Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security from World War II to the War on Terrorism. By Julian E.Zelizer. New York: Basic Books, 2010. 583 pp.

Abstract

Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security from World War II to War on Terrorism. By Julian E. Zelizer. New York: Basic Books, 2010. 583 pp. Taking its title from Franklin Roosevelt's December 1940 radio address to American people, Julian Zelizer's book explores growth of national security state and its impact upon domestic politics. Americans have struggled to balance their desire for a powerful and globally influential state with their equally fervent desire to protect principles of small-town democratic, transparent self-government. As Zelizer puts it in introduction, the arsenal and democracy posed threats to each other (p. 2), and it is his hypothesis that American politics and foreign policy must be understood as interaction and rivalry between these contending forces. If this sounds familiar, it is probably because these assertions typically form guiding themes of most undergraduate surveys in twentieth-century U.S. political and diplomatic history. Zelizer's account is brisk, fresh and fast-paced, based upon authoritative knowledge and wide reading. Yet it also covers well-trod ground in a conventional manner and like many survey lecturers, Zelizer is more interested in getting large narrative nailed down than he is in penetrating deeply into details. Nonetheless, this is an excellent survey text that is made up of pithy summaries of battles that postwar presidents faced as they sought to balance security against democracy. Zelizer's chief architect of postwar national security state is Franklin Roosevelt, whose administration steered nation through World War II and also sought to institutionalize many of basic structures that were required to sustain American global power even after war. Zelizer posits Roosevelt as architect of liberal internationalism (p. 52), a conception of a nation that could balance progressive policy reform with need for a stronger and permanent national security state. Zelizer takes us on a predictable but enjoyable ride through Truman years, reminding us how intense domestic battles over defense, foreign aid, and Soviet threat were. And he hammers home point that for all partisanship of era, public officials agreed that demands of a global Cold War required a huge new security apparatus including Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Council, and an expanded Defense Department. Zelizer gives a perceptive treatment of politics of national security in 1950s: passionately anti-Communist, Right of Republican Party had to swallow its aversion to large government programs and large budgets in order to wage Cold War. …