Michael Pollak wrote:
>
> The agony of "losing" China went a long way towards causing both
> Korea and Vietnam. And the whole Cold War, for that matter.
>
It's been so long since I read it that I can remember no details nor correct labels, but I think long ago Chomsky wrote an analysis of a "National Security" document produced during the Truman administration that both laid out the contours of what came to be called the Cold War AND explicitly stated as one of its aims to "prime" the u.s. economy. In the late '40s there was really widespread fear -- both in public discussion and apparently in discussion in inner circles -- that the unemployment of the '30s would reoccur. It was not only Stalinists who thought that a "final slump" might be in the offing.
My memories are very vague, so this might be off the wall.
Carrol