McKinney added that the conclusion of the book discussed the way in which Americans have likewise suffered during the US’s involvement in war: “As Americans of my age learned, you can’t have guns and butter. That was the analogy that was made during the Vietnam War.

The National Defense Act of 1916 directed the president to select a site for the artificial production of nitrates within the United States. It was not until September 1917, several months after the United States entered World War I, that Wilson selected Muscle Shoals, Alabama, after more than a year of competition among political rivals. A deadlock in the Congress was broken when South Carolina Senator Ellison D. Smith sponsored the National Defense Act of 1916 that directed "the Secretary of Agriculture to manufacture nitrates for fertilizers in peace and munitions in war at water power sites designated by the President." This was presented by the news media as "guns and butter."