Creating the National Security State
Creating the National Security State

Author: Douglas Stuart

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2012-06-24

Total Pages: 359

ISBN-13: 069115547X

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For the last sixty years, American foreign and defense policymaking has been dominated by a network of institutions created by one piece of legislation--the 1947 National Security Act. This is the definitive study of the intense political and bureaucratic struggles that surrounded the passage and initial implementation of the law. Focusing on the critical years from 1937 to 1960, Douglas Stuart shows how disputes over the lessons of Pearl Harbor and World War II informed the debates that culminated in the legislation, and how the new national security agencies were subsequently transformed by battles over missions, budgets, and influence during the early cold war. Stuart provides an in-depth account of the fight over Truman's plan for unification of the armed services, demonstrating how this dispute colored debates about institutional reform. He traces the rise of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the transformation of the CIA, and the institutionalization of the National Security Council. He also illustrates how the development of this network of national security institutions resulted in the progressive marginalization of the State Department. Stuart concludes with some insights that will be of value to anyone interested in the current debate over institutional reform.

Power Shifts
Power Shifts

Author: John A. Dearborn

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2021-09-10

Total Pages: 347

ISBN-13: 022679783X

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"The extraordinary nature of the Trump presidency has spawned a resurgence in the study of the presidency and a rising concern about the power of the office. In Power Shifts: Congress and Presidential Representation, John Dearborn explores the development of the idea of the representative presidency, that the president alone is elected by a national constituency, and thus the only part of government who can represent the nation against the parochial concerns of members of Congress, and its relationship to the growth of presidential power in the 20th century. Dearborn asks why Congress conceded so much power to the Chief Executive, with the support of particularly conservative members of the Supreme Court. He discusses the debates between Congress and the Executive and the arguments offered by politicians, scholars, and members of the judiciary about the role of the president in the American state. He asks why so many bought into the idea of the representative, and hence, strong presidency despite unpopular wars, failed foreign policies, and parochial actions that favor only the president's supporters. This is a book about the power of ideas in the development of the American state"--

The Department of Defense
The Department of Defense

Author: United States. Department of Defense. Historical Office

Publisher:

Published: 1978

Total Pages: 374

ISBN-13:

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This volume, the first of a series, is a collection of documents with a single theme-the establishment and development of the organization of the Department of Defense. This reference collection contains source materials that will be useful to scholars, officials of government, reporters of current affairs, and others. It may also afford insights into the evolution of a large and complex department of government. Topics summarized and/or documented include: The National Security Act of 1947; The Amendment of 1949; Reorganization Plan No. 6 of 1953; Defense Reorganization Act of 1958; Administrative and Legislative Modifications -- 1958-1978; and Functions of the Armed Services and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Melvin Laird and the Foundation of the Post-Vietnam Military, 1969-1973
Melvin Laird and the Foundation of the Post-Vietnam Military, 1969-1973

Author: Richard A. Hunt

Publisher: Government Printing Office

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 740

ISBN-13: 9780160927577

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"[E]xamines the former Congressman Melvin Laird's efforts to reconstitute the Department of Defense during the last years of the Vietnam war... Laird acted to mitigate the adverse effects of the Vietnam War on the department and to prepare the nation's armed forces for the future. Foremost was the transition from a conscripted military to an all-volunteer force, a fundamental policy shift that ended an unpopular and inequitable draft system."--from jacket.