It does make you wonder how much truth there was in The Report From Iron Mountain
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Report-Iron-.../dp/068482390X
"Back in 1967, this "secret government report" shocked a nation with it's contents, arguing that war has some beneficial side-effects on the economy and population control, so that without war, a country could become radically unbalanced; therefore, war is not only necessary but desirable.
It is easy to see why this satire was mistaken for the real thing, with its convoluted Pentagonese, addressing very real fears of a National Security State; war keeps the population intimidated and under control, reducing the numbers of 'unproductive' people, such as the poor and the criminal class, feeding them into the war machine meat grinder, whilst the 'useful' members of society can prosper. Simple questions are posed about food supply and overpopulation and through a torturous logic, fascistic answers are arrived at. No wonder why, then President Lyndon B. Johnson, "Hit the roof" when he learned of the report!
Don't expect many laughs from this book, as the writing style is deliberately dry (withered, some might say), intending to reflect a bureaucratic mindset, where people are reduced to utilitarian components. As a satiric reflection on the ideology of the likes of Robert McNamara's 'business management' of the Vietnam war and Lyman Lemnitzer's terrorist plans against U.S. citizens in Operation Northwoods, Report from Iron Mountain on the Possibility & Desirability of Peace is an unusual take on 1960s military-industrial radicalism."