Alex Abella—RAND and the Rise of the American Empire

While voters from Left to Right have faced off for over sixty years the RAND think tank has secretly guided every administration since the second World War

Emmy-nominated TV reporter, screenwriter, and author Alex Abella reveals the underlying rationale that explains so much of "…this great maelstrom of consumerism called Western civilization"

ABELLAWEB Oct 2010 | In Soldiers of Reason: The RAND Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire Alex Abella chronicles the rise of the secretive think tank that has been the driving force behind American government for the last half century. With full access to RAND archives Mr. Abella covers the story from the World War II era up to the invasion of Iraq and the current world scene.

But Soldiers of Reason is far more than that. It is the story of "the people who helped bring us, among other things, the cold war, the arms race, the Vietnam War, the neutron bomb, Operation Rolling Thunder, Reaganomics, the S&L crisis, our health-care system, the mujahideen, the Iraq war, and, most famously, the sunny, sanguine ethos that shone on America's postwar years: mutually assured destruction" (Brian Thomas Gallagher, Book Forum).

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