Kennedy's Wars: Berlin, Cuba, Laos and Vietnam - Hardcover

Freedman, Lawrence

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195134532 ISBN 13: 9780195134537

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2001

Synopsis

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was President of the United States when the Cold War was at its height, with crises developing over West Berlin, Cuba and Vietnam. Yet most biographies and books about the Presidency focus on the myth of Camelot, rather than Kennedy's role as a military president. Backed by a wealth of primary documents, Lawrence Freedman provides a vivid portrait of Kennedy as he wrestled with these big issues of war and peace.

About this title

Review:

"Lawrence Freedman's Kennedy's Wars is an elegant work, incisively written, penetrating and dispassionate in analysis--the best account we have of President Kennedy's foreign policy."--Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. "In this superbly researched and elegantly written book, Lawrence Freedman sheds new light on the Kennedy and Johnson administrations' handling of foreign affairs. Freedman's analysis of the brinkmanship of the Cold War and Vietnam is original. While I do not agree with every interpretation, Kennedy's Wars challenges common knowledge about what happened and why and points to lessons we can apply to the future."--Robert S. McNamara, Secretary of Defense, 1961-1968 "Combining remarkable insight into issues of nuclear strategy and a detachment from American controversies and emotions about Camelot, Kennedy's Wars powerfully illustrates both the intricacy and the horror of the Kenned administration's endless debates over issues such as 'program packages' and the SIOP. It not only evaluates what exactly was at stake; it does so with some of JFK's own coolness." --Ernest May, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University "An admirably rich and careful study."--The Economist "Lawrence Freedman's Kennedy's Wars is an elegant work, incisively written, penetrating and dispassionate in analysis--the best account we have of President Kennedy's "Lawrence Freedman's Kennedy's Wars is an elegant work, incisively written, penetrating and dispassionate in analysis--the best account we have of President Kennedy's foreign policy."--Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. "In this superbly researched and elegantly written book, Lawrence Freedman sheds new light on the Kennedy and Johnson administrations' handling of foreign affairs. Freedman's analysis of the brinkmanship of the Cold War and Vietnam is original. While I do not agree with every interpretation, Kennedy's Wars challenges common knowledge about what happened and why and points to lessons we can apply to the future."--Robert S. McNamara, Secretary of Defense, 1961-1968 "Combining remarkable insight into issues of nuclear strategy and a detachment from American controversies and emotions about Camelot, Kennedy's Wars powerfully illustrates both the intricacy and the horror of the Kenned administration's endless debates over issues such as 'program packages' and the SIOP. It not only evaluates what exactly was at stake; it does so with some of JFK's own coolness." --Ernest May, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University "An admirably rich and careful study."--The Economist "Lawrence Freedman's Kennedy's Wars is an elegant work, incisively written, penetrating and dispassionate in analysis--the best account we have of President Kennedy's "Lawrence Freedman's Kennedy's Wars is an elegant work, incisively written, penetrating and dispassionate in analysis--the best account we have of President Kennedy's foreign policy."--Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. "In this superbly researched and elegantly written book, Lawrence Freedman sheds new light on the Kennedy and Johnson administrations' handling of foreign affairs. Freedman's analysis of the brinkmanship of the Cold War and Vietnam is original. While I do not agree with every interpretation, Kennedy's Wars challenges common knowledge about what happened and why and points to lessons we can apply to the future."--Robert S. McNamara, Secretary of Defense, 1961-1968 "Combining remarkable insight into issues of nuclear strategy and a detachment from American controversies and emotions about Camelot, Kennedy's Wars powerfully illustrates both the intricacy and the horror of the Kenned administration's endless debates over issues such as 'program packages' and the SIOP. It not only evaluates what exactly was at stake; it does so with some of JFK's own coolness." --Ernest May, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University "An admirably rich and careful study."--The Economist "Lawrence Freedman's Kennedy's Wars is an elegant work, incisively written, penetrating and dispassionate in analysis--the best account we have of President Kennedy's "Lawrence Freedman's Kennedy's Wars is an elegant work, incisively written, penetrating and dispassionate in analysis--the best account we have of President Kennedy's foreign policy."--Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. "In this superbly researched and elegantly written book, Lawrence Freedman sheds new light on the Kennedy and Johnson administrations' handling of foreign affairs. Freedman's analysis of the brinkmanship of the Cold War and Vietnam is original. While I do not agree with every interpretation, Kennedy's Wars challenges common knowledge about what happened and why and points to lessons we can apply to the future."--Robert S. McNamara, Secretary of Defense, 1961-1968 "Combining remarkable insight into issues of nuclear strategy and a detachment from American controversies and emotions about Camelot, Kennedy's Wars powerfully illustrates both the intricacy and the horror of the Kenned administration's endless debates over issues such as 'program packages' and the SIOP. It not only evaluates what exactly was at stake; it does so with some of JFK's own coolness." --Ernest May, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University "An admirably rich and careful study."--The Economist "Lawrence Freedman's Kennedy's Wars is an elegant work, incisively written, penetrating and dispassionate in analysis--the best account we have of President Kennedy's

About the Author:

Lawrence Freedman has been Professor of War Studies at King's College, London since 1982. He has written extensively on nuclear strategy and the Cold War, as well as commentating regularly on contemporary security issues. Elected a fellow of the British Academy in 1995, he was appointed by Prime Minister Tony Blair as Official Historian of the Falklands Campaign in 1997.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0195134532
• ISBN 13: 9780195134537
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 548