Over the years I’ve been quite fascinated by the RAND Think Tank, and always wondered what RAND stood for. I come to find that it stood for R and D – and later folks called said it stood for R-A-N-D = Research And No Development, in other words, just thinking, not a lot of doing – the brain behind the US industrial base’s brawn if you will. Later, after retirement I formed a Think Tank which operates online and today, I completely understand what it is all about.
Now then, along the way in my observational and educational fact finding and gathering, I’ve come across a number of books on the topic. One of the books which sits on the top book shelf in front of my desk describes the rise of US dominance and the brains behind much of strategy – it was not by accident as you may have been led to believe. It was deliberate and there was a plan. This book I’d like to recommend to you if indeed, you are interested. The name of the book is: “Soldiers of Reason – The RAND Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire,” (uncorrected version) by Alex Abello, published by Harcourt, New York, NY, (2008), 362 pages, ISBN: 978-15-10181-3.
The entire history of RAND is here in this work, and if you want to know about the Cold War, International Relations, Military Strength, Gulf War I or II, Vietnam Era, Global Trade, or any of the other strategies the US has employed over the years, you will find the hand of RAND involved. Are these Whiz Kids perfect, oh for Heaven’s Sake no, but often their ideas became created realities and thus became the new norm, and the game changers, that historians later report on.
If you are wondering how it all came to be, or how these strategies shaped the way things are in the USA, then you’d be wise to read this book and then think on it. Please consider all this.
Think Tank in America - The Beginning of US Superiority and Dominance - Book Review
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