Elite deviance by Simon David R. 1944-;Eitzen D. Stanley & Eitzen D. Stanley

Author:Simon, David R., 1944-;Eitzen, D. Stanley & Eitzen, D. Stanley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: White collar crimes, Deviant behavior, Elite (Social sciences), Witteboordencriminaliteit, Afwijkend gedrag, Elite, Kriminalität
Publisher: Boston : Allyn and Bacon
Published: 1986-09-05T16:00:00+00:00

termed a militaristic culture, where force of arms is viewed as an acceptable solution to international problems.^^

The defense department also possesses an immense propaganda apparatus. Its various public-relations divisions employ over 6,000 people who lobby before Congress, make their own movies, aid Hollywood moviemakers in making films, sponsor conferences for both defense contractors and civic organizations, and provide speakers to educate civic organizations concerning the nature of the communist threat.^^ To date, there has been no effective organization capable of either countering the militaristic view of the world situation or of informing the American people of the international dimensions of deviant behavior, which are masked by the complex's appeals to patriotism and anticommunism.

Moreover, some critics believe that the prevalence of an exaggerated Cold War ideology (i.e., fear of the Soviet military threat) sometimes results in the manipulation of public opinion in order to win increased defense funds. H. R. Rodgers argued this point in the early 1970s:

If all else fails, the Pentagon can always use its secret weapon to get its way—the big scare. Despite the fact that the United States already has the nuclear capacity to drop the equivalent of six tons of TNT on every person on earth, the scare campaign always centers on some alleged deficiency in our military capacity. During recent years we have had the bomber gap scare, which led to a considerable increase in defense spending. Only after the funds were committed was it discovered that at the time of the supposed bomber shortage, the United States had 680 bombers and the Soviet Union had between 150 and 200. . . . Recently we have had the missile gap: once again, after the funds were spent, it came to light that the Pentagon had exaggerated Russian missile strength by 30 times.^^

And in the late 1970s, we faced a naval gap. The U.S. Navy claimed in 1978 that, over the last fifteen years, the Soviet Union had launched 205 major combatants compared to 165 for the United States. Yet subsequent investigations revealed that most of the Soviet's major warships were small patrol boats and escort vessels, and that, regarding major surface warships, the United States had actually outbuilt the Soviet Union 122 units to fifty-seven.

In 1976, one national news magazine reported that the Soviet Navy possessed 3,300 ships, while the United States had only 478. However, even U.S. admiral Stansfield Turner (later director of the CIA) had to admit that the figures included every J'seventy-five foot tugboat and barge, and comparing heaven knows what."^2

Another factor in the overestimation of Soviet military strength is that largely unreliable data are used. For example, the CIA determines how much the Soviets spend on equipment and labor by estimating how much such items would cost in the United States. This is hardly a valid comparison, considering the small labor costs in the Soviet Union. Moreover, the CIA assumes that Soviet draftees receive the same pay as U.S. soldiers. According to this logic, each time U.S. service members receive a pay raise, so do the Soviets.

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