Nixon in the world - Fredrik Logevall

In the 1970s, the United States faced challenges on a number of fronts. By nearly every measure, American power was no longer unrivalled. The task of managing America's relative decline fell to President Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, and Gerald Ford. 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. InNixon 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. Drawing on newly declassified materials, they provide authoritative and compelling analyses of issues such as Vietnam,dtente, arms control, and the U.S.-China rapprochement, creating the first comprehensive volume on American foreign policy in this pivotal era.

Fredrik Logevall is Professor of History at Cornell and the author of Choosing War: The Lost Chance for Peace and the Escalation of War in Vietnam, among other works. Andrew Preston is University Lecturer in History and a Fellow of Clare College at Cambridge University and the author of The War Council: McGeorge Bundy, the NSC, and Vietnam.

An outstanding overview of the Nixon era in international affairs. Nixon in the World helps us better understand both the historical uniqueness of the dtente approach, and the reasons for its defeat.

Odd Arne Westad, London School of Economics