Spirits of the Cold War: Contesting Worldviews in the Classical Age of American Security Strategy

Through a critical reading of primary source material against philosophy and intellectual history, O'Gorman analyzes how major players in Eisenhower's administration reflected and reified deeply embedded worldviews of American foreign policy discourse: stoicism, evangelicalism, adventurism, and romanticism. Seemingly benevolent actions of liberation - such as the provision of foreign aid in the Marshall Plan - are better understood as attempts to gain favor for "American-style free enterprise and liberal politics" (p. 165).