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The
Reserve Officers Training Corp (ROTC) originated
in the United States of America. It dates from
the passage of the Morill Act of 1862 which
granted public land to the senator and representative
of each state. These lands were to be sold;
and then proceeds were to benefit educational
institutions that would offer certain programs,
including part-time military training, to their
students. These schools, called "Land Grant
Colleges", began to appear after the American
Civil War.
The
colleges were subsequently required by law to
maintain Reserve Officer Training Corps units
and offer training on a required basis for two
of the four years of a baccalaureate course.
The final two years of the training, which led
to a reserve commission in either the Army or
Navy upon graduation, were elective with the
student.
Modern
American ROTC gained much of its present form
from the National Defense Act of 1916. Its organization,
in turn, was partly based on the British Officer
Training Corps, which supplied most of the British
officer strength in World War I.
The
program was envisioned to produce officers who
would counterbalance the products of military
academies. Since civilian educators viewed academy graduates as "isolated from their civilian contemporaries",
ROTC products were to serve as vehicles of a
value system that was more representative of
that held by the remainder of American society.
These soldiers were to be the embodiment of
the 'citizen soldier' concept -- symbolized
by the Minuteman.
Other
countries have since established their own counterparts
-- particularly those with historically strong
ties with the United States. South
Korea established its first ROTC units in
1969, while the Republic of China (Taiwan) established
its own ROTC program in 1997.
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