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Creating the National Security State: A History of the Law That Transformed America

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Many observers recognize that the U.S. Government has for decades placed too
much emphasis on military might to the detriment of other interests. This book
provides a sobering explanation of how such a skewed approach emerged. Stuart is
an historian at Dickinson College and also adjunct professor at the U.S. Army War
College. He shows how the 150-year tradition of peacetime pursuit of national
interests headed by the State Department gave way to the "Pearl Harbor System"
of viewing the world through the perspective of potential threats to national
security.
Paying special attention to the arguments of Professor Pendleton Herring for a more
militarized and unified system to combat the threat of foreign dictatorships in the 1930s,
Stuart carefully traces both the debate and the political maneuvering during and after
World War II that led to the National Security Act of 1947. The birth of the NSC and
CIA, the spinoff of the Air Force from the Army, the rearguard action of
the Navy to thwart unification of the services, the decline of State--
Stuart skilfully analyzes how these shaped the national security state. He
also takes the story into the Fifties to show how the various roles in the new
system--most notably, the covert operations of CIA that replaced its original
mission of intelligence coordination--fell into place in practice.
As a retired FSO, I found this account thorough, objective, and ultimately chilling.
One sees that, once the militarized national security system took shape, it
crunched forward inexorably despite occasional setbacks and scandals. Still,
Stuart finds some hope in the thought that the U.S. has become "a chastened
Colossus that is increasingly aware of the limits of its capabilities and the
complexity of its challenges. This is why," he continues, "a policymaking system that asks,
'Where is the threat?' and 'Who is the enemy?' is not as useful as a system
that asks, 'What are the issues?' and 'What are our interests?'"
I recommend this book to anyone concerned with the reform of the U.S. Government
and the redirection of its policies to deal with the real challenges of the future.