ABSTRACT
Rebuilding the post-Vietnam American military while fighting a Cold War against the Soviet Union in a geopolitical environment that saw an increasing number of conflicts across the developing world was indeed a great challenge for the United States. During the immediate post-Vietnam years military morale reached its lowest levels since perhaps the early years of the American Revolution, and popular support of the defense establishment was at a twentieth-century nadir. The most significant test of the all-volunteer force and the advent of ‘jointness’ was the Gulf War of 1991 that expelled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s military forces from Kuwait. American troops remain a part of the NATO peacekeeping force in the Bosnia–Serbia–Kosovo region. Nation building became the new focus of the NATO mission, as American forces assisted in establishing law enforcement and government administration. The new American military would have to be leaner, faster, and more lethal to deal effectively with these conflicts.
