Ep. 0128: Foundation of the Permanent Garrison State

Between 1946 and 1953, the cornerstones of a permanent garrison state were laid within the structure of the US government.

Join CJ as he discusses:

• Henry Luce’s 1941 article “The American Century” & the construction of the Pentagon (begun on Sept. 11th, 1941 -the pic above shows the Pentagon under construction, BTW) as harbingers of this change
• George Kennan’s original, much more limited strategy of ‘containment’ towards the USSR
• American intervention in Greece, 1946
• The National Security Act of 1947 (the single most important piece of formal legislation in this process)
• NSC-68
• Proof of a revolution within the form: Harry Truman’s sending of American forces into significant combat in 1950 without a declaration of war
• How the Eisenhower Administration tacitly ratified all this into permanence, despite Ike’s occasional statements that indicate his misgivings about the whole thing

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Internal Links

• DHP Ep. 0115: Out with the Old Right, In with the New Right

External Links

• Henry Luce, “The American Century”
• George Kennan’s ‘Long Telegram’
• Winston Churchill, “The Sinews of Peace” (the ‘Iron Curtain’ speech)
• Harold D. Lasswell, “The Garrison State,” published in The American Journal of Sociology, Jan. 1941.
• Full text of NSC-68