Douglas Kinnard – författare

Since its creation by the National Security Act of 1947 the office of secretary of defense has grown rapidly in power and influence, surpassing at times that of the secretary of state to become second only to the presidency in the government of the United States. The pivotal secretaries, according to Kinnard, are James Forrestal, Charles Wilson, Robert McNamara, Melvin Laird, and James Schlesinger.Kinnard analyzes the administration of each of these secretaries not only within the domestic and international contexts of his time but also within the bureaucratic world in which the secretary functions along with the president and secretary of state.

Dwight David Eisenhower proudly claimed that he "came from the very heart of America." Yet it could be argued that, despite those provincial beginnings, no other American exerted more influence on world history during the twentieth century. From his humble birth in Abilene, Kansas, Eisenhower rose to the supreme command of the Allied armies that helped destroy Adolf Hitler's Nazi war machine and to the presidency of the United States. Douglas Kinnard's profile of this great soldier-statesman describes his rise through the ranks of the peacetime army of the 1920s and 1930s the recognition of his abilities by such leaders as Douglas MacArthur and George C. Marshall, his "great crusade" in Europe during World War II, and his two terms in the Oval Office. Kinnard's penetrating look at this great military leader and commander in chief serves as an introduction to Eisenhower's life and provides a concise account of the momentous military and political events of the first half of the twentieth century.