What does a nation owe its military veterans? Gratitude, esteem, land grants, medical care, pensions, higher education? Or is serving in the armed forces of one's country an obligation to be undertaken without any expectation of compensation? If veterans are to receive government aid, should a distinction be made between those who served in wartime or faced enemy fire and those who saw neither war nor combat?

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 Decrepit Old Men Asking Only for Their Due: The Origins of the Veterans Lobby

2 Shark-Infested Waters: The Scramble for Pensions after the Civil War

3 The War to End All Wars Does Not End All Wars but Does Give Birth to the Boners and Revives the Veterans of Foreign Wars

4 The 1944 GI Bill: Hype Exemplified

5 An Endless Parade of GI Bills? Korea, Vietnam, and Post-9/11

6 The Best Medicine? The Growth of the Veterans Medical Complex and a Culture of Entitlement

Index