Military Veterans have had a long history with the American Distilling Industry. It starts with the whiskey tax that caused the whiskey rebellion. Veterans of the American Revolution opposed the tax. They had just fought a war over taxation and did not like this tax. However, the tax was passed because the new nation had promised to pay off the individual states war debt, which meant the veterans were the recipients of the benefits of the tax. The tax was designed to be an unfair tax to force small distillers out of business and make the American distilling industry a larger, corporate owned industry. In the short run, the whiskey rebellion failed, but in the long run, it caused the law to be adjusted to a more fair law. The whiskey tax was repealed in 1802, but came back shortly to pay for the War of 1812. It was again repealed in 1817 and did not come back until 1861 to pay for the American Civil War. It has been paying for American conflicts ever since.
The American Civil War had an unfortunate side effect on the industry. Veterans of the war were often addicted to morphine given to them after a battle wound. Between this addiction and the post trauma from the war, many veterans became dependent upon alcohol. This led to many abuses of alcohol and fed the temperance movement. There were well over a million veterans from the war and a large percentage of them became dependent upon alcohol. This has not changed as many veterans of America’s conflicts suffer from alcohol abuse today.
The First World War saw the distilleries forced into a wartime prohibition as the distilleries were making alcohol to support the war effort. The distilleries were happy to produce the high proof alcohol for the war effort, but did not like the fact that when the war was over, they still could not produce beverage alcohol because the government extended the wartime prohibition for an additional year until national Prohibition came into effect. Many veterans felt cheated because they were serving in the military and not allowed to vote when Prohibition was passed. They felt if they had been at home and able to vote, Prohibition would not have passed.
The Second World War saw the industry making high proof alcohol once again to support the war effort. The industry faced many challenges as many of their workers were now in the military and this led to a labor shortage. Women and minorities were the replacement workers and it changed the face of the industry. When the war was over, the men who had fought returned to their jobs, but the change in attitude had become permanent and many of the women and minorities kept their jobs.
The end of the war also had a positive effect on the industry in that America now had many military bases in foreign countries. These bases sold whiskey that was tax free and cheap to the military. Jim Beam in particular had a military contract to serve military bases. This cheap whiskey meant that many soldiers and sailors became exposed to Bourbon and developed a taste for it. It also meant that the native people of the country in which a military base was located became exposed to Bourbon as soldiers and sailors purchased bottles from the PX and shared it with the locals. Bourbon quickly became popular, particularly in Japan. This caused a growth in Bourbon exports that helped save the industry during the lean years of the 1970s and 80s.
There has been a long relationship between American whiskey and the military. It has not always been a positive relationship, but on the whole, the industry benefits from the relationship.
