from Cold War levels of 2.2 million active duty troops to about 1.5
million, and the services have been vocal in revising doctrine and
strategy to reflect the end of the Soviet threat, with the exception
of emphasis on jointness, there are few really fundamental differences
in the design and structure of the forces from even 10 or 15 years
ago.

Throughout the Cold War, the defense of the United States rested on
several central and widely accepted and publicly supported
propositions. The "clear and apparent danger" of the Soviet threat was
real and seen as such. The USSR was to be contained and deterred from
hostile action by a combination of political, strategic, and military
actions ranging from the forging of a ring of alliances surrounding
the USSR and its allies to the deployment of tens of thousands of
nuclear and thermonuclear weapons.

Following the truce ending the Korean War, a large, standing military
force was maintained and defined by the operational requirements of
fighting the large formations of military forces of the USSR and its
allies with similar types of military forces, albeit outnumbered. The
role of allies, principally NATO, was assumed and taken into account
in planning, although the paradox of the issue of planning for a long
versus short war in a nuclear world remained unresolved.

Mobilization, as in World War II, was likewise assumed if the Cold War
went hot while, at the same time, it was hoped that any war might be
ended quickly. The largely World War II defense, industrial, and
basing structure was retained along with the intent to rely on our
technological superiority to offset numerical or geographical
liabilities.