chapter 2
“Resources for Freedom” American Drug Commodities in the Postwar World
Nations, like men, can be spendthrifts, consuming their substance as fast as it comes to hand. For the individual, such a policy leads to bankruptcy and ruin; for the nation it may spell major disaster. The remedy for both lies in the creation and maintenance of a reserve against the rainy day . . . Energy, industrial or human, being the item in highest demand in war, can and should be “canned” in peacetime. Stockpiled through wise foresight and carefully planned action, it makes available in a critical hour a greater volume of energy for the business of fighting, the actual prosecution of the war.1 —United States Military Academy, 1947
American officials began imagining and planning for a future of war while the embers of World War II devastation still smoldered. For the nation, and its citizens, the accumulation of goods seemingly provided a bulwark against “major disaster” and shored up an economy and economic behaviors intent on being ever ready for the “actual prosecution of the war.” This pairing of war preparation with market manipulation became a fundamental characteristic of US policies and power. Mass consumption emerged as a central feature of postwar American society along with a steady stream of advice on how to gain economic advantage; the practice and discourse saturated popular culture and became a defining trait of the emergent national security state. These postwar transformations were evident in consumer culture where the rise in families’ discretionary income encouraged the accumulation of goods in the 53
