The Politics of Truth by Summers John H.; Summers John;

Author:Summers, John H.; Summers, John;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2008-04-07T04:00:00+00:00

XI

Some of the most interesting reviews I’ve seen are given over to consideration of the several pivotal decisions which I’ve used to illustrate the nature of decision-making in our time: Hiroshima, Dienbienphu, etc. Such reviewers typically acknowledge the only points I felt the need to make in connection with these examples: that they are pivotal and that very few persons indeed had any real say-so about them. “In any case,” one acknowledges, “the first atomic bomb was dropped on the responsibility of one man who was the beneficiary of very sketchy advice from a handful of other men.” Exactly. And on Korea: “This decision was made in the course of a few hours by a few men.” Just so.

But such reviewers seem to think that this refutes my idea of the power elite because (1) not a little crowd, but often only a few men, are in on such decisions; (2) these men don’t always agree but are divided in their counsel; (3) in their decisions, they sometimes take into account the state of public opinion or the policy of other countries; (4) sometimes the decision made is “taken against the better judgment of the power elite.” Each of these points I readily accept, indeed I’ve stated them myself, and nothing in my conception of the power elite, or in the nature of the big decisions of our time, is upset by them.

The power elite is not a homogeneous circle of a specified number of men whose solidified will continuously prevails against all obstacles. Accordingly, I take such discussion of these pivotal events as an interesting and informed carrying on of the kind of social history I’ve urged, in which the idea of the power elite is refined and elaborated.

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