Professional Work
My main professional work to date has been the publication of my first book, The Gaither Committee, Eisenhower, and the Cold War, by the Ohio State University Press in January 1999. In my book, I examine the influence of the 1957 Gaither committee on President Eisenhower’s national security policies. I demonstrate that the committee’s final report had a much greater influence than previously recognized. After receiving the report, Eisenhower accelerated ballistic missile developments and deployments, improved U.S. continental defenses, and expanded early warning radar. In essence, the Gaither report provided a blueprint for waging the Cold War in the late 1950s. Beyond showing the direct influence of the Gaither committee, my research qualifies recent assessments of Eisenhower as an effective administrator. While he proved to have admirable goals and did successfully resist demands for even greater defense spending, his failure to supervise closely the activities of the Gaither committee allowed it to expand the scope of its study and make recommendations that challenged the basis of his national security policies.
Besides demonstrating the influence of the Gaither committee on Eisenhower’s national security policies, I also raise important questions about other areas of United States history. I demonstrate the close interaction of domestic and foreign policy, especially in the period after the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik. I address the on-going struggles to develop a military strategy based on discerning the best balance between offensive and defensive capabilities. Finally, I expound upon the serious debates within and outside the Eisenhower administration concerning radioactive fallout and the construction of bomb shelters.
Since the publication of my book, I have worked on a number of projects, written numerous articles, presented conference papers, and delivered lectures for groups like the Naval War College and the National Museum for the Pacific War. The picture below shows me presenting a lecture on Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry S Truman as wartime commanders at the National Museum for the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, TX in October 2002.
See Reviews of The Gaither Committee, Eisenhower, and the Cold War
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