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Commander in chief : how Truman, Johnson, and Bush turned a presidential power into a threat to America's future
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Commander in chief : how Truman, Johnson, and Bush turned a presidential power into a threat to America's future

Author: Geoffrey Perret
Publisher: New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007.
Edition/Format:   Book : Biography : English : 1st ed
Summary:
This is a story of ever-expanding presidential powers in an age of unwinnable wars. Harry Truman and Korea, Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam, George W. Bush and Iraq: three presidents, three ever broader interpretations of the commander-in-chief clause of the Constitution, three unwinnable wars, and three presidential secrets. Presidential biographer and military historian Perret places these men and events in the larger  Read more...
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Details

Named Person: Harry S Truman; Lyndon B Johnson; George W Bush
Material Type: Biography, Internet resource
Document Type: Book, Internet Resource
All Authors / Contributors: Geoffrey Perret
ISBN: 0374102171 9780374102173 0374531277 9780374531270
OCLC Number: 65644335
Description: x, 436 p., [16] p. of plates : ill. ; 24 cm.
Contents: Too Much Too Soon --
Man and Moment --
Position of Strength --
Location, Location, Location --
World Island --
Chinese Checkers --
National Home --
Panic Attack --
Talking Tough --
Zeitgeist Wins --
War of Maneuver --
What Goes Up? --
Wars of Choice --
Getting a Grip --
Hard Choices --
The Green Mountain --
Trading Places --
Thunder and Lightening --
All-Out Limited War --
Trapped --
Back to the Ranch --
The Nixinger War --
Futurismo --
Chances Are --
Targets --
Willful, Mendacious, Deluded --
Napoleon in Russia --
Armed Missionaries --
Iraq Syndrome.
Responsibility: Geoffrey Perret.
More information:

Abstract:

This is a story of ever-expanding presidential powers in an age of unwinnable wars. Harry Truman and Korea, Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam, George W. Bush and Iraq: three presidents, three ever broader interpretations of the commander-in-chief clause of the Constitution, three unwinnable wars, and three presidential secrets. Presidential biographer and military historian Perret places these men and events in the larger context of the post-World War II world to establish their collective legacy: a presidency so powerful it undermines the checks and balances built into the Constitution, thereby creating a permanent threat to the Constitution itself. Since World War II wars have become tests of stamina rather than strength, and more likely than not they sow the seeds of future wars--yet recent American presidents have chosen to place their country in the forefront of fighting them.--From publisher description.

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