In this book, Carroll advances a controversial thesis: the Pentagon has, since its founding, operated beyond the control of any force in government or society. It is the loosest cannon in American history, and no institution has changed this country more. He marshals a trove of often chilling evidence, recounting how "the Building" and its denizens achieved what Eisenhower called "a disastrous rise of misplaced power"--The unprecedented bombing of Germany and Japan during World War II to the "shock and awe" of Iraq. He charts the U.S. nuclear buildup, which far outpaced that of the USSR and has outlived it. He reveals how consistently the Building has found new enemies just as old threats--and funding--evaporate. He demonstrates how Pentagon policy brought about U.S. indifference to genocide during the 1990s. And he shows how the forces that attacked the Pentagon on 9/11 were set in motion exactly sixty years earlier, on September 11, 1941, when ground was broken for the house of war.--From publisher description.

Invisible Boy --|t One Week in 1943 --Hell's Bottom -- Unconditional Surrender -- Operation Pointblank -- Le May -- Whiz Kid -- Leslie Groves Does It All -- Other September 11s -- Absolute Weapon -- Truman's "Decision." -- Stimson's Defense -- Not Japan, but Moscow? -- Atomic Forgetfulness -- Groves's Toboggan -- Second Coming in Wrath -- Hamburg Threshold -- After Dresden -- Babe Ruth of Bombers -- Born in Original Sin -- Cold War Begins -- Tendered a Commission -- Stimson's September 11 -- Forrestal Agonistes -- Kennan's Mistake -- Foundational Paranoia -- War Inside the Pentagon -- Blockade and the Birth of the Air Force -- Russians Are Coming -- Navy Versus Air Force -- That Cop -- Self-Fulfilling Paranoia -- Stalin's Teeth -- No to the Hydrogen Bomb -- Nitze to the Rescue -- Forrestal's Ghost: NSC-68 -- Korea Saved Us -- Truman's Other Decision -- Test -- Duck and Cover -- Massive Retaliation -- Missed Opportunity -- Defense Intellectuals -- Operation Top Hat -- Gaither Report: Nitze Again -- Turning Point -- Life of the Pentagon -- A Lark in Berlin -- There Will Be War -- Head to Richmond -- Let Both Sides -- Need for New Intelligence -- McNamara and LeMay -- All-Out Spasm Attack -- Kaysen Memos -- Edge of the Abyss -- At American University -- Why We Love Him -- Exorcism -- Present at the Destruction -- LeMay to the Absurd -- Errors of the Mind -- Great White Whale -- McNamara’s Endgame -- From Disarmament to Arms Control -- Berrigan Brothers -- Enter the ABM, Reenter Nitze -- Nixon and Laird -- Knockout Blow -- Bombing the Pentagon? Not with a Bang -- 7 Upstream -- t Nuclear Priesthood -- Madman Theory -- Schlesinger Doctrine -- Enter Rumsfeld and Cheney -- Jimmy Carter's Question -- Frozen Smile -- People Are Heard -- Be Not Afraid -- We Win, You Lose, Sign Here -- Freeze -- Abolitionist -- Sanctuary -- Enter Gorbachev -- Answer to Forrestal -- Unending War -- Into Plowshares -- Back to Stimson -- Operation Just Cause -- Fool's Game -- New World Order -- Chinese Word -- Goldwater-Nichols -- Immigrant's Son -- Clinton's Honor -- Gays in the Military -- Real Contrast with Truman -- Nuclear Posture Review -- Balkan Wars -- Apostolic Succession -- September 11, 2001 -- Epilogue: New World Order -- National Memory -- Normalization of War -- Instant Replay -- National Security? Revenge -- I Have a Dream.