History *does* have a sense of fun: in August, 1949, a few weeks before the USSR's first atomic bomb test, the US War Department was formally renamed: not the Dept. of Retaliation, Deterrence, or Annihilation, but the Dept. of Defense. I.e., exactly what it could no longer do in any sense previous generations would have understood.
Repeat ad lib. for much of the rhetoric of "national security.".
History *does* have a sense of fun: in August, 1949, a few weeks before the USSR's first atomic bomb test, the US War Department was formally renamed: not the Dept. of Retaliation, Deterrence, or Annihilation, but the Dept. of Defense. I.e., exactly what it could no longer do in any sense previous generations would have understood.
Repeat ad lib. for much of the rhetoric of "national security.".