From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776 (162 page)

A dynamic and fascinating personality, Lyndon Johnson has been the subject of excellent recent biographies by Robert Dallek,
Flawed Giant
:
Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961–1973
(New York, 1998) and Randall B. Woods,
Lyndon Johnson: Architect of American Ambition
(New York, 2006), which gets closer to the real LBJ. Johnson's tape recordings of his telephone conversations provide rich insights into his character
and policies. The early recordings are selectively transcribed in Michael Beschloss, ed.,
Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963–1964
(New York, 1997) and
Reaching for Glory: Lyndon Johnson's Secret White House Tapes, 1964–1965
(New York, 2001). Monographic literature on LBJ's foreign policy is just beginning to appear. Collections of scholarly essays dealing with important topics include Robert A. Divine, ed.,
Exploring the Johnson Years
(Austin, Tex., 1981),
The Johnson Years: Vietnam, the Environment, and Science
(Lawrence, Kans., 1987), and
The Johnson Years: LBJ at Home and Abroad
(Lawrence, Kans., 1994) and Mitchell B. Lerner, ed.,
Looking Back at LBJ: White House Politics in a New Light
(Lawrence, Kans., 2005). Other useful volumes dealing with LBJ's foreign policy are Warren I. Cohen and Nancy Bernkopf Tucker, eds.,
Lyndon Johnson Confronts the World, 1963–1968
(New York, 1994), Diane B. Kunz, ed.,
The Diplomacy of the Crucial Decade: American Foreign Relations During the 1960s
(New York, 1994), and H. W. Brands,
The Wages of Globalism: Lyndon Johnson and the Limits of American Power
(New York, 1995). Among the few up-to-date scholarly monographs are Thomas Alan Schwartz,
Lyndon Johnson and Europe: In the Shadow of Vietnam
(Cambridge, Mass., 2003) and Mitchell Lerner,
The Pueblo Incident: A Spy Ship and the Failure of American Foreign Policy
(Lawrence, Kans., 2002), both of which give LBJ high marks for handling difficult situations. Carole Fink, Phillip Gassert, and Detlef Junker, eds.,
1968: The World Transformed
(New York, 1998) is invaluable for the multiplicity of global happenings in that still quite unbelievable year. Three introductions to the Vietnam War are George C. Herring,
America's Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950–1975
(New York, 2002), Marilyn B. Young,
The Vietnam Wars, 1945–1991
(New York, 1991), and A. J. Langguth,
Our Vietnam: The War, 1954–1975
(New York, 2000). The best treatment of LBJ's escalation is Logevall's
Choosing War,
which categorically rejects the notion that he had no choice but to act as he did. George C. Herring,
LBJ and Vietnam: A Different Kind of War
(Austin, Tex., 1994) and Lloyd C. Gardner,
Pay Any Price: Lyndon Johnson and the Wars for Vietnam
(Chicago, 1995) analyze Johnson's conduct of the war from different perspectives. Randall B. Woods,
Fulbright
(New York, 1995) and Kyle Longley,
Senator Albert Gore, Sr.
(Baton Rouge, La., 2004) are up-to-date biographies of leading "doves."

Tidbits from the Nixon and Kissinger papers have leaked out in recent years, and the trickle now seems to be surging into a flood. A source-based scholarly literature should not be far behind. In the meantime, it is necessary to rely largely on memoirs and those documents that have been declassified. Nixon's and Kissinger's memoirs are better than those of most
top officials; Kissinger's breaks all records for size.
RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon
(New York, 1978) naturally defends a discredited president's policies but is also useful for diary entries and other revelations.
White House Years
(Boston, 1979) and
Years of Upheaval
(Boston, 1982) cover the Nixon period. They are rich in detail and especially noteworthy for candid and perceptive sketches of those people Kissinger worked with—and against. They are also staunchly defensive. There is no good up-to-date biography of Nixon. By contrast, Kissinger studies abound. Walter Isaacson,
Kissinger: A Biography
(New York, 1992) is detailed and readable. Jussi Hanhimäki,
The Flawed Architect: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy
(New York, 2004) is thorough and based on some new documentation. Jeremi Suri,
Henry Kissinger and the American Century
(New York, 2007) is a valuable recent contribution. Robert Dallek,
Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power
(New York, 2007) is excellent, as is Melvin Small,
The Presidency of Richard Nixon
(Lawrence, Kans., 1999), which covers domestic and foreign policy. William P. Bundy,
A Tangled Web: The Making of Foreign Policy in the Nixon Presidency
(New York, 1998) is a critical study by a former Kennedy/Johnson administration official. Joan Hoff,
Nixon Reconsidered
(New York, 1994) praises Nixon's domestic policies and blames Kissinger for foreign policy failures. Raymond Garthoff,
Détente and Confrontation: American-Soviet Relations from Nixon to Reagan
(Washington, 1985) is thorough and indispensable for studying one of the administration's major achievements. Jeremi Suri,
Power and Protest: Global Revolution and the Rise of Détente
(Cambridge, Mass., 2003) places detente in the context of the worldwide upheavals of the 1960s. Also useful are John Newhouse,
Cold Dawn: The Story of SALT
(New York, 1973), a fine contemporary account by a journalist, Keith L. Nelson,
The Making of Détente: Soviet-American Relations in the Shadow of Vietnam
(Baltimore, Md., 1995), and for a Soviet perspective Anatoly Dobrynin,
In Confidence
(New York, 1993), a memoir by the longtime Cold War ambassador to Washington. For China, James Mann,
About Face: A History of America's Curious Relationship with China from Nixon to Clinton
(New York, 1999) is valuable, as is Margaret Macmillan,
Nixon and Mao: The Week That Changed the World
(New York, 2007). Abraham Rabinovich,
The Yom Kippur War: The Epic Encounter that Transformed the Middle East
(New York, 2004) is an up-to-date account. Jeffrey Kimball,
Nixon's Vietnam War
(Lawrence, Kans., 1998) is the best study of that topic. Kimball's
The Vietnam War Files: Uncovering the Secret History of Nixon-Era Strategy
(Lawrence, Kans., 2004) fills out parts of the story from recently declassified documentation. Larry Berman,
Vietnam: No Peace, No Honor
(New York, 2001) and Pierre
Asselin,
A Bitter Peace: Washington, Hanoi, and the Making of the Paris Agreement
(New York, 2002) are scholarly analyses of the flawed peace-making.

Scholarship on the Ford administration remains scant.
A Time to Heal: The Autobiography of Gerald R. Ford
(New York, 1979) and James Cannon,
Time and Chance: Gerald Ford's Appointment with History
(New York, 1994) are useful, as is Kissinger's
Years of Renewal
(New York, 1999). John R. Greene,
The Presidency of Gerald R. Ford
(Lawrence, Kans., 1995) and Yanek Mieczkowski,
Gerald Ford and the Challenges of the 1970s
(Lexington, Ky., 2005) treat Ford sympathetically. Robert David Johnson,
Congress and the Cold War
(New York, 2006) and Thomas Franck and Edward Wiesband,
Foreign Policy by Congress
(New York, 1979) deal with the congressional resurgence of the 1970s. Robert D. Kaufman,
Henry M. Jackson: A Life in Politics
(Seattle, 2000) portrays positively one of the leaders of the congressional rebellion. Garthoff's
Détente and Confrontation
is good on the breakdown of detente under Ford and Carter.

The Carter literature is similarly slim. Jimmy Carter,
Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President
(New York, 1982), Cyrus Vance,
Hard Choices: Critical Years in American Foreign Policy
(New York, 1983), and Zbigniew Brzezinski,
Power and Principle: Memoirs of the National Security Adviser, 1977–1981
(New York, 1985) are basic sources. Andrew J. DeRoche,
Andrew Young: Civil Rights Ambassador
(Wilmington, Del., 2003) is a useful biography of an important figure. Burton I. Kaufman and Scott Kaufman,
The Presidency of James Earl Carter
(2nd ed., Lawrence, Kans., 2006) covers the entire administration and is excellent on foreign policy. Gaddis Smith,
Morality, Reason and Power
:
American Diplomacy in the Carter Years
(New York, 1986) is an early and still-useful attempt to make sense of the Carter foreign policy. The breakdown of detente and revivification of the Cold War are analyzed in Garthoff's
Détente and Confrontation
and Odd Arne Westad, ed.,
The Fall of Détente: Soviet-American Relations During the Carter Years
(Boston, 1995). Piero Gleijeses,
Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959–1976
(Chapel Hill, N.C., 2002) uses Cuban sources to provide a persuasive revisionist account of conflicts in Angola and elsewhere. For the all-important issue of human rights, see Joshua Murachik,
The Uncertain Crusade: Jimmy Carter and the Dilemmas of Human Rights
(New York, 1980) and Sandy Vogelgesang,
American Dream, Global Nightmare: The Dilemma of Human Rights Policy
(New York, 1980). William Quandt,
Peace Process: American Diplomacy and the Arab Israeli Conflict Since 1967
(rev. ed., Berkeley, Calif., 2001), by a participant, is valuable for Camp David and
its breakdown. The Iranian crisis is well covered in John D. Stempel,
Inside the Iranian Revolution
(Bloomington, Ind., 1981) and Kenneth M. Pollack,
The Persian Puzzle: The Conflict Between Iran and America
(New York, 2004). Its domestic impact is thoughtfully analyzed in David Farber,
Taken Hostage: The Iran Hostage Crisis and America's First Encounter with Radical Islam
(Princeton, N.J., 2005).

1981–2008:
There is virtually no scholarly literature on the Reagan era.
An American Life: Ronald Reagan, The Autobiography
(New York, 1990) is bland and unrevealing, Douglas Brinkley, ed.,
The Reagan Diaries
(New York, 2007) much more insightful. Alexander M. Haig Jr.,
Caveat: Realism, Reagan, and Foreign Policy
(New York, 1984) vigorously defends the author's controversial role. George P. Shultz,
Turmoil and Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State
(New York, 1993) is very detailed and useful on numerous issues. Richard Pipes,
Vixi: Memoirs of a Non-Belonger
(New Haven, Conn., 2004) reveals the mood of Reagan's hard-line National Security Council. Lou Cannon,
President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime
(New York, 1991) highlights Reagan's pragmatism. Garry Wills,
Reagan's America: Innocents at Home
(New York, 1987) is especially good on the pre-presidential career. Peter Schweizer,
Reagan's War—The Epic Story of his Forty Year Struggle and Final Triumph over Communism
(New York, 2003), as the title suggests, is a zealous affirmation of post–Cold War triumphalism. Kyle Longley et al.,
Deconstructing Reagan: Conservative Mythology and America's Fortieth President
(Armonk, N.Y., 2007) offers a strong rebuttal from scholars writing on foreign policy and domestic issues. John Ehrman,
The Eighties: America in the Age of Reagan
(New Haven, Conn., 2005) is excellent on the domestic backdrop and Geoffrey Smith,
Reagan and Thatcher
(New York, 1991) on that special relationship. On Soviet-American relations, Garthoff,
Détente and Confrontation
is good on the first term and the sequel,
The Great Transition: American-Soviet Relations and the End of the Cold War
(Washington, 1994), on the second and beyond. Don Oberdorfer,
From the Cold War to a New Era: The United States and the End of the Soviet Union, 1983–1991
(New York, 1996) is a perceptive and readable account by a distinguished journalist. Richard Herrmann and Richard Ned Lebow, eds.,
Ending the Cold War
(New York, 2004) contains excellent essays by leading international relations specialists on the end of the Cold War. Michael J. Hogan, ed.,
The End of the Cold War: Its Meanings and Implications
(New York, 1992) is an early effort to explore the significance of that climactic event. Strobe Talbott,
Deadly Gambits: The Reagan Administration and the Stalemate in Nuclear Arms Control
(New York, 1984) is still useful for the first-term deadlock. Frances FitzGerald,
Way Out
There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars, and the End of the Cold War
(New York, 2000) tells the story of that most contentious issue in Soviet-American relations. William M. LeoGrande,
Our Own Backyard: The United States in Central America, 1977–1992
(Chapel Hill, N.C., 1998) is richly detailed and invaluable. Walter LaFeber,
Inevitable Revolutions: The United States in Central America
(rev. ed., New York, 1984) is indispensable for the roots of the 1980s crisis. James M. Scott,
Deciding to Intervene: The Reagan Doctrine and American Foreign Policy
(Durham, N.C., 1996) is a useful early study. Bob Woodward,
Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA, 1981–1987
(New York, 1987) is entertaining and sometimes revealing but should be used with caution. Lawrence Freedman and Efraim Karsh,
The Gulf Conflict, 1990–1991
(Princeton, N.J., 1993) is a good early history of the first Gulf War. Michael Gordon and Bernard Trainor,
The Generals' War
(Boston, 1995) is an excellent military history.

George Bush and Brent Scowcroft,
A World Transformed: The Collapse of the Soviet Empire
,
the Unification of Germany, Tiananmen Square, the Gulf War
(New York, 1998) is an informative and quite remarkable joint memoir that reveals much about the working relationship of the authors. James A. Baker III,
The Politics of Diplomacy: Revolution, War and Peace, 1989–1992
(New York, 1995) fills in those stories and others from the perspective of the secretary of state. The George H. W. Bush administration is competently chronicled in John Robert Greene,
The Presidency of George Bush
(Lawrence, Kans., 2000).