Building the Cold War consensus
Subtitle: the political economy of U.S. national security policy, 1949-51
By: Benjamin O. Fordham.
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Ann Arbor
Language: eng
Number of pages: 265
Subjects: National security -- United States -- History -- 20th century.; Internal security -- United States -- History -- 20th century.; Cold War.; United States -- Foreign relations -- 1945-1953.; United States -- Politics and government -- 1945-1953.
Description: Using a statistical analysis of the economic sources of support and opposition to the Truman administration's foreign policy and a historical account of the crucial period between the summer of 1949 and the winter of 1951, Fordham integrates the political struggle over NSC 68, the decision to intervene in the Korean War, and congressional debates over the Fair Deal, McCarthyism, and military spending.

The Truman administration's policy was politically successful not only because it appealed to internationally oriented sectors of the U.S. economy, but also because it was linked to domestic policies favored by domestically oriented, labor-sensitive sectors that would otherwise have opposed it.

This interpretation of Cold War foreign policy will appeal to political scientists and historians concerned with the origins of the Cold War, American social welfare policy, McCarthyism, and the Korean War. The theoretical argument that Fordham advances will be of interest broadly to scholars of U.S. foreign policy, American politics, and international relations theory.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 207-251) and indexes.
Table of contents: title: The domestic political economy and U.S. national security policy; title: The politics of rearmament in the executive branch I : the fiscal 1951 budget; title: The politics of rearmament in the executive branch II : NSC 68 and rearmament; title: The political and economic sources of divergent foreign policy preferences in the Senate, 1949-51; title: The conflictual politics of consensus building I : Korea, rearmament, and the end of the Fair Deal; title: The conflictual politics of consensus building II : the development of the internal security program; title: The conflictual politics of consensus building III : rearmament and the red scare; title: Conclusion : domestic politics and theories of national security policy.