Introduction

This chapter discusses the events after the Cold War. The end of the Cold War and the breakup of the Soviet Union freed the United States to cut defense spending, especially after the surge in military outlays during the 1980s. The President George Bush administration undertook modest reductions, spurring hopes of a "peace dividend" that could be applied to domestic problems. One of these problems had crept up quietly and gradually. Other, interlocking problems were more explosive. Poverty, joblessness, drugs, racial tensions, and violent crime were the stuff of a witches' brew. At the end of the Cold War in 1990, over 6 million people depended directly on the Department of Defense (DoD) for their livelihood. Half worked for the defense industry, almost a million were Pentagon civilians, and 2,143,000 served in the armed forces. Others living and working near defense plants and bases were indirectly dependent.