The Army Under Siege
Klare, Michael
The following essay is part of a continuing series of articles on U.S. military strategy in the post-Vietnam era. The first essay in this series, "The New Imperial Navy," appeared in the...
...That small beginning has become a three-year $135 million windfall for the agency-one of the 10 largest advertising contracts in America...
...In his 1972 report to the President on the progress of the VOLAR program, Secretary of Defense Laird suggested that '"Many support-type jobs now filled by military men can be performed effectively and economically by and military women...
...Readers should note that the present article was written within the context of the strategic analysis presented in the first essay...
...4 4 This outlook doesn't spring from any revival of humanitarian concern in the Armed Forces, but rather from the growing valuation (in purely economic terms) placed on human resources in a smaller Army...
...Drew Middleton of The New York Times reported in January 1973 that "The Army has plenty of tough pragmatists who are suspicious of the accuracy of information gathered by sensors...
...In June 1973, the Hughes Tool Co...
...Froehlke, Army Posture FY74, pp...
...Interview in Armed Forces Journal, January 4, 1971, pp...
...279 244 191 Amphibious Assault Ships...
...Laird," p. 19...
...42-3...
...83 Not surprisingly, the Pentagon insists that the volunteer army will not become filled with a disproportionate number of blacks and other minorities...
...or they can be combined in reconnaissance "pods" and mounted on aircraft, as in the case of SMASH (Southeast Asia Multiple Sensor Armament System Helicopter), which features a "marriage" of infrared detectors, MTI radars, and automatic fire-control systems...
...3 9 A smaller Army, General Abrams told Congress in 1973, "will not be able to match potential enemies man for man and weapon for weapon in many likely areas of deployment...
...President Kennedy evidently believed that the introduction of "refinements" in tacnuke weaponry would increase their attractiveness to the military, and thus he ordered a halt on such efforts...
...Hereinafter cited as Army Posture FY74...
...Department of Defense press re- lease, (May) 1973, p. 7. (Hereinafter cited as Army Posture FY74...
...Now, as the Army "retools" for mid-intensity combat in Europe or the MiddleEast, the llth Air Assault/list Air Cavalry division has taken on yet another identity as the lest Cavalry Division (TRICAP...
...Another, more recent 'recruiting' campaign managed by Ayer: Republican Senator George Murphy's 1970 bid for re-election...
...14-15...
...Box 40099, San Francisco, Calif...
...The higher the value of American (human) resources," Lt...
...understanding that the success of the volunteer army will be largely determined by its ability to sell itself, were dismayed by the ineptness and favoritism apparently shown by the Pentagon's handling of the ad campaign...
...7 Mutinies and revolts: While some soldiers can always be expected to desert in wartime, Vietnam witnessed an event rarely experienced before in American history: the refusal of an entire military unit to engage the enemy while on the battlefield...
...Hereinafter cited as AUSA Ddress...
...10 Insubordination, G.I...
...In one room, a young, black Army recruiting sergeant sits behind a desk...
...it is nevertheless worthwhile to consider the impact of various VOLAR programs on the attitudes of volunteers...
...mutiny, insubordination and race conflict were rife...
...656 656 656 .Strategic Bomber Squadrons...
...they do not, however, rule out lesser thrusts -- perhaps in Scandinavia or the Eastern Mediterranean - designed to undermine confidence in America's commitment to assist NATO in repelling such attacks...
...7 6 Obviously no one can predict when or if a nation will feel obliged to employ nuclear weapons -- tactical or otherwise -- in a crisis situation...
...5 9 Thus consideration is being given to rifles that fire "flechettes" or small darts at very high velocities and capable of literally tearing a victim to pieces...
...We inherited it in the Army, just as we inherited all problems in our society...
...Not all Army officers share Westmoreland's optimism about the potential utility of such devices, however...
...Due to the current trends toward balance between the major world powers," Army Secretary Robert F. Froehlke noted in 1973, "conflict is most likely to occur at a level below general nuclear war...
...The leading Army program in this area, ARTADS (for Army Tactical Data Systems), is designed to "assist the commander by supplying him with much usefully organized information as possible about events on the battlefield as they happen...
...26...
...the 7th Army in Europe is attempting to modernize religious services...
...Ibid...
...1,000 1,000 1,000 Titan 2...
...Lynn D. Smith, "Overhauling the Army," Army, May, 1973, p. 16...
...122-9...
...and, can it provide highly motivated and disciplined fighters in the event of a war...
...Ibid., p. 27...
...policy that suggest irresolute or weak responses to Soviet moves...
...TRAVEL IS PART OF YOUR LIFE...
...Altogether, 68,500 men deserted in the first ten months of Fiscal Year (FY) 1971 -- the equivalent of four infantry divisions...
...and moving target indicator (MTI) radars, which detect the motion of enemy columns...
...Ultimately, it became obvious to soldier and citizen alike that the American strategy in Vietnam -- with its emphasis on the massive use of ground forces -- was incapable of producing a rapid and economical victory...
...shows that to meet minimum recruitment quotas of 365,000 men per year, the Armed Forces must enlist one-third of all "available" males aged 19 to 23--an extremely high, and perhaps unattainable, proportion...
...6 9 (Emphasis added...
...9 7 While it is too early to judge the accuracy of these conflicting analyses, Secretary Froehlke's pledge to convert Army life into a replica of middle-class society suggests a trend towards closer integration with civilian society...
...Forsythe, "Battlefield of the Future," p. 16...
...106...
...These include: reenlistment bonuses of $1,000 to $15,000...
...This phenomenon inspired the concept of the "porous" battlefield in which U.S...
...on the Greece exercise see: "Deep Furrow," Soldiers, February, 1973, pp...
...Young men] Just don't want to join an organization they can't be proud of...
...the end of discrimination in assignments and duties...
...We'd better solve it fast if we are going to run an Army...
...2 7 In its search for a guiding philosophy, the Army has been further handicapped by the success of the President's "diplomatic offensive" -particularly his visits to Peking and Moscow -- and the resulting decline in East-West tensions...
...interests at other levels of the military spectrum and in other potential theaters of war...
...For more on the SPIW, the Army's flechette-firing Special Purpose Individual Weapon, see: The New York Times, May 24, 1970...
...Jack Goldstein, "The Army's Big Five," Army, May, 1973, p. 23...
...202-9...
...and an increasing tendency to recruit sons of military personnel into the officer corps...
...WE'VE GOT THE TRAINING YOU WANT...
...Bradford, "American Ground Power," p. 8. 24...
...and discipline was almost non-existent...
...3 7 Since U.S...
...100...
...If present trends continue, the Army is expected to be short 74,000 men by July 1974, or almost 10 percent of its planned strength of 791,000 men...
...casualties...
...If these problems persist (and every scrap of evidence suggests that they will), the Army will be unable to secure even the minimum supply of manpower it needs for its greatly-reduced forces...
...The net effect of all VOLAR programs, it seems, is to compose what can accurately be termed a "contract" with enlistees which goes something like this: "We'll offer you job security, travel and adventure, and a middleclass standard of life--in return for your promise to carry out orders and, if necessary, to fight at the direction of Army officers...
...2 9 In this troubled "period of transition," Communist challenges are most likely to occur at the middle and lower segments of the military spectrum, where ground forces would inevitably be required...
...We cannot afford an Army large enough to do that," nor could we, on the basis of an all-volunteer system, "recruit such an Army...
...Few strategists believe today that the Soviet Union would launch a conventional assault on the heartland of Europe...
...Quoted in The Wall Street Journal, vol...
...Prior to the Kennedy Administration, American defense policy was dominated by the strategy of Massive Retalia- tion which held that the threat of thermonuclear *In explaining the popularity of heroin among soldiers in Vietnam, Maj...
...General Motors and Chrysler are expected to bid for the lucrative SM-1 contract when and if Congress gives a "go-ahead" signal...
...Cost effectiveness in military advertising remains to be determined...
...helicopter-borne "airmobile" troops could respond to enemy attacks over a large area without having to maintain static defense positions...
...Naval Institute Proceedings, March, 1972, p. 40...
...As the Army prepares for the conflicts of the next decade, it must overcome many internal problems -- some inherited from Vietnam, some caused by the schisms within American society, and some imposed by the international strategic environment...
...olfactronic systems, which detect unusual concentrations of selected odors (such as human sweat...
...1 0 7 As suggested above, the Army has not been able to overcome its "people problems" despite the elimination of the draft and formation of a highly-paid, machine-oriented, all-volunteer force...
...war machine, in fact, was like a "giant without eyes...
...In an eloquent rendition of this outlook, General Ellis W. Williamson told a Senate Armed Services subcommittee: "We are making unusual efforts to avoid having the American young man stand toe-to-toe, eyeballto-eyeball or even rifle-to-rifle against an enemy that might outnumber him on the battle- field...
...fewer mandatory inspections and KP duties...
...6 8 TRICAP, then, is to be the very incarnation of the New Action Army of the future...
...Search-and-evade," meaning tacit avoidance of combat by units in the field, has become "virtually a principle of war" according to Colonel Heinl...
...The soldiers don't want to be here, their living conditions are bad, they are surrounded by privileged classes, name- ly officers...
...Officers who oppose a volunteer system reportedly do so because "it costs like hell" (and thus consumes funds which could otherwise go for the acquisition of new weapons and other hardware), and because it places severe constraints on the President's capacity to deploy ground forces abroad in a potential conflict situation...
...in 1964, for instance, it established the llth Air Assault Division to test the as yet untried concept of airmobile warfare...
...We are trying to fight the enemy with our bullets instead of the bodies of our young men -- 'firepower, not manpower...
...American officers who were cognizant of the regime's complicity in the drug trade were reluctant to take effective countermeasures out of fear that the entire war effort would collapse...
...What we are looking for," CDC commander John Norton wrote in 1971, "is a revolutionary increase in combat power through a new combination of air cavalry, tanks, attack helicopters, mechanized forces, and airmobile infantry and artillery...
...William Beecher, "Over the Threshold," Army, July, 1972, p. 18...
...Army efforts to improve the attractiveness of military service are not limited to financial and environmental incentives: a considerable effort is being made to eliminate "Mickey Mouse" chores--the petty harrassments and pointless rules so characteristic of G.I...
...Department of Defense Estimated Actual June 30, June 30, June 30, 1972 1973 1974 Strategic Forces: intercontinental Ballistic Missiles: Minuteman...
...The new doctrine, while lacking the internal consistency of Massive Retaliation or Flexible Response, was Source (both tables): U.S...
...The Armed Forces journal pointed out as well that only seven of the nation's 615 major advertising agencies had been invited to submit bids...
...Clarence A. Robinson, Jr., "Army Nears Armed Helicopter Choice," Aviation Week & Space Technology, May 14, 1973, pp...
...The expanded use of these alternative sources of manpower can reduce the requirement for male recruits...
...The objective here is to achieve "first round kill certainty"--i.e., the expectation that each bullet, shell and missile fired will hit its intended target and do a thorough job of incapacitation...
...Substantial funds have also been allocated to refurbish barracks and provide other amenities designed to "improve the quality of Army life...
...ground forces has changed radically: instead of serving as a front-line defense against anticipated Soviet attacks, U.S...
...BEGIN AS AN EXECUTIVE...
...For today, the hopes of the new military hinge on a massive Madison Avenue blitzkrieg...
...87, no...
...8. Heinl, "Collapse," p. 31...
...According to William Beecher of The New York Times, the Administration's objective is to de- velop small warheads with a destructive force of 20-50 bons of TNT, and little or no fall- out...
...Peter L. Clifford, commander of the 38 Chicago-area recruiting stations explains, "They have to be super-salesmen...
...support to the ruling junta was later demonstrated by U.S...
...The generation gap is a fact of life in our society," General Westmoreland wrote in 1972...
...For one thing, the increasingly high cost of voluntary personnel will force the Pentagon to be very hesitant about exposing its soldiers to hostile fire...
...Lance is a liquid-fuel surface-tosurface missile with a 75 mile range...
...Spending- 13 - on TACFIRE already has exceeded $140 million, and much more will follow if the Army goes through with plans to acquire 150 complete systems from Litton Industries, the prime contractor...
...Norman, "Mr...
...Ibid., pp...
...Rangel, "Black Hessians...
...by June 1972, the black proportion was 15.1 percent, while three months later it reached 18 percent...
...12 2/3 13 13 Marine Corps Divisions...
...Heinl, "Collapse," p. 31...
...While aircraft and ships can often reverse course and make a clean break, ground forces rarely can do so once engaged...
...3031, 38-39...
...When the Army prepares for combat in a new environment, it often creates experimental outfits to test new doctrines under simulated battlefield conditions...
...As long as the U.S...
...Future wars, it is believed, will have to be fought with much lower loss of human lif if the Army is to survive in a zero-draft environment...
...Thus Lieutenant Kelly suggests that "The First Class (private) and his wife, with their newer, bigger budget, may spend an evening with civilian friends at a civilian theater and cocktail lounge, as opposed to a budgeted evening with military friends at the base theater and the Service club...
...50-1...
...By every conceivable indicator," Col...
...variable bonuses of up to $4,000 per year for selected officers...
...The motivation simply wouldn't be there...
...Robert D. Heinl reported in Armed Forces Journal, "our army that now remains in Vietnam is in a state approaching collapse, with individual units avoiding or having refused combat, murdering their officers and noncommissioned officers, drug-ridden, and dispirited where not near-mutinous...
...the buddy option by which a whole group of friends can enlist together...
...stockpiles of crucial raw materials are depleted, access to foreign supplies of these materials will become an increasingly important concern of U.S...
...John Norton, "TRICAP," Army, June, 1971, p. 14...
...Kelley, who recently returned to his old job as head of personnel for the Caterpillar Tractor Co., claimed that the adversaries of VOLAR "are bolder and more frequent in their acts of sabotage against the system...
...SupeiSalesmen As Col...
...there is accepted use of violence, and there is promiscuous sex...
...fatalities in Vietnam -- and had the highest desertion rate and most of the discipline problems...
...Joel H. Kaplan, "Does Our Army Fight on Drugs," Look, June 16, 1970, p. 72...
...2 2 As noted by Colonel Bradford, these developments "point to a very circumscribed role for ground forces, confined to a much narrower range of likely contingencies than was the case under Flexible Response...
...6 1 Terminal homing systems, according to one Army enthusiast, "could produce a quantum jump in cost-effective combat power and a major, perhaps revolutionary, change in tactical concepts and organization...
...ground forces were in an advanced stage of disintegration: desertion was at its highest point since 1945...
...7 5 Warheads of this type, he added, could be carried by the Army's Lance surface-to-surface missile,* or be fired by conventional cannon and howitzers...
...No one is going to volunteer for military service or to join any organization which is constantly criticized by the press and by Congress, and which doesn't have the full support of the American public...
...Members of the 173rd Airborne Division, just back from Vietnam, protest the war on Veterans Day-.October 25, 1971 attack was sufficient to deter any military challenge to U.S...
...Although the Army is pushing ahead with efforts to enhance the reliability of Vietnamoriented detection systems, it is now pinning its hopes on an entirely new surveillance concept: sensor-equipped RPV's (remotely piloted vehicles...
...7 8 The goal of these "people programs," according to Army Secretary Froehlke, is to improve soldier living conditions so that they "equate more closely with the average environment of middle-class society" 7 9 -- an obvious lure to the blacks and poor whites who constitute the majority of potential recruits...
...Quoted in The New York Times, July 1, 1973...
...San Francisco Chronicle & Examiner, May 20, 1973...
...And as U.S...
...The New York Times, September 5, 1971...
...Elmo R. Zumwalt, "The Navy Tomorrow," Ordnance, January-February, 1972, p. 285...
...8 9 BLACKS NOW IN UNWOIMN As of June 30, 1972ARIEM Enlisted men Officers Number 117,000 4,750 2559,0 Proportion of Seryce Group 17.0% 3.9% NAVY Enlisted men 32,700 6.4% Officers 650 0.9% AIR mORCE Enlisted men 75,500 12.6% Officers 2,100 1.7% Enlisted men Officers Soume: U.S...
...Find 'em: When the Army first entered Vietnam, according to Westmoreland, "We found ourselves with an abundance of firepower and mobility...
...intervention in Southeast Asia...
...So, characteristically...
...phrase, "CYA (cover your ass) and get home...
...Later that year, a rifle company of the famed ist Air Cavalry Division refused combat before the cameras of CBS News...
...Steven McClaran of the all-volunteer 197th Infantry Brigade...
...131-136...
...In order to understand the nature of this malaise, it is necessary to review the origins of the U.S...
...Relatively Low Given the new Pentagon estimate of some $900 in advertising costs per enlistee by 1974, it appears that the Armed Forces Joural was correct in its January, 1973 assessment that "these costs will look low compared to the almost inevitable rise in costs for attracting volunteers in future years...
...Military and government leaders do agree that a volunteer army cannot be recrultad "on the cheap," young people chaff under the restrictions the military places on individual freedoms and civil libertie...
...When these forces failed to stem the growing revolt, Kennedy sent still more "advisers" to protect the "credibility" of our counterinsurgency capability...
...Eric C. Ludvigsen, "Lifting the Fog of War," Army, July, 1972, p. 31...
...As the war dragged on, Colonel Heinl reported, "word of the death of officers would bring cheers at troop movies or in bivouacs of some units...
...TODAY'SARMY WANTS TO JOIN YOU...
...8 This principle was eloquently summarized in the G.I...
...151-174...
...Each new surveillance system, for instance, adds to the quantity of information that must be analyzed in order to develop a picture of enemy positions...
...A ob Self-esteem or a group to identify with...
...8 8 Pentagon data also testifies to the lower-class origins of most volunteers: 80 percent of Army recruits in March 1973 reported that their pre-enlistment civilian pay was less than the military base level of $321 per month...
...Quoted in The New York Times, November 23, 1970...
...9 4 To support such predictions, critics point to data indicating an increase in the number of officers coming from the service academies (West Point, Annapolis, etc...
...In order to upgrade the survivability of such systems in the more demanding environment of mid-intensity warfare, Westmoreland in 1969 created a special task force at Fort Hood, Texas, known as Project MASSTER (Mobile Army Sensor Systems Test, Evaluation and Review...
...3 1 Thus while U.S...
...America has decided to follow the precedents set by the Roman and British Empires...
...1 4 ) Although hard drug use was most pervasive in Vietnam,* it was not insignificant elsewhere: at some bases in West Germany, 25 percent of the enlisted men were using hard drugs, while 50 percent smoked marijuana regularly...
...In Army jargon, these tasks are reduced to: find 'em, fix 'em, and destroy 'em...
...It would be a lie, he said, "to label this a volunteer army...
...The Army is thus seeking to model itself on the rapid-reaction forces of the Air Force and Navy which, as we have noted, are more compatible with the "lowprofile" approach of the Nixon Doctrine...
...Beinl, a correspondent for the North American Newspaper Alliance and former Marine officer, observed that "the morale, discipline and battle-worthiness of the U.S...
...22-3)Conclusion: In his 1973 report to the House Armed Services Committee, Chief of Staff Abrams summarized the Army's overall program objectives for the 1970's as follows: "...the smaller Army that we are fielding today must be highly motivated, fully manned, and fully equipped with modern weapons...
...As the Army completes its mission in Indochina, he suggested, "its sole comfort is the knowledge that it did not break down completely under duress as NACLA'S LATIN AMERICA & EMPIRE REPORT (formerly NACLA NEWSLETTER) Vol...
...William C. Westmoreland, Address to the Association of the United States Army, Congressional Record, October 16, 1969, p. S12729...
...something the Congress has been loathe to provide...
...received contracts for development of prototype aircraft...
...Ibid., p. 25...
...102...
...1 0 3 Another volunteer, Spt...
...In the past few years, Army research organizations have conducted several meetings on jungle warfare and desert operations, while new weapons have been tested at the Tropic Test Center in the Panama Canal Zone, the Arctic Test Center at Ft...
...instead of combining infantry units with a helicopter transport capability (as in airmobile operations), the TRICAP division will have a triple capability composed of tank units, airmobile infantry, and attack helicopter forces...
...Nixon, "U.S...
...As one veteran sergeant put it, the volunteers come into the Army "expecting the life of Riley...
...A growing proportion of these will be airmobile forces covering vast tracts of land and making swift, deep penetrations with wide dispersion and rapid post-offensive withdrawals...
...To replace CONARC, CDC and 3rd Army HQ, the Army created two "streamlined" agencies: Forces Command (FORSCOM), with authority over all active Army units in the United States and all National Guard and Army Reserve Units...
...Cited in The New York Times, July 1, 1973...
...but there are indications that the Army will have to address itself to this problem...
...21, 27...
...It needs millions of bodies in uniform to maintain its international police force...
...Although business appears to be slow, and prospective enlistees skeptical, he talks enthusiastically about the "new opportunities" open to any young man...
...A recent study conducted by the Brookings Institution of Washington D.C...
...Copyright (D 1973 by the North American Congress on Latin America, Inc...
...4 4 4 C-141...
...according to USAREUR commander Michael Davison, "The command's concern for the whole man is reflected in the activities of USAREUR's chaplains...
...These comments--and they are not uncommon--do not suggest a gung-ho, war-crazed crowd like the Foreign Legionnaires of "Battle of Algiers" (or even like John Wayne's celluloid Green Berets...
...Palmer, "Challenge of Change," p. 21...
...In thousands and thousands of unreported incidents, individual soldiers defied the Army hierarchy by refusing to salute their officers, by wearing peace symbols and other forbidden accoutrements, by disputing the legitimacy of certain orders and regulations, and by other acts of defiance...
...58-61...
...By adopting a more "capital - intensive" posture, the Army could get by with fewer men but would require increased appropriations for tanks, helicopters, etc...
...Bruce Palmer, Jr., "The Challenge of Change," Army, October, 1972, pp...
...2 Many, if not all of the Army's problems could be traced to the lingering war in Vietnam...
...it must have seemed at times that those for whom they were fighting were as unfriendly as the enemy...
...In addition, the"new military" is offering desperate volunteers an enticing set of "bonus programs...
...7 0 Although Kerwin never provided a full definition of "tougher," nor Abrams of "the wherewithall" to insure a decisive application of force, there is considerable evidence that both terms can be interpreted to include the use of tactical nuclear weapons...
...52 In a glimpse of future operations on a porous battlefield, General Forsythe predicted that "increasingly mobile units will be employed to fix and destroy the enemy...
...4- 23 - 32...
...I'm earning $348 a month sitting around and doing a little work...
...Froehlke, Army Posture FY 74, p. 16...
...5 3 With this vision in mind, the Army is making a concerted effort to secure Congressional approval for a new troop-carrying helicopter, the Utility Tactical Transport Aircraft System (UTTAS), to replace the UH-1 Huey's" now in use...
...Bradford, "American Ground Power," p. 5. 94...
...3 3 3 Naval Forces: Attack & Antisubmarine Carriers...
...Now that U.S...
...Army, July 1973, p. 47) Part V: "People Problems" in an all-volunteer force - Will the Army survive VOLAR...
...Part IV: "Clean Bombs" And CredibilityTactical-Nukes for the New Action Army As noted above, a constant theme of Pentagon posture statements is the notion that Army firepower must be increased in reverse proportion to the decline in Army manpower...
...31-2...
...By removing the middle class from even the threat of conscription," Joseph Califano charged in 1973, "we remove perhaps the greatest inhibition on a President's decision to wage war...
...and the USSR could ever be halted at a tactical level, and as a result little effort was made to enhance America's tac-nuke capability in the 1960's...
...President's Commission on an All-Volunteer Armed Force, The Report of the President's Commission on an All Volunteer Force (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1970...
...comparable increases were authorized for other ranks, and, as a result, military pay became truly competitive with civilian employment for the first time in American history...
...10-15...
...For further discussion, see : Michael T. Klare, War Without End: American Planning for the Next Vietnams (New York: Knopf, 1972), pp...
...Weapons which performed moderately well in the "low-intensity" environment of Vietnam (where, for the most part, enemy forces were equipped with relatively primitive light weapons) must be upgraded for survival in the "mid-intensity" environment of Europe or the Middle East, where potential enemies are armed with modern tanks, missiles and air-defense systems...
...9 6 While there are many analysts who share these concerns, other observers see a countervailing trend: the increasing affluence of military personnel, it is argued, will increase rather than decrease a soldier's access to civilian institutions...
...The agency which handled the contract...
...defense policy, Col...
...the exposure of our men to the dangers of the battlefield...
...165-209...
...The New York Times, May 16, 1971...
...We are faced with uncertainty, and in the face of uncertainty, we need an Army...
...Of ARTADS's four systems, TACFIRE and TOS are furthest along the development cycle...
...104 There is another question that must be asked of a mercenary army with a substantial non-white membership: given the growing militancy of the black and Chicano movements in the United States, will VOLAR's black and Spanish-speaking recruits obey their white officers when ordered to attack enemy forces--especially when those forces are also black or brown?* Again, no one can answer this question in advance...
...6 July/August 1973 Published monthly, except May-June and July-August, when it is published bi-monthly, at 160 Claremont Ave., New York, N.Y...
...ground troops from Vietnam, Europe and the Mediterranean became the main focus of Army planning...
...94140...
...When the Diem regime came under sustained attack from indigenous revolutionaries, the Kennedy Administration -- acting upon the premises of Flexible Reponse -- ordered the deployment of Special Forces commandos and U.S...
...The New York Times, July 1, 1973...
...This deterrence role rests heavily on a credible U.S...
...worldwide, Army drug investigations rose from 12,000 in 1969 to some 20,000 in 1971.16 BLACK SERVICEMEN DEMONSTRATING IN DANANG Racial conflict: Racism and discrimination have always been basic characteristics of military life, but not until the late 1960's were these practices challenged from within on a massive scale by black G.I.'s...
...drug addiction had reached "epidemic" proportions...
...But you can't beat it...
...7. The New York Times, September 5, 1971...
...Department of Defense, 1972), p. 8. 85...
...forces are outnumbered on the battlefield, Abrams added, "our soldiers must have the wherewithall to insure the decisive lpplication of force in the shortest possible time...
...Acknowledged fragging incidents rose from 126 in 1969 to 271 in 1970 and some 425 in 1971...
...Abrams, Army Posture FY74, p. 34...
...The acceleration of current trends leading to a "mercenary" force of blacks, Puerto Ricans, Mexican-Americans and poor whites (mostly Southerners...
...Such projectiles (the Army calls them "smart rounds" after the "smart bombs" used in the air war against North Vietnam) would carry a sensor device (infrared or electromagnetic) which could "lock on" to a target by "reading" its "signature," and correct the trajectory of the shell so that it lands "right on target...
...Thus, "for better or worse," the use of ground forces "burns the bridges of easy political or logistical withdrawal...
...One problem still remains in the effort to make the use of tactical nuclear weapons "more credible" -- existing tac-nukes are large and relatively "dirty" (i.e., high in radioactive fallout) and thus their use would produce worldwide condemnation...
...As black con- sciousness and anti-authoritarian attitudes penetrated the Vietnam-era Army, race conflict became a regular feature of military life, and clashes between black G.I.'s and white officers became a daily occurrence...
...Davison, pp...
...The reported advertising costs per Army enlistee (probably less than half the total enlistment cost) averaged $107 per person in 1971 and $136 in 1972...
...In Vietnam, however, enemy tactics and U.S...
...See also: Ludvigsen, "Looking for a Breakthrough," p. 139...
...Naval Institute Proceedings, "the more reluctant the nation will be to lose them in war and, thus, the option of going to war to solve political problems will become increasingly undesirable...
...I like this post," reports Pfc...
...If we are to accomplish our many diverse tasks," General Westmoreland explained in 1971, "we must do better with less...
...15-23...
...Kelly, "The All-Volunteer Force: Why Not...
...There is no doubt," one top officer admitted, "that race is our most serious internal problem...
...In situations where U.S...
...Considering all the publicity generated by the SALT talks and the President's diplomatic adventures, it is hardly surprising that few citizens have learned of the tactical nuclear buildup...
...8 6 Furthermore, as the remaining draftees leave the service and volunteers take their place, the proportion of blacks will increase significantly...
...129-30...
...Since the use of a strategic nuclear deterrent has been ruled out by a series of treaties and agreements, the Nixon Administration is seeking to acquire an enhanced tactical nuclear capability to provide that extra degree of "toughness" considered essential for the success of a smaller Army...
...Among the options on the Pentagon's agenda in 1973 are: -- A return to conscription, with some form of draft system to make up the "shortfalls in voluntary enlistments...
...forces are now seen as a predominantly political instrument in the effort to offset mounting Soviet influence in Europe, and to preserve America's own influence in the region...
...101...
...VII, No...
...23, 1970...
...Ultimately, the success or failure of the Army's efforts to create an all-volunteer force will hinge on the outcome of two basic questions: can VOLAR provide a sufficient pool of qualified personnel for an already diminished military apparatus...
...and [to] neglect the realities of existing forces of potential adversaries...
...30 30 28 Manned Fighter-Interceptor Squadrons...
...For further discussion, see Klare, War Without End, pp...
...T.D...
...You just can't visualize the TRICAP division as being on yesterday's battlefield, General Norton asserted...
...Two aerospace firms, Boeing's Vertol Division and Sikorsky Aircraft, have received development contracts to build a "prototype" UTTAS: when the test aircraft are completed in 1976, a competitive "flyoff" will be scheduled with the winner picking up a lucrative production contract...
...Quoted in Eric C. Ludvigsen, "Tough, Mobile, Elite," Army, November, 1970, p. 39...
...Secretary Froehlke has even gone so far as to indicate that Army training programs will be enhanced to "instill excitement and fun in our jobs" 8 0--surely something that no serious military commander has ever promised before...
...thus General Davison, for instance, has written: "It seems clear that organizational measures which enhance a soldier's basic welfare and sense of security will also improve his willingness to carry out *In another effort to make military life more attractive to today's "mod" generation...
...In the area of small arms, for instance, emphasis is on the development of new types of ammunition that would produce death no matter what part of an enemy's body was hit...
...9. 10...
...GI in First Cavalry Division.-4the past few years...
...9-10...
...There is the military band option to make music for Uncle Sam...
...Although there is no real dividing line between "tactical" and "strategic" nuclear weapons (many "tactical" warheads, for instance, exceed the 20 kiloton force of the Hiroshima bomb), the employment of tac-nukes in "limited war" situations gained some plausibility in the writings of Henry Kissinger and Herman Kahn...
...General Walter T. Kerwin, the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel, has made this point even more succinctly: "The Army's going to be smaller, much smaller, and it's got to be tougher...
...Quoted in The New York Times, July 1, 1973...
...These warheads, providing an explosive force equal to 1,000 to 100,000 tons of TNT, were ostensibly designed to destroy enemy troop concentrations and logistics bases in the event of a conventional ground attack (strategic nuclear weapons, on the other hand, are targeted at an enemy's key cities and industrial centers...
...6 5 TOS is a more elaborate system that will process a much wider range of combat information: the TOS central computer at corps or theater headquarters will contain a large "data base" with data on enemy/friendly troop positions, supply inventories, ammunition stocks, nuclear weapons effects, etc, while computer terminals at division and battalion headquarters will provide comparable information on the local situation...
...Times, 5-16-71) **These organizations have focused largely on disciplinary matters (blacks comprise 50 per- cent of the Army stockade population in Europe) and living conditions, although other concerns -- including the war in Vietnam -- have also been expressed...
...1 If this is true, then the Army Westmoreland commanded in 1971 as Chief of Staff was an Army without a soul, for U.S...
...See: Eric C. Ludvigsen, "Army Missiles: A New Generation," Army, June, 1973, pp...
...overseas forces and thus Nixon believes we need a strong tactical nuclear deterrent: "Lack of flexibility on our part could tempt an aggressor to use nuclear weapons in a limited way in a crisis...
...Arguing that the American military apparatus "has been traditionally officered by men with strong conservative inclinations," Janowitz warned that "an in-bred force, which could hold resentments toward civilian society and could, accordingly, develop a strong and uniform conservative political ideology, would in turn influence professional judgements...
...Kelly, "All-Volunteer Force," p. 41...
...Charles B. Rangel, "Black Hessians in a White Man's Army," The New York Times, April 17, 1971...
...According to General Abrams, "the drone would carry television cameras and infrared sensors which can be monitored at a ground station...
...Greely, Alaska, and the Desert Test Center at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona...
...Abrams, Army Posture FY74, pp...
...For a discussion of this contradiction, see the first article in this series, "The New Imperial Navy," in the NACLA Report for November, 1972.- 22 - Footnotes 1. William C. Westmoreland, "The Army: A Soldier's Assessment," The New York Times, January 5, 1972...
...1 7 Most incidents occurred spontaneously, in response to individual instances of prejudice or harassment, but black G.I.'s also formed protest organizations to campaign against institutionalized discrim- ination...
...129-30...
...92 Ultimately, middleclass resistance to conscription will place a limit on the Army's capacity to initiate war under a zero-draft system: as long as the Pentagon is barred from reintroducing the draft to obtain replacements for men lost in battle, it cannot get involved in combat situations where the manpower requirement is likely to be high...
...14 14 14 Marine Corps Wings...
...Quoted in The New York Times, Nov...
...Heinl, "Collapse," p. 35...
...3 3 Although little hard evidence has been produced to support this contention, Army spokesmen insist that strong ground forces are needed "to stand as a credible, battle-ready deterrent to adventurism by the Warsaw Pact leaders or to miscalculation of our will and determination...
...He walks a tightrope between the regulations and sedition...
...Symington, who re- cently assumed a position on the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, disclosed in May 1973 that the Atomic Energy Commission was spending "millions and millions of dollars" on the development and production of nuclear ammunition for Army weapons in Europe...
...Other parts of the Army have been told to get along with fewer men," General Michael S. Davison indicated in 1972, "so that we can maintain our fighting strength in USAREUR...
...The answer to the first of these questions is just becoming known: data released by the Department of Defense in mid-1973 indicate that enlistments in the Armed Forces generally, and in the Army in particular, are falling short- 19 - of minimum manpower requirements by a substantial margin...
...5. Interview, Armed Forces Journal, January, 1972, p. 39...
...If these forces are to survive, Vice Chief of Staff General Bruce Palmer observed in 1972, "We must be able to articulate, 'Why an Army?' with a convincing rationale that will be understood and supported by our people countrywide...
...With first round kill probabilities approaching certainty, and with surveillance devices that can continually track the enemy, the need for large forces to fix the opposition physically will be less important...
...Janowitz, "U.S...
...Thus in January 1971, when the Army was still drafting large numbers of men for Vietnam, blacks constituted only 13.5 percent of the enlisted ranks...
...John K. Galvin, "Prime Tactical Lessons of the Vietnam War," Army, March, 1972, p. 17...
...medical services, $592 million for support of dependents, and $62 million to eliminate odious kitchen duties...
...Naturally, no one can predict the outcome of such an event in advance...
...1 0 5 *Despite intensive efforts to recruit college-educated blacks, the Army has not been able to increase the number of black officers in the service beyond the current 3.4 percent (only 5,400 men out of 160,000 officers in 1971...
...While the war was going on, radical forces were largely split on the draft issue, with some opposing it as part of their antiwar activities, and others pointing to the dangers of an all-volunteer, professional military apparatus...
...In fact, as the United States and the USSR complete work on what Nixon calls "the emerging global order," such non-Communist threats will become more critical...
...and Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), with responsibility for individual G.I...
...This reduction required the retirement or dismissal of over 50,000 officers, and the deactivation of six full divisions...
...Charles B. Rangel, a black Congressman from New York City, predicted in 1971 that blacks, Puerto Ricans and Mexican-Americans will constitute the bulk of the volunteers--since there are no other economic options open to them...
...ground forces,are being withdrawn from Indochina and elsewhere in Asia, the United States Army Europe (USAREUR) is being maintained at full-strength and has first call on the new weapons and equipment being developed at home...
...9 9 (In the Brookings study, "available" is defined as men who are physically, mentally, and morally qualified for service--and who are not planning to enter college...
...Of these units, the ACCB is the most innovative: each air cavalry task force will be composed of several "hunter-killer" teams (known as BEAT's, or basic helicopter attack teams) made up of small scout helicopters and missile-armed attack helicopters...
...In fact, many analysts believe that the higher the standard of living promised recruits, the less enthusiastic they'll be about risking their lives in combat...
...9 5 "The prospect of an allvoluntary force," sociologist Morris Janowitz wrote in 1973, "only increases the potential for internal rigidity and a sharper boundary between the military and the civilian sector...
...George I. Forsythe, "The Battlefield of the Future," Defense Industry Bulletin, March, 1970, p. 14...
...The New York Times, January 29, 1973...
...Race conflict was reportedly most intense in Germany, where civilian hostility and service boredom combined to produce an explosive environment...
...5 6 The Army then produced studies to show that armored vehicles can survive in a mid-intensity environment, and that their superior firepower is essential for the success of the U.S...
...the employment of more blacks in overseas civilian jobs...
...Advertising the Army by Alan Miller For an excellent account of G.I...
...Kennedy authorized a substantial expansion of U.S...
...An Army with these ingredients will be a professional force, unhampered by social turmoil, and composed of well-trained and ready soldiers prepared to meet any crisis...
...Beecher, "Over the Threshold," p. 19...
...2 5-6The elimination of three major Army commands - Continental Army Command (CONARC), Combat Developments Command (CDC), and headquarters, Third U.S...
...Ibid., p. 125...
...NOW YOU'LL HAVE YOUR OWN HOME...
...troops from Southeast Asia.-5Fort Campbell, Ky...
...There are no passes, no sign-in, sign-out procedures, no KP...
...and the Bell Division of Textron, Inc...
...Part II Blueprint for Survival-"The New Action Army" Shortly before the start of 1971, General Westmoreland wrote that "Today, the army is entering one of the most critical periods in its history...
...the replacement of a civilian inspector general by a military inspector general...
...Furthermore, in order to overcome public resistance to forward-deployed ground forces (that might become embroiled in another Vietnamtype war), the Army is seeking to balance its capability for rapid deployment abroad (via C-5A jumbo jets and fast supply ships) with a capability for rapid withdrawal...
...In response to the problems and restraints described earlier, and in recognition of the wide range of contingencies the Army might have to face in the years ahead, Defense planners are Summary of Selected Active Military Forces Source: U.S...
...2. Robert D. Heinl, Jr., "The Collapse of the Armed Forces," Armed Forces Journal, June 7, 1971, p. 3 0 . 3. L. James Binder, "Vietnam War: Assessing the Battle Scars," Army, March, 1973, p. 9. 4. Ibid...
...Davison, "Lean, Tight," p. 45...
...7 1 Most analysts, however, were never convinced that a nuclear exchange between the U.S...
...Zero-draft enlistment quotas were set for the ensuing six months, and on June 30, 1973, an all-volunteer system became reality with the expiration of the nation's draft law...
...Fragging, meaning to toss a live grenade into a superior's quarters while he's asleep, is derived from the fragmentationtype antipersonnel explosives used in Vietnam...
...Current Army efforts to enhance U.S...
...Once a target was identified, personnel at the ground station would be able to activate onboard lasers to illuminate targets for attack by laser-guided ("smart") weapons.1"50 According: to Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine, work on such systems is now underway at the Army Electronics Command, Ft...
...And lastly, it means minimizing the awesome reality that formidable military force is in the hands of leaders whose ideologies and purposes are not yet compatible with ours...
...4 i In order to enhance the Army's capacity to find the "elusive" enemy in his jungle habitat, the Army opened up a whole new field of technology known as STANO surveillance, target acquisition and night observation...
...STANO systems are commonly based on the "sensor"-an electronic device that can detect the "signature," or tell-tale signs, that distinguish enemy forces from the surrounding ecology...
...many middle class white males were of course glad to be rid of the worry of conscription...
...Alan B. Abt, "Battlefield Computers," Army, April, 1973, pp...
...Part I: Crisis'71-The Army Nears Collapse "Discipline," General William C. Westmoreland once remarked, "is the very soul of the Army...
...By effectively exempting middle class youths from military service, he added, "we write into law the concept of one man's money for another man's blood...
...life...
...10 8 8 Army Air Defense Firing Batteries...
...To emphasize his points, he calls attention to the slogans printed on the covers of the slick Army hand-outs littering the office...
...These sensor systems can be used individually, in such devices as the AN/PSR-1 Seismic Intrusion Detector, the AN/AAS-14 Airborne Infrared Reconnaissance Sensor, and the XM-3 Olfactronic Personnel Detector (the infamous "people sniffer...
...5 1- 11 - Fix 'Em: In every previous war, large numbers of regular infantry troops were used to block and contain advancing enemy troops along a well-defined front line...
...Foreign Policy," p. 809...
...It is highly probable that new tactical nuclear warheads have been developed in conjunction with Lance, which is due to become operational later this summer...
...Michael S. Davison, "'Lean, Tight,' Europe Aims to Set the Pace," Army, October, 1972, pp...
...Another black G.I., Sgt...
...In the kind of battles where the size of our involved forces is compar- atively small," General Abrams told Congress in 1973, "there really is no choice but to put the superior weapons system on the field of battle...
...The Army must convince the American people not only of the neea for ground forces per se, out also of their deployment abroad in a "forward defense" posture...
...A new breed of military "super recruiters" is being groomed to do the door-to-door selling of the "Bright Future" and the "Secret of Getting Ahead...
...Department of Defense D D D D C M IV introduced by President Nixon and the Defense Chiefs in late 1972 and early 1973...
...In Fiscal 1974, for instance, the Army will spend $682 million to enhance barracks conditions, $615 million for improved G.I...
...While these incidents received substantial publicity, much less is known (for obvious reasons) of the many instances of "working it out" -- the practice whereby a group of G.I.'s refuse hazardous duty, but later agree to perform less risky tasks after negotiating with their officers...
...Richard Ratner, an Armypsychiatrist at the Longbinh military base, suggested that the men were reacting to their environment in much the same way as poor people in a ghetto: "Vietnam in many ways is a ghetto for the enlisted man...
...Extra-legal groups like the Black Action Group and Black United Soldiers attracted thousands of members, despite active Army harass- ment.** Ultimately the Army responded by plac- ing ethnic products in PX outlets and by setting up race-relations seminars, but most black G.I.'s report that racial tension has not subsided...
...Forces & Zero-Draft," pp...
...In the scenarios of projected TRICAP operations, the ACCB's hunter-killers will seek out and destroy the enemy's advance tank forces while the airmobile infantry forces (armed with anti-tank missiles) will provide a mobile defense on the ground until the division's armored brigade can move up for the counteroffensive...
...They have to figure what a man's needs ae...
...17 16 15 Nuclear Attack Submarines...
...For discussion of Army research on combat in environmental extremes, see Klare, War Without End...
...ultimately, a vocal and persistent peace movement altered the mood of the country and compelled the Government to place additional restraints on the military conduct of the war...
...helicopter mobility transformed the battlefield: instead of manning a fixed front line with conventional defense perimeters, raiding parties of both sides roamed widely throughout the combat zone...
...5 4 Destroy 'Em: In the view of most Defense planners, the smaller Army of the 1970's must be equipped with a new family of highly potent weapons if it is to overcome the more numerous forces of potential enemies...
...This lesson is not likely to be forgotten quickly: as the nation enters the post-Vietnam era, it is clear that the American people will not tolerate another manpower-intensive ground war of the Vietnam type...
...1 0 6 (Emphasis added...
...Thus, America used the atom bomb against Japan (a bomb that had been developed specifically to guard against a possible German nuclear attack), and "tactical" chemical weapons (incapacitating gasses, anticrop agents, etc...
...105...
...They want to know why, and they want to talk philosophy of war and philosophy in general, and the non-coms haven't been able to communicate with them at that intellectual level...
...The New York Times, September 5, 1971...
...An aggressor, in the unlikely event of nuclear war, might choose to employ nuclear weapons selectively and in limited numbers for limited objectives...
...mutinies in Vietnam, see Richard Boyle's G.I...
...Our success in negotiating strategic limitations has thus increased the importance of maintaining other deterrent forces capable of coping with a variety of challenges...
...No President should ever be in the position where his only option in meeting such aggression is all-out nuclear response...
...You may save men on reconnaissance by the use of such sensors, they argue, only to lose them if the electronic information is inaccurate...
...Quoted in Alan Miller, "The New Volunteer Army," American Report, February 26, 1973, p. 10...
...General-George I. Forsythe, who as commander of the Combat Developments Command (CDC) was responsible for the development of new combat doctrine, identified his major task in a 1970 talk to the National Security Industrial Association as follows: "The Army must take full advantage of our exploding technology to improve our effectiveness in supporting national aims, while reducing...
...1 5 Heroin arrests in Vietnam rose from 250 in all of 1969 to 1,084 in the first three months of 1971 alone...
...We have too many exciting improvements that are already on the way, (including) greatly improved systems for intelligence, logistics, and command and control, based upon exploitation of space vehicles, new sensors, and automation technologies...
...To arrive at this point, Westmoreland noted, the Army must accelerate its search for technological advances that "will replace wherever possible the man with the machine...
...4 7 As the Vietnam war drew to a close, Army spokesmen were emphatic in their claim that sensor technology had "come of age" and that such systems would alter the course of future wars...
...350 per month supplementary pay for doctors and dentists...
...N'We will put everything we have to support NATO...
...Thus we recall Chief of staff Abrams' 1973 statement that with a smaller Army, "there really is no choice but to put the superior weapons systems on the field of battle...
...resistance to military tradition and procedure...
...security consists of "mid-intensity" combat between the conventional forces of the big powers or their most highlyarmed allies...
...Nevertheless, the argument that we need tactical nuclear weapons because the "other side" may use them at some future date is pure subterfuge: as history has shown, the Pentagon has found justifications for the use of new weapons even though the other side was clearly incapable of reciprocating in kind...
...Creighton W. Abrams, "The Posture of the Army," Statement Before the House Committee on Armed Services, Department of Defense press release, (May) 1973, pp...
...In rough form, the new policy states that in an era of approximate parity in strategic nuclear weapons, and increasing big power collaboration in the control of low intensity conflicts, the most likely threat to U.S...
...ground forces from Asia, and their replacement with the troops of client regimes (liberally supported, of course, by U.S...
...see also, Kelly, "All-Volunteer Force," p. 40...
...The 1960's were years of great social upheaval in the United States, and inevitably the problems and conflicts of civilian society were mirrored in Army life...
...2 1 The new strategy, according to Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., "will call first for the high-technology, capital-intensive services -- air and naval forces -- to support the indige- nous armies of threatened allies...
...94 (January, 1973), p. 2 3 . 87...
...B. Bradford, "American Ground Power After Vietnam," Military Review, April, 1972, p. 4. 21...
...But large scale advertising is not the only tactic in the new recruiting assault...
...107...
...Other proposed smart rounds will "home in" on light beams bounced off the target by a laser gun or "target designator...
...Many black G.I.'s questioned in Europe have expressed considerable alienation from their regular military assignments and most seemed more concerned with combatting discrimination than preparing for war with the Communists...
...The program involved a $25 million W.W...
...Abolition of the draft was an early Nixon campaign pledge, and after his election in 1968 he moved quickly to establish the basis for its demise...
...News and World Report warned that the Services were being invaded by "...a new breed of man, who thinks he is his own Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, and Attorney General...
...Most of these enlistees were not "true" volunteers (since they were faced by the pressure of the draft), so the actual per person cost was much higher...
...Abrams, Army Posture FY74, pp...
...21-2...
...Ludvigsen, "Promise and Uncertainty," pp...
...DeUI...
...Ultimately 500,000 U.S...
...5 7 The AAH, like the SM-1, is an austere version of an expensive item that has already been rejected by Congress-in this case, AH-56A Cheyenne attack helicopter...
...Europe comes first in our thinking," a top Pentagon officer told Army magazine...
...In justifying this allocation of manpower, Army planners argue that Europe and the Middle East are the primary arenas in the global power struggle between the United States and the USSR: "An assessment of the [world] strategic balance," USAREUR commander Davison commented in 1972, "makes it clear that Europe is the scene of a crucial confrontation between the most powerful forces of the Free World and of the Communist realm...
...After five years of work, the development team unveiled a "space age" tank costing around $1 million each...
...In March 1969, two months after his inauguration, Nixon appointed former Secretary of Defense (and head of the Morgan Guaranty Trust Co...
...It would be very com- forting to view the world as some sort of emerg*The exercise conducted in Greece consti- tuted a particularly clear statement of Army doctrine: As part of Operation "Deep Furrow," U.S.-based units of the 82nd Airborne Division -- the Pentagon's ever-ready "fire brigade" for intervention abroad - parachuted into northeastern Greece in September 1972 and conducted three days of exercises designed to test the U.S.-Greek response to potential threats in the area...
...These RPV's, or drones, would consist of small pilotless aircraft controlled by radio signals from the ground...
...but to do so one must blot out the problems associated with the growing U.S...
...But no longer can "word of mouth" be relied on to help offset this problem...
...12 per year for institutions ($22 for two years...
...Hood...
...35-7...
...The proposed gunship will be armed with TOW, and will be extremely manueverable in "nap of the earth," treetop-level flying to evade enemy anti-aircraft radars...
...When Congress finally saw the price tag for MBT-70, it quickly killed the project amid concern that--in this age of cheap and accurate anti-tank weapons--"the tank is nearing the end of its combat capability...
...Massive Retaliation failed, however, to deter revolutionary outbursts in Cuba, Algeria and Indochina, and in 1961 Kennedy's advisers introduced the strategy of Flexible Response to provide an enhanced "conventional" (i.e., non-nuclear) option in meeting threats at the lower end of the military spectrum...
...The explosive nature of this crisis is indicated by the following data: Desertion and absenteeism: Army desertions in 1971 occurred at the rate of 62.6 men per thousand, which was twice the rate during the Korean War and nearly equal to the World War II peak rate of 63 men per thousand...
...3 2 Should the Soviet Union gain a commanding position in this contest, American supremacy would be conclusively usurped, and the USSR would become the world's prime superpower...
...7 3 Since strategic nuclear weapons are unlikely to be used in any contingency short of an all-out nuclear attack on American cities, such weapons cannot deter tactical nuclear attacks on U.S...
...Address all mail to Box 57, Cathedral Station, New York, N.Y...
...To deal with a wide range of possible hostile actions, the President must maintain a broad choice of options...
...It is having trouble getting these bodies because many of its young do not wish to be engaged in the merciless obliteration of Southeast Asia...
...Abrams added that "I do not know, nor do I pro- pose to forecast, when and where some contingencies will arise calling for the use of Army forces...
...See: Morris Janowitz, "The U.S...
...Four responded, and none of them were told of the sums at stake...
...The pressure on Army recruiters to increase their quotas of enlistees is reportedly so great that over 100 of them have been replaced or are under investigation for falsifying records of recruits or providing aid on intelligence or aptitude tests in order to enroll men who could not otherwise meet minimum service standards...
...87 63 57-94-i devising a new Army concept -- a capital-intensive, machine-oriented, volunteer-manned force...
...3 6 (Emphasis added...
...Forces & the Zero Draft," pp...
...Ultimately, such a move would generate increased pressure for acquisition and deployment of tactical nuclear weapons...
...John R. Galvin, "and established a precedent that will influence all future military doctrine...
...Westmoreland, AUSA Address, p. S12728...
...They get on me about my Ilongish] hair...
...have set artifically high enlistment qualifications in order to "sabotage" the all-volunteer program...
...SUBSCRIPTIONS: $6 per year for individuals ($11 for two years...
...In a major critique of U.S...
...soft spots, for chinks in U.S...
...Richard Nixon, "U.S...
...Part Ill: "Firepower-Not Manpower" The Automated Battlefield In the late 1960's, as the Army attempted in vain to free itself from the morass of Indochina, Defense planners in Washington began looking toward a brighter future in which modern technology would overcome the problems encountered in Vietnam...
...8 7 And in 1973, under the zero-draft system, blacks have constituted about one-fourth of all Army enlistments...
...in March the quota was 18 percent short...
...With the outbreak of urban guerrilla warfare in such areas as Latin America and Northern Ireland, the Army has devoted considerable attention to the development of tactics for urban counterinsurgency: theoretical articles fill the pages of Military Review (Journal of the Army Command and General Staff College), and working conferences fill the schedules of Army strategy planners...
...Our capacity to obtain information," General George S. Boylan noted in 1970, "is continuing to increase more rapidly than our ability to reduce it to usable intelligence...
...Airmobile warfare "revolutionized the tactics of the Vietnam war," according to Col...
...He considers himself superior to any officer alive...
...82 Charges that VOLAR is building a "mercenary army" have been voiced even more emphatically in the black community, where a large proportion of the Army's enlistment quota is expected to be filled...
...It would be a mercenary army composed of men soldiering for a pay check...
...What made this problem particularly troublesome, however, was the high number of college students among the enlisted ranks: "They want to know all the answers...
...Black/ white clashes -- resulting in felony arrests, injuries and some deaths -- were reported in Heidelberg, Krailsheim Hohenfels, Berlin, Kaiserlautern and Ulm...
...In its place, the Defense Department established a volunteer Army (VOLAR) system based on high military pay and enlistment bonuses...
...Recognizing that NATO's ground troops could never halt a massive Soviet ground attack, President Eisenhower authorized the deploy-- 14 - ment of over 7,000 small nuclear warheads in Europe for use in deterring such an assault...
...In order to make such weapons more "credible" (i.e., to reduce opposition to- 15 - their use), the Nixon Administration has launched a costly development program to produce smaller and "cleaner" nuclear warheads...
...Expense, of course, is another concern...
...In order to attract volunteers for the infantry and other combatant forces (as distinct from the technological specialties chosen by most volunteers under a "unit-ofchoice" option), the Pentagon offered bonuses of up to $2,500 for four-year enlistments in the "combat arms...
...In a review of potential military contingencies during the 1970's, General Palmer commented that "we face a turbulent, dangerous period of built-in conflict situations world-wide...
...For each new recruit, more than $900 will be spent on promotion alone...
...Army "advisers" to Vietnam...
...Abrams, Army Posture FY74, p. 27...
...involvement in Vietnam was limited to advisers and Green Berets, American public opinion was largely neutral on the issue of the war...
...William C. Westmoreland, "The Army in Transition," Ordnance, July-August, 1971, pp...
...troops on the ground...
...The U.S...
...Ibid...
...Kelly wrote in U.S...
...Such individual acts of insubordination were given collective voice in the 144 underground G.I...
...3 3 3 Tactical Air Forces: Air Force Wings...
...While this scenario is reminiscent of early Cold War brinkmanship, the role assigned to U.S...
...Thomas S. Gates to chair a high-level Commission on an All-Volunteer Force...
...This task is made more difficult, Palmer noted, because "While our people readily visualize our naval fleets and embarked Marines, and even our tactical air forces, as giving immediately available cover for our citizens, our commerce and our other interests abroad, it is far more difficult for our people to recognize the need for U.S...
...10027...
...Revolts: The Breakdown of the U.S...
...In February, enlistments were 15 percent short of the 11,500-man quota...
...and liberal leave policies.* For most privates in the peacetime Army, service will be confined to the 40-hour, five-day week common to civilian employment...
...Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y.-3potentially demoralizing as any faced by any other military force in history...
...26-7...
...One early critic of VOLAR, Sen...
...ll Drug abuse: By 1971, the use of heroin by G.I.'s in Vietnam had reached "epidemic roportions," according to The New York Times.12 Army doctors reported that 30 percent or more of all low-ranking combat troops were using heroin, while 80 percent smoked marijuana or took barbiturates, amphetamines, or other drugs regularly...
...The Army suffered more casualties than the other services -- 30,591 combat deaths, or twothirds of all U.S...
...1 0 1 In response to charges that military personnel are sabotaging the volunteer system, many officers assert--with some justification--that society as a whole will determine the success or failure of VOLAR, depending on the kind of esteem it accords military service: "If the American public wants an all-volunteer force," Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Moorer explained, EDUCATIONAL "OPPORTUNITIES EXCITING JOBS WOMEN'S ARMY CORPS- 20 - "it's up to the American public to get it and support it...
...125-8...
...training and service schools and centers, and management of the ROTC program.26 The abolition of the draft, and introduction of an all-volunteer Army...
...zU (Emphasis added...
...It means nothin' but my life, and life's a very dear thing to me...
...4 2 With the reduction of Army strength and the introduction of VOLAR, the development of manpower-saving machines has become the top priority of Army modernization programs...
...For that reason we seek a leaner, more versatile Army, equipped with the most modern and effective weapons and manned by motivated, well-trained soldiers...
...5 As privates began questioning the legitimacy and morality of military commands, discipline crumbled and the Army faced an unprecedented internal crisis...
...Whichever option (or combination of measures) the Pentagon adopts, it is certain to exacerbate existing tensions within the military and to amplify the contradictions between America's global objectives and the shrinking means available to achieve them.** The resulting climate of debate and crisis might induce the Pentagon to embark on dangerous military adventures abroad (or at home...
...Melvin R. Laird, Progress in Ending the Draft and Achieving the All-Volunteer Force, Report to the President (Washington, D.C...
...combat effectiveness in each of these three areas are described below...
...Califano argues that since VOLAR will only attract high school dropouts and those without marketable skills, the volunteer system represents a revival of "the Civil War practice of having the better off hire the worse off to serve their time in the military...
...see also, The New York Times, November 23, 1970, September 5, 1971...
...but it could also provide new opportunities for mass political action designed to place new constraints on the interventionary capacity of the government...
...emphasis added) Laird indicated that the Pentagon planned to double the number of enlisted women in the services, from 31,000 in 1972 to 59,000 in 1977...
...In its report to the President, the Commission argued that with higher pay and other benefits, military service could be made competitive with civilian employment, and that it would be possible therefore to recruit sufficient manpower for an active armed force of 2.3 million men...
...Not all of the Army's troubles can be traced to Vietnam, however...
...air and sea power...
...The TRICAP concept is as distant from Vietnam tactics as the airmobility concept was different from World War II combat...
...newspapers published on or near Army bases, and in the dozens of G.I...
...Instead, the Army has turned to Madison Avenue to tell its public story well...
...In response to this growing national consensus, the Nixon Administration introduced the "low profile" Nixon Doctrine with its call for the withdrawal of U.S...
...Army in Vietnam, available for 40 cents from United Front Press, P.O...
...As we have seen, however, Flexible Response was discredited in Vietnam and now the Defense Establishment must face powerful Soviet armies in Europe with a much reduced ground capability...
...It was a tough war," James Binder wrote in Army magazine, "made tougher because to many litary men...
...and the withdrawal of all U.S...
...Ibid., p. 3. 80...
...Some critics of VOLAR have predicted that a highly-paid professional military organization would become a force of "hired killers" who would balk at nothing when ordered to attack a hostile population...
...When questioned on the matter, the Pentagon declined to provide further details, but volunteered the comment that such ammunition "will provide increased simplicity, greater capability and better reliability" than existing warheads...
...In order to pacify Congress, AAH costs will be held to $1.6 million each...
...Among the innovations introduced by VOLAR managers in the past few years are: beer dispensers and semiprivate cubicles in barracks...
...77 65 65 Airlift and Sealift Forces: Strategic Airlift Squadrons: C-5A...
...94 (Nov., 1972...
...8 1 Some critics of VOLAR charge that, in essence, this contract represents the foundation of a mercenary army composed largely of blacks and poor whites...
...New and modern ways of worship and religious training are offered to meet the needs of the young, unmarried soldier who may be 'turned off' to traditional religious approaches -- a kind of spiritual adventure training...
...information forwarded by the FO will be analyzed by the TACFIRE central computer, and precise fire instructions relayed to gun emplacements...
...Roger T. Kelley, a former Assistant Secretary of Defense who many consider to be the architect of VOLAR, told reporters that foes of an all-volunteer system "can demonstrate a need for the draft by letting failures occur...
...Burke, "Smart Weapons," p. 16...
...Work on TACFIRE began in 1966, and a prototype system is now undergoing field tests at Ft...
...THE SECRET OF GETTING AHEAD...
...Many draftees, furthermore, were exposed to radical politics before induction and naturally brought their new attitudes with them into the Army...
...On the basis of this argument, the Army moved ahead in 1973 to solicit Congressional backing for an "austere" MBT-70, the $500,000 SM-1...
...Furthermore, in the absence of a draft system to "induce" voluntary enlistments, it is becom- ing questionable whether the Army can man its already drastically reduced combat forces...
...As the Armed forces Journal complained: "The last time the Army spent a similar amount for recruitment advertising, Congress raised such a fuss that it banned all military recruiting ads...
...36-7...
...54 54 54 Polaris-Poseidon Missiles...
...after a "flyoff" competition set for 1976, Congress will be asked to provide funding for an estimated 475 AAH's...
...Abrams, Army Posture FY74, p. 27...
...Simply to avert collapse, the Army had to take extreme measures...
...We cannot, he warned, "ignore the negative trends that persist: Even though Vietnam is entering a new phase, conflict reFINANCIAL SUMMARY BY COMPONENT ($ millions) FY 68 FY 72 FY 73 FY 74 epartment of the Army $25,407 $21,582 $21,141 $22,106 epartment of the Navy 21,122 23,602 25,143 27,231 epartment of the Air Force 25,364 23,245 23,956 25,360 efense Agencies 1,632 1,759 2,015 2,183 )efense-wide 2,818 4,818 5,464 6,510 ivil Defense 86 78 84 90 military Assistance Program 312 2,928 1,916 1,684 Total - Budget Authority 76,740 78,012 79,720 85,165 DEFENSE MANPOWER COMPARISONS (End Strength - In Thousands) FY 1968 FY 1972 FY 1973 FY 1974 ilitary Army 1,570 811 825 804 Navy 765 588 574 566 Marine Corps 307 198 197 196 Air Force 905 726 692 666 Total 3,547 2,322 2,288 2,233-7mains in Indochina and ferment exists in other key areas of the world such as the Middle East, where the interests of the major powers are involved...
...Foreign Policy for the 1970's: Shaping a Durable Peace," Department of State Bulletin, June 4, 1973, p. 810...
...Too often," he recalled, "battles were not fought because the enemy could not be found or because, aftbr initial contact, he had slipped elusively into the jungle...or had literally gone underground...
...See Alfred W. McCoy, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia (New York: Harper & Row, 1972), pp...
...While these hardware developments are crucial, it is their combination in new combat organizations that makes TRICAP unique: "We are adding sometbing even more revolutionary", Norton predicted in 1971, "a new and more effective relationship between intelligence, control, firepower, mobility, shock action and prolonged combat power...
...Nixon and Agnew are strictly for white folks only," one black soldier commented...
...Ibid...
...taking into account the free meals, lodging, and other benefits provided by the Army, these men actually secured a significant improvement in their standard of living...
...organizations that formed during "I'm over here fighting a war for a cause that means nothing to me...
...The Army began work on a Main Battle Tank for the '70's (BMT70) in 1965...
...Ayer...
...For more on TRICAP, see: Brooke Nihart, "Army Triple Threat Division Test at Ft...
...Basic to all of these problems, however, is the need to obtain loyal, dedicated and competent soldiers who can be counted on to follow orders in a combat situation...
...on urban counterinsurgency, see the issues of Military Review for the past few years...
...3 4 The essentially political nature of the Army's mission in Europe is underscored by recent training exercises in Norway and Greece* which were designed, according to Defense officials, to demonstrate America's resolve to intervene in those countries if their current, pro-NATO governments came under attack from Communist forces .35 While Pentagon spokesmen point to the Soviet Union as the principal threat to U.S...
...33-35...
...9 1 Although the disappearance of middle-class whites from Army service will probably remove some restraints on the President's capacity to wage war abroad, it is doubtful he will be given a completely free hand, as intimated by these VOLAR critics...
...Janowitz, "U.S...
...Senate, Committee on Armed Services, Subcommittee, Investigation into the Electronic Battlefield Program, Hearings, 91st Cong., 2d Sees., 1971, p. 67...
...In Rangel's view, VOLAR constitutes a mercenary army not only because of its social composition, but also because of its strategic function: "America is in a crucial dilemma...
...Robert F. Froehlke, "Peace-Keeping With Pride and Integrity," Army, October, 1972, p. 16...
...But, once large numbers of combat troops were committed to a costly and unproductive ground war, public opinion became negative and then hostile...
...3 Furthermore, while the Navy and Air Force were given relatively specific and clear-cut tasks in Indochina -- to destroy such-and-such targets and halt traffic on such-and-such roads and waterways -- the Army was given the impossible task of destroying a revolutionary guerrilla organization and "pacifying" the countryside on behalf of a ruthless and unpopular dictator...
...rebellion: at every outpost, and in every aspect of its work, the Army was shaken by G.I...
...1 8 These problems and conflicts, while extremely corrosive in themselves, were not the root cause of the Army's difficulties but rather symptoms of a deeper malaise engendered by the American failure in Vietnam...
...They have a sophisticated product to sell, but they need to be astute...
...Tactical nuclear weapons, or tac-nukes, were first introduced into the Army arsenal in the 1950's when Defense strategists predicted an imminent Soviet invasion of Western Europe...
...LNS) harrassment...
...Ibid., p. 18-19...
...These contingencies, according to Palmer, are "not necessarily ideological in nature," but are "rooted in the economic facts of life" -- particularly the fact that "The rich nations are getting richer, while the poor nations struggle to improve the lot of their people...
...Army Restructures Command Lines," Armed Forces Journal, February, 1973, p. 14...
...Ernest F. Hollings of South Carolina, warned that "an all volunteer system would establish a powerful entrenched military clique that would bode ill for the future...
...21 21 21 General Purpose Forces: Land Forces: Army Divisions...
...8 5 These figures are deceiving, however: blacks are highly concentrated in the Army (15 percent of all personnel), and in the lower ranks generally...
...Ibid., p. 807...
...Eric C. Ludvigsen, "Army Weapons, Equipment: Looking for a Breakthrough," Army, October, 1971, pp...
...31...
...I only know that such a contingency probably will arise and it is our business to be prepared for it...
...In fact, many soldiers report the opposite: under the 9-to-5, Monday- to-Friday system, soldiers are free to leave their base as soon as work is over, and most insist that they want things to remain that way...
...General Purpose forces now play a larger role in deterring attacks than at any time since the nuclear era began...
...6 3 In order to harnesss this "wildfire growth" in data influx, the Army is striving to develop a new family of militarized computers to comprise the "automated battlefield" envisioned by General Westmoreland in 1969...
...combat troops were deployed in Vietnam in a long and futile attempt to defeat the Vietnamese revolution...
...see also Richard A. Ratner, "Drugs and Despair in Vietnam," The University of Chicago Magazine, May-June, 1972, pp...
...The New York Times, July 1, 1973...
...1 9 America's failure to destroy the revolutionary movement in Vietnam represents a decisive setback for Flexible Response, and discredits the strategy of using large numbers of ground troops in counterinsurgency warfare...
...Ordnance, September-October, 1969, pp...
...Soldier, February, 1973, p. 36) I-8ing Utopia," Army Chief of Staff General Creighton W. Abrams asserted in 1973...
...These measures, while necessary for the survival of the Army, were not addressed to the basic problem: the absence of a clear strategic mission for ground forces in the post-Vietnam era...
...At least 78 officers and non-coms were ki led in this fashion, and another 600 wounded...
...The New York Times, May 10, 1973...
...Michael Klare *The anti-draft movement was originally comprised of a wide spectrum of political groups, including conservatives who viewed the draft as a form of "involuntary servitude" and an imposition on civil liberties, and liberals who opposed it as part of their general opposition to the Vietnam war...
...Although many Defense analysts believe that a helicopter-even a fast helicopter like the AH-56--wouldn't survive in the intense anti-aircraft fire of- 12 - mid-intensity combat, the Army is pressing for a Cheyenne replacement, the AAH...
...GETTING INTO SOMETHING BIG...
...He lost...
...6 Absenteeism occurred at an even higher rate: 177 out of every 1,000 men were listed as being absent without leave at least once during the year, and some were listed three or four times...
...7 2 As an alternative to nuclear warfare, Kennedy expanded America's conventional ground capability under the doctrine of Flexible Response...
...It's just like a civilian job...
...As the Army fights to survive in an allvolunteer environment, it must take immediate action to reverse or modify existing trends...
...Monmouth, N.J...
...Ayer ad agency in New York City was given a $10.6 million contract for a four-month test campaign...
...Laird and the No-War Strategy for the 1970's," Army, February, 1971, p. 23...
...On the Norway exercise, see: Thomas C. Steinhauser, "Strong Express," Armed Forces Journal, November, 1972, pp...
...The threat of an all-out nuclear response involving the cities of both sides might not be as credible a deterrent as it was in the 1960's...
...Thus Joseph A. Califano, a Washington lawyer and former aide to President Johnson, has labeled the volunteer army a "human weapons system" that will let "the lower class fight our wars...
...9 0 Representative Rangel made similar predictions: under VOLAR, he wrote in The New York Times, "America's oppressed races would be fighting and dying so that affluent whites can continue to enjoy the fruits of imperialism...
...David A. Brown, "Army Assigns Top Priority to Helicopters and SAM-D," Aviation Week and Space Technology, March 26, 1973, pp...
...A, Toronto, Ont., Canada...
...7 4 (Emphasis added...
...You can hop in your car and take off...
...If we get into a war, we'll have to call the old soldiers back...
...6 2 In its efforts to substitute technology for manpower on the battlefield, the Army is constantly increasing the amount of raw data produced by and required for the new machines introduced on the battlefield...
...If the United States has the ability to use its forces in a controlled way, the likelihood of [a U.S.] nuclear response would be more credible, thereby making deterrence more effective and the initial use of nuclear weapons by an opponent less likely...
...II campaign to recruit WACS...
...The challenges posed by these actions acquired unprecedented significance, because in many cases G.I.'s acquired legal counsel before, during or after their altercation with the hierarchy...
...NOTICE TO OUR READERS We inadvertantly left out the address of the Latin American Working Group in the list of recent works (in English) which was printed in the 1973 edition of New Chile...
...the foreign language option for a future career abroad, and many more...
...In a period of developing detente," Nixon warned, "it is easy to be lulled into a false sense of security...
...Ibid., p. 24...
...capitalintensive" ground combat apparatus...
...The first step, of course, was to make military life more attractive to potential recruits...
...Although hailed as a reform by the opponents of conscrip- tion, the Volunteer Army (or VOLAR) has come under attack from both inside and outside the military establishment by those who question its moral, political and strategic validity...
...Advertising themes like "the job you learn in the Army is yours to keep," reflect that fact...
...Although there are now some black colonels and majors (mostly men who joined the services during the Korean War), few young blacks have joined the officer corps during Vietnam and as a result there are few black captains and lieutenants -- the ranks which normally command troops in the field...
...What we need, he asserted, "is the qualitative edge that will provide our smaller forces with the combat advantage necessary to insure success.'"40 (Emphasis added...
...As early as 1968, U.S...
...56 60 64 Escort Ships...
...Monmouth, N.J., under a project known as RPAODS (remotely piloted aerial observation designation system...
...Using TV, radio, movies, and glossy magazine spreads, the Defense Department reports that it will spend a total of $365 million during fiscal 1974 on advertising campaigns to attract the recruits it needs...
...And he is smart enough to go by the book...
...2 3 The very mission of the Army, in other words, has come under question...
...were used in South Vietnam...
...A prototype TOS system, developed by the Control Data Corporation, is expected to be ready by 1975.66 As ARTADS and other experimental systems described above are introduced into the Army inventory, they will be tested by a special combat organization-- the TRICAP Division at Ft...
...Over the past two years, Pentagon strategists have made a determined effort to contrive a new strategic doctrine to govern the use of ground combat forces abroad...
...In response to complaints that an all-volunteer force would be "TodLay's Army wants to loin you What's dint maul- 16 - composed entirely of blacks and poor whites, the Commission noted optimistically that "Our research indicates that the composition of the armed forces would not be fundamentally changed by ending conscription...
...6 7 The TRICAP division will be composed of an armored brigade, an airmobile brigade, and an air cavalry combat brigade (ACCB...
...John T. Burke, "'Smart' Weapons: A Coming Revolution in Tactics," Army, February, 1973, pp...
...103...
...middle-class) public, but would inevitably face internal crises engendered by the racial and class schisms in American society...
...To provide the American "giant" with eyes, dozens of universities and think-tanks were given contracts to develop a new family of sensor devices based on a wide range of surveillance systems, including: infrared systems, which detect unusual sources of heat energy (such as industrial combustion engines or campfires...
...Advocates of VOLAR, on the other hand, charge that the services *Another solution proposed by some officers to ease the enlistment crisis is to recruit more women, who can take clerical duties and some technical operations -- thus freeing more men for combat roles...
...10025 or Box 226, Berkeley, California 94701...
...20-21...
...The Administration's position is spelled out in a carefully worded statement (presumably the work of National Security Adviser Kissinger) incorporated into the President's 1973 "State of the World" address...
...James Barrett, commented that "I didn't figure the Army would be easy...
...Quoted in Product Engineering, February 16, 1970...
...The survival of the Army, in other words, may well hinge on the success or failure of VOLAR...
...For the first time in 23 years, the Defense Department was obliged to meet its man- power requirements without a draft system to fill vacancies in the Armed Forces...
...Racism, black nationalism, student radicalism, drug abuse and "youth culture" were not caused by Vietnam - but all the tensions they produced were heightened and intensified by the authoritarian nature of military society...
...ground forces (under Massive Retaliation, the Army had been reduced to a small "holding force" that would block enemy invasions until nuclear weapons could be brought into play), and approved the development of a substantial counterinsurgency capability in the Army...
...6 7 Inherent in the TRICAP concept is the use of new battlefield computers and surveillance systems still in the development process...
...ground troops have been withdrawn from Vietnam, it is possible to approach VOLAR with a fresh perspective: as long as the general public is hostile to U.S...
...Although some veteran non-coms have charged that these innovations will "soften" recruits and impair discipline, Pentagon officials insist that such changes are necessary if the Army is to survive in a zero-draft environment...
...Abrams, Army Posture FY74, pp...
...Since the Vietnam war was fundamentally and inescapably a political conflict -- requiring a political orientation in the casting of military tasks - the Army was never able to chart a clear-cut path to victory and troop morale suffered accordingly...
...4 3 This effort, which is considered essential to the success of an all-volunteer Army, is summarized by some officers in the slogan "Firepower-not manpower...
...The first shipment of Lance equipment overseas was completed in June 1973, with the delivery of launchers and other hardware to the 2nd Battalion, 333rd Field Artillery in West Germany...
...Cited in Heinl, "Collapse," p. 36...
...Thus, it is highly unlikely that the United States could have deployed 500,000 troops in Vietnam--while manning existing garrisons elsewhere--without a draft system to produce the necessary "surge" in manpower...
...As expressed by President Nixon in his "State of the World" address for 1973, this doctrine holds that "In a strategic environment of approximate parity, nuclear weapons are less likely to deter the full range of possible conflicts...
...A year later, after conducting extensive field maneuvers in the United States, this unit "surfaced" as the Ist Air Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in Vietnam, where it practiced the new tactics under "real world" battlefield conditions...
...Yet the picture for the military is not as glossy as its ads portray...
...capability to cope with the full spectrum of conflict...
...Larry Tyler recalled how his sister was in the dormitory at Jackson State College that was shot up by Mississippi state police in 1970 and asked: "How can you fight for America, when every morning you read about black people being killed...
...42-3...
...This move would undoubtly alienate most of Congress and a large segment of the public, and thus would seem improbable for the present -- or at least while the Administration's hands are tied by Watergate.* -- Further reductions in the size of the Army, with a corresponding increase in emphasis on technology...
...Heinl, "Collapse," p. 34...
...1 3 Opiates of all kinds were cheap and plentiful in Vietnam -- thanks to ubiquitous, well-organized drug syndicates operated by South Vietnam's leading families...
...Even Senator Stuart Symington, after years of experience with Pentagon deception, was "shocked" to learn the extent of the tac- nuke development program...
...Palmer, "Challenge of Change," p. 23...
...And preliminary data for April, May and June show enlistment shortfalls of from 15 to 30 percent...
...28-9...
...Abrams, Army Posture FY74, pp...
...102 If recent Pentagon predictions are correct and the draft is reestablished, it may never be necessary to answer the second basic question concerning the viability of VOLAR: can an all- volunteer, "mercenary" army be made to fight if a war breaks out...
...The combat scenario -- featuring operations in the mountains near Thessaloniki -suggests that the "aggressor force" included indigenous guerrillas...
...32-3...
...And whereas the let Air Cavalry was "optimized" for counterinsurgency operations in a low-intensity environment, TRICAP is structured to overcome massed tank formations in a mid-intensity arena...
...6 0 In the area of tube artillery and missiles, the emphasis is on the development of "terminal homing" devices that can steer a shell to its intended target with pinpoint accuracy...
...23-8...
...It means discounting the fact that the world is growing smaller with more and more countries interacting in world affairs which will create more opportunities for friction...
...See Henry Kissinger, Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy (New York: Norton, 1969...
...Forces and the Zero Draft," Adelphi Papers, no...
...It will hire mercenaries to prop up its foreign hirelings around the world...
...Abrams, Army Posture FY74, pp...
...If anything," he argues, "the Volunteer Force program suggests a movement away from, rather than toward, isolation of military members...
...resistance: While desertions, fraggings and mutinies constituted the most dramatic attacks on military authority, they represented but the tip of the iceberg of G.I...
...military operations abroad, it would seem that a conscript Army will experience much more resistance from the public and G.I.'s alike -- and therefore should be the goal of anti-interventionist forces...
...Does he want security...
...They take drugs and try to forget...
...Women, of course, are not forgotten...
...electromagnetic systems, which detect machine-powered equipment...
...On the battlefield of the future," he promised, "enemy forces will be located, tracked, and targeted almost instantaneously through the use of data links, computer-assisted intelligence evaluation and automated fire control...
...Barring the outbreak of all-out war or a serious economic depression (either of which events would presumably alter the national consciousness), the Army must consider remedial action now if it is to survive (in present form) into the 1980's...
...In the meantime, the Army will install TOW missiles on AH-1Q Cobra gunships to produce an "interim AAH...
...This "quantum leap" in information processing has created new problems for the Army: existing machines can't handle the deluge of data, and regular infantrymen are not trained to analyze such technical information...
...See also: Eric C. Ludvigsen, "Army Weapons, Equipment, 1972: Promise and Uncertainty," Army, October, 1972, pp...
...needless to say, Nixon did not advocate the use of tactical nuclear weapons -- he merely argued (as is normal in such cases) that we must have tac-nukes in case an enemy is tempted to use them: A different strategic doctrine is required in this decade when potential adversaries possess large and flexible nuclear forces...
...8 4 To support this finding, Laird produced figures to show that blacks constitute a mere 11 percent of the active military population, or 2.5 percent less than their percentage of the total military-age population...
...Repression seems like the only thing they got for black folks--how am I going to fight for them...
...On January 1, 1973, one of the boldest and most far-reaching military reforms of the Nixon Administration--the elimination of the draft-- became national policy...
...3 0 With the withdrawal of U.S...
...28 This position further holds that Moscow's willingness to negotiate limitations on strategic weapons, and on the reduction of conventional forces in Europe, does not presuppose a Soviet commitment to desist from challenging U.S...
...As we shall see later, this doctrine has also led to demands for the reintroduction of tactical nuclear weapons as a regular component of the Army arsenal...
...2 4 As we have seen, this was to be a moderate evaluation indeed...
...Hell, everyone's got to gripe about the work and the Advertisement designed by "Help Unsell the War" campaign...
...To meet these needs, the recruiter can pull from his shelf a dazzling array of options...
...13 13 13 Troopships, Cargoships, and Tankers...
...Such a force might enjoy the continued support of Congress and the voting (i.e...
...Ayer agency itself is the focus of some concern...
...In March, 1971, the Army launched its first pilot media project...
...4 8 Such skepticism has been voiced by the Vice Chief of Staff Palmer, who wrote in 1972 that "there are a few major weaknesses in Army combat systems which to date we have failed to solve...
...133-4...
...Ground troops, he indicates, "uniquely involve and commit a power because, once introduced into a combat situation, they cannot easily be extracted...
...The reorganization plan, announced on July 12, 1973, will eliminate 15,000 jobs and effect an annual estimated savings of $200 million...
...Many Pentagon analysts believe that Soviet policymakers are "probing for U.S...
...Fraggings: Officers and sergeants who refused to "work it out" with G.I.'s in Vietnam often ran the risk of being "fragged" by one of their men...
...104...
...The N.W...
...Army participation in the "victory parade" in Athens which followed the exercise...
...when Europe became the main focus of Army war planning, it was converted into an "airborne anti-tank weapon" and armed with the TOW anti-tank missile...
...Zeb B. Bradford notes that as a result of Vietnam, "we have learned that, in strategic terms, ground power can be quite inflexible once committed, however much flexibility it may provide on a tactical level...
...In the final analysis, then, Flexible Response offered only a "one-way flexibility," by providing the means to commit ground troops in counterinsur- gency, but not to "decommit" them once involved...
...Robert F. Froehlke, "The Posture of the Army," Statement Before the House Committee on Armed Services, U.S...
...After a year of intensive study, the Gates Commission determined that the Armed Forces could be placed on an all-volunteer basis without prejudicing the national security...
...Quoted in The Washington Post, June 4, 1973...
...foreign policy...
...Quoted in Lloyd Norman, "Mr...
...As noted by Secretary Froehlke, the roots of the Army's problems "lie with people -not machines...
...Army -- and the abolition or merger of many smaller agencies...
...Army field forces," General Lynn D. Smith argued in 1973, "must be designed for engagement and disengagement with a flexibility approaching that of sea and air forces.'" 4 1 The Army of the Future is thus being born -- an all-volunteer, capital-intensive organization, highly mobile and equipped with the most modern weapons and communications systems, officered by skilled managers with access to the latest data-procese sing equipment, and trained in the use of tactical nuclear weapons -- The New Action Army...
...See Ludvigasen, "Looking for a Breakthrough," pp...
...32-3...
...William C. Westmoreland, "From the Army of the '70s: A Flawless Performance," Army, October, 1970, p. 23...
...The existence of such an arrangement is implicit in Army posture statements...
...Army, Oct...
...Sociologists attribute this reluctance to become officers to opposition to the Vietnam War, and to the increased economic opportunities available to college-educated blanks in private industry...
...1 0 0 As of June 1973, many top Pentagon officials were predicting that unless enlistments take a strong turn upwards some form of conscription would have to be instituted within a year...
...Army to Test RPVs in Battlefield Use," Aviation Week & Space Technology, May 21, 1973, p. 17...
...The Lockheed AH-56A was originally designed as an "aerial platform" for close-in fire support in a counterinsurgency environment...
...and a retention bonus of up to $17,000 a year for selected medical officers...
...There is little evidence, however, to support this view...
...These conditions were not limited to Vietnam, he asserted, but could be found at every military post around the world...
...Since January 1973, when the Army enlistment objective of 17,900 men was oversubscribed due to the lingering volunteer-inducing effects of the draft, one-fifth to one-fourth of expected Army volunteers have failed to enlist...
...According to Thomas A. Johnson of The New York Times (11-23-70), the black groups have five principal demands: the appointment of an enlisted men's review board to rule on pre-trial confinement of black soldiers...
...Some recruiters seek to enlarge the manpower pool by lowering mental qualifications (high school dropouts already account for half of all recruits), but other officers oppose such measures on the grounds that an increasingly technological Army will require men who can operate relatively complex machinery.* Lowered educational standards would also increase the proportion of blacks, Puerto Ricans and Mexican-Americans in the service (since these groups are normally accorded the poorest education in our society...
...The N.W...
...9 8 As one aspect of the recruitment problem, Army officials are under increasing pressure to lower recruit standards and accept more high school dropouts and other "underqualified" men...
...Public support for the war, never very substantial at the start, began eroding with the first U.S...
...43...
...national interests...
...The first essay in this series, "The New Imperial Navy," appeared in the November, 1972 issue of NACLA's Latin America Report...
...But we were limited in our ability to find the enemy...
...5 5 Pentagon efforts to acquire a superior "mix" of weapons systems are now focused on two major programs, the SM-1 Main Battle Tank and the AAH Advanced Attack Helicopter...
...In a typical TACFIRE mission, forward observers (FO's) will seek out enemy positions and communicate this data to the battalion firecontrol center via a small radio message device (in effect, a computer input terminal...
...Many highly placed military personnel...
...Hood," Armed Forces Journal, May 3, 1971, pp...
...SAN FRANCISCO (PNS)-Clustered in a block-long wing of San Francisco's old Federal Building are the recruiting offices of the new all-volunteer U.S...
...1972, p. 44)- 17 his role in the unit...
...Manpower cost growth," Colonel Bradford explains, "creates pressures to reduce reliance on manpower and to become more capitalintensive.'45- 10 - To carry out their primary function of defeating enemy ground assaults, U.S...
...On November 14, 1971 a new military pay bill went into effect raising a recruit's base pay from $149 per month to $321...
...7 6 On the strength of the Gates Commission report, President Nixon secured from Congress the required authorization and funding to begin work on the formation of a volunteer army...
...seismic systems, which measure the "pressure wave" created in the earth's surface by approaching troops or vehicles...
...6 4 ARTADS incorporate four basic systems: the Tactical Fire Control System (TACFIRE), the Tactical Operations System (TOS), the Air Defense Command and Control System (AN/TSQ-73), and Air Traffic Management Automated Center (ATMAC...
...dependence on access both to markets and to material sources, especially energy sources, beyond our shores...
...Most G.I.'s in all-volunteer outfits indicate that they appre- ciate the higher pay and other benefits of VOLAR, but feel no increased commitment to a military "career" as a result...
...9 3 Another danger cited by opponents of the all-volunteer system is the likelihood that the services will become increasingly isolated from civilian society and thus hostile to the values and concerns of the population at large...
...For a discussion of these devices and other "electronic battlefield" programs, see Klare, War Without End, pp...
...and in urban as well as rural settings...
...92...
...Bradford, "American Ground Power," p. 9. 46...
...With little fuss or fanfare," Beecher reported in 1973, "from about $10 to $20 million a year has been channeled into research and development on a variety of smaller, 'cleaner' weapons...
...The theme of uncertainty and continuing international turbulence is a common theme of Army strategy statements...
...We are on the threshold of an entirely new battlefield concept," Chief of Staff (and former Vietnam commander) Westmoreland announced in 1969...
...6. The New York Times, August 15, 1971...
...7 7 These bonuses and pay increases cost the nation $4.6 billion in FY 1972-73 alone...
...The most serious case of "combat avoidance" (as these incidents have been termed) occurred in 1971 when -- during the height of the South Vietnamese rout in Laos -- Troop B of the ist Air Cavalry refused to re-enter enemy territory in order to recover their commander's jeep with its communication gear, codes and secret operations orders...
...21 21 21 Navy Attack Wings...
...To order "Chile Versus the Corporations, a Call for Canadian Support", write LANG, Box 6300, Sta...
...American Report July 16, 1973...
...interests worldwide, they do not neglect the threat of attack from other quarters - particularly from the increasingly well-armed nations of the Third World...
...economy working in its favor...
...Armed Forces are, with a few salient exceptions, lower and worse than at any time in this century and possibly in the history of the United States...
...these weaknesses, he reported, include the lack of "target acquisition systems to match the range and capabilities of our firepower systems...
...ground troops may be called in to settle any number of disputes arising from this basic contradiction, the Army has been preparing to fight in a great variety of "environmental extremes" -- the Himalayas, the Sahara, the Arctic, etc...
...The Army's advertising campaign has, of course, a good market to sell to with the U.S...
...15-20...
...3 8 In March 1973, for instance, the Army Munitions Command sponsored a conference on "Combat in Urban Areas" at Ft...
...In the WAC recruitment office next door, catchy titles on promotion materials include: AFTER HIGH SCHOOL, A BRIGHT FUTURE...
...This qualitative edge can only be attained, in the view of most Defense planners, if the Army acquires a much higher ratio of firepower to manpower...
...The recruiting sergeant is only one small, if enthusiastic cog in a vast military advertising machine gearing itself up to fill the ranks of an all-volunteer Army...
...For discussion, see: Virginia Brodine and Mark Selden, Open Secret: The Kissinger-Nixon Doctrine in Asia (New York: Harper & Row, 1912...
...N.Y...
...Few returning Viet Nam vets have tales of glory to pass on to younger acquaintances...
...These are ambitious goals under any circumstances -- but in the context of American society they seem unreachable...
...As early as 1969, a company of the 197th Light Infantry Brigade publicly sat down on the battlefield and refused to fight...
...As his commitment to the unit grows, so will his self-discipline which is our objective...
...On July 1, 1973, the United States was without a draft system for the first time since World War II...
...With the unemployment rate for black Viet Nam vets at 14.5 percent and black teenage unemployment in the cities often exceeding 30 percent, the military can easily sell itself.as an employer of last resort...
...5 8 In other areas of weapons development, the Army is concentrating on techniques for increasing the "kill probability" of existing systems...
...Thege included : The reduction of Army strength by nearly one-half: From a Vietnam war peak of 1,570,000 men in FY 1968, Army strength was reduced to 811,000 active duty personnel in FY 1972...
...As the AH-56A's design specifications were escalated, so was the price: by August 1972, when Congress finally killed the project, Cheyenne's cost was pegged at $2.5 million each...
...Thus in a 1972 progress report on VOLAR programs, Defense Secretary Laird told Congress that "the alleged pitfalls of the voluntary military organization--that it will be dominated by mercenaries, who will take over the nation, or be all black--are false and unfounded claims...
...Huachuca, Arizona...
...of Di 22,500 12.6% 300 1.5% Many critics of the all-volunteer system predict that as the Army becomes filled with blacks and poor whites, public resistance to the use of such forces in "police operations" abroad- 18 - will decrease...
...Army forces have three primary tasks: They must locate the enemy, block his offense, and ultimately disable his forces...
...And in Fulda, an Army base camp some 10 miles from the East German border, a black veteran of Vietnam mused: "America should deserve my life if I'm going to give it...
...Goldstein, "Big Five," p. 22...
Vol. 7 • July 1973 • No. 6
