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Admin. Review. Lesson 25. The Era of Retrenchment: Presidents Ford and Carter 1974-1980. Learning Objectives.

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  1. Admin

  2. Review

  3. Lesson 25 The Era of Retrenchment: Presidents Ford and Carter 1974-1980

  4. Learning Objectives • Understand the Navy under President Ford and the political and economic factors that contributed to the Carter Administration viewpoint of the Navy’s role in Military Strategy and foreign relations. • Know the evolution of strategic thinking and the defense policy during of the Carter Administration and the internal political factors that influenced these policies. • Comprehend the policy goals that preceded the Reagan defense buildup and the internal political situation that enabled it.

  5. Remember our Themes! • The Navy as an Instrument of Foreign Policy • Interaction between Congress and the Navy • Interservice Relations • Technology • Leadership • Strategy and Tactics • Evolution of Naval Doctrine

  6. The Navy Under President Gerald Ford (1974-1976)

  7. The Navy Under President Gerald Ford • Vietnam: Frustration –Congress would not fund $1 billion for SVN that had been previously promised • USSR: • “Peaceful coexistence” interpreted as rivalry for dominance through client states in Third World, notably Africa (Angola, Ethiopia, Somalia, Zaire) • Nuclear arms race intensifies • USSR develops triple-MIRV ICBM, SS-20; Backfire bomber • US develops Trident SSBN; total of 8,500 warheads (nearly 3,000 increase in five years) • SALT-II dead in water

  8. MAYAGUEZ Incident: 12 May 1975 • Cambodian communist forces seize 40 man American commercial vessel. • Diplomacy fails to gain release • Pres. Ford sends in USAF, USN, USMC (largest deployment since Vietnam) • Recapture: 15 Marines killed; 50 wounded

  9. Economic Inflation: Technology Costs By 1975, the Navy’s 200th anniversary, the Navy had less than 500 ships.

  10. President Jimmy Carter 1977-1981

  11. Decline of the U.S. Navy Under Carter (1977-1981) • Background: He inherited a congressional and popular antimilitary attitude as well as a reduced Navy composed of older ships. • Diplomacy: He believed containment could be achieved through diplomacy and did not think the Soviets were a world threat. • Salt I • Salt II

  12. The Carter Naval Policy • The President did not support naval expansion. • His five-year building programs were extremely austere. • He de-emphasized the “presence” mission of the Navy. • He limited the conceptual basis for the Navy’s size to plan for SLOC protection and support of the major U.S. commitments to Europe. • The Iranian crisis (1978-1981) forced Carter to send warships to the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean

  13. Iran Hostage Crisis

  14. The Carter Naval Policy • 1979, Anti-American Ayatollah Khomeini comes to power in Iran • De-stabilizes the region for U.S. • Since 1953 Iran was American friendly: imported in excess of 10.5 million dollars of arms • Iran Hostage Crisis • 1980, failed rescue attempt with hostages in Iran • Soviet invasion of Afghanistan • U.S. supports anti-Soviet fighters with high-tech arms • Conflict lasts 10 years • Soviets Withdraw, leaving Afghanistan in hands of warlords, (ultimately, anti-U.S. Taliban)

  15. Carter Doctrine • “Let our position be absolutely clear: An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an attack on the vital interests of the U.S.” • State of the Union, 1979

  16. Consequences: Ford/Carter • Carter policy of Soviets being European Continental Threat only badly damaged the Navy’s ability to handle crisis in Middle East. • American Embassy in Tehran • Stability in Middle East • Iran/Iraq War • Regan easily elected in 1980 • Carter’s dealing w/ hostagesin Iran • Soviet threat

  17. The Navy itself • Internal Cultural Wars • Naval Aviation • Nuclear Power • Change in a pluralistic organization • Center of Strategy • Primacy of the Carrier • Atrophy of surface warfare • SSMs – 6 Day’s War of 1967

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