Military officers on active duty have been prohibited from taking part in politics ever since 1920, when Woodrow Wilson's Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker, grew indignant at Major General Leonard Wood's all-out campaign to capture the Republican presidential nomination. After Wood had been defeated by Harding, Baker ordered a regulation drawn to head off similar attempts in the future. Last week, with five-star Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower and Douglas MacArthur up to their very chins in politics, many a U.S. citizen was asking just when a soldier may properly take the stump.
Army Regulation 600-10-17 specifically forbids "activity at political conventions...
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