306 ChaPter^6
pered by idealistic slogans, the better.”
This is a striking statement. Kennan here admitted the U.S. goal of world
hegemony, to “maintain this position of disparity.” He did not say that the
U.S. goal was to create more equality, to feed the hungry, to rebuild devas-
tated countries, to help poor nations become developed or any such “senti-
mentality and day-dreaming.” He bluntly stated that the U.S. would do what
it had to do to expand its own power, and “human rights” and “living stan-
dards” be damned in the process. And that, in essence, is the story of the Cold
War. Kennan was writing at a time when U.S. momentum was growing. In
1947, Congress passed the National Security Act. The act itself appeared just to
create a new bureaucracy on the surface. It reorganized the military establish-
ment, replacing the Department of War with the Department of Defense, creat-
ing the National Security Council [NSC] to advise the president on foreign
policy, and inventing the Central Intelligence Agency [CIA] to conduct foreign
spying operations.
But, critics charged, the act was doing something much larger and more
significant, creating a national security state. Where the U.S. was supposed to be
a democracy, where people made decisions and the military was subordinate
to civilian control, the new act, in effect, added a military aspect to all issues
in American politics and life. Now, the need to maintain “security” would be
the biggest national priority. Preventing “Communism” from growing, not
expanding democracy or helping those in need, would take center stage, and
this meant the U.S. would be more engaged abroad and, as we shall see, more
involved at home in containing “subversive” elements, meaning those who
criticized the militarized nature of American society.
There were plenty of Americans who were troubled by the national secu-
rity state, and conservatives were probably more critical than other groups
[not unlike conservative libertarians like Ron or Rand Paul on contemporary
issues of drones, government surveillance, or the Iraq War]. The political
right–Republicans and conservatives, as well as libertarians–did not like too
much government involvement in economic or political life and so feared this
growth in state power, which would be justified by “national security,” or by
fear. Conservatives were alarmed that the act would create an “imperial”
presidency, with new powers to control domestic life in the name of security,
and bring a loss of liberty for citizens. Probably no American criticized the
national security state as much as Senator Robert Taft of Ohio, known as “Mr.