THE COLD WAR IS OVER AND COMMUNISM UPSTAGED; BUT CONTENTIOUS ISSUES REMAIN: IDEOLOGY THAT UNDERWRITES VIOLENT CHANGE; UNFAIR MARKETS THAT THREATEN ECONOMIC WELL-BEING; ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES; AND PROLIFERATION OF MODERN MILITARY TECHNOLOGY

This is truly a great time to be an American. For the past 40 years we have lived in the shadow of threat cast by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. It was always "them" and "us". The threat was everywhere: in the Red Scare, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Berlin Wall, Vietnam, Afghanistan.

"Would it ever end?" we asked.

We all should know the answer to that question by now. The Cold War is over and communism has been upstaged.

The Army is very proud of the role it has played in assuring Americans peace and freedom. But where do we fit in to this new world of changed priorities?

This marks a perfect time to reflect on what the end of the Cold War means for the U.S. Army.

As the Army Chief of Staff General Gordon Sullivan has pointed out, we recognize that this is a period of transition. Still, as the world changes, we must not forget the guideposts that have served us well in the past.

The Army will be a trained and ready total force, serving the United States whether the task be like an Operation Desert Storm, an Operation Just Cause, counternarcotics battle or disaster relief. We are and must remain to be a strategic force capable of rapid, decisive victory anywhere in the world.

We all wish for a peaceful world. But history does not give us much cause for optimism. As former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara recently observed, there were 125 wars leading to 40 million deaths between World War II and the Persian Gulf War. These conflicts were not the result of ideological differences between East and West, but of age-old causes of war: boundary disputes, economic conflicts and ethnic tension. The end of the Cold War does not eliminate these sources of conflict; it may even exacerbate them.

What conditions might threaten the vital interests of the United States? Although conditional, circumstantial and ever-changing, there are some which are particularly contentious today, for example: ideology that underwrites violent change; unfair markets that threaten economic well-being; ethnic and religious differences; and proliferation of modern military technology throughout the developing world.

The fundamental tenets of the new U.S. military strategy, to use military language, are these: strategic deterrence and defense, forward presence, crisis response and reconstitution of forces and industrial capacity.

This strategy supports the objectives of national security by providing the necessary capabilities to move rapidly in defending our interest in vital regions. It allows the military services to meet global responsibilities with smaller, more flexible military forces while permitting us to reconstitute a larger force if a more robust threat emerges.

The Army already has begun to reshape itself. The Cold War Army of five corps and 28 divisions will be reduced to four corps and 20 divisions by 1995. We already have eliminated four active divisions from the force structure two in the United States and two in Europe.

Ultimately, the Army will be organized into 12 active divisions, six National Guard divisions and two cadre divisions.

This force structure is the result of a deliberate process initiated in the late 1980s, and if it seems cautious it is because it is cognizant of history. As President Bush observed last January in his State of the Union Address, we cannot repeat the mistakes of the past when armistice was followed by reckless optimism and defense was purged as if the world were permanently safe.

General Gordon has stated that the Army's future modernization program will focus on improving the lethality of our early-deployment forces, on maximizing the effectiveness of our on-hand equipment and on the leap-ahead technologies that will ensure our technological superiority in the decade ahead.

Most importantly, we will continue to recruit outstanding young men and women, who will continue to keep our force balanced and strong. Indeed, the youth coming into the Army today are the brightest we have ever seen.

Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm validated our view that all components of the total army Active, National Guard and Reserve are critical to battlefield success. But to get the most out of our reduced force structure in the future, we need to strengthen the interrelationships of these components.

The point is basic. For over 200 years, the Army has responded to the challenges of change. Today, it is adapting to a changed world with an unchanging idea: when we are called again, we will be ready.

Capt. Michael Knott is Recruiting Company Commander for the U.S. Army in Cape Girardeau.