The Emergence of the American National Security State

Welcome back to the Modern Scholar podcast! Our guest today is Dr. John Curatola, a retired Marine Corps officer of twenty-two years and a history professor at the Army Command and General Staff College. During his Marine Corps career he served in Somalia, Iraq, and was a lead planner for the 2005 Indian Ocean Tsunami Relief operation. He taught both joint operations and military history at Fort Leavenworth and was named the college’s Instructor of the Year. His academic work focuses on World War II aviation and the early Cold War period. His first book, Bigger Bombs for a Brighter Tomorrow: The Strategic Air Command and American War Plans at the Dawn of the Atomic Age, 1945-1950,addressed the nature of the American atomic monopoly from 1945-1949. His lectures can be seen on both CSPAN and You tube and he has given numerous presentations at international history conferences. His most recent book, Autumn of Our Discontent: Fall 1949 and the Crises in American National Security, deals with the origins of NSC-68 and the events that occurred in the fall of 1949 leading to a change in the American military tradition of a small peacetime military. He is an FAA licensed pilot and an aviation enthusiast who considers himself a frustrated P-51 pilot that was born 40 years too late.