Victory on the Potomac: The Goldwater-Nichols Act Unifies the Pentagon (Texas a & M University Military History Series)

Book Description

". . . a comprehensive account of the battle to make the GNA a reality. Skillfully bringing to life not only the players but also the issues, Mr. Locher, who was a prime mover in framing the legislation that resulted in Goldwater-Nichols, has written the definitive history of the Act."--Washington Times

". . . a monumental Washington battle in prose that is both exciting for experts and informative for novices . . . offers a unique historical lesson in rational decision making and civilian control of the military, and reminds us that the United States never pauses on the path to perfection."--William S. Cohen, former Secretary of Defense

"A definitive case study of the most important and successful American defense legislation of the twentieth century. Victory on the Potomac is probably the best informed book we are ever going to get on this critical chapter in the history of U.S. military policy. As such, it is must reading for military professionals and civilian defense policy experts alike."--Air and Space Power Journal

". . . a tale of the careful preparation and tenacity required to overturn an entrenched bureaucratic position . . . lays out the manner in which a handful of senior officers, vigorously supported by farsighted members of Congress, managed to overcome bitter institutional resistance to pass the Goldwater-Nichols Act--which embodied a veritable organizational revelation."--James R. Schlesinger, former Secretary of Defense

". . . provides a superb insight into how the system works in the marble, stone, and cement battlefields of Washington. For anyone interested in Congress, the Department of Defense, or the White House, this book provides a unique view into details not revealed in textbooks or biographies."--Proceedings

Customer Reviews:

Required reading, but with a big caveat.......2006-03-18

My rating is in the middle because the book should be required reading for anyone who wants to know how Goldwater-Nichols came about, however, at the same time, it is extremely biased in its delivery, analysis and conclusions. The author was appointed by Senators Nunn (D) and Goldwater (R) to be the senior reorganization staffer who, "led the team that helped congress 'get smart' on this complex but critically important subject." Because of Locher's involvement from the Act's beginning through to its approval, which gives him unique insight, he has a vested interest in presenting his justifications for the Act in a positive light. This is best seen in his portrayals of the principals involved; those who supported reform are heroes who were not afraid to stand up to the establishment and the institutionalized bureaucracy. Those who opposed Goldwater-Nichols were more interested in their own power and often presented emotional rather than factual or issues based arguments.

Unfortunately, the book was published in 2002, which means the work was done before the US invasion of Iraq in 2003; it would be interesting to see his analysis of the relationship between the SECDEF and the JCS now.

Bottom line: if you're interested in how Goldwater-Nichols evolved, buy the book; I did, and I have no regrets. But read it with a (big) grain of salt.

Gripping and Insightful, "Victory" for Studying Policymaking.......2003-01-13

This is quite easily one of the best books I've ever read on the creation of public policy. Locher paints a full and colorful picture of the military reform efforts culminating in the Goldwater-Nichols Act. I never realized what a role the Beirut/Lebanon operations played in creating an atmosphere in which military reform began to be viewed as necessary, and I found both the strategy and actions used to push the legislation through the Senate Armed Services Committee in 1985-86 particularly fascinating. With regards to balancing personal insights and meticulous research, in my opinion "Victory on the Potomac" is unequalled, and I consider it one of the top prizes in my personal library. If your interests include public policy, successful reform attempts or the organization of the U.S. military, you will find this book to be an entertaining and informative treasure.

Powerful study of Congress and the Pentagon.......2002-08-03

Jim Locher tells the fascinating story of how Congress forced the Pentagon to undergo major reform in the mid-1980s. Locher, who was a major participant in the process, tells the inside story of the Goldwater-Nichols reforms and really takes the gloves off. Locher is a careful researcher and skillful writer who demonstrates vividly the courage of Senators Barry Goldwater and Sam Nunn, Congressman Bill Nichols, Admiral Bill Crowe and others. Locher highlights both the brilliance and the manipulative skills of Secretary of the Navy John Lehman in the debates and interactions between the Congress and the Pentagon. . My only criticism is that Locher is a bit too critical of Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger who did so much to build up the military during the early 1980s. Must reading for all who will work with or within the Pentagon or the Congress in the years ahead

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American Defense Policy

Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
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ASIN: 0801880947

Book Description

American Defense Policy has been a mainstay for instructors of courses in political science, international relations, military affairs, and American national security for over 25 years. The updated and thoroughly revised eighth edition considers questions of continuity and change in America's defense policy in the face of a global climate beset by geopolitical tensions, rapid technological change, and terrorist violence.

On September 11, 2001, the seemingly impervious United States was handed a very sharp reality check. In this new atmosphere of fear and vulnerability, policy makers were forced to make national security their highest priority, implementing laws and military spending initiatives to combat the threat of international terrorism. In this volume, experts examine the many factors that shape today's security landscape -- America's values, the preparation of future defense leaders, the efforts to apply what we have learned from Afghanistan and Iraq to the transformation of America's military, reflection on America's nuclear weapons programs and missile defense, the threat of terrorism, and the challenges of homeland security -- which are applied to widely varied approaches to national defense strategy.

This invaluable and prudent text remains a classic introduction to the vital security issues facing the United States throughout its history and breaks new ground as a thoughtful and comprehensive starting point in understanding American defense policy and its role in the world today.

Present Dangers: Crisis and Opportunity in American Foreign and Defense Policy

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The Neocon fantasy and delusion that has led us to this disaster
Regarding the "swine" you refer to...
Not worth buying or reading
Neoconserative fantasy foreign policy
Absolutely a must-read: know your enemy!

Present Dangers: Crisis and Opportunity in American Foreign and Defense Policy
Robert Kagan
Manufacturer: Encounter Books
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1893554163

Amazon.com

Two leading advocates of "conservative internationalism" in foreign policy assemble a like-minded group of deep thinkers in Present Dangers. According to the editors--Robert Kagan of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and William Kristol of The Weekly Standard--America's most significant threats come from within, rather than without. They worry that "the United States, the world's dominant power on whom the maintenance of international peace and the support of liberal democratic principles depends, will shrink its responsibilities and--in a fit of absentmindedness, or parsimony, or indifference--allow the international order that it created and sustains to collapse." As might be expected, the Clinton administration comes in for a thrashing on these pages. Ross H. Munro, an expert on China, writes: "However history judges [President] Clinton, the assessment of how his administration dealt with a rising China is certain to be harsh." In a chapter on Russia, Peter W. Rodman slams the Clintonites for "sentimentality," an "absurd doctrinal fetish" with arms control, and "an unwillingness to assert major American strategic interests and impose a penalty for harm done to them, lest the poor Russians feel hurt." There are other essays, too: Richard N. Perle on Iraq, Elliott Abrams on the Middle East, and William J. Bennett on the importance of morality and character in foreign policy. Clear thinking and straightforward writing mark each chapter.

As a whole, Present Dangers is an excellent primer on how a Republican foreign policy might look in the early years of the 21st century. But to be sure, a Republican foreign policy would not inevitably look this way; in one of the book's best sections, James W. Caesar examines the realist and isolationist schools of conservative thought and contrasts them with the view expressed throughout Present Dangers. Yet this is a strong and convincing call for "a strong commitment to vigorous American global leadership, to American power, and to the advancement of American democratic and free-market principles abroad." --John J. Miller

Book Description

In this book Robert Kagan and William Kristol have compiled twelve provocative and sobering essays from intellectuals, historians and policy-makers that challenge America to take a hard look at the coming crises in our foreign policy. It makes a case for repairing our depleted military, for a crash program of missile defense, and for a complete rethinking of whom our possible adversaries and real strategic partners are.

Customer Reviews:

The Neocon fantasy and delusion that has led us to this disaster.......2006-03-13

This otherwise awful book is important to read as an historical document so that we know how we got into the current mess in Iraq (and at home in America, with our mass deficit and debt). This book shows us the Neoconservative fantasy of creating a new century of pax Americana and benevolent imperialism, which was then put into operation after 9/11 and has since led us into the catastrophic disaster that is Iraq. Read this book and then never believe or listen to another word that these deluded Neocon ideologues say. Even Francis Fukuyama has now abandoned this crazed utopian fantasty. Read his new book after you've finished this piece of pure fiction

Regarding the "swine" you refer to..........2005-06-18

The last reviewer's idea that America should distance itself from "lesser cultures" is that of a person who clearly knows very little about American culture. Look, the book is crap in its ideology, but it's profound in its influence on the Bush administration's foreign policy. The wacko concept of global domination that is so prevalent in the mission of the "Project for a New American Century" makes about as much sense as the last reviewer would, were he foolishly given the opportunity to publish something beyond an Amazon.com review. However, you ought to read the book, and you really ought to think about it. Especially now, while the country is coming around to the idea that maybe, just maybe, interest in Iraqi and Irani regime change has been around far longer than W has been president. Anyway, I suggest you get out of your confused and dark little study, sir, and try to see the world around you before you die. If America is a precious jewel, you are actively tarnishing it.

Not worth buying or reading.......2004-01-17

While I disagree with much of the content of this book, that is not why you shouldn't buy this book. The reason not to buy is that this book is greatly out-dated. It was from before 9-11, and the neo-con perspective and focus on the world is now quite different.

Neoconserative fantasy foreign policy.......2003-03-02

The problem with neoconservative foreign policy is not that it is conservative and realistic but rather that it is liberal. The descriptions of problems here presented are real enough but the policies advocated in response are simply unrealistic precisely because they are imbued with a kind of moralizing and crusading liberalism that is not going to solve America's foreign policy problems but rather exacerbate them. Doubtless American intervention is required in many areas (and not in the form of social work as advocated by the UN and the Left), but proclaiming complex problems to be simple forces of good and evil that can be solved with the revolutionary and forceful imposition of democracy is classic Wilsonian liberal nonsense. It is simply a liberal-minded fantasy that you can import democracy and human rights to places that do not have the historical and institutional background to support it. It is true that a realisitic foreign policy that encourages intervention without the aid of some rhetorical flourishes of high-minded but naive and impractical principles will fail to be legitimized in the mind of the demos; however, to go so far as to actually implement these principles as policy is not only doomed to failure but will most certainly result in "blowback" against American interests. Much more prudence and the reassertion of realistic geopolitical strategies wrapped in the rhetoric of Wilsonian fantasy worlds is needed in place of the actual implementation of crusading liberal ideologies when it comes to foreign policy. We should expect much more especially from William Kristol, being the student of the great Machiavellian scholar Harvey Mansfield.

Absolutely a must-read: know your enemy!.......2003-02-14

This is undoubtedly one of the most important books on US foreign policy published in recent years and should be read by anyone who cares about the future of the United States and the rest of the world. This is the manifesto of "conservative internationalism" whose proponents, including many of the books authors, now infest the Bush administration and are his loudest ventriloquists. Here, then, is the current administration's strategic vision.

The basic argument is that the US needs to exercise world domination, here spun as "benevolent global hegemony" and that there are a number of external obstacles which stand in the way and must be dealt with. These are Iraq, Iran, North Korea, China, the Middle East peace process and an independent Europe. In its clear and reasoned enunciation of strategy and future plans, it both rivals and surpasses the later chapters of Mein Kampf. Here is the game plan which must be read to understand where these people intend to take the world next.

If we ignore the desirability of this mission, its feasibility (the cost in money, lives and freedom) certainly merits discussion, but here the book is thin, relying on fairy story assumptions (budget surpluses!!!) and wishful thinking.

The one distasteful aspect of the book is the attempt to wrap the entire endeavour in the cloak of "American morality", understood as protecting citizen's liberties. This is breathtaking stuff from accomplices in the most extensive attempt to incinerate the Constitution in recent history.

Book Description

Steven Weinberg, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist, writes that America today "has an unprecedented opportunity to begin to escape from the risk of nuclear annihilation." But, he warns, President Bush is not only letting this opportunity slip away, he is, in some respects, moving in the wrong direction.

Bush's abrogation of the 1972 treaty limiting anti-ballistic missile systems is one example. Another, equally worrying, is the "revival of the idea of developing nuclear weapons for use, rather than solely for deterrence." The development of low-yield, earth-penetrating nuclear weapons for use in attacking underground bunkers "would be foolishness on a scale that even medieval knights might find implausible," Weinberg argues.

Such weapons would be "one sort of folly to which war is especially well suited: the lust for glory." The temptation to prize military glamour over sensible strategy has always been with us, as Weinberg shows in examples from the Middle Ages onward, but may have a particularly dangerous effect on defense policies in our age of high-tech armaments.

Anthony Lewis writes in his preface concerning these proposed weapons: "In the face of official folly so great, most of us tend to turn off. The subject is too difficult, and too frightening. But Steven Weinberg does not turn off. He grapples with the danger and the folly in understandable and elegant prose."

Protecting the American Homeland: A Preliminary Analysis

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A welcome contribution to the current national dialogue

Protecting the American Homeland: A Preliminary Analysis
Peter R. Orszag , Ivo H. Daalder , I. M. Destler , David L. Gunter , Robert E. Litan , and James B. Steinberg
Manufacturer: Brookings Institution Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

The September 11 attacks forcefully brought home the need to better protect the U.S. homeland. But how can this be accomplished most effectively? Here, a team of Brookings scholars offers a four-tier plan to guide and bolster the efforts under way by the Bush administration and Congress.

There has been some progress in making our homeland more secure. But the authors are concerned that the Bush administration may focus too narrowly on preventing attacks like those of the recent past and believe a broader and more structured approach to ensuring homeland security is needed. Given the vulnerability of our open society, the authors recommend four clear lines of direction. The first and last have received a good deal of attention from the Bush administration, though not yet enough; for the other two, a great deal remains to be done:

Perimeter defense at the border to prevent entry by potential perpetrators and the weapons and hazardous materials they may use

Prevention by detecting possible terrorists within the United States and securing dangerous materials they might obtain here

Identification and defense of key sites within the county: population centers, critical economic assets and infrastructure, and locations of key political or symbolic importance

Consequence management to give those directly involved in responding to an attack that may nevertheless occur the tools necessary to quickly identify and attack and limit its damage Included are specific recommendations on how much more to spend on homeland security, how much of the cost should be borne by the private sector, and how to structure the federal government to make the responsible agencies more efficient in addressing security concerns. Specifically, the authors believe that annual federal spending on homeland security may need to grow to about $45 billion, relative to a 2001 level of less than $20 billion and a Bush administration proposed budget for 2003 of $38 billion. They also discuss what burden state, local, and private-sector actors should bear in the overall national effort. Finally, the authors conclude that rather than creating a homeland security superagency, Tom Ridge, the director of the Office of Homeland Security, should have enhanced authority.

Customer Reviews:

A welcome contribution to the current national dialogue.......2002-10-08

Protecting The American Homeland: A Preliminary Analysis is a methodical and highly serious account, collaboratively written by a team of Brooking scholars (Michael E. O'Hanlon; Peter R. Orszag; Ivo H. Daalder; I. M. Destler; David L. Gunter; Robert E. Litan; James B. Steinberg), laying out a four-tiered plan to support the efforts of the Bush administration and Congress to ensure America's security from terrorists... Offering suggestions such as increasing federal spending on homeland security to ... and then upgrading the authority of the director of the Office of Homeland Security rather than create a new superagency, Protecting The American Homeland is a well-thought out and welcome contribution to the current national dialogue as it offers an important perspective for our post-911 national security needs.

Assessing the Base Force: How Much Is Too Much? (Studies in Defense Policy)

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Assessing the Base Force: How Much Is Too Much? (Studies in Defense Policy)
William W. Kaufmann
Manufacturer: Brookings Institution Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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American Defense Policy

Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0801854733

Book Description

"This book will help students better grasp and understand the complex processes involved in making American defense policy. It will help them draw important lessons from our experiences during the Cold War while also providing them with a glimpse of many of the more important security challenges to come."--Brent Scowcroft

Long valued by instructors of courses in political science, international relations, military affairs, and American national security, American Defense Policy remains the most complete introduction to the vital security issues facing the United States. Thoroughly updated to include the challenges of post-Cold War security, the seventh edition returns to the book's classic format of organizing essential readings around a defense policy process model. Part 1 introduces the subject and establishes the context for studying American defense policy making; Part 2 examines the roles of the chief players in policy formation and implementation; Part 3 outlines the various processes involved in policy formulation; and Parts 4 and 5 address current U.S. defense policies, reviewing excerpts from key defense policy statements and assessing the likely challenges for future policy makers.

The Russian Military: Power and Policy (American Academy Studies in Global Security)

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The Russian Military: Power and Policy (American Academy Studies in Global Security)

Manufacturer: The MIT Press
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ASIN: 0262633051

Book Description

Russian military capacity remains a major consideration for global security even in the post-Soviet era. This book assesses today's Russian military and analyzes its possible future direction. The contributors -- experts on the subject from both Russia and the West -- consider not only how Russia has built its military capacity but also the policies and doctrines that have shaped Russia's defense posture. They discuss such topics as the downsizing of the Russian military, Russia's use of military power in regional conflicts, and the management of Russia's nuclear weapons.

For more than a decade, Russian leaders have struggled to formulate security and defense policies that protect Russia's borders and project Russia's influence. The contributors to The Russian Military find that the choices Russian leaders have made have been significantly influenced by the military reforms Russia has attempted to implement since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The protracted and intense debate over military reform has been -- and will continue to be -- decisive in shaping Russian military capacity.

Mobilizing for Modern War: The Political Economy of American Warfare, 1865-1919

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Economy of Warfare 1865-1919
Little on war finance and biased in favor of Progressivism
An must for any WWI buff...

Mobilizing for Modern War: The Political Economy of American Warfare, 1865-1919
Paul A. C. Koistinen
Manufacturer: University Press of Kansas
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Binding: Hardcover

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Planning War, Pursuing Peace: The Political Economy of American Warfare, 1920-1939

ASIN: 0700608605

Book Description

Although the military-industrial complex became familiar to most Americans during the Cold War, Paul Koistinen shows that its origins actually go back to the dawn of this century. Mobilizing for Modern War, the second of an extraordinary five-volume study on the political economy of American warfare, highlights the emergence of this pivotal relationship. In this volume, Koistinen examines war planning and mobilizing in an era of rapid industrialization and reveals how economic mobilization for defense and war is shaped at the national level by the interaction of political, economic, and military institutions and by increasingly powerful and expensive weaponry.

Covering the Gilded Age and Progressive Era through the Spanish-American War and World War I, Mobilizing for Modern War shows how a partnership evolved between government and business to prepare for and conduct modern warfare. Koistinen traces the origins of the military-industrial complex to the emergence of a modern navy at the turn of the century, when building a new fleet of steel, armor, and ordnance required a production team of political leaders, naval officers, and businessmen. A similar team was brought together again between 1915 and 1918 as the War Industries Board to mobilize the economy for World War I, and it became the model for subsequent industrial mobilization planning.

Koistinen shows how mobilizing for World War I left an indelible imprint on twentieth-century life. By accelerating the emerging Progressive political economy, it strengthened the cooperative planning ethic within business and government and introduced the concept of industrial preparedness, carried out largely under military leadership.

This book is part of the Modern War Studies series.

Customer Reviews:

Economy of Warfare 1865-1919.......2006-11-11

Overall I though the book was very good. Well researched and well written.
However, the author spends too much time on the exact organization of each goverment agency. This is somewhat tedious. It causes you to loose track of what the author is trying to get at. Also, like many academics, the author has a very condescending attitude towards ordinary people. By this I mean that he always seems to think that every new government agency, law, or reguation is absoutley good and that people will just have to get used to it.

I would highly recommed this book and the others in the series to anyone who wants to know how the goverment manages defending the nation at various times in it's history.

Little on war finance and biased in favor of Progressivism.......2000-04-07

"Mobilizing for Modern War" examines the impact of industrialization and technological innovation on American mobilization for defense and war....

Koistinen does not seek to explain why America became an empire or why it went to war in 1898 and again in 1917 or how the nation conducted war on the battlefield and at sea, but rather to discern the pattern of the constantly evolving relationship between business, government, and the military in "harnessing the economy for hostilities" (p. ix). He looks at how the nation actually mobilized its robust economy for the sake of empire, defense, and war, and at how the public and private sectors--their boundaries increasingly "blurred" over time--learned to cooperate to those ends. The relationship evolved as each side adopted pragmatic, "makeshift" changes in response to actual experience, first in building a modern, professional, technologically up-to-date navy and army and then in mobilizing those forces and industry in the brief Spanish-American War and in the more protracted and demanding Great War. By stressing adaptation, experimentation, improvisation, and the "drift" of the process, Koistinen minimizes the ideological dimensions of the changing relationship between government and big business and points instead to the allegedly inevitable adaptation of mobilization to the environment of a rapidly emerging industrial economy.

Although it is a serious, methodical, and impressive scholarly work, "Mobilizing for Modern War" suffers from several weaknesses. Its effectiveness is hindered in part by the recurring assumption of the "inevitable" role of the Leviathan state in the industrial stage of war mobilization.... He also makes various claims, as if they were self-evident truths, such as that a powerful President is "a necessity in a modern, complex society" (p. 14) and that the government was forced to nationalize the railroads during the First World War (pp. 221, 277)....

More important, and contrary to its subtitle and to the promise of the introduction, "Mobilization for Modern War" is not a comprehensive study of the political economy of American warfare from 1865 to 1919. It is not a study of economic mobilization, but rather a narrower work about industrial mobilization. Despite the author's attempt to summarize in several paragraphs other pertinent dimensions of economic mobilization, there is little discussion here of how the government financed the war through taxes, loans, and inflation--all means of extending state power in wartime. To be sure, J. P. Morgan and Company figures large in Koistinen's revealing account of U.S. financial aid to the Allies from 1914 onward, but the banking industry, the Federal Reserve, and the Treasury Department play at best a tangential role in the rest of his story of mobilization after American entry into the war in 1917. As painstaking as Koistinen's work is overall, anyone looking for a full treatment of the political economy of U.S. involvement in World War I will not find it here.

An must for any WWI buff..........1999-01-20

Koistinen's look at the economic and military powerhouse that the United States became during the years before World War I was done with style and economy. This view of history is an import part of the military that is often over looked by other accounts of the same period. The story of individual personalities however romantic they may be is incomplete with the information presented by Koistinen. Koistinen's writing keeps the reader interested with the use of in depth descriptions gained through the use of many different resources. He does cover the role of the WIB, and J.P. Morgan and company in depth, and almost to the point of exhausting the topic. I would have liked reading more about how all the policy changes effected the lower enlisted man's life. Other than what I mentioned above I think the book is necessary read for anyone that intends to study WWI with any seriousness. It completes the typical military history of battles and generals with the story of the battles ship builders and steel mill owners fought at home.

Planning War, Pursuing Peace: The Political Economy of American Warfare, 1920-1939

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Planning War, Pursuing Peace: The Political Economy of American Warfare, 1920-1939
Paul A. C. Koistinen
Manufacturer: University Press of Kansas
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0700608907

Book Description

In the years following World War I, America's armed services, industry, and government took lessons from that conflict to enhance the country's ability to mobilize for war. Paul Koistinen examines how today's military-industrial state emerged during that period--a time when the army and navy embraced their increasing reliance on industry, and business accelerated its efforts to prepare the country for future wars.

Planning War, Pursuing Peace is the third in Koistinen's multi-volume study on the political economy of American warfare. It differs from preceding volumes by examining the planning and investigation of war mobilization rather than the actual harnessing of the economy for hostilities; and it is also the first book to treat all phases of the political economy of wartime during those crucial interwar years.

Koistinen first describes and analyzes the War and Navy Departments' procurement and economic mobilization planning--never before examined in its entirety--and conveys the enormity of the task faced by the military in establishing ties with many sectors of the economy. He tells how the War Department created commodity committees to carry on the work of World War I's War Industries Board and how both military and industrial powers strove to protect their mutual interests against those seeking to avoid war and to reform society.

Koistinen then describes the American public's struggle to come to terms with modern warfare through in-depth explorations of the work of the House Select Committee on Expenditures in the War Department, the War Policies Commission, and the Senate Special Committee Investigating the Munitions Industry. He tells how these investigations alarmed pacifists, isolationists, and neo-Jeffersonians, and how they led Senator Gerald Nye and others to warn against the creation of "unhealthy alliances" between the armed services and industry.

Planning War, Pursuing Peace clearly shows how the U.S. economy was both directly and indirectly planned based on knowledge gained from World War I. By revealing vital and previously unexplored links between America's World Wars, it further illuminates the political economy of twentieth-century warfare as a complex and continually evolving process.

This book is part of the Modern War Studies series.

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