Why Didn't the United States become a Garrison State?

Abstract

The Cold War has ended, not with the bang of war or the whimper of mutual accommodation, but with an awesome rumbling as one of the two contestants collapses in upon itself. Debate over why this happened when and how it did is just beginning and, like the earlier discussion of the causes of the Cold War, it will no doubt go on for some time. Still, as the full scope of Soviet military exertions over the past four decades and the precise extent of the damage they have done to the Soviet economy become clearer, the outline of an answer has already begun to emerge...