War scare

During WW 2 industry was booming making arms but when the war ended the boom ended. The government had used private industry to produce the weapons of war and they made huge profits. Boeing profit margins were over 300% much of which came from cost plus production. Boeing was financed by Chase Bank and both were in danger of taking large losses as production declined. The commercial airline industry had not yet developed enough to keep Boeing from going under. In order to keep the money flowing higher ups in the government led by Truman, Marshall and Forrestal devised a scheme that Russia was going to invade Europe and that the US must continue its military build up. This was a made up threat to get congress to approve money for defense. Here is an excerpt from a book by Frank Kofsky, Harry S. Truman and the War Scare of 1948 reveals how during the first half of 1948, Truman and the two most important members of his cabinet, Marshall and Forrestal, systematically deceived Congress and the public into thinking that the U.S.S.R. was about to launch World War III with an invasion of Western Europe This led to the adoption of NSC 68. National Security Council Paper 68 (NSC-68) was a top-secret report that was presented to President Harry S. Truman in 1950. The report said the US should use political, economic and military means to contain the Soviet threat and the spread of Communism and this was the birth of the infamous military industrial complex that Eisenhower warned about.