Synopses & Reviews
Born in the wake of World War II, RAND quickly became the creator of Americas anti-Soviet nuclear strategy. A magnet for the best and the brightest, its ranks included Cold War luminaries such as Albert Wohlstetter, Bernard Brodie, and Herman Kahn, who arguably saved us from nuclear annihilation and unquestionably created Eisenhowers "military-industrial complex." In the Kennedy era, RAND analysts and their theories of rational warfare steered our conduct in Vietnam. Those same theories drove our invasion of Iraq forty-five years later, championed by RAND affiliated actors such as Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, and Zalmay Khalilzad. But RANDs greatest contribution might be its least known: rational choice theory, a model explaining all human behavior through self-interest. Through it RAND sparked the Reagan-led transformation of our social and economic system but also unleashed a resurgence of precisely the forces whose existence it denied -- religion, patriotism, tribalism.
With Soldiers of Reason, Alex Abella has rewritten the history of Americas last half century and cast a new light on our problematic present.
Review
Praise for SOLDIERS OF REASON "Well-researched... Kudos to Abella."--San Francisco Chronicle "[R]evealing and original... Abella does an excellent job ferreting out details... Abella's book is an introduction to the broad range of ideas RAND has espoused."--Chalmers Johnson, Asia Times
Synopsis
This history of the RAND Corporation, written with full access to its archives, is a page-turning chronicle of the rise of the secretive think tank that has been the driving force behind the American government for 60 years.
About the Author
ALEX ABELLA is the coauthor, with Scott Gordon, of Shadow Enemies: Hitler's Secret Terrorist Plot Against the United States and the author of four novels. He has also been a contributing writer to the Los Angeles Times. Born in Cuba, he lives in Los Angeles.
Table of Contents
Contents
Foreword 1
Part 1
1 A Great Beginning 9
2 The Human Factor 24
3 The Wages of Sin 40
Part 2
4 A Talk Before Dinner 67
5 The Secret Keepers 72
6 The Jester of Death 95
7 In RANDs Orbit 105
Part 3
8 A Delicate Dance 127
9 Whiz Kids Rule 132
10 The Art of Science 143
11 A Final Solution to the Soviet Problem 158
12 An Irresistible Force 168
Part 4
13 A Night in Rach Kien 191
14 The Price of Success 195
15 Stealing Away 213
16 Plus Ça Change 217
17 Team B Strikes 230
Part 5
18 Witnessing End Times 249
19 The Terror Network 262
20 Yoda and the Knights of Counterforce 275
21 Back to Iraq 287
Part 6
22 Death of a Strategist 299
23 Whither RAND? 304
Acknowledgments 313
Endnotes 315
Bibliography 345
Index 363