A “Hollow Army” Reappraised: President Carter, Defense Budgets, and the Politics of Military Readiness (Enlarged Edition)

The term “hollow army” became a part of the American political vocabulary more than 30 years ago, in another election year, 1980. Highlighted by reporter in an article about the U.S. Army Chief of Staff’s congressional testimony concerning the fiscal year 1981 defense budget, the term became a metaphor for the Jimmy Carter administration’s alleged neglect of U.S. national security by political opponents as well as disapproving members of his own party in Congress, who believed him to be a liability. In the decades following, the expression broadened to a “hollow force” and its meaning expanded, serving as a way of describing the state of ill-prepared military forces in characterizing a presidential administration’s shortfall in the resources needed to meet U.S. military commitments.