ABSTRACT
The Truman Doctrine, the Nixon Doctrine, the changes from Massive Retaliation to Flexible Response, the adoption of the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia as a region of vital national security interest, all represented adaptive variations on the two major themes: strategic deterrence; and containment of the spread of Soviet power. To meet the Pearl Harbor kind of attack with conventional forces in being requires large, standing general purpose forces. The USSR and Eastern Europe would become part of a world evolution in which all nations aspire to, and many reach, new levels of economic capability and activity. The terms of alliances with European and Pacific nations must be flexible enough to accommodate a range of contingencies vis-a-vis the USSR that may vary from friendship to a return to Stalinism or a breakdown of order and its unpredictable sequels.
