Making the Military Matter in an Age of Uncertainty

Abstract

"The old international order of the cold war was very familiar to us. It had f o r ^ substance, and ideology. It could be seen, touched and heard. It had its devils, demons, and armies. It seemed as a single point of focus for the free world's response. That focus is now blurred. The form and substance are disappearing before our eyes, vanishing in a whirlwind of change and still more change that appears daily on "IV screens. "General Colin L. Powell, USA. "The real threat we now face is the unknown, the uncertain." 1992 National Military. Strategy. "Nor had (the)...leaders of democracy (during the Vietnam era) bothered to involve the people of their country, in the course they had chosen: they knew the right path and they knew how much could be revealed, step by step along the way. They had manipulated the public, the Congress and the press from the start, told half truths, about why we were going in, how much we were spending, and how long we were in for...So they lost it all." David Halberstam in The Best and the Brightest.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1992
Accession Number
ADA437067

Entities

People

  • Powell A. Fraser Jr

Organizations

  • National War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter WMD
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Budgets
  • Commerce
  • Congress
  • Economic Systems
  • Governments
  • Intergovernmental Organizations
  • International Organizations
  • Investments
  • Military Budgets
  • Military Strategy
  • National Governments
  • National Politics
  • National Security
  • Second World War
  • Training
  • United States
  • War Colleges

Readers

  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Strategic Security Studies