Presidential Decisions for War: Korea, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf (The American Moment) - Hardcover

Hess, Professor Gary R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0801865158 ISBN 13: 9780801865152

Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001

Synopsis

In 1950, Americans expected that the United States would wage another major war in the near future. Instead, over the course of the next half-century, they fought limited wars against minor powers: North Korea, North Vietnam, and Iraq. In Presidential Decisions for War, Gary R. Hess explores the ways in which Presidents Truman, Johnson, and Bush took America into these wars. He recreates the unfolding crises in Korea, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf, explaining why the presidents and their advisers concluded that the use of military power was ultimately necessary to uphold U.S. security. The decisions for war are then evaluated in terms of how effectively the president assessed U.S. interests, explored alternatives to war, adhered to constitutional processes, and built congressional, popular, and international support.

Once at war, each president as commander in chief faced the challenge of waging a limited war, which imposes restrictions on military operations and objectives and on the extent to which popular emotions can be aroused. After tracing how Truman, Johnson, and Bush responded to unfolding military developments, Hess evaluates the wartime leadership of each president in terms of his effectiveness in coordinating political and military objectives, managing civilian-military relations, communicating objectives and sustaining popular and congressional support, gaining and sustaining international backing, and responding to diplomatic initiatives and opportunities for peace.

Presidential Decisions for War concludes that the quality of presidential leadership directly affected the different outcomes of these three wars, each of which remains a topic of ongoing controversy among historians and the public.

About this title

About the Author:

Gary R. Hess is Distinguished Research Professor of History at Bowling Green State University. He is the author of The United States at War, 1941-1945; Vietnam and the United States: Origins and Legacy of War; The United States' Emergence as a Southeast Asia Power, 1940-1950; America Encounters India, 1941-1947; and numerous essays. He was president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations in 1991 and has served on the Board of Editors of Diplomatic History. He has been a four-time Fulbright Scholar/Lecturer in India.

Review:

"This book admirably introduces an historical cross-analysis that allows some assessment of US leadership during these critical times." -- Virginia Quarterly Review

"Hess's writing is clear, each chapter is sharply focused, and his comparisons are deft, all of which we have a right to expect from an historian of his stature." -- Warren I. Cohen, International History Review

"Hess's book provides us with useful and substantive cases of the ways presidents manage international crisis." -- Chris J. Dolan, White House Studies

"A solid work... Hess has packaged three historical vignettes in a thorough, concise, and readable primer on wartime presidential leadership." -- Dan Koprowski, Historian

"A thoughtful and interesting book, not the least of its merit being a useful bibliography." -- John Kentleton, Journal of Contemporary History

About this edition

• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0801865158
• ISBN 13: 9780801865152
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 280