medicine that are of interest to the general public.
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The Army does not, of course, operate in a vacuum; the Department of the Army Historical Summary reflects the context of Army relationships with the other services, the upper levels of the Department of Defense, the United States Government, and the nation as a whole, fitting the Army into the institutional and societal structure of which it .is a part.
| Washington, D. C. 15 April 1974 |
JAMES L. COLLINS, JR. Brigadier General, USA Chief, Military History |
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Last updated 27 August 2004 |