ABSTRACT
One of the most prominent characteristics of warfare since the introduction of gunpowder has been the increasing power and lethality of the weapons used in battle. Frederick the Great had feared the consequences of an "arms race" in the realm of artillery, knowing that this would greatly up the ante on the financial costs of war and make his tactics, based on rapid maneuver with well-trained, closely packed infantry, ultimately obsolete. The military component of wars was always prominent, but it became only one part of the struggle between whole nations once political will, industrial capability, size, and resource base all became indispensable to the war effort. Many commentators on the war have claimed that the Americans dropped several times more bombs in Southeast Asia than they did during all of World War II. In every war, ancient or modern, they have dealt with the worst conditions and done more than their share of the dying.
