ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses few key points about American national strategy without doing too much injustice to the sweep and intricacy of the events and their attending relationships among nations. Since the emergence of the fundamental rivalry between the Western and Communist economic and political systems after World War II, the basic outlines of US national security strategy haven't changed. Regardless of the various phrases used to describe it, this strategy has included a structure of alliances to contain or to meet Soviet military expansion, and Chinese expansion when that appeared to be a threat. The greatest change in the outlook for engagement of US arms overseas occurred with the 1979 Iranian revolution. President Carter deployed naval forces into Arabian Sea. He declared that Americans would defend their interests in Southwest Asia by force if necessary and initiated the buildup of a Rapid Deployment Force to respond to attacks on friendly nations or oil fields in the Gulf or Arabian region.
