Presidential Decisions for War

Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, and Iraq

Gary R. Hess

• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Year: 2009
• eBook ISBN: 9780801895784
• Edition: 2
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

Following World War II, Americans expected that the United States would wage another major war against a superpower. Instead, the nation has fought limited wars against much weaker states, such as North Korea, North Vietnam, and Iraq. This revised and updated edition of Presidential Decisions for War analyzes the means by which four presidents have taken the nation to war and assesses the effectiveness of each president's leadership during those conflicts.

Gary Hess recreates the unfolding crises in Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq to probe the reasons why Presidents Truman, Johnson, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush and their advisors decided in favor of war. He compares the performance of the commanders-in-chief and evaluates how effectively each understood U.S. interests, explored alternatives to war, adhered to constitutional processes, and built congressional, popular, and international support. A new conclusion points out, that unlike the administrations of Truman, Johnson, and the elder Bush, George W. Bush's White House actively sought to change the international order through preemptive war and aggressive democracy building.

Fully revised and featuring an examination of how each of the presidents learned from history and juggled the demands on diplomacy, this comparative study of presidential war-making elucidates how effective executive leadership—or its absence—directly affects the outcome of wars.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Series Editor’s Foreword
• Preface to the Second Edition
• Introduction: Presidential Leadership and International Crises
• 1 Harry S. Truman and the Korean Crisis: “We can’t let the U.N. down”
• 2 Harry S. Truman as Commander in Chief: Decision by Indecision
• 3 Lyndon B. Johnson and the Vietnam Crisis: “America keeps her word”
• 4 Lyndon B. Johnson as Commander in Chief: The Strategy of Wishful Thinking
• 5 George H. W. Bush and the Persian Gulf Crisis: “This aggression will not stand”
• 6 George H. W. Bush as Commander in Chief: The Imperatives of Coalition Warfare
• 7 George W. Bush and the Second Crisis with Iraq: “Time is not on our side”
• 8 George W. Bush as Commander in Chief: History Overpowers Ideology
• Conclusion: Four Presidents and Their Wars
• Bibliographical Essay
• Index
• Footnotes