Word: millions
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...sharply worded memo, Nixon termed the economizing effort "very disappointing" and ordered another try. A prime target, of course, is the Defense Department. Nixon wants Defense Secretary Melvin Laird to sweat $2 billion out of the $80 billion budget. In his first attempt, Laird managed to cut only $550 million. Nixon told him to try again, and this time Laird brought the reductions up to $1.1 billion, chiefly in "ground munitions," including the anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system, which will take a $34 million...
Most startling, Laird proposed saving $185 million a year by curtailing one of the more effective weapons that the U.S. has in Viet Nam: B-52 raids. Despite what he called a "strong recommendation" from General Creighton Abrams, the U.S. commander in Viet Nam, Laird suggested reducing B-52 sorties by more than 10%, from 1,800 to 1,600 per month. The savings would come chiefly in the planes' 30-ton bomb loads, which cost $42,000. There would be little tactical impact; probably the same number of B-52 missions will be flown as before, but they...
...test models before it was abandoned as obsolete. The F-111 was an attempt to save money while modernizing. McNamara thought he could save $1 billion by developing one plane for three services: Air Force, Navy and Marines. Eventually, the Marines dropped out, and the Navy, after investing $200 million, abandoned the carrier version in favor of its own new plane, the F-14A. The Air Force is reasonably satisfied with its F-111, except that a dozen have crashed so far, and the plane is costing $6 billion, more than twice the original estimate...
...recent estimate, 21% of skilled blue-collar workers and 16% of professional employees are on payrolls that rely on military spending. Entire communities depend almost totally on a military installation, defense plants, or both. Junction City, Kans. (pop. 20,500), lives off Fort Riley. The post pumps $143 million into the state's economy, most of it in the Junction City area. When an Army division left in 1965, business plummeted...
...people are hitting out at the nearest hitching post, much as the students strike at the universities when that is really not what they're mad at." The staggering cost of modern armament is a further cause of discontent, Wheeler says. "An ICBM is at least a million dollars a throw; a nuclear carrier, half a billion, an ABM system, $7 billion. And it is all blamed on the military, because at first glance our weapons and our uniforms are easily identified...