This correspondence, which encompasses Truman's courtship of his wife, his service in the senate, his presidency, and after, reveals not only the character of Truman's mind but also a shrewd observer's view of American politics.
The Hill and Wang Critical Issues Series: concise, affordable works on pivotal topics in American history, society, and politics. The Specter of Communism is a concise history of the origins of the Cold War and the evolution of U.S.-Soviet relations, from the Bolshevik revolution to the death of Stalin. Using not only American documents but also those from newly opened archives in Russia, China, and Eastern Europe, Leffler shows how the ideological animosity that existed from Lenin's seizure of power onward turned into dangerous confrontation. By focusing on American political culture and American anxieties about the Soviet political and economic threat, Leffler suggests new ways of understanding the global struggle staged by the two great powers of the postwar era.
Kofsky reveals how Truman and the two most important members of his cabinet, Marshall and Forrestall, systematically deceived Congress and the public into thinking that the USSR was about to start World War III.
The U.S. military has historically believed itself to be the institution best suited to develop the character, spiritual values, and patriotism of American youth. In Strategy for Survival, Lori Bogle investigates how the armed forces assigned itself the role of guardian and interpreter of national values and why it sought to create “ideologically sound Americans capable of defeating communism and assuring the victory of democracy at home and abroad.” Bogle shows that a tendency by some in the armed forces to diffuse their view of America’s civil religion among the general population predated tension with the Soviet Union. Bogle traces this trend from the Progressive Era though the early Cold War, when the Truman and Eisenhower administrations took seriously the battle of ideologies of that era and formulated plans that promised not only to meet the armed forces’ manpower needs but also to prepare the American public morally and spiritually for confrontation with the evils of communism. Both Truman’s plan for Universal Military Training and Eisenhower’s psychological warfare programs promoted an evangelical democracy and sought to inculcate a secular civil-military religion in the general public. During the early 1960s, joint military-civilian anticommunist conferences, organized by the authority of the Department of Defense, were exploited by ultra-conservative civilians advancing their own political and religious agendas. Bogle’s analysis suggests that cooperation among evangelicals, the military, and government was considered both necessary and normal. The Boy Scouts pushed a narrow vision of American democracy, and Joe McCarthy’s chauvinism was less an aberration than a particularly noxious manifestation of a widespread attitude. To combat communism, American society and its armed forces embraced brainwashing—narrow moral education that attacked everyone and everything not consonant with their view of the world and how it ought to be ordered. Exposure of this alliance ultimately dissolved it. However, the cult of toughness and the blinkered view of reality that characterized the armed forces and American society during the Cold War are still valued by many, and are thus still worthy of consideration.
From the first days of his unexpected presidency in April 1945 through the landmark NSC 68 of 1950, Harry Truman was central to the formation of America's grand strategy during the Cold War and the subsequent remaking of U.S. foreign policy. Others are frequently associated with the terminology of and responses to the perceived global Communist threat after the Second World War: Walter Lippmann popularized the term "cold war," and George F. Kennan first used the word "containment" in a strategic sense. Although Kennan, Secretary of State Dean Acheson, and Secretary of Defense George C. Marshall have been seen as the most influential architects of American Cold War foreign policy, The First Cold Warrior draws on archives and other primary sources to demonstrate that Harry Truman was the key decision maker in the critical period between 1945 and 1950. In a significant reassessment of the thirty-third president and his political beliefs, Elizabeth Edwards Spalding contends that it was Truman himself who defined and articulated the theoretical underpinnings of containment. His practical leadership style was characterized by policies and institutions such as the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, NATO, the Berlin airlift, the Department of Defense, and the National Security Council. Part of Truman's unique approach -- shaped by his religious faith and dedication to anti-communism -- was to emphasize the importance of free peoples, democratic institutions, and sovereign nations. With these values, he fashioned a new liberal internationalism, distinct from both Woodrow Wilson's progressive internationalism and Franklin D. Roosevelt's liberal pragmatism, which still shapes our politics. Truman deserves greater credit for understanding the challenges of his time and for being America's first cold warrior. This reconsideration of Truman's overlooked statesmanship provides a model for interpreting the international crises facing the United States in this new era of ideological conflict.
Applying the lessons of presidential history, this anthology of case studies—written by leading political scientists, historians, and subject matter experts—delves into the many facets of the presidency and promotes a greater understanding of the presidency for policymakers, academics, students, and general readers alike. Abraham Lincoln once said, "Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history." One hundred and fifty years later, this statement remains true: the lessons of history are increasingly important at a time of political deadlock and growing skepticism of leadership among the American public. An established classic in its field, Triumphs and Tragedies of the Modern Presidency underscores the importance of looking back to set an intelligent course for the future and promotes a better understanding of the U.S. presidency. This updated and revised second edition offers rare insights on presidential leadership since 2001 and adds considerable new information related to inter-term transitions. The case studies in this single-volume work cover an unparalleled scope of "modern presidential history" and related topics, beginning with the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt and continuing to the presidency of Barack Obama. Examples of the events and subject matter of the case studies include the interstate transport system, the building of the social safety net, the civil rights movement, the space program, environmental protection, education reform, the IT revolution, energy policy, the budget, economic policy, foreign policy, national security, defense policy, and presidential scandals. Each case study highlights a historical lesson and is authored by a different political scientist, historian, or subject matter expert, offering readers a multidisciplinary examination of the presidency.