A Preponderance of Power: National Security, the Truman Administration, and the Cold WarIn the United States the Cold War shaped our political culture, our institutions, and our national priorities. Abroad, it influenced the destinies of people everywhere. It divided Europe, split Germany, and engulfed the Third World. It led to a feverish arms race and massive sales of military equipment to poor nations. For at least four decades it left the world in a chronic state of tension where a miscalculation could trigger nuclear holocaust. Documents, oral histories, and memoirs illuminating the goals, motives, and fears of contemporary U.S. officials were already widely circulated and studied during the Cold War, but in the 1970s a massive declassification of documents from the Army, Navy, Air Force, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Department of Defense, and some intelligence agencies reinvigorated historical study of this war which became the definitive conflict of its time. While many historians used these records to explore specialized topics, this author marshals the considerable available evidence on behalf of an overall analysis of national security policy during the Truman years. To date, it is the most comprehensive history of that administration's progressive embroilment in the Cold War. |
Contents
Ambivalence Disorganization and the East European | 25 |
Global Security 1945 | 55 |
The Cold War Begins JanuaryNovember 1946 | 100 |
From the Truman Doctrine to the National Security Act | 141 |
The Marshall Plan Germany and the European Cold War | 182 |
Goals Tactics and the Budgetary Conundrum 19471948 | 220 |
Acheson Takes Command | 266 |
Problems RiskTaking and NSC | 312 |
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Acheson actions Air Force allies American areas Army atomic weapons bases Bevin Bohlen bomb Bradley British Byrnes Caffery capabilities Chief of Staff China Chinese co-opt Cold War Communist countries defense Department officials Diary diplomatic Eastern economic Eisenhower European foreign policy Foreign Relations Forrestal France French FRUS Germany goals Harriman HSTP ibid important Indochina industrial Iran Japan Japanese July 45 June 48 Kennan Korea Korean War Kremlin Leahy Lovett MacArthur Manchuria March 48 Marshall Plan McCloy MemCon Memo Middle East military assistance Moscow national security nationalist NATO Navy Nitze Papers Patterson peace political PPP:HST president quotation rearmament Rusk Russians secretary Senate Southeast Asia Soviet Union Stalin Stimson strategic treaty Truman administration Turkey U.S. military U.S. officials U.S. policy U.S. policymakers U.S. troops United USSR Viet Minh wanted West Western Europe