  We study the structure of soft breaking terms in the context of a gaugino
condensation scenario. Assuming that the Supergravity Lagrangian is the correct
quantum field theory limit, at some momentum scale $\mu_{UV}$, of a more
fundamental one, we demonstrate that the correct result is obtained simply by
substituting, in the tree level Supergravity Lagrangian, $\lambda \lambda$ (the
gaugino condensate) by its vacuum expectation value $\Lambda^3$. In string
inspired scenarios this implies, in particular, that the scalar masses are
vanishing at the string tree-level and receive a contribution, at the one loop
level, which is proportional to the Green Schwarz coefficient $\delta_{GS}$.
Our results do not agree with the ones obtained in the effective Lagrangian
approach. We study in detail the origin of this discrepancy, and we argue that
the use of the supertrace anomaly to determine the effective theory for the
condensate does not fix its gravitational interactions, leaving the soft
breaking terms and the vacua of the theory unspecified.
