Abstract

"National Security Protectionism: The Case of the U.S. Machine Tools Industry in the 1950s"

Ryan Haddad, University of Maryland (ryanihaddad@gmail.com)

According to the political scientist I.M. Destler, protectionism in U.S. trade policy endured against a broader liberalizing tide in international trade during the second half of the 20th Century because its costs were asymmetrical to trade’s benefits and concentrated—that is, industries hurt by foreign competition tended more easily garner political support for their position because the costs in their local communities were comparatively more visible and steeper than the apparent gains.

But national security protectionism was an exception to this dynamic. When the U.S. government sought to preserve its Cold War technological advantages by restricting the exports from critical sectors, the concentrated interests of those industries was insufficient to alter policy. This paper will show this dynamic using the case of the machine tools industry in the 1950s. It will explain the dynamics that made national security protectionism in this era distinct from more traditional forms based on tariffs, quotas, etc. It will document the appeals of the tools industry to the U.S. government, as well as the lack of resonance that these appeals had on the Executive Branch and the Congress.