Defense Industry

"In 1974, after huge numbers of U.S. tanks were shipped to Israel to replace those destroyed in the Yom Kippur War, the U.S. Army found itself essentially without tanks for its own divisions. A crash program was launched to produce more tanks at an Army-owned, Chrysler-run factory kept in reserve for just such emergencies. "'It didn't work,' recalled Jacques S. Gansler, then deputy assistant secretary of defense for materiél acquisition. "'We couldn't buy the hull and turret castings for the tanks,' he said. 'The main supplier told us to get in line behind his commercial customers. U.S. Steel didn't want any government work. It was more than two years before tanks began to come off that line....' "The United States is the only nation in the world that does not treat its defense industry as a critical national resource, Gansler wrote in a recent book, The Defense Industry. The industry has deteriorated as a result, particularly since the Vietnam War...." - Robert C. Toth, Los Angeles TimesGansler, Jacques S. is the author of 'Defense Industry' with ISBN 9780262570596 and ISBN 0262570599.