Bomb Power; The Modern Presidency and The National Security State

By Garry Wills
"Wills (history, emeritus, Northwestern Univ.; Lincoln at Gettysburg) expands upon an idea he raised ten years ago in A Necessary Evil, that the atomic bomb utterly changed the nature of our government. The "monopoly on use of nuclear weaponry" first given to President Truman in 1945 has since contributed to the growth of presidential power, enveloping too many acts in an extraconstitutional secrecy grown steadily more routine. Wills starts with the story of the bomb's development at Los Alamos and other sites and goes on to outline how, as the Cold War took shape between 1945 and 1952, a national security state was constructed out of components such as the National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency. The consequences and further causes of official "permanent war in peace" are examined here in episodes of entwined presidential secrecy and power ranging from the Korean War to the War on Terror. In an afterword already published in the New York Review of Books, Wills expresses doubts that the presidency of Barack Obama will be much different than those of his postwar predecessors. VERDICT The original premise is often lost here, but any tract from Wills will delight his readership. This book is among his most timely, if not among his best." (LJ Reviews)
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