US Foreign Policy Decision-Making from Truman to Kennedy Responses to International Challenges

The administrations of Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy faced critical international challenges – including, most notably, using nuclear weapons against Japan, intervening militarily in Korea, toppling an emerging regime in Guatemala, restraining the actions of US allies during the Suez Canal Crisis, overthrowing Castro's Cuban regime, and forcing the USSR to remove nuclear missiles from Cuban soil. In this meticulously documented book, Alex Roberto Hybel tests the extent to which today's most important foreign policy decision-making models can explain the actions of the principal figures responsible for addressing each crisis. The book carefully analyses each president's cognitive system, the advisory structure each leader set up, and the pervading mindsets of Washington's insiders from each period. By evaluating the quality of each president's foreign policy decision-making process, readers will become familiar with core foreign policy decisions, how they were formulated, and the types of cognitive impediments that in certain instances undermined the quality of the decision-making process.

Alex Roberto Hybel is the Susan Eckert Lynch Professor of Government at Connecticut College, USA.

Introduction: Alternative Theoretical Perspectives
1. Harry Truman, the Dropping of the Atomic Bombs on Japan and the End of the Second World War
2. Harry Truman and the Decisions to Intervene in the Korean War and To Cross the 38th Parallel
3. Dwight Eisenhower and the Decision to Intervene Covertly in Guatemala
4. Dwight Eisenhower and the Suez Canal Crisis of 1956
5. John F. Kennedy and the Decision to Intervene Covertly in Cuba
6. John F. Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis
7. Intuition, Rationality, Mindsets, and Foreign Policy Decision-Making Models