“The Vietnam War broke the Army,” wrote Lt. Gen. Charles Cleveland in
a recent issue of Army Magazine, “and there was growing concern that
the American military would be quickly overwhelmed by the numerically
superior forces of the Soviet Union in the event of a major conventional
war.”
This concern, Cleveland continued, led commanders to create and
implement an entirely new strategic doctrine in the early 1980s. AirLand
Battle emphasized speed, maneuverability, decentralized command
structures and technological superiority to withstand any conventional
threat.
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In September the Stimson Center, a defense-oriented think tank in
Washington, issued a report detailing 27 proposed cuts in the defense
budget meant to replace the automatic, across-the-board cuts of the BCA.
A quarter of the cuts would fall upon the Army, which would be trimmed
by 40,000 active duty service members. The Stimson Center also proposes
reducing military contractors providing services, now estimated to
account for 710,000 firms, by at least 20 percent and reducing civilian
employment by 58,000.
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