The Fiscal Cost of the Cold War To the United States: The First 25 Years, 1947-1971

Political Research Quarterly

Volumn 25, Issue 3, 1972, Pages 375-395

  Clayton, James L ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF UTAH   (United States)

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EID: 43449148264     PISSN: 10659129     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/106591297202500302     Document Type: Article

References (21)

1. As quoted in Alan Milward, The Economic Effects of the Two World Wars on Britain (London: Macmillan, 1970), p. 12.
2. Milward, Bibliography on War and Peace (1963), pp. 53-61.
3. Report of the Joint Committee Congress of the United States on the January 1972 Economic Report of the President together with minority and other views, 92nd Cong., 2nd Sess., Washingon, D.C., March 23, 1972, p. 56.
4. For an extended discussion of the nature of war costs, see Gaston Jèze and Henri Truch, The War Finance of France (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1927), chap. 1
5. John Maurice Clark, The War Finance of France (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1927), chaps. 5 and 6; and
6. A. C. Pigou, The Political Economy of War (London: Macmillan, 1921), chap. 5.
7. Compare, for example, the findings of Ernest L. Bogart, The Direct and Indirect Costs of the Great World War (New York: Oxford, 1919), who believed that indirect costs can be rather precisely measured, with Kurt Heinig, Wenn die Soldaten… Was Kriege kosten (Frankfurt am Main: Nest Verlag, 1957), who believes that in the final analysis trying to measure almost any war cost “ist… vergeblicher Versuch.”
8. The United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency has begun to take this approach in recent years. See its World Military Expenditures, 1966-1967 (Washington, D.C., 1970). Still, its methods are not always clear nor are its sources unimpeachable.
9. For a detailed breakdown of what is included see p. 55 of the Committee's report. For an able criticism of the JEC's concept see “Statement of Honorable Robert C. Moot, Assistant Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), before the Sub-Committee in Priorities and Economy in Government,” 1972, as yet unpublished but available from the DOD upon request, pp. 72-89.
10. See The Budget of the United States Government (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1964 and 1971), pp. 64 and 90 respectively.
11. See Jèze and Truch, Budget of the United States Government (1964 and 1971), p. 8
12. Clark, Budget of the United States Government (1964 and 1971), p. 105
13. and Gustavus A. Weber and Laurence F. Schmeckebier, The Veterans’ Administration (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1934), pp. 1-199.
14. See Veterans’ Benefits in the United States, Findings and Recommendations, Report to the President by the President's Commission on Veterans’ Pensions (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, April, 1956), Omar N. Bradley, Chairman.
15. See Veterans’ Administration, Annual Report (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1969), Statistical Supplement, passim; 1971 The Budget of the United States Government. Appendix, pp. 833 ff; and 1971 The Budget of the United States Government, p. 170.
16. The Budget of the United States Government, 1971, Supplement, p. 833.
17. The 1971 cost is estimated at $21 billion, and the 1972 figure is estimated at $15 billion. Incremental costs would be somewhat lower. See Hearings on Military Posture, House Committee on Armed Services, 92nd Cong., 1st Sess., March-May 1971, pp. 2508-2522; and 1970 Statistical Abstract, 248: and U.S. Bureau of the Census, The Statistical Abstract of the U.S. (Washington, D.C., 1970), p. 248.
18. See U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1957 (Washington, D.C., 1960).
19. These data were taken from John C. Gebhart, Can We Afford Another War (New York: pub. u.k., 1939), pp. 1-2.
20. Historical Statistics…, pp. 718-19.
21. What Price Vigilance, The Burdens of National Defense (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1970).