ABSTRACT
Controversy over the defense budget is a recurrent theme of post-Second World War US political debate. Periods of increased threat perception have brought about rises in defense spending only to be followed by criticism of the costs and a period of defense reduction. Following Sam Huntington’s (1983) characterization of cycles in defense spending moods, recent debate and emphasis on budget deficit and defense spending limits places us firmly in the fourth phase of the third cycle, marked by leveling off and decline in spending. The principle elements of debate concern the overall size of defense spending. However, the components of the defense budget are generally ignored in debate as well as in scholarship. In this chapter I wish to examine patterns in the distribution of defense resources. Distinct patterns exist in these distributions since the first budget of the Eisenhower administration (fiscal year 1955) through the last Reagan budget submissions (for FY1988 and FY1989).
