| The medical officers of the United States Army Medical Department established a system of public health practice and ideology during the Progressive Era (1890-1920) that affected global sanitation and public health practices well into the twentieth century. Preserving the health of soldiers was always part of the Department's mission during the nineteenth century, and became an important component of the medical officer's professional identity. Following the Spanish-American War, however, sanitary-minded medical officers sought to make this the primary mission of the Medical Department. For uniformed sanitarians and medical researchers, sanitary tactics became the watchword for asserting greater status and influence within the United States Army. Using methods pioneered in the American imperial periphery, including insect vector eradication and cultural education and coercive authority, sanitarians claimed access to a special knowledge base that would translate into a strategic advantage for the Army in the decade before the First World War. After failing to deliver on their promises in 1917-1919, members of the sanitary clique left the Medical Department to practice their trade with American public health philanthropies like the Rockefeller Foundation, setting the course of a dynamic American public health system in the developing world. |
