policy - The Black Vault

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THE BDM CORPORATION
was bound to change sooner or later, but the economic consequences of the
Vietnam War certainly led to the demise of this system sooner than would
otherwise have been the case.
G. LESSONS
Political, diplomatic, and military policy making have taken precedence
over economic policy making in the US
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system, and this was particularly
true during the Vietnam war years; yet clearly economic considerations
must share equal importance if political and military programs are
survive over the long haul.
Politically convenient budget assumptions, such as predicting the
war's end at the end of a fiscal year, warps fiscal planning, particularly
if fiscal planners are omitted from participation in the key decisions.
Candor in presenting political, military, and economic policies is
essential early in any potential crisis situation to gain support of the
majority of the public and to avoid credibility gaps and srious downstream
economic dangers.
Short-tirm contingency commitments of military force can probably be
sustained and supported by the US
civil economy,
economy without major disruption to the
assuming that the duration of the emergency can be predicted
with confidence or that the personnel and materiel commitment is limited;
but,
lacking confident predictions of the magnitude and duration of a
military commitment,
an administration should take early steps to educate
the public and the Congress of the likely consequences of a prolonged and
costly effort.
In this context, the military leaders, notably the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, must provide re3listic estimates of the situation and
assure that those estimates are given attentive hearing by their civilian
superiors.
As a general rule, fighting a war without making adjustments in
C, national economic policy will have an adverse effect on a country's
Be
economic well being, and public support is essential if those adjustments
are to be made; to support the adjustments, the public must first support
the cause and view it as important.
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