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The recent commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of John F.
Kennedy's election as the thirty-fifth president of the United
States serves as a reminder of a period of time that many Americans
perceive as idyllic. Just as his election, despite a near-run
thing, had instilled a pervasive sense of hope throughout the
country, his assassination stunned the entire nation, scarring the
psyche of a generation of Americans. More than half a century
later, JFK continues to inspire debates about the effectiveness of
the presidency, as well as his own political legacy, making the
senator from Massachusetts the object of many enduring myths: that
he would have been one of the country's greatest leaders had he
lived, he would have kept the US out of a full-fledged Vietnam war,
and that he was a martyr of right-wing assassins. His successor,
Lyndon B. Johnson, who did get the US deeply involved in Vietnam
while pursuing the social reforms of the Great Society at home and
abroad, also casts a long shadow in the twenty-first century, as
the nation continues to deal with poverty, racism, and social
injustice. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of the
Kennedy-Johnson Era covers its history through a chronology, an
introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The
dictionary section has over 300 cross-referenced entries on
important personalities, including the president, his advisors, his
family, his opponents, and his critics, as well as members of
Congress, military leaders, and international leaders. This book is
an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone
wanting to know more about John F. Kennedy.
The Challenges of Nuclear Non-Proliferation is an exhaustive survey
of the many aspects of non-proliferation efforts. It explains why
some nations pursued nuclear programs while others abandoned them,
as well as the challenges, strengths, and weaknesses of
non-proliferation efforts. It addresses key issues such as concerns
over rogue states and stateless rogues, delivery systems made
possible by technology, and the connection between nuclear weapons
and ballistic missiles, examining whether non-proliferation regimes
can deal with these threats or whether economic or military
sanctions need to be developed. It also examines the feasibility of
eliminating or greatly reducing the number of nuclear weapons. A
broad survey of one of today's great threats to international
security, this text provides undergraduates students with the tools
needed to evaluate current events and global threats.
The Challenges of Nuclear Non-Proliferation is an exhaustive survey
of the many aspects of non-proliferation efforts. It explains why
some nations pursued nuclear programs while others abandoned them,
as well as the challenges, strengths, and weaknesses of
non-proliferation efforts. It addresses key issues such as concerns
over rogue states and stateless rogues, delivery systems made
possible by technology, and the connection between nuclear weapons
and ballistic missiles, examining whether non-proliferation regimes
can deal with these threats or whether economic or military
sanctions need to be developed. It also examines the feasibility of
eliminating or greatly reducing the number of nuclear weapons. A
broad survey of one of today's great threats to international
security, this text provides undergraduates students with the tools
needed to evaluate current events and global threats.
Drawing on his knowledge of the comparative history of warfare and
arms control across preliterate, ancient, medieval, and modern
polities, Richard Dean Burns focuses longitudinally on such
perennial arms control issues as negotiation, verification, and
compliance. Although he does not, for example, allege that war
elephants and nuclear weapons are of equal destructive potential,
he does discern instructive similarities between Carthage in 202
BCE and Iraq in 1991 AD. Arms control and disarmament measures have
been pursued and adopted throughout the history and prehistory of
human warfare: sometimes as protocols recognizing evolving
humanitarian taboos; sometimes as terms imposed by the victors on
the vanquished; and sometimes as accords negotiated between rivals
fearful of mutual destruction. Arms control measures ramped up in
significance and urgency at the dawn of the 20th century by the
introduction of rapid-fire weapons, aircraft, chemical agents, and
submarines, and again at mid-century with the advent of weapons of
mass destruction-nuclear, chemical, and bacteriological-with
sophisticated delivery systems. As Burns makes clear, the enormous
increase in destructive potential brought about by thermonuclear
weaponry essentially changed the nature of war and, therefore, of
arms control.
In the history of the United States, few periods could more justly
be regarded as the best and worst of times than the Kennedy-Johnson
era. The arrival of John F. Kennedy in the White House in 1961
unleashed an unprecedented wave of hope and optimism in a large
segment of the population; a wave that would come crashing down
when he was assassinated only a few years later. His successor,
Lyndon B. Johnson, enjoyed less popularity, but he was one of the
most experienced and skilled presidents the country had ever seen,
and he promised a Great Society to rival Kennedy's New Frontier.
Both presidents were dogged by foreign policy disasters: Kennedy by
the Bay of Pigs fiasco, although he came out ahead on the Cuban
missile crisis, and Johnson from the backlash of the Vietnam War.
The 1960s witnessed unprecedented progress toward racial and sexual
equality, but it also played host to race and urban riots. And
while impressive advances in the sciences and arts were fueling the
American imagination, the counterculture rejected it all. The A to
Z of the Kennedy-Johnson Era relates these events and provides
extensive political, economic, and social background on this era
through a detailed chronology, an introduction, appendixes, a
bibliography, and several hundred cross-referenced dictionary
entries on important persons, events, institutions, policies, and
issues.
More than just a timeline, the Chronology of the Cold War is
in-depth chronological narrative organized into sections. Each
section carries a clear date and summary heading. The five major
sections are I. Cold Peace, 1917-1940 II. The Strange Alliance,
1941-1945 III. Containment and Detente, 1946-1975 IV. Confrontation
& Conciliation, 1976-1991 V. Epilogue Based on sections of the
Chronological History of U.S. ForeignRelations (Routledge 2003),
the book includes significant additional material on Russia, China,
arms control, and the Cold War in the Third World. This easy-to-use
reference also includes an introductory section reviewing the
history leading up to the Cold War from 1917 to 1945, a general
bibliography of resources on the Cold War and is illustrated with
photographs from presidential libraries and 18 maps.
As the U.S. faces the consequences of its actions during the Cold
War in Afghanistan and elsewhere, study of the period becomes more
important and timely. More than just a timeline, the "Chronology of
the Cold War" is an in-depth chronological narrative organized in
sections. Each section carries a clear date and summary heading.
The five major sections are:
I. Cold Peace, 1917-1940
II. The Strange Alliance, 1941-1945
III. Containment and De tente, 1946-1975
IV. Confrontation & Conciliation, 1976-1991
V. Epilogue
Based on sections of the "Chronological History of U.S. Foreign
Relations" (Routledge 2003), the reference includes significant
additional material on Russia, China, arms control, and the Cold
War in the developing world. This easy-to-use reference also
includes an introductory section reviewing the history leading up
to the Cold War from 1917 to 1945, a general bibliography of
resources on the Cold War, and is illustrated with photographs from
presidential libraries.
The "Chronology of the Cold War" is an essential reference for
students, scholars, librarians, researchers, and general readers
seeking a straight-forward explanation of particular events
regarding the United States, the Soviet Union, and other
participants in the Cold War. Also includes 18 maps.
This work is a contemporary chronicle of the Cold War and offers an
analysis of policy and rhetoric of the United States and Soviet
Union during the 1980s. The authors examine the assumptions that
drove political decisions and the rhetoric that defined the
relationship as the Soviet Union began to implode. This work
demonstrates that while the subsequent unraveling of the Soviet
empire was an unintended side effect of Mikhail Gorbachev's
reforms, termination of the Cold War was not. Ronald Reagan
deserves full credit for recognizing Gorbachev's sincerity and his
determination to change the direction of Soviet policies. For this,
Reagan felt the full wrath of anticommunist hawks for "doing
business" with a communist leader. But it was Gorbachev who
concluded the superpowers had become "mesmerized by ideological
myths" which ruled out any meaningful discussions of a possible
accommodation of political issues for more than four decades. The
evidence is compelling that Gorbachev himself broke the Cold War's
ideological straight jacket that had paralyzed Moscow and
Washington's ability to resolve their differences. Though
politically weakened, Gorbachev conceded nothing to U.S. military
superiority. Never did he negotiate from a position of weakness. In
doing so, the last Soviet leader faced even greater political and
physical risk. Without Gorbachev the end of the Cold War could have
played out very differently and perhaps with great danger.
This book provides a succinct and accessible interpretation of the
major event and ideas that have shaped U.S. foreign relations since
the American Revolution-historical factors that now affect our
current debates and commitments in the Middle East as well as
Europe and Asia. American Foreign Relations since Independence
explores the relationship of American policies to national interest
and the limits of the nation's power, reinterpreting the nature and
history of American foreign relations. The book brings together the
collective knowledge of three generations of diplomatic historians
to create a readily accessible introduction to the subject. The
authors explicitly challenge and reject the perennial debates about
isolationism versus internationalism, instead asserting that
American foreign relations have been characterized by the permanent
tension inherent in America's desire to engage with the world and
its equally powerful determination to avoid "entanglement" in the
world's troubles. This work is ideally suited as a resource for
students of politics, international affairs, and history, and it
will provide compelling insights for informed general readers.
This volume reviews the debates surrounding the anti-ballistic
missile (ABM) defense systems and their deployment by George W.
Bush, allowing readers to assess for themselves the significance of
Bush's decisions. The Missile Defense Systems of George W. Bush: A
Critical Assessment asks and answers a number of pressing questions
about Bush's decision to deploy ground-based missiles. Has the
system become reliable? If not, what are the prospects for it to
become effective? What have the fiscal costs been? What was the
political impact of efforts to expand ABM systems to Europe? This
is the only major book that brings together all of the
factors—historical and current—to allow readers to assess
President Bush's decisions for themselves. Opening with an
extensive history of missile defense, the book analyzes Bush's
efforts to establish ground-based missiles in Eastern Europe, as
well as the impact of his decisions. Both the administration's
policies and evaluations and those of critical observers are
presented. President Obama's program for missile defense is
reviewed as well. A final chapter evaluates the technical progress
of the various ABM systems and weighs the political dimensions of
the deployment decision and the cost of the undertaking to date.
This concise diplomatic history of the Confederation era is the
first new work on the topic in a generation. In its pages, three
distinguished diplomatic historians offer a realist interpretation
of the way in which the Founding Fathers conducted foreign affairs,
refreshing our collective memory about their priorities and their
values. When three of the nation's leading historians come together
to fashion a fresh study of American history, the resulting work
cannot help but be a monumental addition to the field. Foreign
Affairs and the Founding Fathers: From Confederation to
Constitution, 1776-1787 is such a work. These eminent scholars
provide a thoughtful, realist interpretation of the Founders' view
of America's place in the world, delivering a timely reassessment
of their aspirations, thoughts, and actions during the seminal
decades of the American nation. This book takes readers backstage
where they can eavesdrop on the Founders to better understand their
motives and intentions and see how they responded to threats and
problems associated with America's place in the world. Arguing that
the Founding Fathers essentially thought and acted in terms of
power-ranking matters of national interest and security over
ideology and moral concerns-the book sheds new light on the foreign
policy opportunities and challenges of the day, as the Founders
weighed and determined them. In so doing, it offers important
guideposts for our own time. Two maps relative to the Confederation
period A bibliography
The Evolution of Arms Control: From Antiquity to the Nuclear Age is
the first world history of arms control through time. Drawing on
his knowledge of the comparative history of warfare and arms
control across preliterate, ancient, medieval, and modern polities,
Richard Dean Burns focuses longitudinally on such perennial arms
control issues as negotiation, verification, and compliance.
Although he does not, for example, allege that war elephants and
nuclear weapons are of equal destructive potential, he does discern
instructive similarities between Carthage in 202 BCE and Iraq in
1991 AD. Arms control and disarmament measures have been pursued
and adopted throughout the history and prehistory of human warfare:
sometimes as protocols recognizing evolving humanitarian taboos;
sometimes as terms imposed by the victors on the vanquished; and
sometimes as accords negotiated between rivals fearful of mutual
destruction. Arms control measures ramped up in significance and
urgency at the dawn of the 20th century by the introduction of
rapid-fire weapons, aircraft, chemical agents, and submarines, and
again at mid-century with the advent of weapons of mass
destruction-nuclear, chemical, and bacteriological-with
sophisticated delivery systems. As Burns makes clear, the enormous
increase in destructive potential brought about by thermonuclear
weaponry essentially changed the nature of war and, therefore, of
arms control. 15 illustrations
This work is a contemporary chronicle of the Cold War and offers an
analysis of policy and rhetoric of the United States and Soviet
Union during the 1980s. The authors examine the assumptions that
drove political decisions and the rhetoric that defined the
relationship as the Soviet Union began to implode. This work
demonstrates that while the subsequent unraveling of the Soviet
empire was an unintended side effect of Mikhail Gorbachev's
reforms, termination of the Cold War was not. Ronald Reagan
deserves full credit for recognizing Gorbachev's sincerity and his
determination to change the direction of Soviet policies. For this,
Reagan felt the full wrath of anticommunist hawks for doing
business with a communist leader. But it was Gorbachev who
concluded the superpowers had become mesmerized by ideological
myths which ruled out any meaningful discussions of a possible
accommodation of political issues for more than four decades. The
evidence is compelling that Gorbachev himself broke the Cold War's
ideological straight jacket that had paralyzed Moscow and
Washington's ability to resolve their differences. Though
politically weakened, Gorbachev conceded nothing to U.S. military
superiority. Never did he negotiate from a position of weakness. In
doing so, the last Soviet leader faced even greater political and
physical risk. Without Gorbachev the end of the Cold War could have
played out very differently and perhaps with great danger.
Three distinguished diplomatic historians offer an assessment of
the Cold War in the realist tradition that focuses on balancing the
objectives of foreign policy with the means of accomplishing them.
America and the Cold War, 1941–1991: A Realist Interpretation is
a sweeping historical account that focuses on the policy
differences at the center of this conflict. In its pages, three
preeminent authors offer an examination of contemporary criticism
of the Cold War, documenting the views of observers who appreciated
that many policies of the period were not only dangerous, but could
not resolve the problems they contemplated. The study offers a
comprehensive chronicle of U.S.-Soviet relations, broadly
conceived, from World War II to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
It places the origins of the Cold War as related to the contentious
issues of World War II and stresses the failure of Washington to
understand or seriously seek settlement of those issues. It points
out how nuclear weaponry gradually assumed political stature and
came to dominate high-level, Soviet-American diplomatic activity,
at the same time discounting the notion that the Cold War was a
global ideological confrontation for the future of civilization. A
concluding chapter draws lessons from the Cold War decades, showing
how they apply to dealing with nation-states and terrorist groups
today.
This expanded and updated resource provides full coverage of US diplomatic history from 1776 to 2000. More than a timeline, the Chronological History allows readers to follow themes and compare time periods via extensive chronological listings, numerous cross-references and thorough index. The new edition will bring the work up-to-date and include an introductory section on the colonial period and a reconsideration of the Cold War years. Appendices include brief biographies of each Secretary of State and a listing of birth and death dates for all important makers of US foreign policy. A thorough, analytical index completes the third volume and allows the user to compare information and historical themes throughout the volumes.
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