Nation: Getting Tougher

End of a Viet Nam hangover

Iran was weighing on the mind of the President last week when he announced that he would ask Congress for an increase in defense spending of close to 5% a year, adjusted for inflation. Speaking to the U.S. Business Council in the White House East Room, Carter left no doubt that keeping up with the Soviets was the main motive for revising his thinking, but he cited the crisis in Iran as a "vivid reminder of the need for a strong and united America ... which need not...

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