Funding Extended Conflicts

One aspect of war is often overlooked: how much do they cost and how are they funded. Funding Extended Conflicts develops a baseline on Federal spending for the two extended conflicts of the Cold War era, Korea and Vietnam, and compares them with the global war on terror, including current outlays for Iraq and Afghanistan. It also provides wartime cases that offer recommendations on how to pay for future wars and focuses on the length of the tails of such spending, which are often omitted in the final analyses and distort funding estimates. Background chapters examine financing and budget issues as well as problems associated with defining the real cost of Korea, Vietnam, and the so-called long war against terrorism and are complemented by an assessment of the open-ended commitment to support homeland defense and conduct ongoing military operations in Southwest Asia.One aspect of war is often overlooked: how much do they cost and how are they funded. Funding Extended Conflicts develops a baseline on Federal spending for the two extended conflicts of the Cold War era, Korea and Vietnam, and compares them with the global war on terror, including current outlays for Iraq and Afghanistan. It also provides wartime cases that offer recommendations on how to pay for future wars and focuses on the length of the tails of such spending, which are often omitted in the final analyses and distort funding estimates. Background chapters examine financing and budget issues as well as problems associated with defining the real cost of Korea, Vietnam, and the so-called long war against terrorism and are complemented by an assessment of the open-ended commitment to support homeland defense and conduct ongoing military operations in Southwest Asia.

"This is a major contribution to the study of US war expenditures. Miller examines US funding of three wars: Korea, Vietnam, and the global war on terror. For each he covers cost estimates and appropriation, allocation, and spending. He tries to place the material in context by preceding each introduction with a caption from a prominent source. Miller clearly explains the funding process in each case study and raises many questions, which he answers with healthy cynicism. One conclusion is that all estimates depend on assumptions; hence, they all end up wrong. Supplemental funding has been significant, incremental, and expensive in terms of opportunity costs. In discussing resources, Miller considers 12 serious issues including cost estimates, transition from supplemental to baseline budgets, advantages and disadvantages of supplemental budgeting, benefits and durability of flexible appropriations, importance of authorities relative to funding, cost components, overtime, predisposed outlook of the political leaders, congressional activism, and tensions and suspicions surrounding war expenditures.... Charts, tables, glossary, footnotes, plus introductions and summaries of chapters and sections enrich the text. Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate students through professionals." - Choice, "Miller, a serving officer in the US Navy with extensive economic and budgetary experience at the national level, uses the extended conflicts in Korea and Vietnam as case studies as he describes the fundamentals of financing and budgeting for war and problems in defining war costs. He examines the Korean War from 1951 to 1953, defining the security strategy and the supplemental financing requests built from it, the war in Southeast Asia from 1965 to 1975 and the record of spending, and the war that will likely top them all in cost, that on terror starting in 2001, including homeland security since 9/11. He gives 12 elements to consider in creating financing and budgets for upcoming wars." - Reference & Research Book News

Richard M. Miller Jr., is a serving officer in the U.S. Navy with extensive background in budget issues who most recently worked as a congressional analyst for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A distinguished graduate of the National War College and the Naval War College, Commander Miller is a winner of the B. Franklin Reinauer Defense Economics Prize. In addition, he was a Federal Executive Fellow in the Institute for the Study of Conflict, Ideology, and Policy at Boston University.