Michael J. Hogan

Mary Ann Heiss

The Cold War profoundly transformed American society, perhaps most significantly through the development of national security institutions that are very much alive more than two decades after the end of the Cold War. This volume explores the great divide between those in the Truman administration who defended tradition and those who spoke for the new ideology of national security. In a highly charged political environment that pitted not only Republican against Democrat, but also civilian authority against military authority and the legislative branch against the executive, Americans struggled to adapt to a new world order while retaining ideals of freedom and individuality. At issue were basic questions about the nation's post-war purpose and political identity, the role of the military in civilian life, and even the rights of the individual versus the rights of the state.

Origins of the National Security State and the Legacy of Harry S. Truman

In 1951 prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh seized British oil holdings in Iran. The move set in motion four years of bitter political and strategic battles between a United Kingdom desperate for an economic rebound and an increasingly anti-Western regime in Teheran. The Eisenhower administration tried to broker a settlement, but Mossadegh was overthrown by an Anglo-American operation and replaced by the Shah. In this book, Mary Ann Heiss provides a detailed account of this turning point in cold war history. Drawing on a range of British and American documents, she provides an incisive political, economic, and cultural analysis of the first British and American effort to contain communism and radical Third World nationalism; the first American effort to bolster a crumbling British Empire; and the first effort by the CIA to overthrow a popular nationalist regime. This book is the full story not only of the shift from British to American dominance in the oil economies of the Middle East but also of the rise of nationalism in the context of the cold war.

Mary Ann Heiss

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