The Diplomacy of the Crucial Decade: American Foreign Relations During the 1960s - Softcover

Has the unusual quality of being useful to the specialist as well as interesting to the undergraduate and general reader. Diane B. Kunz, an associate professor of history at Yale, has brought together nine diplomatic historians and asked them to write essays in their specialty areas... Kunz also contributed an introductory essay and an essay on Cold War economic diplomacy. The collection of essays represent exemplary historical scholarship and writing. History Reviews

Although the foreign policy decisions made by Kennedy and Johnson determined the final form of postwar diplomacy and laid the foundation for the tumultuous worldwide political changes of the last five years, until now no book has examined American diplomacy during 1960s as a whole. During his presidency, Kennedy concentrated on foreign policy. The president and his staff feared that communism had taken the offensive internationally and that the U.S. was in danger of losing the confrontation, particularly in the developing world. While Johnson attempted to focus on domestic issues, foreign issues nevertheless loomed large. Consequently, the contributors to this volume argue, all aspects of American foreign policy during that decade must be viewed through the prism of the fight against communism. The chapters, which were commissioned for this book by the editor, examine the major subjects and themes of this period in a way that provides new insight to students and general readers alike. Each chapter also contains brief notes and a bibliographic sketch.