Screen LibraryBlind oracles : intellectuals and war from kennan to kissinger /
In this trenchant analysis, historian Bruce Kuklick examines the role of intellectuals in foreign policymaking. He recounts the history of the development of ideas about strategy and foreign policy during a critical period in American history: the era of the nuclear standoff between the United State...
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| Main Authors: | |
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| Corporate Authors: | |
| Published: |
Princeton University Press,
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| Publisher Address: | Princeton, N.J. : |
| Publication Dates: |
[2007] ©2007 |
| Literature type: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9781400849468 http://www.degruyter.com/doc/cover/9781400849468.jpg |
| Summary: |
In this trenchant analysis, historian Bruce Kuklick examines the role of intellectuals in foreign policymaking. He recounts the history of the development of ideas about strategy and foreign policy during a critical period in American history: the era of the nuclear standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union. The book looks at how the country's foremost thinkers advanced their ideas during this time of United States expansionism, a period that culminated in the Vietnam War and d tente with the Soviets. Beginning with George Kennan after World War II, and concluding with Henry Kissinger and the Vietnam War, Kuklick examines the role of both institutional policymakers such as those at The Rand Corporation and Harvard's Kennedy School, and individual thinkers including Paul Nitze, McGeorge Bundy, and Walt Rostow. Kuklick contends that the figures having the most influence on American strategy--Kissinger, for example--clearly understood the way politics and the exercise of power affects policymaking. Other brilliant thinkers, on the other hand, often played a minor role, providing, at best, a rationale for policies adopted for political reasons. At a time when the role of the neoconservatives' influence over American foreign policy is a subject of intense debate, this book offers important insight into the function of intellectuals in foreign policymaking. |
| Carrier Form: | 1 online resource(264pages) : illustrations |
| ISBN: | 9781400849468 |
| Index Number: | JZ148 |
| CLC: | D871.20 |
| Contents: |
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Note on Citations -- INTRODUCTION. The Social Role of the Man of Knowledge -- CHAPTER 1. Scientific Management and War, 1910 1960 -- CHAPTER 2. Theorists of War, 1945 1953 -- CHAPTER 3. RAND in Opposition, 1946 1961 -- CHAPTER 4. Accented and Unaccented Realism, 1946 1961 -- CHAPTER 5. RAND and the Kennedy Administration, 1961 1962 -- CHAPTER 6. Cuba and Nassau, 1962 -- CHAPTER 7. Intellectuals in Power, 1961 1966 -- CHAPTER 8. The Kennedy School of Government, 1964 1971 -- CHAPTER 9. The Pentagon Papers -- CHAPTER 10. Henry Kissinger -- CHAPTER 11. Diplomats on Foreign Policy, 1976 2001 -- Conclusion -- Acknowledgments and Methodological Note -- Index. |