LibGuides: Cold War: United States

U.S. Presidents

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Woodrow Wilson and Harry Truman: mission and power in American foreign policy by Anne R. Pierce (Introduction by)
Call Number: E768 .P45 2007 (Gumberg 3rd floor)
The modern world derives part of its meaning and definition from the foreign policy formulations of Woodrow Wilson and Harry Truman. These presidents viewed the enhancement of American power and the invigoration of American principles as the only response to modem problems such as imperialism, bolshevism, fascism and "total war."
Two Americans: Truman, Eisenhower, and a dangerous world by William Lee Miller
Call Number: E747 .M63 2012 (Gumberg 3rd floor)
William Lee Miller interweaves Truman's and Eisenhower's life stories, which then also becomes the story of their nation as it rose to great power. As president, each coped with McCarthyism, the tormenting problems of race, and the great issues of the emerging Cold War. They brought the United States into a new pattern of world responsibility while being the first Americans to hold in their hands the awesome power of weapons capable of destroying civilization.
The Presidency of Harry S. Truman by Donald R. McCoy
Call Number: E814 .M38 1984 (Gumberg 3rd floor)
Tough, concerned, direct, occasionally vulgar, and often partisan--Harry S. Truman would never completely work himself out from the shadow of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Yet Truman partly commands our attention because he was the successful executor of Roosevelt's remarkable political estate.

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The First Cold Warrior: Harry Truman, Containment, and the Remaking of Liberal Internationalism by Elizabeth Edwards Spalding
Although Kennan, Secretary of State Dean Acheson, and Secretary of Defense George C. Marshall have been seen as the most influential architects of American Cold War foreign policy, The First Cold Warrior draws on archives and other primary sources to demonstrate that Harry Truman was the key decision maker in the critical period between 1945 and 1950.
Harry and Arthur: Truman, Vandenberg, and the Partnership That Created the Free World by Lawrence J. Haas
Lawrence J. Haas, an award-winning journalist, reveals how, through the close collaboration of Truman and Vandenberg, the United States created the United Nations to replace the League of Nations, pursued the Truman Doctrine to defend freedom from Communist threat, launched the Marshall Plan to rescue Western Europe's economy from the devastation of war, and established NATO to defend Western Europe.

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Two Americans: Truman, Eisenhower, and a dangerous world by William Lee Miller
Call Number: E747 .M63 2012 (Gumberg 3rd floor)
William Lee Miller interweaves Truman's and Eisenhower's life stories, which then also becomes the story of their nation as it rose to great power. As president, each coped with McCarthyism, the tormenting problems of race, and the great issues of the emerging Cold War. They brought the United States into a new pattern of world responsibility while being the first Americans to hold in their hands the awesome power of weapons capable of destroying civilization.
Ike's Bluff: President Eisenhower's secret battle to save the world by Evan Thomas
Call Number: E835 .T44 2012 (Gumberg 3rd floor)
Upon assuming the presidency in 1953, Dwight Eisenhower set about to make good on his campaign promise to end the Korean War. To end the hostilities, Eisenhower would take a colossal risk by bluffing that he might use nuclear weapons against the Communist Chinese, while at the same time restraining his generals and advisors who favored the strikes. Ike's gamble was of such magnitude that there could be but two outcomes: thousands of lives saved, or millions of lives lost.
The Bay of Pigs by Howard Jones
Call Number: F1788 .J615 2008 (Gumberg 3rd floor)
In The Bay of Pigs, Howard Jones provides a concise, incisive, and dramatic account of the disastrous attempt to overthrow Castro. He deftly examines the train of missteps and self-deceptions that led to the invasion of U.S.-trained exiles at the Bay of Pigs. Ignoring warnings from the ambassador to Cuba, the Eisenhower administration put in motion an operation that proved nearly unstoppable even after the inauguration of John F. Kennedy.

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Eisenhower's Sputnik Moment: The Race for Space and World Prestige by Yanek Mieczkowski
In a critical Cold War moment, Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidency suddenly changed when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world's first satellite. What Ike called "a small ball" became a source of Russian pride and propaganda, and it wounded him politically, as critics charged that he responded sluggishly to the challenge of space exploration. Yet Eisenhower refused to panic after Sputnik-and he did more than just stay calm. He helped to guide the United States into the Space Age, even though Americans have given greater credit to John F. Kennedy for that achievement.
Eisenhower and the Cold War Economy by William M. McClenahan; William H. Becker
William M. McClenahan, Jr., and William H. Becker explain how Eisenhower's beliefs and his experiences as a military bureaucrat and wartime and postwar commander shaped his economic policies. They explore the macro- and microeconomic policies his administration employed to finance the Cold War while adapting Republican ideas and Eisenhower's economic principles to new domestic and foreign policy environments.
Diplomacy at the Brink by David M. Watry
A groundbreaking new study of Anglo-American relations during the Cold War, Diplomacy at the Brink argues for a reevaluation of Dwight D. Eisenhower's foreign policy toward allies and enemies alike. Watry's thorough examination of the important clash of U.S.-U.K. foreign policy demonstrates that America's new anti-colonial policies and the unilateral use of American power against perceived Communist threats put Eisenhower and Dulles on a collision course with Churchill and Eden that rocked the world.

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John F. Kennedy: a biography by Michael O'Brien
Call Number: E842 .O23 2005 (DCLI Collection, Law Library)
A modern portrait of the thirty-fifth president draws on a volume of newly released government archive material and the JFK library to offer insights into both his strengths and character flaws, offering new perspectives that ultimately contend that his virtues outweigh his shortcomings.
The Crisis Years: Kennedy and Khrushchev, 1960-1963 by Michael R. Beschloss
Call Number: E183.8.S65 B469 1991 (Gumberg 3rd floor)
From one of our nation's foremost historians, an important and immensely readable book that tells in dramatic detail the story of the most dangerous years of the Cold War and reveals the relationship between world leaders Kennedy and Khrushchev.
Kennedy's Wars: Berlin, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam by Lawrence Freedman
Call Number: E841 .F69 2000 (Gumberg 3rd floor)
In his thousand-day presidency, John F. Kennedy led America through one of its most difficult and potentially explosive eras. With the Cold War at its height and the threat of communist advances in Europe and the Third World, Kennedy had the unenviable task of maintaining U.S. solidarity without leading the western world into a nuclear catastrophe. In Kennedy's Wars, noted historian Lawrence Freedman draws on the best of Cold War scholarship and newly released government documents to illuminate Kennedy's approach to war and his efforts for peace.

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Awaiting Armageddon by Alice L. George
For thirteen days in October 1962, America stood at the brink of nuclear war. Nikita Khrushchev's decision to place nuclear missiles in Cuba and John F. Kennedy's defiant response introduced the possibility of unprecedented cataclysm. In her examination of the public response to the missile crisis, the author reveals cracks in the veneer of American confidence in the early years of the space age and demonstrates how the fears generated by Cold War culture blinded many Americans to the dangers of nuclear war until it was almost too late.
So Much to Lose: John F. Kennedy and American Policy in Laos by William J. Rust
William J. Rust continues his definitive examination of U.S.-Lao relations during the Cold War, providing an extensive analysis of their impact on US policy decisions in Vietnam. He discusses the diplomacy, intelligence operations, and military actions that led to the Declaration on the Neutrality of Laos, signed in Geneva in 1962, which met President John F. Kennedy's immediate goal of preventing a communist victory in the country without committing American combat troops. Rust also examines the rapid breakdown of these accords, the U.S. administration's response to their collapse, and the consequences of that response.
Rethinking Camelot: JFK, the Vietnam War, and U.S. Political Culture by Noam Chomsky
Rethinking Camelot is a thorough analysis of John F. Kennedy's role in the U/S. invasion of Vietnam and a probing reflection on the elite political culture that allowed and encouraged the Cold War. In it, Chomsky dismisses effort to resurrect Camelot--an attractive American myth portraying JFK as a shining knight promising peace, fooled only by assassins bent on stopping this lone hero who wold have unilaterally withdraws from Vietnam had he lived. Chomsky argues that U.S. institutions and political culture, not individual presidents, are the key to understanding U.S. behavior during Vietnam.

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The Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson by Vaughn Davis Bornet
Call Number: E847 .B63 1983 (Gumberg 3rd floor)
This pioneering assessment of all significant aspects of the Johnson presidency is the first book-length appraisal by a professional historian to cover all issues, decisions, and developments of consequence--from foreign affairs, Vietnam, and the space race to the Great Society, civil rights, and the war on poverty--during the span of Johnson's five years in office.
Vietnam: the early decisions by Lloyd C. Gardner; Ted Gittinger (Editor)
Call Number: DS558 .V55 1997 (Gumberg 3rd floor)
Haunting questions remain about our involvement in Vietnam. Perhaps the most persistent of these is whether President Kennedy would have ended American involvement in Vietnam if he had lived. Parts one and two delve into the political and military contexts of the early decisions. Part three raises the intriguing questions of Kennedy's and Johnson's roles in the conflict, particularly the thorny issue of whether Kennedy did, in fact, intend to withdraw from Vietnam and whether Johnson reversed that policy. Part four reveals an uncanny parallel between early Soviet policy toward Hanoi and U.S. policy toward Saigon.
This Time We Win: revisiting the Tet Offensive by James S. Robbins
Call Number: DS557.8 .T4 R63 2010 (Gumberg 3rd floor)
In his thorough re-examination of the Tet Offensive, Robbins examines the battle in the familiar frameworks of terrorism, war crimes, intelligence failure, troop surges, leadership breakdown, and media bias. The result is an explosion of the conventional wisdom on this infamous battle, one that offers real lessons for today's unconventional wars. Without a clear understanding of these lessons, we will find ourselves reliving the Tet Offensive again and again.

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The Foreign Policy of Lyndon B. Johnson: The United States and the World, 1963-69 by Jonathan Colman
It begins with an exploration of the Johnson White House, and then considers US policies towards Vietnam, Britain and France, the NATO alliance, the Soviet Union and communist China, the Middle East, the Western Hemisphere, and the international economy. The author contends that although the war in Vietnam could have been prosecuted more effectively, overall Johnson dealt with the world beyond the borders of the United States very capably.
The Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson: The White House Years by Joseph A. Califano
Califano captures his mentor's lively, driven, irascible spirit as he puts us in the White House alongside LBJ during the trauma of the Vietnam War and the creation of the Great Society. A new afterword draws on insights offered by tapes released by the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library after the book's original publication and shows how LBJ's programs and policies -- Medicare, Head Start, affirmative action, environmental protection -- continue to dominate the nation's political agenda in the twenty-first century.

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The Presidency of Richard Nixon by Melvin Small
Call Number: E855 .S63 1999 (Gumberg 3rd floor)
Melvin Small now draws on the latest archival releases to take a fresh look at Nixon and place his administration in proper historical perspective. Small's topical approach permits readers to observe the development of an entire domestic program or international relationship over an extended period, making it easier to understand such drawn-out issues as reforming welfare or ending the Vietnam War.
Inside the Pentagon Papers by John Prados; Margaret Pratt Porter
Call Number: E183.8 .V5 I575 2004 (Gumberg 3rd floor)
Inside the Pentagon Papers addresses legal and moral issues that resonate today as debates continue over government secrecy and democracy's requisite demand for truthfully informed citizens. In the process, it also shows how a closer study of this signal event can illuminate questions of government responsibility in any era. When Daniel Ellsberg leaked a secret government study about the Vietnam War to the press in 1971, he set off a chain of events that culminated in one of the most important First Amendment decisions in American legal history.

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A Cold War Turning Point: Nixon and China, 1969-1972 by Chris Tudda
In February 1972, President Nixon arrived in Beijing for what Chairman Mao Zedong called the "week that changed the world." Using recently declassified sources from American, Chinese, European, and Soviet archives, Chris Tudda's A Cold War Turning Point reveals new details about the relationship forged by the Nixon administration and the Chinese government that dramatically altered the trajectory of the Cold War.
The Great Silent Majority: Nixon's 1969 Speech on Vietnamization by Karlyn Kohrs Campbell
In his televised and widely watched speech to the nation on November 3, 1969, Pres. Richard M. Nixon introduced a phrase--"silent majority"--and a policy--Vietnamization of the war effort--that echo down to the present day. The first single volume dedicated to this speech, this addition to the distinguished Library of Presidential Rhetoric provides the speech text, a summary of its context, its rhetorical elements, and the disciplinary analyses that have developed.
Nixon in the World: American foreign relations, 1969-1977 by Fredrik Logevall; Andrew Preston
From 1969 to 1977, Nixon, Kissinger, and Ford reoriented U.S. foreign policy from its traditional poles of liberal interventionism and conservative isolationism into a policy of active but conservative engagement. In Nixon in the World, seventeen leading historians of the Cold War and U.S. foreign policy show how they did it, where they succeeded, and where they took their new strategy too far.

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The Presidency of Gerald R. Ford by John Robert Greene
Call Number: E865 .G74 1995 (Gumberg 3rd floor)
This is the first comprehensive study of one of our most popular yet most misunderstood presidents. Reaching well beyond the image of Ford as "healer" of a war-torn and scandal-ridden nation, John Robert Greene extends and revises our understanding of Ford's struggles to restore credibility to the presidency in the wake of Watergate and Vietnam.
The Last Battle: the Mayaguez incident and the end of the Vietnam war by Ralph Wetterhahn
Call Number: E865 .W48 2001 (Gumberg 3rd floor)
On May 12, 1975, barely two weeks after U.S. helicopters lifted off the roof of the American embassy in Saigon, the S.S. Mayaguez was seized by Cambodian forces. Four days later, President Gerald Ford ordered a raid to free the ship, even though American diplomacy had already successfully negotiated its release. The U.S. Marine strike force took flight. The ensuing battle, the last of the war, took fourteen hours and the lives of forty-one Americans, including three soldiers who were unwittingly left behind when the U.S. choppers flew off.

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US Foreign Policy and the Iran Hostage Crisis by David Patrick Houghton
Call Number: E183.8.I55 H68 2001 (Gumberg 3rd floor)
Why did a handful of Iranian students seize the American embassy in Tehran in November 1979? Why did most members of the US government initially believe that the incident would be over quickly? Why did the Carter administration then decide to launch a rescue mission, and why did it fail so spectacularly?

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An Outsider in the White House: Jimmy Carter, his advisors, and the making of American foreign policy by Betty Glad
Jimmy Carter entered the White House with a desire for a collegial staff that would aid his foreign-policy decision making. He wound up with a "team of rivals" who contended for influence and who fought over his every move regarding relations with the USSR, the Peoples' Republic of China, arms control, and other crucial foreign-policy issues.

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The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: a history of the end of the Cold War by James Mann; Jim Mann
Call Number: E877.2 .M36 2009 (Gumberg 3rd floor)
Mann sheds new light on the hidden aspects of American foreign policy. He reveals previously undisclosed secret messages between Reagan and Moscow; internal White House intrigues; and battles with leading figures such as Nixon and Kissinger, who repeatedly questioned Reagan's unfolding diplomacy with Mikhail Gorbachev. He details the background and fierce debate over Reagan's famous Berlin Wall speech and shows how it fit into Reagan's policies. Ultimately, Mann dispels the facile stereotypes of Reagan in favor of a levelheaded, cogent understanding of a determined president and his strategy.
Reagan at Westminster: foreshadowing the end of the Cold War by Robert C. Rowland; John M. Jones
Call Number: E877.2 .R68 2010 (Gumberg 3rd floor)
President Ronald Reagan's famous address to the Houses of Parliament is now considered--in its spirit if not in its actual words--to be the initial enunciation of his "Evil Empire" stance. In this important volume by two experienced rhetorical scholars, Robert C. Rowland and John M. Jones offer a historical-descriptive treatment that includes both rhetorical analysis and a narrative of the drafting of the speech.
Global Double Zero: the INF treaty from its origins to implementation by George L. Rueckert
Call Number: KZ5665 .R75 1993 (DCLI Collection, Law Library)
George Rueckert delineates the origins of INF negotiations and how they proceeded in Geneva and Reykjavik. He analyzes the INF Treaty and gives a comprehensive overview of it and supplemental agreements and interpretations. He describes implementing organizations and structures, matters relating to on-site inspection and portal monitoring, and related measures.
The United States and the End of the Cold War: implications, reconsiderations, provocations by John Lewis Gaddis
Call Number: E183.8 .S65 G345 1992 (Gumberg 3rd floor)
The Cold War ended with an exhilarating wave of events: the toppling of the Berlin Wall, the rise of the dissident poet Vaclav Havel, the revolution in Romania. Americans rejoiced at the dramatic conclusion of the long struggle. In The United States and the End of the Cold War, Gaddis provides a sharp focus on the long history of the Cold War, shedding new light on its sudden ending, as well as on what might come next.

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The Triumph of Improvisation: Gorbachev's Adaptability, Reagan's Engagement, and the End of the Cold War by James Graham Wilson
In The Triumph of Improvisation, James Graham Wilson takes a long view of the end of the Cold War, from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 to Operation Desert Storm in January 1991. Drawing on deep archival research and recently declassified papers, Wilson argues that adaptation, improvisation, and engagement by individuals in positions of power ended the specter of a nuclear holocaust.

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Use these subjects in any of our databases or QuickSearch to find books, articles, and more! (Note: We've recommended a few databases below!)

(USA or US or United States) AND "Cold War"
(USA or US or United States) AND "Vietnam War"
(USA or US or United States) AND "Korean War"
(USA or US or United States) AND "Soviet Union"
(USA or US or United States) AND Communism
(USA or US or United States) AND "Red Scare"
(USA or US or United States) AND "Cold War" AND Containment
(USA or US or United States) AND "Cold War" ("Nuclear weapons" OR "Nuclear arms")
"Cold War" AND [President Name], e.g., "Cold War" AND (John F. Kennedy or JFK)
"Cuban Missile Crisis"
"Bay of Pigs"
"Tet Offensive"
"Truman Doctrine"
"Marshall Plan"
(USA or US or United States) AND NATO
McCarthyism
"Gulf of Tonkin"
"Pentagon Papers"
"Iranian Hostage Crisis"

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