Toward a Situated Description of Cohesion and Disintegration in the American Army

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Abstract
This article is a critical response to Savage and Gabriel's study of the disintegration of the American Army in the Vietnam War. The author argues that the positivist orientation in their work restricts analysis to addressing various absolutes. The author takes issue with the assumptions underlying Gabriel and Savage's test for cohesion, as irrespective of situation. The author takes issue with their use of honor and efficiency without reference to a historical context, and the treatment of military disintegration irrespective of the service member's social context. Finally, the absolutist model provided by Savage and Gabriel suffers a separation from experiential reality and provides a counter-proposal to examine problematic aspects in a contextual manner.

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