p Militarism is an establishment inherent in capitalism and called upon to build up and use military power to preserve class oppression, tighten the grip on existing and conquer new spheres of economic and political sway of the exploiting classes. Militarism comes on the scene in capitalist states pursuing a policy of expansion and an arms race, preparing for wars of conquest. Militarism has reached its heyday in the imperialist era, particularly after World War II, it was stimulated by the cold war. The objectives, level and forms of militarism are determined by imperialist policy.

p Before the world split up into the two social systems the imperialists had used the military machine to maintain their rule at home and to deal with their rivals abroad to reverse time and again an upset balance of power between capitalist states and alliances. Today, militarism operates mostly under the banner of anti-Communism and anti-Sovietism, and is spearheaded against the world socialist system.

p A major factor of militarist growth is the priority importance attached by the imperialists to the military machine among the means employed to pursue their neocolonialist policy, to suppress by force of arms the national liberation movement, to dictate their will to the developing states. After World War II the imperialists have repeatedly used military force against them.

p The growth of militarism is also attributable to the use by imperialist quarters of military force to protect their 8 mounting foreign investments. Lenin listed the export of capital among the basic characteristics of imperialism. The foreign investments of capitalist states are continuing to grow and have now reached tremendous proportions. In 1970, the United States alone had an estimated 150 thousand million dollars in foreign investments. Over the past few years, a system of international supermonopolies has taken shape, which accounts for an increasingly greater share in total capitalist production. The preservation and safety of foreign investments, which secure access to foreign, in particular strategic sources of raw materials, cheap labour and commodity markets and bring fabulous profits to international monopolies are some of the basic tasks the imperialists have entrusted to their armed forces.

p The arms race is used in the capitalist countries as a means of state-monopoly stimulation of capitalist reproduction, reduction of unemployment, prevention of economic crises, and as a source of monopoly superprofits. A close union of military-industrial companies, the military circles and the government bureaucracy has formed on the basis of military economic work carried out on an enormous scale. This union, which has come to be known as the militaryindustrial complex, is an evil force which has a disastrous influence on the political, economic and spiritual life of bourgeois society. With an increase in volume of military contract’s and in militarisation of the economy the influence and profits of this complex tend to grow. For this reason, the military-industrial complexes which function in different countries and are closely interconnected extol military power, seeking to aggravate the international situation and to increase military budgets.

p Never before has militarism held sway over so many states as in the post-war years. Despite the growing contradictions between the capitalist countries, however, the imperialists tend to join their military efforts to secure their common class interests, setting up aggressive military blocs, signing numerous bilateral and multi-lateral military- political treaties for joint military economic work, in particular, for forming joint armed forces, preparing the infrastructure of theatres of war, manufacturing military equipment, etc.

p It is the cold war policy and the specifics of modern militarism that are to blame for the maintenance of huge armed forces even in peacetime. Their total strength in the member countries of NATO, SEATO and CENTO in 1970 was close on seven million men.  [9•1  The outlays for their maintenance and technical equipment have reached an all-time high and continue to mount. The total direct military spending of the NATO countries alone grew from 18.7 thousand million dollars in 1949 (NATO foundation year) to 106.4 thousand million in 1971.

p The United States accounts for the bulk of the military outlays and armed forces of modern imperialism. After World War II, the expansionist policy of US imperialism led to the building up of a huge military machine and an unprecedented growth of militarism, which is a terrible menace to mankind and world peace.

p Apologists of militarism justify the huge military outlays of imperialism mostly by fabrications about the "communist menace”. However, history and the peace policy of the socialist community of nations have invariably disproved this pet argument of the militarists. This has become particularly evident today when the active and coordinated policies of the socialist countries, the consistent activities of the CPSU Central Committee and the Soviet Government in implementing the Peace Programme of the 24th CPSU Congress largely contributed to detente and demonstrated to the whole world that the central objective of the foreign policy line of the socialist community is to avert a new world war, to guarantee a lasting peace on earth and the security of all nations.

p The Soviet-American agreements and treaties signed during the three Summit Meetings (May 1972, June 1973, June-July 1974), have led to appreciable progress in normalising relations between the two great powers, contribute to the easing of international tensions, produce a restraining influence on the arms race, reduce the danger of the breakout of devastating nuclear war, create more favourable opportunities for new talks on limiting and ending the arms race.

p This amelioration of the international climate is welcomed enthusiastically by world public opinion. Mankind’s vital interests require this change in the world situation to be deepened and widened and made irreversible. Imperialism, however, maintains its armed forces and military outlays at a high level, and the race in the production of new, costlier and more destructive weapons systems continues. The need for increasing military power and retaining its role as a foreign policy tool of imperialism is emphasised in every way. What is more, in recent time the most reactionary forces of imperialism, in particular the militarist and revanchist circles, the military-industrial complexes and the NATO leaders have notably stepped up their activities against detente, and are trying to stir up distrust in the relations among states and revive the spirit of the cold war, are advocating an intensified arms race, an expansion of military arsenals, a continuation of the "policy of strength”. All this indicates that if the current political detente is not reinforced by military detente the tendency towards growth of military preparations will continue in the near future with all its dangerous implications involved.

The author attempts to show the causes of the unprecedented development of militarism in the United States, to analyse the size and structure of its military outlays, the degree of militarisation of its economy as a whole and of its individual sectors, discussing the organisation of military production, the rivalry between monopolies for lucrative military contracts, the methods for winning them. He demonstrates at large the impact military outlays have on the process of capitalist reproduction, the disastrous socio- economic effects of militarism and the arms race. His main task is to make the reader become better aware of the burden of the continued arms race, the great menace of modern militarism to all mankind, as well as the urgent need for pooling the efforts of all states concerned and of the progressive forces to supplement the current political detente in the world by military detente, to step up the struggle for ending the arms race, reducing armed forces and armaments, guaranteeing universal peace and international security.

p This book was first published in Russian in 1970. Since then certain changes have taken place in the international situation and in the military economic work in the USA, which insofar as possible have been taken into account when preparing the book for translation into foreign languages.

The author acknowledges his profound gratitude to I. V. Antonova for her great assistance in preparing the manuscript for publication.