Editing Robert McNamara (section)

===Counter-insurgency===
{{see also|Robert Mcnamara#Army opposition to counterinsurgency}}
The Kennedy administration placed particular emphasis on improving the ability to counter communist "wars of national liberation", in which the enemy avoided head-on military confrontation and resorted to political subversion and [[guerrilla warfare|guerrilla tactics]]. As McNamara said in his 1962 annual report, "The military tactics are those of the sniper, the ambush, and the raid. The political tactics are terror, extortion, and assassination." In practical terms, this meant training and equipping U.S. military personnel as well as allies, such as [[South Vietnam]], for those same exact kinds of [[Counter-insurgency|counterinsurgency]] operations. Kennedy was fascinated with counterinsurgency warfare, and made a major push to develop the [[United States Army Special Forces|Special Forces]], popularly known as the Green Berets.{{sfn|Shafer|1988|pp=22–23}}

Increased attention to conventional strength complemented these special forces preparations. In this instance, McNamara called up reserves and also proceeded to expand the regular armed forces. Whereas active duty strength had declined from approximately 3,555,000 to 2,483,000 between 1953 (the end of the [[Korean War]]) and 1961, it increased to nearly 2,808,000 by June 30, 1962. Then the forces leveled off at around 2,700,000 until the Vietnam military buildup began in 1965, reaching a peak of nearly 3,550,000 by mid-1968, just after McNamara left office.<ref name="Historical Office Robert S. McNamara" /> The U.S. Army leadership was, for the most part, strongly opposed to the counterinsurgency vogue, and stoutly resisted the presidential pressure for more counterinsurgency training and forces.{{sfn|Shafer|1988|p=23}} The U.S. Army, for reasons of bureaucratic politics, budgetary reasons and sheer pride, wanted to be equipped to fight a conventional war in central Europe against the [[Soviet Army]], with a large number of divisions armed with expensive hi-tech weapons designed for maximum firepower, instead of having small teams of Special Forces armed with relatively low tech weapons like assault rifles fight in a Third World country.{{sfn|Shafer|1988|p=23}}