I understood that the Sec. of Defense,i.e., Dick Cheney, was the architect of those Defense cuts, the rationale being that a smaller military was justifed with the ending of the Cold War and that it fit in with his pet program to privatize much of the military. It may have even moved along further under Clinton, but the initiative for this came from Defense and the then Secretary, Dick Cheney. Interestingly, this is not at all what he was saying on the campaign trail during the last two elections. I have also wondered about his supposed student deferments he was collecting during the View Nam era. He was still collecting these in graduate school and I was under the impression that they did not extend to graduate students.

Best regards,

Ed Pirie
West Topsham, Vermont