Word: war
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Reach. Nixon's determination to do something about the overheated economy was prompted by a realization that an "inflationary psychology" is taking hold among Americans. The 10% tax surcharge enacted last June has not slowed spending. Prices continue to rise at the briskest pace since the Korean War. Corporations, borrowing to expand their capacity by 14% this year, are pricing money out of the reach of home buyers, small businessmen, school districts and local governments...
...Pentagon publicly insisted that the B-52 move was "strictly budgetary." But there was considerable speculation that the cutback, coming at a time when the Communists are pressing an offensive, was intended primarily as a political signal to Hanoi, indicating Washington's eagerness to end the war. Fueling such speculation was Laird's admission that "private"-i.e., secret-talks aimed at a settlement are under way in Paris. In addition, New York Times Columnist James Reston claimed that Nixon may go further, by withdrawing as many as 100,000 troops this year...
...less an authority than General David Shoup, retired Marine Corps Commandant and Medal of Honor winner, accuses the armed services of relishing war for the sake of self-aggrandizement, of making the U.S. "a militaristic and aggressive nation." Physicist Herbert York, former Pentagon chief of research, development and engineering, warns that Americans will face a "Frankenstein monster that could destroy us." Not only are military motives questioned, but military competence as well. The defense complex is indicted for being unable to develop weapons that work well enough, wasting money needed for civilian purposes, giving bad and dangerous advice...
...professional soldiers to discern their role and function with some degree of comfort. For most of the years since World War II, the U.S. and its fighting men have been suspended in a murky, twilit world, where neither war nor peace prevails. World War I, World War II and even Korea were what Colonel Samuel Hayes, head of West Point's Psychology and Leadership Department, calls "Manichaean" conflicts, ringing clashes between good and evil, with no doubt about the identity or nature of the aggressors...
Viet Nam was different. The war of misty beginnings seems to lack an end. Meanwhile, the East-West confrontation is losing its sharpest edges. Who is the enemy, anyway? The Russians, with whom Washington has been signing treaties and exchanging musicians? The Chinese, who have been shooting Russians lately? Those scrawny North Vietnamese, visited often by American journalists? Assorted revolutionaries in distant and backward countries, who might be influenced by Communists? At home, social needs became more pressing than ever. Did the nation really need all those billions for defense...