The idea of “national security” is so central to our modern conception of American foreign policy that it is easy to assume such an idea has always existed in foreign policy discourse. Presidential candidates debate each other vigorously on who is best qualified to keep the country secure, academics formulate strategies concerning American national security, and an entire cabinet department — the Department of Homeland Security — is dedicated to the concept. As with many things in history, however, the situation has not always been this way. In fact, the idea of “national security” in its current form has only been around since the mid-20th century.
Historian Andrew Preston tackled the topic of national security and its origins this Wednesday as part of the Lee Lecture Series, in a talk titled “The Island Between the Oceans: World War II and American National Security.” The Lee Lecture Series is an annual series of talks that allows historians and authors to give talks on World War II and its aftermath. The series is hosted by the Jefferson Scholars Foundation. Preston, who was recently hired as the Distinguished Professor in Diplomacy and Statecraft at the University’s history department, taught history at Cambridge University for the past 19 years. The topic of his lecture relates to his most recent book, Total Defense: The New Deal and the Invention of National Security.
Preston began the talk with a general assessment of the United States’s place in the world — not in the metaphorical sense, but in a literal, geographical sense. It may seem so obvious that it should go without stating, but it is important to remember that the United States — being located on the American continent — is separated from most of the world by two large oceans. This geographical reality has fundamentally affected America’s international standing; since it is bounded to the east and west by oceans and to the north and south by neighbors that are friendly or at least weaker, the United States has been insulated from attacks by other countries throughout much of its history. Indeed, since the British invaded the United States during the War of 1812, there have only been two major instances where the United States has faced a major attack from an outside entity on its soil: the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the September 11th attacks in 2001.
All of this is to say, America’s relative security has led to a relatively strong tendency towards isolationism for much of its history. By the turn of the twentieth century — and especially in the lead-up to World War II — debates over ending the policy of isolationism sprang into the mainstream. In Preston’s view, it was these debates over American entry into World War II that gave rise to the concept of national security as we know it today.
On the interventionist side, Preston offered Walter Lippmann and Franklin Roosevelt as two leaders who played a large part in shifting public opinion in their side’s favor. Before the attack on Pearl Harbor, this proved to be a bit of a tall order. Isolationists such as Charles Lindbergh could easily counter appeals to the “national interest,” arguing that it was in America’s best interest not to partake in risky and costly involvements in foreign conflicts; their appeals to “America First” also resonated strongly with patriotic sentiments.
To advance their cause, then, interventionists decided to repackage an old concept as a new one. Before the 1930s, “national security” generally referred to domestic concerns, particularly the stability of the economy and the ability of average Americans to live stable lives. This old sense of the term is why, for example, we use the name “Social Security” to refer to government social insurance programs. By the end of the 1940s, however, the term’s meaning would change completely.
As the United States inched closer and closer to war, public figures, government officials, and media organizations in favor of intervention in Europe increasingly worked to develop rhetorical strategies that would be effective in bringing this new conception of “national security” to the general public. Some of the cultural artifacts Preston listed as exemplifying this worldview include Frank Capra’s Why We Fight series, which reminded Americans of the threat an Axis-controlled Old World would pose to America; Mrs. Miniver, which informed Americans of the effects the Nazi onslaught was having on countries across the world; and Norman Rockwell’s Four Freedoms, which tied the traditional American emphasis on personal liberties to the broader cause of the war.
During and after the war, the United States government created a variety of agencies dedicated to advancing the cause of national security, including the Central Intelligence Agency in 1947 and the aptly-named National Security Agency in 1952. In Preston’s eyes, these organizations should be viewed in the same vein as earlier “alphabet agencies” from the 1930s as part of a broader New Deal project that shaped American policy at home and abroad.
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