p The enumeration of budgetary appropriations serves, as it were, as a distinctive mirror, in which the interrelations of the different political, economic and social functions of the federal government receives a precise quantitative reflection. Of interest in this respect are the changes in the structure of governmental spending in recent decades.

p Throughout the post-war period the expenditures of the federal government linked with current military spending and past wars have, as a rule, exceeded the entire sum spent for civilian purposes. At present, as shown by Table II-1, more than two-fifths of the federal budget goes directly for military purposes. Another one-eighth of the budgetary appropriations is spent on benefits to war veterans and interest on the federal debt. Of the federal government’s total debt of $367,000 million (at the end of the 1969 fiscal year) more than $220,000 million are for the period of the Second World War (1939-1945 fiscal years). Therefore not only veteran benefits and services but the bulk of the expense on the federal debt, represent financial burden connected with the military preparations in the preceding period. Thus, more than half of the total expenditure of the US federal budget is allocated for military purposes.

p Until now periods of a steep rise in the federal budget were invariably marked by an increase in appropriations for military purposes. Thus, during the years of the Second 57 58 World War alone, budgetary spending greatly exceeded the total sum of military and civilian spending under the federal budget throughout the preceding history of the United States.

p At the same time in the last 100 years the following feature of the federal budget was clearly revealed: in the peaceful periods which set in after the First and Second world wars military spending was invariably stabilised at a level which substantially exceeded the previous pre-war scale. Thus, after the First World War (1921-1925), the average of the US armed forces personnel was twice as high and the average annual military spending (calculated in unchanging, 1945, prices) was almost three times as much as before the war (1909-1913). After the Second World War (1947-1949), the strength of the armed forces increased almost six times and the current military expendinture, seven times as compared with the pre-war period (1935-1939). In the subsequent period this tendency was further accentuated. During the period of the escalation of the war in Indochina the total sum of military spending (taking into account the depreciation of the dollar) exceeded the expenditure of the federal government in waging the First World War. Mr. Dwight Eisenhower, who directly led the operations of the American forces during the Second World War and later became President of the USA, subsequently noted the tendency towards the steady growth of military preparations in peaceful years and pointed to the danger of the gradual conversion of the United States into a “garrison state”.  [58•1 

It goes without saying that to maintain the country’s military preparedness at the same level in conditions of steadily developing inflation more money is needed. But the growth rate of the military expenditure is much higher than the growth rate of inflation. This is in the first place linked with the further build-up of the military potential. Thus, according to data of Professor Melman, in the 1964 fiscal year, close to two-fifths of the money spent for the purchase of armaments represented expenditures for the maintenance of military preparations at the former level, while three- 59 fifths were utilised for building up the striking power of the US armed forces.  [59•1  The swift stockpiling of weapons has always been fraught with the danger of truly disastrous consequences in the even of the unleashing of another way. Within the limits of the present chapter, primary attention is given to the sources and stimuli for increasing direct military spending. At the same time certain aspects of the spending policy of the federal government are examined. These aspects are linked with the needs of long-range economic growth.