Peace, War, and Partnership
Peace, War, and Partnership

Author: William A. Taylor

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2023-12-14

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 1648431380

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Covering the period from World War II through the Trump presidency, Peace, War, and Partnership: Congress and the Military since World War II unpacks the vital and dynamic relationship between Congress and the military, two entities that have worked together, at times with different purposes, to solve myriad important issues impacting the United States in both peace and war. Congress and the military have had their periods of cooperation. However, they have also had alternating periods of resistance to each other, based on distinct conceptions of national interests and divergent strategies. Their partnership has been a symbiotic relationship in which one entity or the other has ebbed and flowed in power depending on the circumstances. They have altered each other in far-reaching ways and transformed American society as a result of their liaisons. Peace, War, and Partnership analyzes the significant, powerful, and central relationship between Congress and the military. It investigates intersections of policy, politics, and society to theorize the impact of this relationship on the United States in the modern era. This work also offers a better understanding of earlier attempts by policy makers in Congress and the military to provide national security, contextualizing highly relevant current issues such as military service, proliferation, foreign intervention, national security, joint operations, diplomacy, alliances, mobilization, post-conflict resolution, citizenship, and military innovation. It illuminates crucial questions involving military policies in American democracy, and their sway on America historically and today, sparking and informing public debate about its implications now and for the future.

So Much to Lose
So Much to Lose

Author: William J. Rust

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2014-06-17

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 0813144779

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Before U.S. combat units were deployed to Vietnam, presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy strove to defeat a communist-led insurgency in Laos. This impoverished, landlocked Southeast Asian kingdom was geopolitically significant because it bordered more powerful communist and anticommunist nations. The Ho Chi Minh Trail, which traversed the country, was also a critical route for North Vietnamese infiltration into South Vietnam. In So Much to Lose: John F. Kennedy and American Policy in Laos, William J. Rust continues his definitive examination of U.S.-Lao relations during the Cold War, providing an extensive analysis of their impact on US policy decisions in Vietnam. He discusses the diplomacy, intelligence operations, and military actions that led to the Declaration on the Neutrality of Laos, signed in Geneva in 1962, which met President John F. Kennedy's immediate goal of preventing a communist victory in the country without committing American combat troops. Rust also examines the rapid breakdown of these accords, the U.S. administration's response to their collapse, and the consequences of that response. At the time of Kennedy's assassination in 1963, U.S. policy in Laos was confused and contradictory, and Lyndon B. Johnson inherited not only an incoherent strategy, but also military plans for taking the war to North Vietnam. By assessing the complex political landscape of Laos within the larger context of the Cold War, this book offers fresh insights into American foreign policy decisions that still resonate today.

The Silent Guns of Two Octobers
The Silent Guns of Two Octobers

Author: Theodore Voorhees

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Published: 2021-09-27

Total Pages: 381

ISBN-13: 0472038710

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The Silent Guns of Two Octobers uses new as well as previously under-appreciated documentary evidence to link the Cuban Missile Crisis to the Checkpoint Charlie tank standoff to achieve the impossible—craft a new, thoughtful, original analysis of a political showdown everyone thought they knew everything about. Ultimately the book concludes that much of the Cold War rhetoric the leaders employed was mere posturing; in reality neither had any intention of starting a nuclear war. Theodore Voorhees reexamines Khrushchev’s and Kennedy’s leadership, decision, and rhetoric in light of the new documentary evidence available. Voorhees examines the impact of John F. Kennedy's domestic political concerns about his upcoming first midterm elections on his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis through his use of back-channel dealings with Khrushchev during the lead-up to the crisis and in the closing days when the two leaders managed to reach a settlement.

America and Vietnam, 1954-1963
America and Vietnam, 1954-1963

Author: Michael M. Walker, Col., USMC (Ret.)

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2022-08-31

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 1476647518

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The conventional narrative of the Vietnam War often glosses over the decade leading up to it. Covering the years 1954-1963, this book presents a thought-provoking reexamination of the war's long prelude--from the aftermath of French defeat at Dien Bien Phu--through Hanoi's decision to begin reunification by force--to the assassination of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem. Established narratives of key events are given critical reappraisal and new light is shed on neglected factors. The strategic importance of Laos is revealed as central to understanding how the war in the South developed.

Journalism and the American Experience
Journalism and the American Experience

Author: Bruce J. Evensen

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-02-12

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 135133624X

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Journalism and the American Experience offers a comprehensive examination of the critical role journalism has played in the struggle over America’s democratic institutions and culture. Journalism is central to the story of the nation’s founding and has continued to influence and shape debates over public policy, American exceptionalism, and the meaning and significance of the United States in world history. Placed at the intersection of American Studies and Communications scholarship, this book provides an essential introduction to journalism’s curious and conflicted co-existence with the American democratic experiment.

Westmoreland's War
Westmoreland's War

Author: Gregory Daddis

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 0199316503

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This groundbreaking study offers a major reinterpretation of American strategy during the first half of the Vietnam War. Gregory A. Daddis argues senior military leaders developed a comprehensive campaign strategy, one not confined to 'attrition' of enemy forces. This innovative work is a must for a genuine understanding of the Vietnam War.