Military issues are the subject of a lot of research, including the influence of militarism, martial law, military socialism and the military-socialist complex. Much of the work overlooks the historical impact in the United States, its effects upon the rest of the world, and fears of martial law and military socialism today.
http://rexcurry.net/military-socialism-militarism-socialist-complex.html

Militarism was specifically promoted in the USA in 1888 as "military socialism" by Edward Bellamy, author of the book "Looking Backward from 2000 to 1887."  The book was an international bestseller and was tranlsated into every major language including German, Russian and Chinese. It appears by title in many of the major Marxist writings of the day. Clubs sprang up in the USA and worldwide for touting the book's ideas. The Bellamy dogma influenced socialists worldwide, including the countries of the socialist Wholecaust (of which the Holocaust was a part): 65 million dead under the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; 49 million under the Peoples' Republic of China; 21 million under the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSGWP). 

The Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. flag originally (1892 to 1945) began with a military salute. The pledge was written by Francis Bellamy, cousin and cohort to Edward. The pledge was created to promote their military socialism in the most socialistic institution: government schools (socialized schools). They wanted government to take over all schools and create the "industrial army" from children to spread the Bellamy vision. The Bellamys admired the military and they wanted all of society to ape the military under a martial law system.

The most socialistic institutions in the USA -and the cause of the spread of socialism throughout the USA- has been the military and government schools (socialist schools).

The military salute began the Pledge of Allegiance and the gesture was then extended toward the flag with a straight-arm gesture and thus, Francis' early pledge was the origin of the straight-arm salute of German National Socialism as discovered by the historian Dr. Rex Curry, author of "Pledge of Allegiance Secrets." Shocking photos are on the web.
 http://rexcurry.net/book1a1contents-pledge.html

Early flag ettiquette for men in uniform was to perform the straight-arm salute - not the military salute - when the flag was passing or when the Pledge of Allegiance was being robotically chanted.  That practice lasted as long as 1942.

As consequence, the USA set a bad example for a long time, as the world observed the U.S. military delivering the straight-arm salute to the flag before WWI, during WWI, after WWI, and for up to three decades before the existence of the National Socialist German Workers' Party.

People were persecuted for refusing to pledge or to perform the straight-arm salute to the national flag.  That was to the flag of the USA (the stars and stripes) and of Germany (the swastika flag) as it happened at the same time.  Some religious people considered it sacrilegious. There were good reasons to view the pledge/salute as the worship of government. Most people do not know that a cross was worshiped as the notorious symbol of German National Socialism. The NSGWP called their symbol the Hakenkreuz, not the swastika. Hakenkreuz means "hooked cross." Although the swastika was an ancient symbol, Professor Rex Curry (author of "Swastika Secrets") discovered that it was also used sometimes by German National Socialists to represent "S" letters for their "socialism."  With a 45 degree turn of his Hakenkreuz, the leader of the NSGWP combined the cross with collectivism, merged church and state, meshed religion and socialism, and mandated the worship of government. http://rexcurry.net/book1a1contents-swastika.html

The Bellamy desire for government schools (and their use for socialist militarism) was a monstrous example to the world for decades and still is.

Many socialists who adopted the straight-arm salute (e.g. the National Socialist German Workers' Party) later, knew that the salute was being used in government schools in the U.S. to promote the military-socialism complex.

Jewish children were forced to perform the socialist straight-arm salute in government schools in the U.S. long before the National Socialist German Workers' Party existed, and for years thereafter while the horrid party tried to impose socialism everywhere.
 http://rexcurry.net/swastikamain.html

Government schools (socialist schools) expelled children who did not perform the original salute and pledge to the U.S. flag.
http://rexcurry.net/pledge_military.html

Bellamy belonged to a group known for "Nationalism," whose members wanted the federal government to nationalize most of the domestic economy. He saw government schools as a means to that end.   It was a view later shared in the military-socialist complex of the socialist trio of atrocities.

In his Pledge of Allegiance, Francis Bellamy is expressing the ideas of his first cousin, Edward Bellamy, author of the American socialist utopian novels, Looking Backward (1888) and Equality (1897).

Bellamy’s “Looking Backward” is about a man who sleeps from 1887 until the year 2000.  The United States has become one giant socialist monopoly (excuse the redundancy). The book openly portrays men treated as military draftees, from the age of twenty-one until the age of forty-five, in the U.S.’s industrial army.  Before the age of twenty-one, men attend one enormous school system of government schools that are an integral part of creating the industrial army in the socialist system. Bellamy’s glorification of the military includes government assignment of all jobs.  Everyone is issued ration cards which are used to draw goods from government storehouses. Everyone is forced to have only the same amount in value annually.

Of course, all of the preceding is portrayed as a dandy utopia just as it was in the military socialist complex of the socialist trio of atrocities and elsewhere. 

The book was translated into 20 foreign languages.  It was popular among the elite in pre-revolutionary Russia, and was even read by Lenin's wife. John Dewey and the historian Charles Beard intended to praise the book by stating that it was matched in influence only by Das Kapital.