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http://www.trumanlibrary.org/oralhist/lovett.htm LOVETT: It was a period in which we had to take an economy which had already been blown up extravagantly in size as a result of the cold war recently and the amount of stuff we were doing in aid around the world. Now we had to superimpose on that, another war, a small one but with strong logistic problems. If you had to fight a war at some distance, 8,000 miles or whatever, away from home, you couldn't have picked a better place than Japan as your base because they had all the equipment. They had manpower coming out of their ears. They had a superb rebuilt plant; we could have all the vehicles rebuilt, all the heavy ships redone, everything right there at a fraction of the cost of doing it at home. So we were not compelled to put in the restraints on the American economy which one should put in if you go to war. It's the Vietnam thing. You see, we were fighting out of surplus stocks which is what makes [Robert] McNamara's statement about we had too much left over thoroughly ridiculous. The only thing, it enables us to stay afloat economically with the ability to use old, formerly paid-for material. We had no problem that I recall at the domestic economic level as a result of going through. We very carefully planned to avoid it. Complete archives at http://www.sitbot.net/ Please let us stay on topic and be civil. OM YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
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