The War State

The Cold War Origins Of The Military-Industrial Complex And The Power Elite, 1945-1963

By: Michael Swanson

Narrated by: Larry Wayne

Today when you factor in the interest on the national debt from past wars and total defense expenditures the United States spends almost 40% of its federal budget on the military. It accounts for over 46% of total world arms spending.

Before World War II it spent almost nothing on defense and hardly anyone paid any income taxes. You can't have big wars without big government. Such big expenditures are now threatening to harm the national economy. How did this situation come to be?

In this book you'll learn how in the critical 20 years after World War II the United States changed from being a continental democratic republic to a global imperial superpower. Since then nothing has ever been the same again. In this book you will discover this secret history of the United States that formed the basis of the world we live in today.

By buying this book you will discover:

How the end of European colonialism created a power vacuum that the United States used to create a new type of world empire backed by the most powerful military force in human history.

Why the Central Intelligence Agency was created and used to interfere in the internal affairs of other nations when the United States Constitution had no mechanism for such imperial activities.

How national security bureaucrats got President Harry Truman to approve of a new wild budget busting arms race after World War II that is still going on to this day.

Why President Eisenhower really gave his famous warning against the "military-industrial complex."

Why during the Kennedy administration the nuclear arms race almost led to the end of the world during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

How President Kennedy tried to deal with what had grown into a "permanent government" of power elite national security bureaucrats in the executive branch of the federal government that had become more powerful than the individual president himself.

In this audiobook you will discover this secret history of the United States that formed the basis of the world we live in today.

©2013 Michael Swanson (P)2014 Listen and Think Audio

A must read for all veterans and active duty.

How we got here with easy to verify facts. The narrator is excellent. I bought the book to go back over important points.

Excellent

Excellent book. It really helped me understand and put in context our current military situation.

Required Reading

For anyone who wants to understand the present state of government in the US, this is a great place to start.

Best Explanation I've Heard

This book gives an excellent explanation as to why our nation has high inflation, high gas prices and several other problems and lays it put in a bipartisan fair matter

American Citizens desperately need to know our real history!

As the author points out, Truman & Eisenhower figured out too late that the “military industrial complex” with their creation, the CIA, were taking over the USA, it’s people and it’s economy. Kennedy was on to them and ready to take our country back when he was killed. This book should be required reading for all Americans before we all go bankrupt! War corporations are using our tax money paid to them for war materials to control our congress to keep the war state going. Wake up America!

Please give this book your time.

If we understand our history we may save our future. This book may bring the "Peace Minded" left and the "America First" right together in common ground.

Superb account of history and how and why we are where we are as a country

I thoroughly enjoyed the writing style of the author of this book, which were based on facts and analysis, overall, an outstanding read!!
Looking forward to more books by this author.

Surprisingly Good

Would you consider the audio edition of The War State to be better than the print version?

I only heard the audio version and had not read the print so I don't have an opinion.

Who was your favorite character and why?

There are no characters in this book. This book is more of an historical narrative and expose so no characters.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The performance was okay, not great.

Any additional comments?

An old mentor once told me that 'to the naive, things appear to be simple; and to the fool so complex'. The author poses a hypothesis that the federal defense budget is supported by the military-industrial complex. He supports his hypothesis with strong historical facts, written and recorded history and through a complex history of the cold war. His subject is highly complex but he weaves his story very well and with compelling force.

I for one can't wait for his next book.

This book gave me a completely new understandig

I warmly recomend this book to anyone that would like to understand the call war and US politics better. This was an eye opener for me, a must read.

fantastic

If if you are serious about knowing anything this is a book to put in your Library fantastic eye opening mind blowing knowledge.