A 'Hollow Army' Reappraised

<p>For more than 3 decades the term hollow army or the more expansive idiom hollow force has represented President Carter's alleged willingness to allow American military capability to deteriorate in the face of growing Soviet capability. The phrase continues to resonate today. In this current period of declining defense resources the President of the United States the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have articulated how the newly released strategic guidance and budget priorities signify a concerted effort not to hollow out U.S. forces. They have affirmed their dedication to preventing the recreation of the ragged military and disastrous deterioration in defense capability the Carter administration allowed to occur. However it is also time to reexamine the term hollow army and its meaning as the inevitable tug of war over defense spending gets underway. This Paper places the hollow army metaphor within its historical context: barely 5 years after the United States finally disengaged from a major war (Vietnam) a struggling economy and an election year in which a President was not only tenuously leading in the polls but also confronted substantial opposition from elements of his own political party. Over the years a specific political reading of these events has taken hold. It is the purpose of this Paper to re-read the historical events and in doing so come to a better understanding of the domestic political and geostrategic environment during Carter's presidency the U.S. Cold War strategy and the assertions made concerning the readiness of the U.S. Army to perform its missions.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>