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

by Douglas T. Stuart

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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

364 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a useful if somewhat disappointing book. It provides an excellent chronological recounting of the events and debates that led to the passage and subsequent modifications to the National Security Act of 1947. The author does a particularly good job describing the debates over unification of the armed forces. The book is weaker on the history and development of the National Security Council. Nevertheless, the book complements and expands on Amy Zegart's work in "Flawed by Design."

Throughout the book, I was left with the impression that the author is most interested in writing a biography of Pendleton Herring, an academic instrumental in the emergence and adoption of the concept of "national security" as an organizing principle for the United States. Stuart is clearly quite fascinated and taken with Herring.

I also wonder why historians have largely ceded study of the history of national security institutions to political scientists like Zegart and Stuart, both of whom do a pretty good job of telling the story but are constrained by the need to fit their narratives into something recognizable and relevant to political scientists.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

It certainly lent itself well to my seminar on the growth of the federal government, in terms of being related to other themes we've discussed, plus a discussion of historical writing. Many students didn't have the prior knowledge they needed to read the book (that is, they didn't know enough about what our current foreign policy/national security institutions are, and they didn't know enough about some of the main people involved).