Word: pentagon
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...these military activities were designed to maintain the U.S. readiness needed both to protect the nation and meet its far-flung obligations. But just how well the Pentagon would be able to carry out its awesome responsibilities is a matter of growing concern in Washington. Both in the Administration and in Congress, officials confront a question that will not go away: Could the U.S. successfully counter a major Soviet military thrust, no matter where it came? If the answer seems doubtful, then the next question inevitably is: What must be done to ensure the nation's security...
Whether the Pentagon can afford to pay billions more for manpower when it needs billions just for ammunition is going to be one of the most controversial questions in the defense budget debate. Yet even now, a surprising 600 of every Pentagon dollar goes for personnel costs. The Soviets, by contrast, devote less than 30% of their defense outlays to personnel. How the Kremlin does this is no secret. Because the U.S.S.R. never abolished conscription, 75% of all Soviet males are drafted. (The rest are deferred for the familiar reasons...
poor health, family need, employment in a critical job.) But the Pentagon is compelled to rely entirely on volunteers and thus must pay wages and offer benefits reasonably competitive with those available in the private economy...
...demographic reasons, the manpower squeeze is going to get even tighter. Because of generally declining birth rates since 1960, a decreasing number of Americans will be reaching the minimum military enlistment age of 18 in the 1980s. The Pentagon will have an ever more difficult time getting enough recruits to maintain the armed forces at their present strength of 2 million. In view of this prospect, there has been a revived questioning of the concept of the all-volunteer force, which was started...
That the American arsenal needs strengthening is a proposition that has a diminishing number of dissenters, at least in Washington. There are some, like Senator Hart, who continue to argue that the Soviet threat has been exaggerated and that the Pentagon might not need all the money it has requested. Among most officials and experts, however, the debate is no longer whether to boost defense spending but how much and in what...