Charles E. Wilson and Controversy at the Pentagon, 1953-1957

by E. Bruce Geelhoed

CHARLES E. WILSON And Controversy at the Pentagon 1953-1957 By E. BRUCE GEELHOED. Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1979. Hardcover with Dustjacket. ISBN # 0814316352. Charles E. Wilson in 1953 left a successful career as a businessman and administrator at General Motors to assume the post of secretary of defense under Dwight D. Eisenhower. The next years were turbulent for Wilson, who repeatedly found himself embroiled in controversies over issues ranging from conflict of interest to interservice rivalry to Senator Joseph McCarthy’s investigation of the Army to the havoc created by his own sometimes tactless public statements. The volume, the first full-length study of Wilson as secretary of defense, makes extensive use of his personal papers. Focusing on his performance at the Pentagon, it clarifies Wilson’s relationship with Eisenhower and his attempt to apply the skills he brought from his business world to a politically and militarily sensitive office. Grounding his analysis in contemporary press reports, memoirs, papers held by the Wilson Archives, and recent work by historians of the Eisenhower administration, Geelhoed presents the evidence to support his belief that Wilson was one of the shapers of defense policy as well as an administrator and public spokesman for the administration. This book makes a significant contribution toward defining more sharply the personalities and issues of the mid-1950s. Hardcover.

216 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1979