Providing the Means of War: Perspectives on Defense Acquisition 1945-2000

Providing the Means of War is an important anthology of papers by current and former acquisition officials, federal historians, and distinguished scholars on the history of defense acquisition. Sponsored by the Defense Acquisition History Project and the U.S. Army Center of Military History and held in Washington, D.C., on 10-12 September 2001, the Acquisition History Symposium offered a venue to increase the existing base of historical knowledge about defense acquisition matters and to stimulate interest by providing historical perspectives on how the federal government has acquired weapons since the middle of the twentieth century. Consisting of fifteen papers carefully edited by Shannon A. Brown, the anthology also includes Harvard Business School professor J. Ronald Fox's keynote address on a wide range of acquisition-related issues; the full 9/11 transcript of the roundtable discussion on the connections between national security strategy and resource management, which reflects the atmosphere of that fateful day; and ICAF professor B. F. Cooling's closing remarks showcasing the Defense Acquisition History Project as an important historical undertaking, a work in progress, to promote an understanding of how the nation's defenses are forged through acquisition-the foundation of its military strength. It is a volume with thought-provoking lessons and observations from the past that will resonate with today's acquisition professionals.