Strategy and Force Planning: The Case of the Persian Gulf

Recent attention to conventional forces again has produced the usual pronouncements of doom and gloom about Western capabilities, and concerning no place more than the Gulf, so far from the United States and so relatively close to the Soviet Union. Yet those pronouncements are often more rhetoric than analysis. Using detailed models Epstein argues that an American force smaller than the currently planned Rapid Deployment Force could mount a credible defense of Iran against a Soviet attack, by exploiting Soviet vulnerabilities.