The making of the Cold War enemy : culture and politics in the military-intellectual complex / Ron Robin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Robin, Ron Theodore.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cold War--Social aspects--United States.

Cold War.

Research institutes--United States--History--20th century.

Research institutes.

Intellectuals--United States--Political activity--History--20th century.

Intellectuals.

United States--Foreign relations--1945-1989.

United States.

United States--Intellectual life--20th century.

United States--Foreign relations--Asia.

Asia--Foreign relations--United States.

Asia.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (294 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

At the height of the Cold War, the U.S. government enlisted the aid of a select group of psychologists, sociologists, and political scientists to blueprint enemy behavior. Not only did these academics bring sophisticated concepts to what became a project of demonizing communist societies, but they influenced decision-making in the map rooms, prison camps, and battlefields of the Korean War and in Vietnam. With verve and insight, Ron Robin tells the intriguing story of the rise of behavioral scientists in government and how their potentially dangerous, "American" assumptions about human behavior would shape U.S. views of domestic disturbances and insurgencies in Third World countries for decades to come. Based at government-funded think tanks, the experts devised provocative solutions for key Cold War dilemmas, including psychological warfare projects, negotiation strategies during the Korean armistice, and morale studies in the Vietnam era. Robin examines factors that shaped the scientists' thinking and explores their psycho-cultural and rational choice explanations for enemy behavior. He reveals how the academics' intolerance for complexity ultimately reduced the nation's adversaries to borderline psychotics, ignored revolutionary social shifts in post-World War II Asia, and promoted the notion of a maniacal threat facing the United States. Putting the issue of scientific validity aside, Robin presents the first extensive analysis of the intellectual underpinnings of Cold War behavioral sciences in a book that will be indispensable reading for anyone interested in the era and its legacy.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

Abbreviations

Acknowledgments

INTRODUCTION: Rumors of an Enemy

PART ONE: DEFINING THE PARADIGM

PART TWO: NORMAL SCIENCE

PART THREE: CRISIS

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612259227

9781282259225

1282259229

9781400830305

1400830303

OCLC:

436093904