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

357 Pages·2008·1.48 MB·English

by  Douglas T. Stuart

C R E A T I N G T H E
N A T I O N A L S E C U R I T Y S T A T E
This page intentionally left blank
Copyright ”2008 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street,
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street,
Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Control Number: 2007940899
ISBN: 978-0-691-13371-3
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
This book has been composed in Palatino Typeface
Printed on acid-free paper f
press.princeton.edu
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Carol and Laura, with all my love
And for Pendleton Herring; Scholar, Public Servant, and Gentleman
This page intentionally left blank
CONTEN T S
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
ABBREVIATIONS xi
INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER ONE
A Farewell to Normalcy 12
CHAPTER TWO
“One Man Is Responsible”:
Managing National Security during World War II 43
CHAPTER THREE
Marshall’s Plan:
The Battle over Postwar Unification of the Armed Forces 73
CHAPTER FOUR
Eberstadt’s Plan:
“Active, Intimate and Continuous Relationships” 109
CHAPTER FIVE
Connecting the Domestic Ligaments of National Security 144
CHAPTER SIX
From the National Military Establishment to
The Office of the Secretary of Defense 180
CHAPTER SEVEN
Closing the Phalanx:
The Establishment of the NSC and the CIA, 1947–1960 230
CONCLUSION 274
NOTES 289
INDEX 335
This page intentionally left blank
ACKNOWLEDGMENT S
I AM VERY FORTUNATE to find myself in Carlisle, a small town in south
central Pennsylvania which is the home to both Dickinson College and
the US ArmyWar College. My colleagues at both institutions have pro-
vided invaluable guidance and encouragement, and my students at
both institutions have critiqued my arguments and questioned my
basic assumptions. The administrations at both institutions have been
consistently supportive. I am particularly grateful to Neil Weissman,
Dean and Provost of Dickinson College, whose commitment to the
professional development of his faculty has benefited me, and all of
my colleagues at Dickinson. I am also very thankful to the members
of the Stuart and Amick families for their generous support of the
academic enterprise at Dickinson, including their establishment of the
J. William and Helen D. Stuart Chair in International Studies, of which
I am honored to be the first holder. Because of the coincidence of the
name, however, I have felt the need to say “no relation” each time I
give someone my business card.
No one who has undertaken this type of research can come away
from the process without a deep appreciation of the work of archivists.
The friendly and professional archivists at the Harry S. Truman and
Dwight D. Eisenhower Libraries have been especially helpful to me
over the years. I also want to express my sincere thanks to the archi-
vists at the Seeley G. MuddManuscript Library (Princeton University),
the US ArmyWar College, the Naval War College, Harvard University,
the National Archives at College Park, MD, The Rockefeller Archive
Center, and the John F. Kennedy Library.
I appreciate the very professional assistance that I have received
from Chuck Myers and Brigitte Pelner at Princeton University Press,
and from copy editor Sherry Wert. I am particularly grateful to the
anonymous reviewers of my manuscript, who provided both encour-
agement and advice.
This project would not have been possible without the very gener-
ous support of the Smith Richardson Foundation. They have been ex-
ceptionally generous in their financial assistance and exceptionally pa-
tient with me. I owe a special debt to Nadia Schadlow, who has been
both a colleague and a supporter since this project was first proposed,
and to Marin Strmecki for his consistent backing over the years.