The great sociologist and historian Robert Nisbet offered these heretical observations of “Foreign Policy and the American Mind” at a unique moment in the bi-polar confrontation known as the Cold War. Nisbet was a prudential realist and his dispassionate (and often prophetic) assessment was disquieting to the national security elites (both liberal and conservative) of the day. Departing President Eisenhower had issued his powerful warning concerning the dangers of the military-industrial complex. The new president, John F. Kennedy, impatient to prove himself upon the world stage, had succumbed to the seductive allure and siren song of that very military and intelligence … Continue reading The Cold War Heresy of Robert Nisbet