Future of U.S. Defense Economy

Archive Report

Pressure to Put Curbs on the Military

Defense spending has been subjected in 1969 to more searching criticism than at any time since the cold war began. Attacks on the “military-industrial complex” in Congress and the press destroyed the nearly sacrosanct status formerly enjoyed by Defense Department budget requests. Although the critics failed to make any major dents in the military budget, the challenge they mounted was strong enough to put the Pentagon and its spokesmen in Congress on the defensive—a feat that would hardly have been possible a short while ago.

The outburst against military-industrial predominance coincided with four other developments pointing toward cutbacks in production for national defense: (1) The peace talks at Paris and initial troop withdrawals from Viet Nam focused attention on ...

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