Charles J. Dunlap Jr.

America’s military could conceivably overthrow the government in the next century, Charles J. Dunlap Jr. argues in the following viewpoint. Dunlap employs a fictional narrator—a retired, imprisoned military officer—to describe the events leading up to a military coup in the year 2012, focusing on the drift of the U.S. military into civilian affairs. Dunlap’s narrator describes a military that is considered the only effective institution in what has become a problem-plagued society, with the inevitable result being a military takeover. Dunlap is a colonel in the U.S. Air Force and staff judge advocate for the U.S. Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. What are examples of America’s social malaise, according to...