Chapter 29: The Cold War and American Globalism, 1945-1961





The following activities accompany the Legacy for a People and a Nation on "The National Security State" in Chapter 29. Refer to page 851 of Norton, A People and a Nation, Sixth Edition for the complete text of this Legacy. There are three parts to this web page: Questions to Consider, Investigation, and Further Exploration.




Questions to Consider
1. Has the relationship between government and business changed significantly since World War II?

2. What were government responses to the Soviet launch of Sputnik? Was our reaction shaped by the national security state?

3. Does the military industrial complex and the national security state threaten our heritage of civilian control over the military?


Investigation
List the arguments made for and against a national security state during the Cold War. Begin by looking at The Brookings Institute web site on U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project. This site contains links to commenataries, statistics, and charts about our nuclear weapons programs to the present. Follow those readings with a look at Eisenhower's 1961 speech warning against the military industrial complex. Was massive spending and the growth of a "military-industrial complex" necessary for the safety of Americans during the Cold War, or was it a wasteful use of resources that could have been better spent on other priorities? Has the U.S. made an appropriate adjustment in spending since the demise of the Cold War?




Further Exploration
1. Browse the online guide to CNN's extensive series on the Cold War with episode-by-episode breakdowns and transcripts, a discussion of Cold War memories, and much more.

2. For a project that helps clarify the conflicting interests and misunderstandings during the Cold War, with an emphasis on Soviet records, visit the Cold War International History Project.

3. The National Security Archive contains declassified Cold War documents from the National Security Agency, the CIA, and others.

4. Explore the Cold War International HistoryProject with primary and secondary sources organized by topic. This site is supported by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.