Harry S. Truman and the War Scare of 1948: A Successful Campaign to Deceive the Nation (Paperback)

by Frank Kofsky (Author) "Those words, or something very like them, leaped into my head the moment it dawned on me-more years ago than I care to recall-that the..." (more)
Key Phrases: air policy commission, technological inflation, aviation policy board, United States, State Department, Soviet Union (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Kofsky, a history professor at California State University, unconvincingly argues that President Harry Truman, in collusion with Secretary of State George Marshall and Secretary of Defense James V. Forrestal, fabricated the Soviet Union's perceived military aggressiveness towards the West. According to Kofsky, this trumped-up "war scare" was a great success for the Truman administration, for it frightened Congress into approving the Marshall Plan, saved the U.S. aviation industry from bankruptcy and brought about a quantum leap in defense spending. Truman deserves condemnation, the author maintains, for establishing a permanent war economy "that now serves primarily to accelerate the rate at which the quality of life in the United States declines." Kofsky's perspective on the origins of the Cold War is questionable in its ready condemnations of Truman and explanations of U.S.
U.S.S.R. relations under Stalin.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
Kofsky (history, California State Univ. at Sacramento) has a reputation for possessing a heavy-handed, pedantic style (as seen in Black Nationalism and the Revolu tion in Music , LJ 6/1/71, and Lenny Bruce: The Comedian as Social Critic , LJ 11/15/74). The same approach weighs down his latest work. Kofsky shows evidence of thorough research but is never able to convince the reader of his belief that the events of the spring of 1948 are historically important and relevant to understanding the Truman presidency. Rather, he buries the reader with acerbic one-liners and countless narrow points of facts to back his argument. The work is particularly disappointing coming on the heels of David McCullough's Truman ( LJ 6/1/92). Kofsky has missed an opportunity to connect with a growing audience of Truman enthusiasts on both a scholarly and popular level. Not recommended.
- Robert Favini, Bentley Coll. Lib., Wal tham, Mass.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; 1st Paperback ed edition (January 15, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312123299
• ISBN-13: 978-0312123291
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #400,446 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars News on the Way US Policy Invented Cold War, September 27, 1999

By	[e-mail] "yvesmollard-la-bruyere" (Brussels, Belgium) - See all my reviews

Fantastic survey on the industrial and political conditions of the arms race of the 50's and the 60's. At the end, US and the Allies dictated the way the Soviets armed themselves, at the expense of world security and peace.

3.0 out of 5 stars The Bibliography Should Make This A Keeper, February 4, 2008

By	L. vanVelzen (Camp Parks, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The bibliography and annotations should make this a keeper, as it has become for me. Although I disagreed with the late Dr. Kofsky about the fundamental potential of the species H. sapiens (and thus remained a political opposite, far, far to his right), as his student I continue to marvel at his research a decade after his untimely death. I must concede that it has sadly gone to waste a bit in the text of this book--though good, it's not at all special in the company of its peers. I must also agree that its tendency toward Marxist religious banter (which must inherently replace logical conclusions in Marxist writing) reduces its academic value per se; none the less I still find it beautiful in its architecture. I can only hope that the breadth of his life's work fell intact into the hands of his graduate assistant, who took over instruction in his last days as a professor in Sacramento. Whether it has or not, this book is well worth considering, especially to a student designing his or her own research. Its annotations and bibliography promise an excruciatingly well investigated line of departure for any intended work on the period, right, left, or simply rational. Now, one last comment about the author: he himself was a graduate student of the Robert LeFevre-Howard Zinn lineage, with all its implications about revision of history to fulfil the prophesies of the sans-culottes. (Y'know, I miss the ol' grouch though too.)

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Emancipate yourself from "Cold War" false propaganda, August 7, 2004

By	Red Whitenblue "non-fiction advocate" (CA) - See all my reviews

The best recommendation a book like this can get is a one star pan from an indoctrinated tool of corporate imperialism like the one below.