Kennedy's Quest for Victory: American Foreign Policy, 1961-1963 / Edition 1

by Thomas G. Paterson

Overview

The first major reassessment of John F. Kennedy's foreign policy since his death, this volume of original essays compels new thinking about the 1960s. Basing their analysis on extensive research in archival documents and oral histories, twelve accomplished historians explore the primary foreign policy assumptions and objectives of Kennedy and his advisers. The contributors examine the Cold War, global crisis, domestic politics, decision-making, personality and style, and historical lessons in shaping Kennedy's diplomacy.
This provocative volume explores such key issues as the Atlantic alliance, nuclear arms, United States economic hegemony, the Cuban missile crisis and the covert war against Fidel Castro, Third World neutralism, the Peace Corps, and the Vietnam War. The contributors also examine the Kennedy Administration's policies towards Latin America, Canada, the Middle East, South Asia, China, and Africa, and assess the costs and consequences of Kennedy's record. The Kennedy legacy included a deepening war in Vietnam, an accelerated nuclear arms race, excessive activism in the Third World, greater factionalism in the Atlantic community, and a globalism of overcommitment.
These well-researched essays challenge us to reckon with a past that has not always matched the selfless and self-satisfying image Americans have of their foreign policy and of Kennedy as their young, fallen hero who never had a chance to fulfill his goals. Identifying arrogance, ignorance, impatience, and exaggerations of the Communist threat as the factors that actually denied Kennedy the victory he craved, this study reveals that he had his chance—and he failed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195045840
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/16/1989
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.58(h) x 1.05(d)

About the Author

Thomas Graham Paterson is Professor of History at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. He is the author of several books, including Soviet-American Confrontation, On Every Front: The Making of the Cold War and Meeting the Communist Threat: Truman to Reagan.

Table of Contents

	The Authors	xiii
	Introduction: John F. Kennedy's Quest for Victory and Global Crisis	3
1.	The Pursuit of Atlantic Community: Nuclear Arms, Dollars, and Berlin	24
2.	Defending Hegemony: American Foreign Economic Policy	57
3.	When Push Came to Shove: Canada and the United States	86
4.	Controlling Revolutions: Latin America, the Alliance for Progress, and Cold War Anti-Communism	105
5.	Fixation with Cuba: The Bay of Pigs, Missile Crisis, and Covert War Against Fidel Castro	123
6.	From Even-Handed to Empty-Handed: Seeking Order in the Middle East	156
7.	Clinging to Containment: China Policy	178
8.	Choosing Sides in South Asia	198
9.	The Failed Search for Victory: Vietnam and the Politics of War	223
10.	New Frontiers and Old Priorities in Africa	253
11.	Passing the Torch and Lighting Fires: The Peace Corps	284
	Abbreviations Used in the Notes	317
	Notes	318
	Selected Bibliography	384
	Index	395

Editorial Reviews

"This looks like the best choice for any course covering the Cold War, with its scope covering the entire period."—John R.M. Wilson, Southern California College

"Valuable and interesting."—The Journal of American History

"Written by some of our very best younger scholars, based on impressive research...and having both breadth and depth, Kennedy's Quest For Victory is in my view the best account we have of Kennedy's foreign policies."—Walter LaFeber, Cornell University

"First-class archivally based articles on specific aspects of foreign policy in the Kennedy years."—Foreign Affairs

From the Publisher