House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American PowerHoughton Mifflin Company, 2006 - 657 pages From the National Book Award-winning author of An American Requiem and Constantine's Sword comes a sweeping yet intimate look at the Pentagon and its vast -- often hidden -- impact on America. This landmark, myth-shattering work chronicles the most powerful institution in America, the people who created it, and the pathologies it has spawned. James Carroll proves a controversial thesis: the Pentagon has, since its founding, operated beyond the control of any force in government or society. It is the biggest, loosest cannon in American history, and no institution has changed this country more. To argue his case, he marshals a trove of often chilling evidence. He recounts how "the Building" and its denizens achieved what Eisenhower called "a disastrous rise of misplaced power" -- from the unprecedented aerial bombing of Germany and Japan during World War II to the "shock and awe" of Iraq. He charts the colossal U.S. nuclear buildup, which far outpaced that of the USSR, and has outlived it. He reveals how consistently the Building has found new enemies just as old threats -- and funding -- evaporate. He demonstrates how Pentagon policy brought about U.S. indifference to an epidemic of genocide during the 1990s. And he shows how the forces that attacked the Pentagon on 9/11 were set in motion exactly sixty years earlier, on September 11, 1941, when ground was broken for the house of war. Carroll draws on rich personal experience (his father was a top Pentagon official for more than twenty years) as well as exhaustive research and dozens of extensive interviews with Washington insiders. The result is a grand yet intimate work of history, unashamedly polemical and personal but unerringly factual. With a breadth and focus that no other book could muster, it explains what America has become over the past sixty years. |
From inside the book
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Page 205
... weapons seem somehow more immoral than other weapons . He not only wanted " to break down this false distinction , " 155 but also to make clear American readiness to use the weapon . This stance , for which Korea would be claimed as a ...
... weapons seem somehow more immoral than other weapons . He not only wanted " to break down this false distinction , " 155 but also to make clear American readiness to use the weapon . This stance , for which Korea would be claimed as a ...
Page 244
... weapons would cause . As a result , any U.S. de- cision to use nuclear weapons - for example , a political decision to employ a ' limited ' option to signal ' restraint ' - almost certainly would have been pred- icated on insufficient ...
... weapons would cause . As a result , any U.S. de- cision to use nuclear weapons - for example , a political decision to employ a ' limited ' option to signal ' restraint ' - almost certainly would have been pred- icated on insufficient ...
Page 483
... weapons ... " he wrote . " I can think of no circumstances under which it would be wise for the United States to use nuclear weapons , even in retaliation for their prior use against us . What , for example , would our targets be ? It ...
... weapons ... " he wrote . " I can think of no circumstances under which it would be wise for the United States to use nuclear weapons , even in retaliation for their prior use against us . What , for example , would our targets be ? It ...
Contents
THE ABSOLUTE WEAPON | 40 |
Atomic Forgetfulness Grovess Toboggan The Second Coming in Wrath | 98 |
SELFFULFILLING PARANOIA | 161 |
Copyright | |
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House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power James Carroll Limited preview - 2007 |
House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power James Carroll Limited preview - 2007 |
House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power James Carroll No preview available - 2006 |
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Acheson Air Force Allied American arms control arms race Army atomic bomb attack author interview began Berlin Berrigan bombers Bundy Bush Byrnes called Carter cities civilian Clinton Cold Cold War Command Committee Communist Curtis LeMay danger decision defined destruction disarmament Eisenhower enemy father fear Forrestal's George George H. W. Bush German Gorbachev Groves H-bomb Hiroshima historian Ibid intelligence Iraq James Forrestal Japan Japanese John Joint Chiefs Kaysen Kennan Kennedy Kennedy's Kissinger knew later launched leaders LeMay LeMay's McNamara military missile missile gap moral Moscow move national security Navy Nixon nuclear arsenal nuclear war nuclear weapons Paul Nitze peace Pentagon Philip Berrigan political Powell president Reagan Robert McNamara Roosevelt Rumsfeld Russian Schlesinger scientists secretary of defense Senate Soviet Union speech Stalin Stimson Symington targets threat tion told took Treaty Truman United Vietnam wanted warheads Washington Wolfowitz wrote York