Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- 1 The National Security Discourse: Ideology, Political Culture, and State Making
- 2 Magna Charta: The National Security Act and the Specter of the Garrison State
- 3 The High Price of Peace: Guns-and-Butter Politics in the Early Cold War
- 4 The Time Tax: American Political Culture and the UMT Debate
- 5 “Chaos and Conflict and Carnage Confounded”: Budget Battles and Defense Reorganization
- 6 Preparing for Permanent War: Economy, Science, and Secrecy in the National Security State
- 7 Turning Point: NSC-68, the Korean War, and the National Security Response
- 8 Semiwar: The Korean War and Rearmament
- 9 The Iron Cross: Solvency, Security, and the Eisenhower Transition
- 10 Other Voices: The Public Sphere and the National Security Mentality
- 11 Conclusion
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
11 - Conclusion
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- 1 The National Security Discourse: Ideology, Political Culture, and State Making
- 2 Magna Charta: The National Security Act and the Specter of the Garrison State
- 3 The High Price of Peace: Guns-and-Butter Politics in the Early Cold War
- 4 The Time Tax: American Political Culture and the UMT Debate
- 5 “Chaos and Conflict and Carnage Confounded”: Budget Battles and Defense Reorganization
- 6 Preparing for Permanent War: Economy, Science, and Secrecy in the National Security State
- 7 Turning Point: NSC-68, the Korean War, and the National Security Response
- 8 Semiwar: The Korean War and Rearmament
- 9 The Iron Cross: Solvency, Security, and the Eisenhower Transition
- 10 Other Voices: The Public Sphere and the National Security Mentality
- 11 Conclusion
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
Summary
As the preceding chapters indicate, two broad dynamics were at work in American state making after 1945, one associated with an older political culture and the other with the new ideology of national security. Elements of each dynamic could exist side by side in the same individual, pulling in this direction at one time and in that direction at another. Truman and Forrestal were good examples of this tension, as was Taft, whose thinking on international matters changed considerably in the years after Pearl Harbor. Both dynamics could also be present in the same political party, though each was more likely to be identified with one of the major parties than with the other, and with the views and constituencies associated with that party. One was identified with the Democratic party, the other with the Republican party; one was associated with the executive branch, the other with the legislative branch; one was more liberal, the other more conservative; one was internationally oriented, the other tended toward nationalism, regionalism, or even isolationism.
The tension between these two dynamics tapped into a long history of political controversy over the role of the state in American life, and the role of the United States in world affairs.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- A Cross of IronHarry S. Truman and the Origins of the National Security State, 1945–1954, pp. 463 - 482Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998