President Zylenskyy visits Lithuania, sporting a M65 Field Jacket.. Ukrainian Press Office. www.president.gov.ua
When Ukrainian President Zylenskyy visited Congress awhile back, there was criticism of his attire, which is somewhat ironic given that recently the Congressional dress standards have sunk pretty low. He wore what he's been wearing, which is a quasi military olive set of clothing. He's dressed in this fashion since the war commenced.
At first, I considered that this just looked odd to Americans, but in reflecting on this, this is a bit more common for democratic leaders than we might suppose. And in his case, probably fairly practical. He spent the early part of the war in a bunker in Kyiv, probably expecting to be killed by Russian troops. His attire, which has never featured insignia, does show he's the leader of a nation at war. I'd council him to dress in the regular Edwardian suit when he's not in country, but he's not doing so.
His wearing of the iconic olive drab M65 Field Jacket while in the Baltics really made this plain. It was really at that point where it made it obvious that his dress is calculated, and not inappropriate.
As noted, a civilian leader wearing military attire strikes Americans as odd, but its not as uncommon as we might suppose. The best example is, of course, Winston Churchill.
Churchill loved uniforms and had started off his adult life as a British cavalry officer. He never got over his love of uniform and used World War Two as an excuse to done them, wearing a variety of them during the war. The one depicted above, from the British National Portrait Gallery, shows him wearing a Royal Air Force uniform following his being made an honorary commander in the RAF. You can find photos of him in this uniform, and others, throughout World War Two.
Churchill in a quasi Royal Navy uniform. Both Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt had occupied similar roles in their nation's navies, although not identical ones, during World War One.
This was not, however, as unique as might be supposed. King George VI, the British monarch during the war, did the same thing.
It's easy to suppose that this was a British thing at the time, and for democratic nations, it seems to have been. You won't find Franklin Roosevelt or Harry Truman doing this, for example. Indeed, the thought that they might is shocking.
Maybe.
Dwight Eisenhower, while he was President, used his love of short jackets to cause there to be an Air Force One windbreaker, although I can't find a photo of it. During the Cold War the crews of Air Force One wore a distinct MA-1 flght jacket, and I wonder if its the same thing.
John F. Kennedy, who had been in the Navy, wore a special version of the Navy G1 flight jacket, an item that managed to hang on in the Navy well after modern flight suits came in, and which the Navy still allows pilots to wear as a non flight item.
I don't see any evidence that Lyndon Johnson, or Richard Nixon, both of whom had been in the Navy, like Kennedy, during World War Two kept this up, but I really don't know either.
Ronald Reagan, who had been in the Army during World War Two, did wear a G1, however.
Donald Trump, who was of draft age during the Vietnam War but who famously was found unfit for service due to shin splints, seems to have had both a A2 and a CWU-45P, the latter being the current sage green USAF flight jacket. President Biden, who was also of military age during the Vietnam War and who also didn't serve in the military, has a Presidential A2. It's interesting that since the A2 came back into semi dress use, it's been the A2 that Presidents have favored.
All this is just a single item in US Presidential use, of course. It's unlikely that we're going to see a President in a M65, and indeed we can hope we never do, as Zylenskyy has adopted that due to living in conditions in which a Russian paratrooper could appear at the door any day.
Clothes, however, send a message. No US President appeared wearing uniform items at all until the Cold War, which also changed the Executive's relationship with the military. The flight jackets send just as much of a message as the M65 does.
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