The Foundation Of The U.s. National Security Policy

The foundation of the U.S. National Security Policy is on the Goldwater-Nichols Act. 1947, signed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan after the World War II, encouraging a restructure of the military through the National Security Act of 1947. The Department of War and the Department of Navy was unified into the National Military Establishment (NME), then renamed to Department of Defense with the purpose to have Army, Navy and Air Force into a unified structure. President Truman signed the National Security Act Amendment of 1949 in reflection to strategic changes to the Cold War facts. This paper explores the book review, performed by Robert B. McCalla and Melvin A. Goodman, of Richard J. Stoll’s â€Å"U.S. National Security Policy and the Soviet†¦show more content†¦In 1991, McCalla analyzes four different themes in Stoll’s book that seems to be suggestive and with no supportive information for discussion. The first theme is â€Å"the role of the military force in the nuclear era† (Stoll), promoting discussion about the use of force between US and USSR â€Å"conflict involvement in the pre and post-World War II eras† (McCalla). Stoll asserts in his notes that â€Å"changes [in the nuclear balance] can be turned into political-military leverage in a wide variety of situations,† but fails to provide concrete references and dates to support his statements. The second theme is â€Å"domestic influences on national security policy† (Stoll), which fails to explain in depth the â€Å"congressional and public support for defense spending and presidential actions† (McCalla). According to McCalla, Stoll provides useful information about the â€Å"long-term impact of World War II on the development of various services,† encouraging discussion on the subject. The third theme is â€Å"strategic nuclear warfare,† where Stoll exams the change of directions taken by the leaders. Moreover, McCalla describes S toll’s writing as of a â€Å"creative manner† to discuss about the â€Å"limiting nuclear war† without conclusive data. The final theme is the â€Å"defense of Western Europe† (Stoll) where per McCalla, Stoll provides â€Å"an intriguing discussion of possible European responses to a U.S. pull from Europe – even though the