****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
This book builds on turncoat CIA histories (like Prouty, Marchetti, Stockwell), academic histories (like Nutter, Blum, Johnson) and uncontroverted mainstream histories (including government admissions) to establish the economic rationale for our present national security state. And the purpose of our national security state is -- to maintain our transnational system of economic domination (capitalism?). I give this book five stars because it is so even-handed and covers so many examples so succinctly and rationally. It is a unpleasant book in that the subject matter is repulsive -- like a study on a serial killer.I don't entirely agree with Sullivan because I believe that the other purpose of the National Security State is, simply, it's own preservation and growth (Eisenhower's military/industrial/intelligence complex). I don't think a book like this will ever sell well because people don't want to know ugly truths about their government, but it is the best single succinct source I have seen for a college-level course on 20th Century U.S. international policy. Ultimately (years or decades?), academics will recognize this book as awesome, but for now the book's subject matter and price will keep it well-hidden. Be the first one on your block (in your city?) to know what's going on! Mainstream media would never cover a subject like this. But that's another story.