from an early age shoup was molded by progressive ideas of indiana politicians sympathizing with rural progressives' fighting with the interests of big businesses he developed an anti imperialist attitude his skepticism about american foreign policy influenced by a small town background would make him an outspoken opponent of the unnecessary use of military force shoup felt the use of troops for what he considered economic or imperialist consideration were wrong and would be a viewpoint he would carry for his entire career there are a few problems with this paragraph i think it could do without the influenced by a small town background part and could you please ref the part that says outspoken opponent also is there a better spot in the article for this paragraph it doesn't seem to suit the early years section but i'll let it stay if we can't find another spot for it lord added the ref about graph placement i tried finding other places for it but this seems about it this viewpoint affected his military career from the first deployment to china and it was caused by the viewpoint he had growing up talk