ABSTRACT
The shifts that the US has made in its strategy and force plans have also had an important impact on US contingency capabilities. They too reflect the impact of fundamental changes in East-West relations, and of the end of the Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the Warsaw Pact. These changes in strategy and force plans began during the late 1980s. President Reagan and President Bush signed several of the most sweeping arms control agreements in history. These agreements ended Warsaw Pact superiority in conventional forces, eliminated the deployment of most theater nuclear weapons, and put the US on a path that would reduce the strategic nuclear threat to the United States from more than 20,000 weapons to 3,000. The 1992 Presidential campaign did not involve a serious debate over defense, and certainly did not involve any debate over US strategy regarding the Gulf.
