First Call: The Making of the Modern U.S. Military, 1945-1953

It was a drama played out mostly in Washington, D.C. as longtime interservice military rivalries developed into bitter confrontations; the very survival of the Marine Corps was at stake at one point. Boettcher ( Vietnam: The Valor and the Sorrow ) analyzes the origins of those rivalries and describes how the roles and missions of the services were finally defined and codified between the end of WW II and the beginning of the Korean War. He explains the significance of National Security Council Memorandum-68, which in 1950 set off a major rearmament program to meet the Soviet threat--at the very time that President Truman was imposing drastic cutbacks in military spending. Ironically, the outbreak of war in Korea later that year forced the president to endorse the unprecedented buildup of a huge permanent military establishment. Boettcher includes a succinct account of the Korean War and explains how one of its most important episodes, Truman's dismissal of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, reaffirmed the primacy of civilian authority over the military. This is a well-researched narrative history of one of the most important periods in modern American history. (Apr.)