War Diplomacy

Drawing on new interviews and previously unavailable documents, James Mann offers a fresh and compelling narrative - a new history assessing what Ronald Reagan did and did not do to help bring America's four-decade conflict with the Soviet Union to a close. As he did so masterfully in Rise of the Vulcans, Mann sheds new light on the hidden aspects of American foreign policy.

In 1905 President Teddy Roosevelt dispatched Secretary of War William Howard Taft on the largest U.S. diplomatic mission in history to Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, China, and Korea. Roosevelt's glamorous 21 year old daughter Alice served as mistress of the cruise, which included senators and congressmen. On this trip, Taft concluded secret agreements in Roosevelt's name.

Dean Acheson was one of the most influential Secretaries of State in U.S. history, presiding over American foreign policy during a pivotal era - the decade after World War II when the American Century slipped into high gear. During his vastly influential career, Acheson spearheaded the greatest foreign policy achievements in modern times, ranging from the Marshall Plan to the establishment of NATO. In this acclaimed biography, Robert L. Beisner paints an indelible portrait of one of the key figures of the last half-century.

After Germany's defeat in World War II, Europe lay in tatters. Millions of refugees were dispersed across the continent. Food and fuel were scarce. Britain was bankrupt while Germany had been reduced to rubble. In July 1945, Harry Truman, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin gathered in a quiet suburb of Berlin to negotiate a lasting peace - a peace that would finally put an end to the conflagration that had started in 1914, a peace under which Europe could be rebuilt.

This book says outright what many have merely hinted at: that President George W. Bush knowingly misused the findings of the erroneous and incompetent U.S. intelligence community to provide a pretext for war with Iraq. The author hones in on the systematic weaknesses of the intelligence agencies that caused them to ignore the crucial signs leading up to the attacks of 9/11.

Russia invades Ukraine and threatens other nations hoping to escape its orbit. China spends a trillion dollars on its Belt & Road program that manipulates poor countries all across the globe. Other autocracies like Iran and North Korea devote large resources to military intimidation, cyberattacks, and disinformation campaigns. How can the U.S. respond? Via costly military interventions? Dubiously effective nation-building by our government? Are there other options? In this short, fascinating book, an experienced embedded reporter sojourns through Serbia, the Caucasus, Kurdistan, and other ...

A revealing and controversial account of the events surrounding Pearl Harbor. Pulitzer Prize - winning author John Toland presents evidence that FDR and his top advisors knew about the planned Japanese attack but remained silent. Infamy reveals the conspiracy to cover up the facts and find scapegoats for the greatest disaster in United States military history. New York Times best-seller.

James A. Baker III uses his unique perspective to take us inside those events and the personalities involved in them: the collapse of Communism, the Berlin Wall, and the Soviet Union itself; the reunification of Germany; the remarkable negotiations behind the coalition-building of the Gulf War; and the even more remarkable talks that led Israelis and Arabs to the same conference table for the first time in decades.

On the night of September 11, 2012, the American diplomatic mission at Benghazi, Libya, came under ferocious attack by a heavily armed group of Islamic terrorists. The prolonged firefight, and the attack hours later on a nearby CIA outpost, resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including the American ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, the Information Officer, Sean Smith, and two former Navy SEALs, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, working for the Central Intelligence Agency.

LA Times Book Award winner and expert on the past and present Japan, Ian Buruma examines the transformation of a country. Following Japan's history from its opening to the West in 1853 to its hosting of the 1964 Olympics, Buruma focuses on how figures such as Commodore Matthew Perry, Douglas MacArthur, and Emperor Mitsushito helped shape this complex country.

Susan Butler's brilliantly listenable audiobook firmly places FDR where he belongs, as the American president engaged most directly in diplomacy and strategy, who not only had an ambitious plan for the postwar world but had the strength, ambition, and personal charm to overcome Churchill's reluctance and Stalin's suspicion to bring about what was, in effect, an American peace and to avoid the disastrous consequences that followed the botched peace of Versailles in 1919.

Interventions is the inside story of a world at the brink. After 40 years of service in the United Nations, former Secretary-General Kofi Annan shares his unique perspective on the terrorist attacks of September 11; the American invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan; the wars among Israel, Hezbollah, and Lebanon; the humanitarian tragedies of Somalia, Rwanda, and Bosnia; and the geopolitical transformations following the Cold War. With eloquence and unprecedented candor, Annan finally reveals his unique role and unparalleled perspective on decades of global politics.

Charles Stewart Henry Vane-Tempest-Stewart, the 7th Marquess of Londonderry, was born to power and command. But history has not been kind to "Charley", as the king called him, because, in his own words, he "backed the wrong horse", and a very dark horse indeed: Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party. Londonderry was hardly the only British aristocrat to do so, but he was the only Cabinet member to do so, and it ruined him. Author Ian Kershaw is not out to rehabilitate Lord Londonderry but to understand him and to expose why he was made a scapegoat.

More than twenty years ago, 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan set into motion a hugely consequential shift in America's foreign policy: a perpetual state of war that is almost entirely invisible to the American public. War Made Invisible, by the journalist and political analyst Norman Solomon, exposes how this happened, and what its consequences are, from military and civilian casualties to drained resources at home.

Despite their alliance against the Persian invasion in 480 B.C., the Greek city-states of Athens and Sparta created separate spheres of influence. Following periods of intermittent conflict, in 431 B.C. they began a destructive war against each other that lasted twenty-seven years. To help explain this struggle, Thucydides, an Athenian military general and historian, looked for cause and effect relationships. He concluded that human emotions and interests, a nation’s pursuit of power, and influential leaders proved instrumental. These elements, which are all part of the theory of realism,...

The Ukraine War or Conflict, depending on your perspective, has been going on for over 3 years, and it has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of people displaced, a diplomatic circus, and cost the US and Europe billions of dollars. There isn't any end in sight, and it's a contemporary Vietnam War-style conflict, which is set to continue until our politicians do their jobs, i.e., resolve the issue via diplomacy. President Obama was correct in giving the Ukrainians sheets, and the Trump 1.0 Administration and the Biden Administration in conjunction with the European Union ...

In November 1970, a storm set a collision course with the most densely populated coastline on Earth. Over the course of just a few hours, the Great Bhola Cyclone would kill 500,000 people and begin a chain reaction of turmoil, genocide, and war. The Vortex is the dramatic story of how that storm sparked a country to revolution.

In this concise account of why America used atomic bombs against Japan in 1945, J. Samuel Walker analyzes the reasons behind President Truman's most controversial decision. Delineating what was known and not known by American leaders at the time, Walker evaluates the options available for ending the war with Japan. In this new edition, Walker incorporates a decade of new research - mostly from Japanese archives only recently made available - that provides fresh insight on the strategic considerations that led to dropping the bomb.

A LitRPG of Diplomacy, Defense, and the Next Stone Laid The goblins were just the beginning. With winter closing in and goblin raiders repelled, Edwin and the settlers of Greenreach face a new challenge: politics. As regional lords take notice of their rising stronghold, an offer arrives—one that could secure their survival… or cost them their independence. But while alliances are forged in council halls, danger stirs beneath the stone. ⚔️ New threats emerge—supernatural horrors, rival warbands, and whispers of forgotten mines filled with ancient power. 🛡️ The Stronghold ...

The story in this book offers a look inside the antinuclear movement and its recent successful campaign to ban the bomb. Ray Acheson narrates the journey of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons - from scrappy organizing to winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 and achieving a landmark UN treaty banning nuclear weapons - and developments in feminist disarmament activism.