The Pentagon Budget as War Policy: Or How to Cut War Expenditure to the Bone
Melman, Seymour
THE SENATE DEBATE last summer on the ABM system was important not only in its own right, but also for the practice it gave senators in evaluating military-political issues. Since the end of...
...50 mill...
...It is generally appreciated that no present or foreseeable research effort will make it possible for the armed forces of the United States, or any other nation, to destroy a person or a community more than once...
...The proposed budget for the Atomic Energy Commission includes funds for further production of nuclear materials and for further production of nuclear weapons...
...What is involved here is the decisionpower of the Senate...
...350 mill...
...7) C5–A jet transport...
...See Robert Benson, "How the Pentagon Can Save $9,000,000," Washington Monthly, March 1969...
...3) a lesser military action in Latin America...
...The application of recommended savings to these purposes could probably be accomplished, swiftly, by translating these savings into major tax reductions...
...The Navy has announced a program for constructing a new class of fighter planes to be carried by its major aircraft carriers...
...The narrowness of this margin is a political fact of considerable importance, indicating a shift of attitude both in the country at large and in Washington...
...SENATE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE, MAY 2, 1969...
...Since 1961 the United States has been producing and stockpiling increasing quantities of these lethal ma terials...
...A series of straightforward steps can apparently produce major savings in Pentagon buying—by curtailing the pattern of costly cost-overruns...
...3. The Congress should stop preparation for more Vietnam wars...
...Conscription would be irrelevant and inappropriate...
...6,390 mill...
...This activity should simply be stopped as being militarily and humanly irrational (Budget of the U.S...
...2,700 mill...
...Since the end of the Second World War military budgets have been adopted by the Congress virtually without debate, and 1941 was the last time that a major military proposal (the draft) passed the Senate by a margin of one vote...
...giving the Executive this capability has begun to be understood as the functional equivalent of authorizing its use, in accordance with the judgment of the President...
...3) have capability for participating in international peacekeeping operations...
...The United States now operates 15 attack carrier forces...
...A SUFFICIENCY SECURITY FORCE FOR THE UNITED STATES A SECOND APPROACH that can be used by the Congress for considering defense expenditures is a yardstick of adequacy for designing a United States security force...
...500 mill...
...make possible substantial budget reductions...
...NATO forces...
...6. Only by these means can the American people cope constructively with the nation's massive problems of economic development and forestall the dread prospect of racial confrontation in this land...
...there is no intention here of preparing a nuclear force in such numbers and of such powers as to be calculably competent for a first-strike operation against another nuclear power...
...This outlay has no demonstrable relation to the defense of the United States and should therefore be eliminated...
...2) Guarding the shores of the United States...
...The Budget for FY 1970 (p...
...5. The Congress, through these budget reductions, can make available a large fund that is needed for productive, life-serving purposes within the United States...
...77) that "The largest single 1970 increase proposed for General Purpose Forces is for a new ship construction program for our naval forces of $2.4 billion total obligational authority...
...A security force should be designed for the United States to serve three requirements: (1) operate and maintain a strategic deterrence force...
...Its coastal patrol and allied defense forces give solid assurance against attack on the shores of this country...
...Defense as a literal shield is no longer purchasable...
...In the face of already existing massive overkill capability the proposal to build additional and new highspeed bombers is organizational and industrial empire-building and little else...
...Former Pentagon staff have indicated that substantial savings could be made by holding back on major spending for ineffective antiaircraft missiles, and deferring production on apparently inadequate designs (see the discussion on surface-to-air missiles in the Congressional Quarterly, op...
...The mass production of these and bio logical warfare materials means more overkill weapons systems...
...This element gave the Senate debate on ABM its special quality, apart from such considerations as inflation, national priorities, disillusion with the military performance in Vietnam, and the danger of nuclear war from an escalated arms race...
...Such a force is designed, with its nuclear capabilities, to give pause to any potential attacker of the United States...
...A former Pentagon staffer (Office of Comptroller) recommends changes in training methods that would save an appreciable sum as against present methods and costs (see Benson, op...
...These combined reductions in the Army, Navy and Airforce would make possible a reduction of $4.2 billion, allowing for a cost of $10,000 per man year...
...Proposed Reductions of Department of Defense and Related Spending by Deescalation of Present Overkill Forces and Other Wasteful Practices...
...Further: the requirement has been that U.S...
...The annual operating cost of such a security force would be about $20,000 million...
...2. The Congress should stop the armed forces from adding to overkill...
...See Benson, op...
...It is underscored that this security force is designed to operate before international disarmament agreements of any sort are completed...
...This security force for the U.S...
...I think it reasonable to expect the concern of senators over their decision-power to be a continuing factor that will produce sustained criticism of Pentagon budgets...
...This means the conduct of one nuclear war and two conventional wars at once...
...B. Reducing additions to strategic overkill...
...610 mill...
...This should be terminated...
...One of the central themes of the Senate ABM debate was the idea that voting money for military technologies and organizations is tantamount to a vote on foreign policy...
...8) Military assistance...
...10) Economies in Training...
...3. Since 1961 the design of the armed forces of the United States has been oriented toward a three-fold requirement: (1) a war in the NATO area...
...This is an Air Force venture that is NASA's task on the scientific side, and an addition to overkill if used to add to nuclear delivery...
...The war in Vietnam, as a model of conventional Far Eastern war is clearly a military, political, economic and moral disaster—a major drain on American society and highly destructive of this nation both materially and morally...
...it suggests that the day when the Pentagon could get almost anything it wished may now be over...
...The exact number is, of course, unknown since we have not observed a full-scale nuclear war...
...It should be underscored that these criteria do not include war plan elements of the following sort...
...The proposed antiballistic missile system has been the subject of exhaustive debate...
...5) Chemical and Biological warfare...
...The technical workability of the system is under grave doubt on the grounds of complexity and in terms of the experience with an unsuccessful attempt to build an antiaircraft defense system...
...The capability conferred by weapons systems is capability for particular international behaviors...
...Their termination (annual cost of about $10,000 per man) would leave the United States with armed forces of 2,900,000 and an opportunity to effect a major reduction in an unnecessary military outlay...
...4) Attack carriers...
...34,000 aircraft, as against 30,000 aircraft in 1961...
...The Congress should reduce the budget of the Department of Defense by this amount as an instruction to the Department and to the President to terminate this war...
...3) Poseidon and Minuteman III...
...When this is coupled with the known defects in the operation of the SAGE-type system there is no reason for incurring the large cost that building this would involve since it would apparently add nothing meaningful to the defense of the United States (see discussion in the Congressional Quarterly, June 28, 1968...
...Accordingly the following reductions in proposed budgeted expenditures are recommended: 1) New nuclear weapons production...
...Specialists in the aviation field have indicated that elimination of overly elaborate and impractical electronic systems and concentration on simpler (hence more reliable) aircraft would make possible savings on a large scale...
...These reductions are directed toward deescalating additions to already massive overkill forces...
...3) Capability for participation in International peacekeeping operations...
...The Vietnam war now uses 639,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen...
...would require high-caliber voluntary enlistees on a career basis...
...We are informed in the Budget (p...
...4) ABM...
...Even a beginning of reasonable economy in the use of these forces (see details in Congressional Quarterly, op...
...The difference between that proposal and the one below for a cut of $54 billion is the difference between sustained reliance on military power and intervention as a base for foreign policy, as against rejection of military interventionism and nuclear war...
...2) F-14 aircraft...
...The analysis proceeds from a fundamental statement of the war plans of the United States, i.e., the military contingencies implied by American foreign policy...
...See details in Benson, op...
...As the Congress instructs the Department of Defense and the President to refrain from operating wars of intervention, these 639,000 men would not be required...
...5,000 mill...
...11,000 deliverable nuclear warheads for intercontinental effect, as against 1,100 in 1961...
...This is part of the proliferation of overkill forces which has no rational justification whatsoever (except to keep managerial-industrial empires intact...
...Hence, reduction is recommended...
...Altogether, such a security force for the United States would have formidable military capabilities for deterring any potential nuclear attack, for securing the United States against physical penetration from the outside, and for deploying highly competent airborne battalions for local defense and for international peacekeeping...
...102 mill...
...This alone is the issue with respect to this aircraft (not whether the design is right, or whether the contractor is competent...
...armed forces should be capable of fighting wars in each of these areas at the same time...
...In addition $ 904 mill...
...1,000 mill...
...1,518 mill...
...military assistance program has been a major factor in encouraging and sustaining dictatorial and backward regimes in many countries...
...5. An evaluation of "sufficiency" for the armed forces of the United States requires a basic definition of the nature of security commitment that is to be served by U.S...
...Such support forces can be estimated on the ratio of 5 to 1, or more elaborately estimated on the basis of 7 to 1. On the former basis the total security force with supporting personnel would amount to 666,000...
...264) suggests the amount intended for this purpose...
...The following are alternative criteria of sufficiency for U.S...
...9) The Manned Orbiting Laboratory...
...Furthermore, the enlargement of the carrier aircraft force involves a major addition to preparations for further Vietnam-type wars...
...armed forces: (1) Operation of a strategic deterrence force...
...2) a war in the China area...
...400 mill...
...2) Research, development, test and evaluation...
...This should be eliminated...
...264, 265, 266) are recommended for elimination...
...HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE, JUNE 9, 1969 1. THE PROPOSED BUDGETS for national defense for Fiscal Year 1970 amount to $80,815 million (allowing for proposed modifications in the Johnson administration budget by Secretary of Defense Laird, March 16, 1969...
...20 bill...
...The descriptive material in the Budget (pp...
...At $10,000 cost per man, this justifies budget reduction of $ 1,750 mill...
...These fighter planes are of doubtful worth since there is no present or potential opposing force with fleets of carriers against which U.S...
...2. In his first official press conference in January 1969, President Nixon announced that, in his view, what the United States required is sufficiency in the realm of defense...
...6) Amphibious forces and Fast Deployment Logistics Ships (FDL...
...would consist of 2,300,000 THE PENTAGON BUDGET AS WAR POLICY men, and would operate missile, aircraft and naval forces of staggering power...
...carrier forces and fighter planes will conceivably be operated...
...Accordingly a substantial reduction is recommended in this budget line...
...SEYMOUR MELMAN forces in Europe by 125,000 and their backup by 50,000...
...5) Antisubmarine carrier forces...
...Sufficiency means adequacy...
...3) Tactical aircraft programs...
...850 mill...
...The systems include various long- and short-range missile systems, aircraft and submarines...
...C. Reduction in additions to conventional war overkill...
...Even first steps toward building a military sufficiency force, as against a military overkill force for 3-wars-at-once, requires elimination of this item...
...Present war plans are contrasted to alternatives that are based upon noninterventionism and recognition of the reality of nuclear overkill as a limit on military power...
...12) U.S...
...In addi tion, the very existence of these materials in quantities exposes the people of the United States itself to grave hazards because of possible accidents in the handling of lethal, self-propagating organisms...
...military power...
...These "new generation" intercontinental missiles would make possible a multiplication of nuclear warheads beyond the present 11,000, and perhaps allow for an increased calculated accuracy...
...Analysts in the Department of Defense have reported (see Congressional Quarterly) that substantial savings could be made in manpower in all the services by a 10 percent cut in "support" forces, which use a lion's share of military manpower and have been unjustifiably large compared with other armies of the world...
...Government, 1970, p. 80...
...cit., for details...
...There is the further prospect that the construction of an ABM system will serve to severely escalate fear among nations and hence drive forward an already irrational arms race...
...This amounts to $20 billion per year...
...11) Improved buying procedures...
...THE PENTAGON BUDGET AS WAR POLICY manpower savings could be effected by imposing a requirement to reduce the large category of "transient" personnel...
...1) Military construction...
...360 mill...
...military forces on the ground that the above criteria are a sound basis for judging sufficiency of U.S...
...This is the largest item in the federal budget and exceeds annual spending for military purposes except those at the peak of the Second World War...
...It is therefore recommended that this production be stopped: 6) Advanced Manned Strategic Aircraft...
...This would permit the cities and the states to use their existing taxing mechanisms for tapping this new source of tax power and applying these funds to the urgent needs of our own people...
...1,800 mill...
...These forces are known to have severely limited capability in their military function, casting grave doubt on the worth of continuing them, according to Pentagon specialists...
...2) Surplus military manpower...
...Their justification is based on the assumption of fighting three wars at once...
...cit, and Congressional Quarterly, op...
...576 mill...
...A nuclear war is an end-of-society war...
...The following is the text of a memorandum I prepared on behalf of SANE and presented to the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Subcommittee on Defense Appropriations of the House Appropriations Committee...
...these criteria for military sufficiency exclude the intention of preparing armed forces for wars of intervention as in Vietnam...
...I have estimated the direct, combat manpower requirements for an American security force along these lines as follows: Strategic Deterrence Forces (Men) International Warning Net 25,000 Strategic Weapons System Operations and Maintenance 10,000 Coastal Defense Warships for patrol 7,500 Coastal Air-Patrol—Tactical 2,400 Airborne Combat Units for International Peacekeeping 100 Autonomous Airborne Combat Units Tactical Air-Ground Support Air Transport 40,000 16,000 1 0,000 110,900 482 THE PENTAGON BUDGET AS WAR POLICY With direct combat personnel of 111,000 there is requirement for support staffs for the ordinary military headquarters and backup functions including: combined headquarters, intelligence, communication, engineering, logistics, procurement, training and recruitment, research and medical...
...265, 266) indicates that the major part of new military research activity is oriented to new strategic weapons delivery systems...
...2) give reasonable security for the shores of the United States...
...The Armed Services Committees of the Congress could consider the design of a security force along these lines, using it as a yardstick against which to gauge present and subsequent budget proposals...
...Therefore the following Procurement reduction is indicated...
...The Joint Chiefs do not promise to defend the U.S.—they cannot do it...
...2,400 mill...
...This should be further reduced in order to limit the further overexpansion of unnecessary military forces within the United States and abroad—in terms of the requirements of defense sufficiency...
...Finally, the mobile, combat units proposed in this security force give highly competent capability both for the defense of the United States and for participation in international peacekeeping...
...The additional military spending owing to the operation of the Vietnam war refers to the using up of ammunition, material and people directly or indirectly connected with the Vietnam war...
...7) Bomber defense system (SAGE...
...Nevertheless, the nuclear forces and delivery systems of the United States have been built up with multiples of overkill...
...Such massive expenditures for naval forces is justifiable only in terms of the 3-wars-at-once military perspective...
...Definite, explicit criteria are required in order to define what is enough...
...These could be substantially reduced without reducing a massive military capability...
...Accordingly, the budgeted items for their purpose (Budget, pp...
...266) enumerates diverse purposes for which new military construction has been scheduled...
...Outside Denver, 100 million doses of nerve gas have been placed in open storage in steel containers...
...1) Vietnam war manpower...
...Accordingly, a reduction is recommended to cut off this enlargement of overkill forces...
...Secretary of Defense Laird proposed a reduction of the $1,948 million military construction item by $634 million, leaving $1,314 million...
...834 mill...
...4. No conceivable armed forces can do more than help to secure the U.S...
...Obviously, such budget proposals are based upon publicly available data and therefore are subject to error owing to possible duplications among categories, and over- as well as understatement of various components...
...NOTE: The Recommendations for reducing the Pentagon budget by $3 million, made by Secre tary of Defense Laird in August 1969, confirm the qualitative judgments made here on nuclear overkill forces, military manpower, antisubmarine forces, carrier task forces, amphibious forces, size of the Navy, and military research and development.—S...
...Nevertheless, I am confident that this memorandum reflects the kind of military budget changes that would be appropriate to a basic revision of war plans (foreign policy) of the United States...
...The Budget for FY 1970 (p...
...For some time it has been apparent that the U.S...
...The amphibious forces are massively overbuilt (see Budget, p. 75) and are presumably oriented to a Western hemiphere war mission...
...This capability should be curtailed...
...SEYMOUR MELMAN MEMORANDUM TO THE U.S...
...See Benson, op...
...THE SENATE DEBATE last summer on the ABM system was important not only in its own right, but also for the practice it gave senators in evaluating military-political issues...
...The antiaircraft system involves much simpler requirements, and we know from a principal designer of this system (Dr...
...The FDLs are part of an expanded Vietnam wars program that should be stopped by the Congress (see Congressional Quarterly, op...
...4. This combination of military operations does not refer to the defense of the United States...
...The sum of these proposed savings in the military spending of the United States for FY 1970 is: $54,794 mill...
...Neither can they promise a nuclear war "victory," for a "successful first-strike" without one's own destruction is not achievable...
...A few hundred yards closer to calculated target in such weapons should be appreciated against the fact that their destructive power extends over miles...
...Such observation is not required, however, to understand that with present capability for delivering 11,000 nuclear warheads to the territory of the Soviet Union refers mainly to 156 Soviet cities of 100,000 or over...
...Jerome Weisner of MIT) SEYMOUR MELMAN that this system has failed...
...with the larger allowance for support the total force would require 888,000 men...
...This plane has been specifically designed to transport large numbers of troops for the Pentagon's worldwide policing and Vietnam wars program...
...6. This memorandum proposes a set of modifications in the Fiscal Year 1970 budget for U.S...
...Pentagon staff indicate feasibility of reducing $ 4,200 mill...
...7. It is emphasized that after the substantial reductions recommended here are made for reasons of merit, the armed forces of the U.S...
...A. Incremental costs of the Vietnam war...
...It has long been understood that the Soviets do not have meaningful long-range bomber capacity...
...8) Surface to air missiles...
...military security forces...
...To continue a buildup of these forces is grossly wasteful, not to mention irrational...
...Such wars, in combination, are the military requirements in terms of which the Congress has voted funds from 1961 to 1969: to prepare 18 Army Divisions as against 11 in 1961...
...9) New naval ship construction...
...The significance of this analysis will be clear to the reader upon comparing it with the military budget proposals in the August 1969 Fortune, which discovered how to reduce the Pentagon's budget by about $17 billion...
...D. Miscellaneous economies...
...THE RECOMMENDATIONS given above for savings in Fiscal Year 1970 military pro grams of the United States are justified on the following grounds: 1. Present forces are more than sufficient to serve as a competent security force for the United States...
...in a military sense...
...1,000 mill...
...500 mill...
...1 ,000 mill...
Vol. 16 • November 1969 • No. 6
