'Zealots of the Classic Variety'

This chapter looks back at the time of national anxiety and self-doubt in the US, in the wake of the fall of Saigon in 1975 and the subsequent economic turmoil. During that time, the Military Reform movement was popularized by James Fallows, the Washington editor for The Atlantic magazine. Fallows met extensively with John Boyd and the other Reformers and published “The Muscle-Bound Superpower” in 1979. This was the first full public presentation of the Reformers' views — that military technology had gotten too complex, and the system was too full of corrupt insiders. The chapter explores how the Reformers' efforts soon drew allies from within the military and in Congress.