The Rand Corporation and the Rise of the Civilian Expert in the Early Cold War 1945-1960
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2010
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Haverford College. Department of History
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Thesis
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Award
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eng
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Abstract
This thesis investigates the increasing involvement of the non-military, nongovernmental intellectual dubbed the civilian expert in government and policy in the early stages of the Cold War, 1945-1960. It will focus on the RAND Corporation at the prototype of the Cold War generation of think tanks and intellectual organizations that attempted to actively influence policy instead of acting in a solely research and advisory role. The thesis will provide a background of the escalation civilian expert involvement in the public realm by covering the Progressive-era think tanks, university liaisons with business and the military, and the massive upsurge in utilization of science and scientists during World War II. These developments provided a foundation for the proliferation of think tanks, advisory institutions, and laboratories during the Cold War known as the military government- intellectual complex. The complex broke with previous paradigms of intellectual government advisors by becoming a central component of the government apparatus. The trend of intellectuals and academics becoming involved with government and military processes became more pronounced as the intellectual complex moved away from its traditional role as objective advisor and came to resemble a special interest group. The RAND Corporation was the prototype of the special-interest intellectual complex, as it took steps to get its own policies enacted, and attempted to influence the government and military to enact policies for its own benefit.