Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- 1 The National Security Discourse: Ideology, Political Culture, and State Making
- 2 Magna Charta: The National Security Act and the Specter of the Garrison State
- 3 The High Price of Peace: Guns-and-Butter Politics in the Early Cold War
- 4 The Time Tax: American Political Culture and the UMT Debate
- 5 “Chaos and Conflict and Carnage Confounded”: Budget Battles and Defense Reorganization
- 6 Preparing for Permanent War: Economy, Science, and Secrecy in the National Security State
- 7 Turning Point: NSC-68, the Korean War, and the National Security Response
- 8 Semiwar: The Korean War and Rearmament
- 9 The Iron Cross: Solvency, Security, and the Eisenhower Transition
- 10 Other Voices: The Public Sphere and the National Security Mentality
- 11 Conclusion
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
3 - The High Price of Peace: Guns-and-Butter Politics in the Early Cold War
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- 1 The National Security Discourse: Ideology, Political Culture, and State Making
- 2 Magna Charta: The National Security Act and the Specter of the Garrison State
- 3 The High Price of Peace: Guns-and-Butter Politics in the Early Cold War
- 4 The Time Tax: American Political Culture and the UMT Debate
- 5 “Chaos and Conflict and Carnage Confounded”: Budget Battles and Defense Reorganization
- 6 Preparing for Permanent War: Economy, Science, and Secrecy in the National Security State
- 7 Turning Point: NSC-68, the Korean War, and the National Security Response
- 8 Semiwar: The Korean War and Rearmament
- 9 The Iron Cross: Solvency, Security, and the Eisenhower Transition
- 10 Other Voices: The Public Sphere and the National Security Mentality
- 11 Conclusion
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Few principles of traditional public policy were so sacrosanct as that of a balanced budget, and few were so compromised by the national security state that emerged in the early years of the Cold War. Although the principle had been challenged during the Second World War, with the forced expenditures on national defense, and during the Great Depression, when declining revenues and New Deal social programs led to persistent deficits, neither of these experiences had driven the American people from their strong attachment to a balanced budget. This was a value buried deep in the country's political culture, with roots reaching back to the republican ideology that early American leaders had borrowed from English country thought, and from there to the tradition of classical republicanism and civic humanism.
The depth and persistence of this attachment owed as much to moral and political as to fiscal considerations. In the cultural narrative to which most Americans subscribed, individual initiative, fiscal prudence, and a common concern for the public good had combined to make the United States a unique success – a rich and powerful nation in which the virtue of individual citizens and a high standard of living had worked to curb social conflict and sustain democracy. In this narrative, budget deficits corrupted public policy and private lives alike.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- A Cross of IronHarry S. Truman and the Origins of the National Security State, 1945–1954, pp. 69 - 118Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998