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Caspar Weinberger and the U.S. Military Buildup, 1981-1985

Caspar Weinberger and the U.S. Military Buildup, 1981-1985

By Edward C. Keefer
Office of the Secretary of Defense, 2023, 768 pp.
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Reviewed by Lawrence D. Freedman

March/April 2024Published on
In This Review
Caspar Weinberger and the U.S. Military Buildup, 1981-1985

Caspar Weinberger and the U.S. Military Buildup, 1981-1985

By Edward C. Keefer

Office of the Secretary of Defense, 2023, 768 pp.
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Caspar Weinberger was one of the most controversial and consequential U.S. secretaries of defense. This latest volume in an invaluable and always deeply researched series of Pentagon histories covers Weinberger's role during President Ronald Reagan's first term. He came to the post with no background in defense and with a reputation as a budget-cutter. Yet he publicized, with some exaggeration, a Soviet military buildup to justify the one sought by Reagan for the United States, leading to the administration's Strategic Defense Initiative, a vast proposed missile defense system that sparked great alarm within the ailing Soviet leadership. All the same, Weinberger was wary of getting involved in unnecessary foreign adventures, a sentiment deepened by the ill-fated U.S. peacekeeping expedition in Beirut in 1982. His readiness to take his own distinctive line was exemplified by his determination to ensure that the United Kingdom had full U.S. support in its war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands.


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