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Chapter 12 - Recent Developments


In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, civilian desires frequently
affected decisions of great importance to the military services.
During this period, which coincided with detente in relations with the
Soviet Union, Presidents Nixon (1969 - 1974), Gerald R. Ford (1974 -
1977), and Jimmy Carter (1977 - 1981) supported reductions in the
military services and emphasized arms control negotiations, sometimes
against the judgment of their military advisers. They also sponsored
various reforms that initially encountered considerable opposition in
the military services. These included the end of conscription and the
adoption of an all-volunteer army, the more thorough integration of
minority groups in the military services and the expansion of roles
for women in uniform. Although civilian desires dictated these
changes, the military services eventually became reconciled to them.
Throughout this period, the nation sought to avoid two calamities,
expressed by President Carter's secretary of defense, Harold Brown:
"One is the abandonment of democratic control. Another is the loss of
a war."

In the late 1970s, renewed international tensions, stemming from the
Soviet arms buildup under Leonid Brezhnev and from the Angolan,
Iranian and Afghan crises, stimulated a reaction against the national
security policies associated with detente. As Soviet-American
relations became confrontational once again, arms control negotiations
lapsed and national defense expenditures increased. In the 1980s,
President Ronald Reagan sought to procure sufficient military might to
gain an effective bargaining position with Moscow. He pressed
energetically for combat readiness and for an extensive and expensive
modernization of the armed forces. He also sponsored the Strategic
Defense Initiative (SDI)--commonly known as "Star Wars"--which was
intended to develop an effective anti-ballistic missile defense
system. These initiatives, however, did not mean a reduced commitment
to civilian control. Civilians were at least as active as military
personnel in shaping the policies of the Reagan administration.

After the Soviet Union began to alter its international and domestic
policies under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev, first the Reagan
administration and then that of President George Bush resumed arms
control negotiations and sought cooperation on other international
questions such as conflict in the Middle East. This easing of tensions
served as a prelude to the extraordinary events in Eastern Europe
during 1989 - 1991 that led to the definitive breakup of the Warsaw
Pact and the end of the Cold War itself. This denouement afforded
civilian authorities in the administrations of both President Bush and
President Bill Clinton the opportunity to reduce military budgets,
bases and facilities significantly. While the task is complex, it is
one that will only reaffirm civilian control of the military.