The Road to War; Presidential Commitments Honored and Betrayed
Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2013. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. x, [2], 287, [5] pages. Includes Acknowledgments, Introduction, Notes, and Index. Signed by the author on the front free endpaper: Best--Marvin Kalb. Marvin Leonard Kalb (born June 9, 1930) is an American journalist. Kalb was the founding director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy and Edward R. Murrow Professor of Press and Public Policy from 1987 to 1999. The Shorenstein Center and the Kennedy School are part of Harvard University. He is currently a James Clark Welling Fellow at George Washington University and a member of the Atlantic Community Advisory Board. Kalb hosts The Kalb Report, a discussion of media ethics and responsibility at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. sponsored by George Washington University. He is currently a senior adviser at the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. The Road to War was a 2013 Foreword Reviews honorable mention in the subject of War & Military. From Korea to Vietnam, Panama to Grenada, Lebanon to Bosnia, Afghanistan to Iraq—why have presidents sidestepped declarations of war? Kalb explores this key question in his thirteenth book about the presidency and U.S. foreign policy. Instead of a declaration of war, presidents have justified their war-making powers by citing “commitments,” private and public, made by former presidents. Many of these commitments have been honored, but some betrayed. From Israel to Vietnam, presidential commitments have proven to be tricky and dangerous. For example, one president after another committed the United States to the defense of South Vietnam. Over the years, these commitments mushroomed into national policy, leading to a war costing 58,000 American lives. Few in Congress or the media chose to question the war’s provenance or legitimacy, until it was too late. The word of a president can morph into a national commitment. It can become the functional equivalent of a declaration of war. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: U.S. Presidents, Declaration of War, Peace Settlement, Cold War, Aggression, Vietnam War, Henry Kissinger, Ngo Dinh Diem, Six-Day War, Israel
ISBN: 9780815724933
[Book #79113]
Price: $60.00