The Military Build-Down in the 1990s

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Introduction

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Overview

The next occupant of the White House will inherit a far different kind of defense crisis than the one that propelled Ronald Reagan to the presidency. In 1980, Reagan was elected largely on the basis of his promise to “make America strong again,” He vowed to close the “window of vulnerability” he claimed his predecessors had opened by allowing the Soviet Union to catch up with and then surpass the United States in weapons development and deployment. Together with Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, Reagan launched his campaign to “rearm America.” They enjoyed broad bipartisan support for their effort: Congress approved $2 trillion in defense spending over the next seven years. This enormous expenditure, the highest peacetime military budget in the post-World War II era, amounted $21,000 for each American household.

The Reagan defense buildup is at an end. Since he replaced Weinberger last November. Defense Secretary Frank C. Carlucci has called for a new approach to meeting the nation's defense needs, Presenting a revised defense spending request in February. Carlucci took the unusual step of asking Congress for less money—a $33 billion cut—than the administration had previously requested for fiscal 1989. He called for the elimination of several weapons programs as well as cuts in manpower while stressing the need to improve the readiness of the shrunken forces. “Simply put.” he told Congress, “the priorities reflected in this budget are people, training, and no artificial program stretches,” by which he meant the deferral of weapons production to later years, a technique the Pentagon frequently uses to meet budget targets.