Question: Military spending. Here are data on U.S. spending for national defense for the fiscal years between 1940 and 2006 from the Statistical Abstract. You may want to look in the latest volume for data from the most recent year. You can also find the amounts for every year between 1940 and the present at www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2008/. See the pdf file available by clicking on "Historical Tables, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2008." Look in Section 3 of this pdf file. The units are billions of dollars (this is serious money).

Write an essay that describes the changes in military spending in real terms during this period from just before World War II until a decade after the end of the cold war. Do the necessary calculations and write a brief description that ties military spending to the major military events of this period: World War II (1941-1945), the Korean War (1950-1953), the Vietnam War (roughly 1964- 1975), the end of the cold war after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and the U.S. war with Iraq (beginning in March 2003). You may want to look at years not included in the above table to help you as you write your essay.