The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War PDF Author: Michael P. Sullivan
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813164710
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
The war in Vietnam achieved almost none of the goals the American decision-makers formulated, and it cost more than 56,000 American lives. Yet, until recently, Americans have preferred to ignore the causes and consequences of this disaster by treating the war as an aberration in United States foreign policy, an unfortunate but unique mistake. What are the "lessons" of Vietnam? Many previous discussions have focused on narrow or misleading questions, rehashing military decisions, for example, or offering blow-by-blow accounts of Washington infighting, or castigating foreign-policy decision-makers. Michael Sullivan undertakes instead a broad and systematic treatment of the American experience in Vietnam, using a variety of theoretical perspectives to study several aspects of that experience, including the decision-making process and decision-makers' perceptions of the war; public opinion and "mood" before, during, and after the war; and the Vietnam War in relation to the Cold War and to power structures and patterns of violence in the international system. The major goal of The Vietnam War: A Study in the Making of American Policy is to show that the American experience, not only in Vietnam but elsewhere in the world, must be understood as an integral part of the processes of both American foreign policy and international politics. Sullivan demonstrates the importance of using a variety of empirical and quantitative evidence to study foreign policy and of relating a specific historical situation like the Vietnam War to broader theories of international relations.

The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War PDF Author: Michael P. Sullivan
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813164710
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 208

Get Book Here

Book Description
The war in Vietnam achieved almost none of the goals the American decision-makers formulated, and it cost more than 56,000 American lives. Yet, until recently, Americans have preferred to ignore the causes and consequences of this disaster by treating the war as an aberration in United States foreign policy, an unfortunate but unique mistake. What are the "lessons" of Vietnam? Many previous discussions have focused on narrow or misleading questions, rehashing military decisions, for example, or offering blow-by-blow accounts of Washington infighting, or castigating foreign-policy decision-makers. Michael Sullivan undertakes instead a broad and systematic treatment of the American experience in Vietnam, using a variety of theoretical perspectives to study several aspects of that experience, including the decision-making process and decision-makers' perceptions of the war; public opinion and "mood" before, during, and after the war; and the Vietnam War in relation to the Cold War and to power structures and patterns of violence in the international system. The major goal of The Vietnam War: A Study in the Making of American Policy is to show that the American experience, not only in Vietnam but elsewhere in the world, must be understood as an integral part of the processes of both American foreign policy and international politics. Sullivan demonstrates the importance of using a variety of empirical and quantitative evidence to study foreign policy and of relating a specific historical situation like the Vietnam War to broader theories of international relations.

American Foreign Policy Since the Vietnam War

American Foreign Policy Since the Vietnam War PDF Author: Richard A Melanson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315292807
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
A revealing look at presidential politics and foreign policy-making from the aftermath of Vietnam to the NATO intervention in Kosovo. The book illuminates the relationship between presidents' domestic and foreign policy priorities and the key role of public opinion in constraining presidential initiatives, particularly the ability of a president to use military force overseas. In case studies ranging from the invasion of Grenada through the Gulf War and the dilemmas of Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia and Kosovo, Melanson provides compelling portraits of presidents Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton, and their different efforts to forge a foreign policy consensus.

American Foreign Policy Since the Vietnam War

American Foreign Policy Since the Vietnam War PDF Author: Richard A. Melanson
Publisher: M.E. Sharpe
ISBN: 9780765611987
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 444

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Book Description
This book integrates the study of presidential politics and foreign policy-making from the Vietnam aftermath to the events following September 11 and the Iraqi War. Focusing on the relationship between presidents' foreign policy agendas and domestic politics, it offers compelling portraits of presidents Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II. In the course of comparing the efforts of these presidents to articulate a clear conception of the national interest and to forge a foreign policy consensus, the author shows the key role of public opinion in constraining presidential initiatives, in particular the decision to use military force overseas. Never more timely, this popular text is appropriate for courses in U.S. foreign policy, the presidency, or contemporary U.S. politics.

The Vietnam Syndrome

The Vietnam Syndrome PDF Author: G. Simons
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 023037767X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 438

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Book Description
This book focuses on the 'Vietnam Syndrome' - the effects for the United States of the American defeat in the Vietnam War. It argues that a full understanding of the Syndrome requires a proper appreciation of key shaping elements in Vietnamese and American history. Attention is given to the racial genocide that attended the birth of the United States, to US imperialism and capitalism, and to the Cold War framework. The nature of America as a plutocracy is emphasised, followed by profiles of policy options and three specific issues: post-war Vietnam, El Salvador and Iraq.

The Impact of Public Opinion on U.S. Foreign Policy Since Vietnam

The Impact of Public Opinion on U.S. Foreign Policy Since Vietnam PDF Author: Richard Sobel
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : Intervention (International law)
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
This study examines the role that public attitudes have played over the last generation in the making of United States foreign policy. It focuses on four prominent foreign interventions: the Vietnam War, the Nicaraguan Contra funding controversy, the Persian Gulf War, and the Bosnia crisis.

Brent Scowcroft

Brent Scowcroft PDF Author: David F. Schmitz
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN: 0742570428
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
As National Security Advisor to President Gerald Ford, advisor to President Ronald Reagan, and as National Security Advisor to President George H. W. Bush, Brent Scowcroft was at the center of the ongoing debate over how to shape American foreign policy in the post-war world. As David F. Schmitz makes clear in his new biography, Scowcroft was a realist in his outlook on American foreign policy and an heir to the Cold War internationalism that had shaped that policy since 1945. The type of bi-partisan cooperation and internationalism that marked the pre-Vietnam War years served as Scowcroft's guide to how to defend American interests and promote U.S. values and institutions globally. While not always successful, Scowcroft provided a consistent internationalist voice in the midst of change.

The Vietnam Trauma in American Foreign Policy

The Vietnam Trauma in American Foreign Policy PDF Author: Paul M. Kattenburg
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
ISBN: 9781412839563
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description
This study of ten fateful decisions made on Indochina between 1961-75 highlights the ascent of the civilian militarists and of strategy over diplomacy in United States policymaking and reveals the inexorably interlinked and escalating character of the decisions and the central purpose of American presidents: not to have to face the expected domestic political consequences of defeat in Indochina. As a result, we were led into a prolonged stalemate in which "acting" and the management of programs became a more important preoccupation than thinking about our purposes and values, in which analysis become wholly subjective and therefore defective, and in which decision-making occurred in a closed system which did not allow for divergent inputs.

Vietnam's American War

Vietnam's American War PDF Author: Pierre Asselin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 100922932X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 463

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Book Description
This new edition masterfully explains the origins and outcome of America's war in Vietnam by focusing on its local dimensions.

The Irony of Vietnam

The Irony of Vietnam PDF Author: Leslie H. Gelb
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815726791
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 345

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Book Description
"If a historian were allowed but one book on the American involvement in Vietnam, this would be it." — Foreign Affairs When first published in 1979, four years after the end of one of the most divisive conflicts in the United States, The Irony of Vietnam raised eyebrows. Most students of the war argued that the United States had "stumbled into a quagmire in Vietnam through hubris and miscalculation," as the New York Times's Fox Butterfield put it. But the perspective of time and the opening of documentary sources, including the Pentagon Papers, had allowed Gelb and Betts to probe deep into the decisionmaking leading to escalation of military action in Vietnam. The failure of Vietnam could be laid at the door of American foreign policy, they said, but the decisions that led to the failure were made by presidents aware of the risks, clear about their aims, knowledgeable about the weaknesses of their allies, and under no illusion about the outcome. The book offers a picture of a steely resolve in government circles that, while useful in creating consensus, did not allow for alternative perspectives. In the years since its publication, The Irony of Vietnam has come to be considered the seminal work on the Vietnam War.

Global Inequality and American Foreign Policy in the 1970s

Global Inequality and American Foreign Policy in the 1970s PDF Author: Michael Franczak
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501763938
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
In Global Inequality and American Foreign Policy in the 1970s, Michael Franczak demonstrates how Third World solidarity around the New International Economic Order (NIEO) forced US presidents from Richard Nixon to Ronald Reagan to consolidate American hegemony over an international economic order under attack abroad and lacking support at home. The goal of the nations that supported NIEO was to negotiate a redistribution of money and power from the global North to the global South. Their weapon was control over the major commodities—in particular oil—that undergirded the prosperity of the United States and Europe after World War II. Using newly available archival sources, as well as interviews with key administration officials, Franczak reveals how the NIEO and "North-South dialogue" negotiations brought global inequality to the forefront of US national security. The challenges posed by NIEO became an inflection point for some of the greatest economic, political, and moral crises of 1970s America, including the end of golden age liberalism and the return of the market, the splintering of the Democratic Party and the building of the Reagan coalition, and the rise of human rights in US foreign policy in the wake of the Vietnam War. The policy debates and decisions toward the NIEO were pivotal moments in the histories of three ideological trends—neoliberalism, neoconservatism, and human rights—that formed the core of America's post–Cold War foreign policy.