Alexander Haig's uncertainty about NATO's aim of increasing defense spending by three percent annually (beyond inflation) may have been influenced by this study, with which he was associated. Well-written despite its committee authorship, it recounts the story of the three-percent goal during 1977-80. The study shows how an imaginative political symbol, which for a time led to real defense increases and alliance cohesion, is now seen as too little, too late by Washington and too generous by Bonn, thereby becoming a divisive issue.