AN ARMY IN SEARCH OF A WAR
Klare, Michael T.
An army in search of a mar IT WAS JUST A SMALL IDEA, AND THEN IT GREW MICHAEL T. KLARE Not since the Green Berets were lionized by President John F. 11 Kennedy in 1961 has a U.S. military unit...
...effort to "seize Arab oil" would probably result in the total destruction of Middle East oil facilities and bring on a global depression...
...Some 530 infantry troops were dispatched to Egypt in Air Force transports at a cost of $40,000 each—about $25 million for the whole operation...
...If these views prevail—which seems all too likely—it is only a matter of time until a flareup somewhere in the Third World triggers the first appearance in battle of the Rapid Deployment Force...
...One of these "broken arrows," as they are called, was a 1961 incident in which a B-S2 bomber, about to crash, jettisoned two nuclear bombs, including a twenty-four-megaton bomb (equal to twenty-four million tons of TNT— almost 2,000 times as powerful as the Hiroshima bomb which took 142,000 lives) over Goldsboro, North Carolina...
...Although Moscow's objective, so far as can be determined, was limited to the preservation of a client government in Kabul, the Soviet move placed Russian troops some 300 miles from the Persian Gulf coast, and thus posed a threat to Mideast oil supplies...
...This stance, widely known as the "Vietnam Syndrome," resulted in the abolition of conscription, passage of the War Powers Act, and the imposition of other constraints on Presidential war-making abroad...
...Today, it boasts an elaborate headquarters complex, an incipient basing apparatus in the Middle East, and command jurisdiction over three Army divisions, a Marine division with associated air wing, three aircraft carrier task groups, dozens of Air Force tactical squadrons, and a supporting cast of several hundred thousand men and women...
...force to enter combat since the end of the Vietnam war...
...Still, the U.S...
...The first event erased all remaining confidence in the surrogate model, while the second demonstrated just how dependent the Western economies had become on Persian Gulf oil...
...escalation should be adequate to persuade Moscow to "bow out gracefully...
...In securing that interest, he added, "we'll take any action that's appropriate, including the use of military force...
...As the concept has matured, however, the force has evolved into a full-scale army with a growing transport, logistics, and communications establishment...
...Just how far is Washington prepared to go in fighting a Middle East war...
...At the outbreak of a crisis, these selected units would be flown to bases in friendly countries near the conflict area, where they would pick up their heavy equipment from supply ships that had been "prepositioned" in adjacent waters...
...I would feel comfortable in going to war tomorrow," General Kelley affirmed last October 1: To prove his point, Kelley recently flew some 1,500 paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division to Egypt for several weeks of desert war maneuvers...
...intervention in El Salvador could easily provoke a region-wide guerrilla war that would prove as debilitating and futile as the conflict in Vietnam...
...If the U.S...
...The crisis also intensified Congressional concern over Middle East oil supplies...
...The weapon had six safety switches, but five were tripped when the parachute cords attached to the bomb were caught in a tree and jolted the device...
...forces were not equipped to fight Soviet armored units, the implied threat of U.S...
...Speaking of Reagan's likely response to the current turmoil in Central America, Fontaine suggested that "the use of military force is an option" that Washington "has to maintain as a possibility...
...ground forces quickly to the Indian Ocean is of little avail," defense analyst Jeffrey Record wrote in The Washington Star, "if the forces themselves are improperly structured and armed to deal with potential opponents...
...There are important political risks to consider, too...
...He also reported that expansion of America's long-range transport capability would be a major priority in the Pentagon's budget request for fiscal 1981...
...Any U.S...
...Instead, it issued a statement that the only broken arrow in the last twelve years was the explosion of a Titan II missile in a silo at Damascus, Arkansas, in September 1980— a statement immediately challenged by retired Admiral Gene La Rocque and his Center for Defense Information, which listed two other broken arrows in 1980: the crash of a nuclear-armed FB-U1 off the New England coast in October, and a September fire on a B-52 carrying thirty nuclear bombs over Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota...
...Such preemptive action could, according to Kelley, persuade the enemy commander to "bow out gracefully...
...Is it possible that a "national security" apparatus as inept as these instances indicate can be trusted to develop military strategy and a foreign policy for the United States...
...The intent of the new policy, General Paul X. Kelley, the RDF commander, explained last June, is to ensure that U.S...
...Although RDF skeptics maintain that the answer is "no," Pentagon officials insist that the new force is fully capable of protecting U.S...
...To meet its new responsibilities, therefore, the RDF went through a rapid transformation...
...In response to such criticism, Administration officials assured Congress that despite some deficiencies, the United States was fully capable of defending its interests in the Gulf region...
...Whatever changes the Reagan Administration may impose on RDF structure and composition, it is not likely to slacken the momentum in RDF growth that has characterized the force since its inception four years ago...
...interventional capability...
...Leaders of the Marine Corps, meanwhile, argued that they were not similarly constrained by prior commitments, and that the Marines—with their integral amphibious lift and air-support capabilities—were better equipped for quick-strike missions outside the NATO area...
...Sidney Lens (.Sidney Lens is a contributing editor of The Progressive...
...As a start, the Pentagon would allocate $6 billion for procurement of fifty new long-range transport planes known as the C-X (for cargo-experimental), and would spend another $3 billion on a fleet of fifteen "Maritime Prepositioning Ships" (MPS) stocked with arms and . ammunition for three Marine brigades of 16,000 soldiers each .Once outfitted, the MPS vessels would be permanently stationed in the Indian Ocean, where they would serve as a sort of "floating arsenal" for any RDF units sent to the area...
...economic interests in the Third World...
...leaders applauded his firm stand, some lawmakers complained that America lacked sufficient quick-reaction forces to halt a further Soviet advance toward the Gulf...
...And if this momentum persists, one final transformation appears almost inevitable: the leap from force-in-readiness to force-in-being...
...Two years ago...
...The Carter Administration's new stance was unveiled on February 26,1979, when Secretary of Defense Harold Brown told a nationwide television audience that "protection of the oil flow from the Middle East is clearly part of our vital interest...
...And should the initial deployment prove insufficiently threatening, the RDJTF could expand this force indefinitely...
...If the civil defense budget were in my hands," he said, "I would spend ail $120 million on morphine...
...military policy...
...For many Americans, this achievement constitutes a welcome antidote to the frustrations engendered by the hostage crisis and other foreign policy reversals...
...These units were to include the Army's 82d and 101st Airborne Divisions and three Marine amphibious brigades...
...But it is one thing to talk about the advantages of rapid deployment, and another to commit troops to actual warfare...
...Because any such encounters would require a powerful army equipped with tanks and artillery, the RDF has had to incorporate more and more combat units and to develop an elaborate system of supply bases in Egypt, Oman, Kenya, and Somalia...
...Senator Frank Church of Idaho declared that if protection of the oil flow "required organization of strike forces," there would be "strong support for this on Capitol Hill...
...Then there is the question of tactical nuclear weapons: General Kelley remarked on June 18 that "I wouldn't touch that [issue] with a ten-foot pole," but other Pentagon leaders have not been so reticent...
...To make matters worse, there was nothing "rapid" about the deployment force: It took ninety flights and many days to put this small contingent on the scene, and even then the military could not manage to bring along indispensable heavy weapons—artillery, tanks, and armored personnel carriers...
...policy...
...taxpayers have received painfully little "national security" for the $2.3 trillion they have spent on the military machine since the end of World War II, Shortly after the failures of "Bright Star" were revealed, Dr...
...And it is easy to imagine how even a "limited" use of tactical weapons could escalate into a full-scale nuclear war...
...Having expanded the RDF as much as possible within existing funding and personnel limits, General Kelley attempted to counter this criticism by introducing an entirely new policy for RDF employment: In place of the original concept of a mobile "fire brigade" that would be sent abroad in emergencies and then quickly returned to the United States, the RDF would now serve as a sort of "tripwire" for an open-ended U.S...
...Michael T. Klare is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C., and author of "War Without End: American Planning for the Next Vietnams...
...forces in the Indian Ocean, and on January 23 enunciated a new strategic principle: Henceforth, any assault on Middle East oil supplies "will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States," and will "be repelled by any means necessary, including military force...
...arms) to protect critical Third World areas on Washington's behalf...
...But it is equally likely that such action would trigger a full-scale military conflict of unforeseeable proportions...
...forces occupy the battlefield first, thus warning an opponent that any hostile action on its part is likely to trigger a full-scale confrontation with American power...
...Even these increases are not likely to satisfy the Reagan Administration, which will probably call for a radical expansion of RDF capabilities...
...Even if the first-arriving U.S...
...As then conceived, the unit was to be a "quick-strike force" of about 100,000 soldiers who would be trained and equipped to fight in remote Third World locales...
...Because such action could easily trigger a wider war, it is essential that Americans reconsider the commitment to the RDF before we find ourselves in an uncontrolled conflagration...
...an A-7 attack plane was put out of commission by a broken part...
...commitment to NATO...
...One high official admitted in February that "we are thinking of theater nuclear options" in the event that RDF forces are outnumbered on the battlefield...
...When it was conceived in 1977, the RDF was envisioned as a lean, self-reliant strike force designed for rapid insertion into remote Third World battlefields...
...Adoption of a "preemptive strategy" obviously raises serious questions about RDF planning...
...In December, we learned that "Proud Spirit," an exercise in mobilization conducted by the Pentagon and thirty-five other Federal agencies, had turned out to be anything but proud...
...Much to the surprise of the Army, this argument found strong backing in Washington and so, when the dust finally settled on the inter-service conflict, the Marines emerged with command authority over the quick-strike force...
...Any U.S...
...But two events suddenly transformed the entire discussion of military policy—the fall of the Shah and the global "energy crisis" that followed...
...four helicopters were taken out of action because of similar technical failures...
...As we shall see, such a survey can also tell us a great deal about the evolution of U.S...
...gets there first, Moscow will 'bow out gracefully' fB^he President's declaration, I quickly dubbed the "Carter A Doctrine," aroused an immediate storm of controversy...
...determination and, if possible, discourage any further Russian moves...
...By the same token, U.S...
...The world of the 1980s," he observed, "will be in many ways more demanding" than that of the 1970s, and thus "President Carter and I have concluded that we must improve further our ability to deal with crises operation fiasco "Bright Star," the Rapid Deployment Force exercise held in Egypt last November, was incontestably a fizzle...
...Although most U.S...
...Because such an engagement could easily escalate into a major conflagration, and because Pentagon officials talk openly of using tactical nuclear weapons in sucn a contingency, it is essential that we take a good hard look at the RDF and its governing doctrine...
...These forces would be assisted, moreover, by Navy aircraft flown from U.S...
...Most worrisome, however, are the military risks of such action...
...by Michael Klare in The Progressive, July 1980...
...Fortunatelv, one switch held...
...Members of Reagan's transition team talked of a permanent Indian Ocean Fleet built around four new nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, and discussed the formation of five more active-duty Army-Marine combat divisions...
...In peacetime, this staff would be subordinated to the U.S...
...Readiness Command (REDCOM...
...Along with its growth in size, the RDF has experienced a corresponding increase in responsibilities...
...For these units to serve as a foil to Soviet invasion forces, however, would require radical changes in the RDF concept...
...The Pentagon, as usual, refused to confirm or deny that a nuclear explosion had almost occurred back then...
...But last fall, when the Iran-Iraq war accentuated the continuing vulnerability of Mideast oil supplies, Secretary Brown acquiesced to yet another expansion of RDF strength...
...See "Is Exxon Worth Dying For...
...The "Bright Star" fiasco was only one of several recent disclosures pointing to the fact that U.S...
...The chances of finding a war must be considered exceptionally high' WMThile the actual use of the W RDF in a Third World W W conflict may provide a psychological boost to those Reagan followers who decried the "vacillation and appeasement" of the Carter Administration, it is not likely to solve any of our major foreign policy difficulties...
...Originally, the force was intended to serve as a mobile "fire brigade" for dousing Third World conflicts deemed injurious to U.S...
...leaders adopted a "never again" stance on the use of American ground forces in Third World conflicts...
...According to Rogers, this unit—then called the "Unilateral Force" because it would be used independently of NATO and other alliance systems—would be built around the 82d Airborne Division and two other Army divisions...
...forces sent to war in these areas are therefore likely to encounter far tougher resistance than they ever faced in Southeast Asia...
...Ms described by General Kelley /M on June 18, the RDF's new A ML "preemptive strategy" calls for an immediate troop deployment at the first indication of a possible Soviet incursion, in order to signal U.S...
...Not only is the Third World simmering with conflicts that could easily ignite into full-scale violence, but the Reagan entourage also appears committed to the use of force as a standard instrument of U.S...
...economy...
...One C-141 transport crashed, killing seven maintenance and communications personnel...
...At a press briefing in the Pentagon, General Kelley of the Marine Corps—soon to be named RDF commander—provided the first detailed picture of RDF structure and doctrine...
...The new command would not have any permanently-assigned forces of its own, he explained, but rather would have "drawdown" authority over selected Army, Navy, Marine, and Air Force units which would fall under RDF authority in the event of war...
...While this prospect should be sufficiently terrifying to give anyone pause for reflection, critics of the RDF program have concentrated almost exclusively on the issue of adequacy: Is the new force adequately armed and prepared to face likely contingencies arising abroad...
...Although the RDF was not to be heard of again for almost two years, the decision to undertake its formation clearly represented a critical turning point in U.S...
...But many strategists believed that surrogate forces were inherently unreliable, and that an American inter-ventionary force of some sort was needed to protect growing U.S...
...And because such a force would not operate without elaborate back-up facilities, the once self-reliant RDF would require access to supply bases in such countries as Oman, Kenya, Somalia, and Egypt (each of which has signed new basing agreements with the United States...
...At first, work on this force proceeded slowly because of dissension within the Pentagon over which of the four armed services was to have jurisdiction over the new command...
...military capabilities...
...but in wartime the RDJTF commander would assume operational jurisdiction over any combat forces deployed abroad...
...Obviously, American taxpayers— . especially those who still cling to the notion that the military "know what they're doing"—are not getting what they think they are paying for...
...Some military planners suggested that most Army units were already committed to NATO or Korea, and that light infantry divisions like the 82d were not equipped to fight Soviet-style armored forces of the sort found in Syria...
...This is just too sensitive a time," an official explained...
...This momentum has carried it from conception to reality in record time, and promises even greater expansion in the years ahead...
...Pentagon correspondents were told...
...Unfortunately, they have no way of holding the military establishment to account...
...Carter's decree, known as Presidential Directive Number Eighteen (PD-18), was never made public...
...Many of our most likely adversaries—such countries as Libya, Syria, Iraq, and South Yemen—are armed with the most advanced French, British, Russian (and even, in some cases, American) arms available on the world market...
...Programmers spent six hours finding the right code sequence to secure up-to-date readiness information...
...Once you get a force into an area that is not occupied by the other guy," Kelley explained on June 18, "then you have changed the whole calculus of the crisis, and he must react to you, not you to him...
...Once U.S...
...in-terventionary capabilities...
...To lend substance to these plans, Brown flew to MacDill on December 27, 1979, and announced selection of General Kelley as the first RDJTF commander...
...commitment...
...In adjusting to these restraints, U.S...
...The world of the 1980s,' Harold Brown observed, 'will be more demanding' Planning for the new detachment, now rechristened the Rapid Deployment Force, was already well advanced by November 1979, when the seizure of U. S. hostages in Teheran lent fresh urgency to the organizing effort...
...Since Vietnam, Third World countries have become more and more united in their opposition to military intervention by the superpowers...
...Wilson did not provide any details of the new buildup, but available evidence suggests that it will involve the commitment of still more forces to RDJTF jurisdiction, and the acquisition of more transport planes and supply ships...
...As soon as the conflict was terminated, they would replay the sequence in reverse and return to the United States...
...Still, the few examples listed here—and there are probably many more fiascos we never learn about—ought to give pause to even the most devoted hawks...
...Next to mount the podium in defense of U.S...
...In one typical snafu, the Air Force received simulated orders to land transports at military bases "two days before the troops assigned to the planes' were told to move out...
...It is not difficult to deduce from all this that even a token RDF deployment to the Gulf area could produce a superpower confrontation and spark a global nuclear war...
...foreign policy since Vietnam and about the dangers we face in the troubled world of the 1980s...
...Whereas the initial plan called for a lean' compact force of 100,000 soldiers, the RDF re-emerged as a much heavier force of 200,000 active-duty soldiers plus 100,000 reservists serving in a support capacity...
...And given the high cost of fuel and other military "consumables," a prolonged U.S...
...strategists forged a new, "post-Vietnam" military policy stressing support for NATO and traditional alliances, along with the cultivation of such "surrogate gendarmes" as Iran, which could be induced (through massive transfusions of U.S...
...On June 21,1979, General Bernard W. Rogers, the outgoing Army chief of staff, provided reporters with a preliminary look at the proposed command...
...On the basis of this review, Carter ordered the Department of Defense to organize a mobile strike force for use in non-NATO contingencies...
...The RDJTF, Brown explained, "would examine the various contingencies" that might arise abroad, and "do the planning for deployment and operation of whatever parts of the rapid deployment forces were to be used in a given contingency...
...The evolution of RDF forces from initial concept to the present full-bodied reality represents an extraordinary odyssey...
...When added to America's already large transport capacity, the C-X and MPS fleets would enable the Pentagon to airlift large RDF forces to the Persian Gulf and then to supply them with a full array of heavy equipment...
...On the same day, Reuters disclosed that a secret memo from Defense Department files showed there had been twenty-seven accidents involving nuclear weapons since 1950, though the Pentagon had acknowledged only thirteen...
...Besides adding to the RDF's strength, moreover, the Reagan Administration is likely to alter its underlying composition and structure by placing it entirely under Army or Marine Corps jurisdiction...
...Similar views have been expressed by other Reagan advisers, including many who are being tapped .for high Administration posts...
...The advantage of this approach, Kelley affirmed, is that the initial RDF detachment need not be particularly large or powerful—it need only suggest the likelihood of further U.S...
...that are at a long geographical distance from us...
...involvement...
...forces arrive on an overseas battlefield, we set off a chain of events whose final outcome can never be foreseen...
...On September 28, George Wilson of The Washington Post reported that "Pentagon leaders, apparently stung by criticism that the Rapid Deployment Force promises too little too late for the Persian Gulf, have launched an effort to beef it up in a hurry...
...They would constitute a "reservoir" of U.S.-based troops which would be assembled in various "force packages," depending on the contingency at hand...
...The next step in RDF planning was announced on December 14, when Secretary Brown told a Pentagon press conference that he had established a Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force (RDJTF) at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, to direct the new command...
...Given the rush of world events and the Reagan Administration's evident determination to restore the "credibility" of American power, it is likely that the RDF will soon have its wish...
...policy makers repudiated whatever remained of the post-Vietnam posture and reaffirmed the need for an independent U.S...
...Scarcely had Brown uttered these words when Soviet forces began pouring into Afghanistan—thus transforming the strategic equation in the Persian Gulf area and forcing a reexamination of the RDF concept...
...carriers in the Indian Ocean...
...public retained its attachment to the Vietnam Syndrome, and so the Administration conducted its RDF deliberations under a shroud of secrecy...
...Theoretically, the emergence of such surrogates would free U.S...
...A Reagan Administration is going to act a good deal more aggressively" in combatting Third World guerrillas, adviser Roger Fontaine told The Miami Herald in August...
...Like the Green Berets of Kennedy's day, the RDF is an army in search of a war...
...Once "married up" with the supply ships, the RDF contingent would proceed to the battle zone and begin combat operations...
...The Rapid Deployment Force has a new strategy: Fire first rHf he concept of a mobile interven-I tion force took firm shape in ^1 1977, when President Jimmy Carter directed the National Security Council (NSC) to conduct an overview of U.S...
...Howard Hiatt, dean of Harvard University's School of Public Health, went public with his charge that $120 million spent on civil defense was "worse than wasted...
...Largely as a result of the booming arms trade (in which the United States is principal supplier), third World armies are now far better equipped than they were ten or even five years ago...
...In response to Congressional prodding for quick action on the RDF program, Pentagon officials finally went public with their plans on December 5, 1979...
...military unit advanced so far so quickly as the newly-formed Rapid Deployment Force (RDF...
...Although creation of the RDF would not involve the formation of any new combat units, Kelley revealed, it would require the acquisition of additional airlift and sealift capabilities...
...the RDF was nothing but a rough sketch on the Pentagon's drawing boards...
...Originally envisioned as a light strike force for use against unsophisticated Third World armies, the RDF was obviously ill-equipped to engage Soviet-style tank forces...
...There's no upper limit," Kelley avowed, "to the Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force capability...
...Before these plans could be implemented, however, the Pentagon was again shaken by a round of intramural wrangling over the leadership and composition of the proposed force...
...In response, President Carter announced a build-up of U.S...
...One year ago, it had a name, a commander, and a skeleton staff...
...Kelley himself said that there's no "upper limit" on RDF troop strength, and his boss, General Volney F. Warner of REDCOM, said last October 28 that the 82d Airborne Division and a Marine brigade would not be "too big a force to lose" in a Middle East conflict...
...But even on so lavish a budget, the Pentagon showed painful ineptitude...
...Understandably, the Defense Department refused to comment on the exercise...
...Like the Green Berets in the 1960s, the RDF is now seeking a battlefield upon which to demonstrate its capabilities...
...Hiatt noted, but only 200 cases would saturate America's existing hospital facilities...
...interests: It would be airlifted on short notice to overseas hot-spots where it would swiftly overpower the local opposition and then fly out again before anyone had time to organize protests...
...Most military analysts agree, for example, that any U.S...
...And because even these accretions are not considered adequate for any really demanding contingency, the RDF has adopted a dangerous new "preemptive strategy" calling for military intervention in advance of anticipated enemy action...
...The resulting studies suggested that the United States was not fully equipped to deal with crises arising in the Third World, and particularly in the oil-rich Persian Gulf area...
...And even though most adult Americans now appear to favor a more assertive military policy abroad, it is likely that anything even remotely resembling a replay of Vietnam will produce instant and widespread opposition— especially if it requires reinstating the draft to produce the extra soldiers that would be needed...
...An enhanced ability to move U.S...
...interests abroad...
...But while the force retains a fire brigade role of this sort, it has also been assigned the far more demanding tasks of stopping a hypothetical Soviet invasion of the Persian Gulf and of seizing Saudi oil fields in the event of a regional conflagration...
...At the end of the Vietnam war, most U.S...
...however, that it called for a "special contingent for waging 'brush-fire' wars in the Third World...
...As a result, U.S...
...Among the mishaps was a twelve-hour breakdown of the worldwide command-and-control computer system at the very peak of the simulated crisis...
...At a hastily convened press briefing, top Pentagon officials disclosed that a paratroop brigade of 4,000 soldiers was standing by in Italy for immediate deployment to the Gulf, and that the entire 82d Division could be airlifted to the area in less than two weeks...
...engagement in the Third World is likely to cost far more than any economic interests it is supposedly designed to protect (the Vietnam war, for instance, would cost $1 trillion at today's prices) and produce a new round of inflation that would cripple the U.S...
...Carter's decision to proceed with formation of the RDF suggests, therefore, that while the Administration continued to support the post-Vietnam posture in public, it was already moving in private towards reaffirmation of the view of military power that had prevailed before Vietnam...
...With this sort of mandate, planning for the new force moved ahead rapidly...
...It is precisely for this reason that Pentagon officials have raised the possibility of using tactical nuclear weapons to defend outnumbered RDF forces sent abroad...
...ground forces from future "peacekeeping" responsibilities, and thus permit an expanded U.S...
...quick-strike capabilities was General Kelley, who told the Senate Armed Services Committee that "the RDJTF is here and now, and fully capable of providing our country with a wide variety of military options...
...Such an opportunity could arise at almost any moment in El Salvador or the Persian Gulf area, or in any one of a number of other hot spots around the globe...
...Kelley acknowledged that the RDF needed additional cargo planes and supply ships to be fully effective, but insisted that existing resources—which include seventy C-5A jumbo jets, 234 C-141 medium transports, and 490 C-130 tactical carriers—constitute an impressive airlift capability...
...And, if President Ronald Reagan adopts the "more aggressive" military policy his aides have promised, the RDF may soon have the dubious privilege of being the first U.S...
...Reaction to the hostage crisis was particularly intense in Congress, where many lawmakers called for a rapid expansion of U.S...
...incursion in these areas is likely to trigger the same sort of universal condemnation that greeted the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan...
...Once expected to number 100,000, the RDF now encompasses some 200,000 soldiers and sailors, and it could swell to 300,000 or more if, as expected, Reagan approves the formation of additional combat units...
...Even these modifications, however, did not satisfy some critics who insisted the RDF was underequipped for any encounter with Soviet-style armored forces...
...A nuclear war might generate about twenty-five million severe burn cases, Dr...
...And the chances of finding a war must be considered exceptionally high...
...The United States has forces that can be moved into that area quickly," Under Secretary of Defense Robert Komer testified on February 21, "and I would urge that no one underestimate our capabilities to do so...
Vol. 45 • February 1981 • No. 2
