p The US armed forces are organised and developed in accordance with the US official military doctrine. The National Security Council (NSC) advises the President about military policy. Under the Constitution, the President is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and is responsible for military policy planning and implementation. The NSC is composed of the President (Chairman), the Vice President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defence and the Director of the Office of Emergency Preparedness. The Nixon Administration has taken steps to enhance the role of the National Security Council. The Council issues an annual report on basic policy in national security affairs for the guidance of all government agencies dealing with military matters. On the basis of this report the Joint Chiefs of Staff draw up the Joint Strategic Objectives Plan containing an evaluation of armed forces requirements in the next five to eight years in accordance with the approved military strategy.

p The imperialist policy "from positions of strength" is expressed in the US military strategy. Approximately until late 1960, it was officially known as the "massive retaliation" strategy, in accordance with which the USA was to use nuclear weapons in the event of any military conflict with the USSR. This strategy was based on the assumption that the USA allegedly had an overwhelming superiority over the Soviet Union in nuclear striking power, especially in strategic bombers. Therefore, the advocates of this strategy reasoned, US political and military objectives could be 85 achieved only by threatening an all-out nuclear war the socialist countries would not dare to risk, aware of their inferior offensive nuclear capability.

p Adhering to this strategy, the USA concentrated on nuclear weapons development. The bulk of the budget military appropriations went to the nuclear forces at the expense of the conventional ones. This, as well as the absence of a uniform strategy for all arms and services, led to a disproportion in the development of the armed services and caused considerable financial waste.

p In the late fifties this strategy came under sharp criticism from the Americans themselves. For instance, Maxwell Taylor in The Uncertain Trumpet showed the untenability of the massive retaliation strategy, in particular of its basic assumption about the alleged US superiority in strategic nuclear forces. The view was gaining ground in the United States at the time of the need to develop a new strategy which would be more in tune with the US global plans. The Kennedy Administration revised the strategic concept of "massive nuclear retaliation" in favour of the "flexible response" strategy the essence of which was spelled out in sufficient detail in President Kennedy’s messages to Congress of March 28 and May 25, 1961, and in his TV address on July 25, 1961.

p The flexible response strategy, which has underlain the US armed forces development since 1961, has markedly influenced the size and distribution of military appropriations. A large share of the rapidly growing military outlays goes to build up the nuclear missile forces. At the same time, the US militarists display revived interest in conventional armaments to comply with the above changes in military strategy. The Pentagon generals formerly pinned their hopes on thermonuclear weapons whereas today they think that nuclear forces alone cannot achieve their objectives, and are stepping up the production of conventional armaments.

p The flexible response strategy provided for the development of the better balanced armed services. In the sixties, the US armed forces substantially increased their power and mobility due to the Defence Department’s efforts to supply them with more transport facilities, including planes and ships.

p The activities of the Republican Administration and President Nixon’s foreign policy messages indicate that the strategic line of US imperialism directed against socialism, national liberation and revolutionary movements remains unchanged as does its reliance on the active use of military force as a direct tool of its reactionary policy. At the same time, the Nixon Administration has introduced major alterations into the US foreign policy as manifested by the "Nixon Doctrine”.

In the light of this doctrine the "flexible response" strategy has been revised in favour of "realistic containment" strategy. The official adoption of the new military strategy is attended with certain amendments in the basic concepts of the US armed forces development policy, in particular, a trend has been in evidence towards a reduction in the conventional forces and renewed emphasis on nuclear deterrent forces.