Product Description: In essays that illuminate not only the recent past but shortcomings in today's intelligence assessments, sixteen experts show how prospective antagonists appraised each other prior to the World Wars. This cautionary tale, warns that intelligence agencies can do certain things very well--but other things poorly, if at all...read more

The United States continues to proclaim its support for democracy and its opposition to tyranny, but American presidents often have supported dictators who have allied themselves with the United States. This book illustrates the chronic dilemmas inherent in US dealings with dictators under conditions of uncertainty and moral ambiguity. Dealing with Dictators offers in-depth analysis of six cases: the United States and China, 1945-1948; UN intervention in the Congo, 1960-1965; the overthrow of the Shah of Iran; US relations with the Somoza regime in Nicaragua; the fall of Marcos in the Philippines; and US policy toward Iraq, 1988-1990. The authors' fascinating and revealing accounts shed new light on critical episodes in US foreign policy and provide a basis for understanding the dilemmas that US decision makers confronted. The chapters do not focus on whether US leaders made the "right" or "wrong" decisions, but instead seek to deepen our understanding of how uncertainty permeated the process and whether decision makers and their aides asked the right questions. This approach makes the book invaluable to scholars and students of government and history, and to readers interested in the general subject of how intelligence analysis interacts with policymaking.

Product Description: Book by May, Ernest R., Moran, Jeffrey P.

Tapes recorded during the Cuban Missile Crisis reveal the work of President Kennedy and the National Security Council to come up with an effective response. Reprint. (view table of contents)

This three-volume exploration of the 'declassified' presidential recordings of JFK provides readers with a unique window into the decision-making processes of this pivotal administration, accompanied by multimedia CD-ROMs featuring full audio recordings and links to other information. (view table of contents)

A dramatic account of the unlikely victory of Germany over France in 1940 explains France's failure to detect and deter Germany's six-week invasion, discussing the decisions made by commanders on both sides, errors of judgment by the French, and more. (view table of contents)

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