A Cold-War Warrior Who Cracked

James Forrestal: A Study in Personality, Politics, and Policy
by Arnold A. Rogow
Macmillan, 1963, $6.95

Arnold Rogow is seriously concerned about the impact of psychological disorder on politics and examines it through the career of James Forrestal, who began to go out of his mind in his last months as Secretary of Defense and committed suicide a short time after leaving his post.

Most of the book is devoted to a straight biographical description of Forrestal’s life, with emphasis on his days in Washington as Navy Under Secretary, Navy Secretary, and Secretary of Defense. Here Rogow considers some of the significant political struggles of Forrestal’s career and especially his role in establishing a Department of Defense. The focus of consideration is narrow—there is no attempt to discuss the wider implications of policy. Instead of analyzing the strategical role of our armed f...