ABSTRACT
By the term "architecture", this chapter refers to the structural underpinnings and policies that provide coherence to the American military. The Encarta encyclopedia describes militarism as "advocacy of an ever-stronger military as a primary goal of society, even at the cost of other social priorities and liberties". It goes on to relate militarism to chauvinism, fascism, and National Socialism. The threatened first use of nuclear weapons remains at the heart of US national security policy. Chalmers Johnson explains how the US military economy not only directly profits private corporations and their subcontractors, by developing and producing weapons for the armed forces and servicing the needs of military personnel, but also in more indirect and unexpected ways. The Department of Energy, which operates the United States nuclear weapons laboratories through a contract with the University of California, proudly traces its lineage "back to the Manhattan Project and the race to develop an atomic bomb during World War II".
