THE ECONOMY OF DEATH: A Hard Look at the Defense Budget, the Military-Industrial Complex, and What You Can Do About Them

by Richard. J. Barnet ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1969

A former State Department official and Defense Department consultant, a Co-Director of the left-oriented Institute for Policy Studies, and an authority on problems of national security and arms control, Barnet has the facts to demonstrate that the military-industrial complex is no chimera of SDS imaginations. This is a full-scale assault on the assumptions, procedures, and consequences of military spending aimed at getting the average taxpayer up in arms. Barnet argues that the trillion dollar investment in defense and offense since World War II, predicated upon irrationalities and distorted priorities and perpetrated in semi-secrecy, has undermined America's capacity to solve its real problems and contribute positively on the World scene. He demolishes the defense budget and beards all the Vested Interests in their dens, exposing their stakes in the disastrous misallocation of funds. To reverse the funereal statistics (""Out of every tax dollar there is about 11 cents left to build American society"") of this logic-defying Economy of Death, Barnet outlines a strategy for choosing life: a rather grand program of national conversion and a more realistic call to improve the machinery for setting national goals and for Congressional review and Control of foreign-policy commitments. Barnet expects assistance from student activists, concerned scientists, worried businessmen, and conscientious legislators. Participatory democrats are urged to hound their Congressmen and demand truth-in-spending. Very effective.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1969

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1969

Categories: NONFICTION