History of the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Vol. I: The Formative Years, 1947-1950
This hefty, deeply researched, and well-written official history treats the 30 months between the establishment of the Department of Defense in September 1947 and the drafting of NSC-68 in the Spring of 1950-James Forrestal's secretaryship and the first part of Louis Johnson's. Although the author is restrained in his comments on individuals, the book is rich with material on China policy, NATO, military aid, atomic weapons, interservice rivalry, and other subjects.
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