The Disciplined Presidency
2018; Oxford University Press; Volume: 43; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1093/dh/dhy077
ISSN1467-7709
Autores Tópico(s)Military History and Strategy
ResumoThe Age of Eisenhower is the latest wave in a flood tide of books on American foreign relations during the 1950s, including David A. Nichols, Eisenhower 1956: The President’s Year of Crisis; Jim Newton, Eisenhower: The White House Years; Evan Thomas, Ike’s Bluff: President Eisenhower’s Secret Battle to Save the World; Jean Edward Smith, Eisenhower in War and Peace; Michael Doran, Ike’s Gamble: America’s Rise to Dominance in the Middle East; Alex von Tunzelmann, Suez, Hungary, and Eisenhower’s Campaign for Peace; and Louis Galambos, Eisenhower.1 The list would grow even longer if books were added that deal with specific episodes such as the Korean armistice, coups in Iran and Guatemala, Indochina war, Sputnik and the “missile gap,” U-2 affair, and Cuban revolution. Hence Hitchcock’s authoritative volume, based on eight years of research and fair-minded almost to a fault, may not receive the attention it richly deserves. The author’s principal themes include Eisenhower’s “disciplined presidency” (xviii) and corporate cabinet; nuclear brinkmanship; expansion of the military-industrial complex he later condemned; earnest bi-partisanship; surprising eloquence; “modern Republicanism” promoting civil rights, progressive tax rates, social security, and interstate highways; and above all peace and prosperity. Nor does Hitchcock neglect to evoke the sheer humanity of the boy from Abilene, Kansas, who became a five-star general.
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