Economic Impact of Base Closures on Communities :: Economics USA Community Essays Papers

Economic Impact of Base Closures on Communities After World War II, the United States was suddenly faced with a new enemy, the Soviet Union. Once the United States used the Atom bomb on Japan, there was a race to build bigger and more powerful nuclear weapons. The start of the Cold War was on. This â€Å"war† would turn out to be one of the most expensive undertakings in United States history. Every time the Soviets would build something, we would build as well. The same was in reverse. It was a never-ending cycle to see who could outdo the other. During this time there were also many military bases built in what were once remote towns across the United States. As these bases began to employ more and more civilians, there were suddenly towns sprouting up all around these bases. Some of them became quite large as the bases hired more and more civilian workers and the military members stationed there took more advantage of what the towns had to offer. The late 1980’s saw yet again another change in military policy. Suddenly the Berlin Wall fell and so did the Communist government of the Soviet Union. The Cold War was now over. As a result, the United States was left with an incredible nuclear and military arsenal and no clear enemy in sight. With the threat of a recession on the horizon, there was a study called the Base Realignment and Closure committee, or BRAC set up to decide where cuts in the defense budget would come from and what bases would be closed. The Report of the Department of Defense on Base Realignment and Closure reported that in 1989 the BRAC committee came to the conclusion that the Department of Defense could still strategically operate if they were to close 23 percent of their installations. The report goes on to point out that the end of the BRAC rounds in 1995 estimated the closures to have saved the Federal Government approximately $3 billion. (Www.defenslink.mil/pubs/brac040298.pdf) After the impressive victory in the Gulf War, there was an even bigger cut in the defense budget. There was a sudden impact not only on the military who now had less to work with, but the communities who relied heavily on the military bases for economic stability. As expected, many in Congress who had a base in their district on the BRAC list, suddenly wanted to do everything they could in order to keep the bases up and running. It was originally estimated that the base closures would have an effect on the population of the town through lost jobs, lost sales