Kissinger, Ford, and Congress: The Very Bitter End in Vietnam

2002 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 439-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Christopher Jespersen
Keyword(s):  
American People ◽  
Economic Assistance ◽  
Ford Administration ◽  
Henry Kissinger ◽  
South Vietnam ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Government ◽  
Working Out ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Do So

Although not elected to the office, Gerald Ford nonetheless had the opportunity to change the nation's course in Vietnam when he assumed the presidency in August 1974. He did not do so, leaving the burden of ending the war there to the U.S. Congress. Contrary to what some policymakers and historians have subsequently argued, Congress did not sell out a healthy, viable South Vietnamese government to the communists in 1974––1975. Instead, the senators and representatives who voted to reduce, not cut off, military and economic assistance to the government of Nguyen Van Thieu made the correct and proper decision in the face of that regime's obviously untenable nature and the overwhelming desire of the American people to curtail support for it. Rather than working out a plan to end the war and remove those South Vietnamese who had worked with the Americans over the years, the Ford administration, led by the President himself, his Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, and Graham Martin, the U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam, chose to pursue a deliberate policy of denial, one designed to place the blame for the loss of South Vietnam on the shoulders of Congress. The resulting tragedy left thousands of Vietnamese to face life as the clear losers in a civil war.

Japan and World Order

Worldview ◽  
1972 ◽  
Vol 15 (7) ◽  
pp. 11-14
Author(s):  
Robert W. Baraett
Keyword(s):  
World Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
American People ◽  
Doing Business ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
The Government ◽  
Real Responsibility ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Pluralistic World ◽  
Do So

The anomaly in present U.S.-Japanese relations is that, while both countries warmly approve each other's professed foreign policies, neither country has mastered the new styles of doing business with each other necessitated by domestic trends, imperfectly perceived, which affect how each country looks upon itself and expects the other to understand it.The United States recognizes, at last, limits on its resources, power and capabilities. At home, the U.S. Government must devote a larger part of its budget to urgent social and economic needs of its own people. Looking outward, the Government rations sparingly the wealth it shares with others and insists that others, able to do so, take a larger part of real responsibility for preservation of world order. The American people are weary of ideological overtones in power confrontations abroad and are beginning to accept, with all of the risks and confusion of new perspectives, the reality of a pluralistic world.

Rice in the Time of Sugar

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis A. Pérez Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Rice Production ◽  
Cuban Revolution ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Sugar Trade ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The Government ◽  
Food Imports ◽  
The U.S

How did Cuba’s long-established sugar trade result in the development of an agriculture that benefited consumers abroad at the dire expense of Cubans at home? In this history of Cuba, Louis A. Pérez proposes a new Cuban counterpoint: rice, a staple central to the island’s cuisine, and sugar, which dominated an export economy 150 years in the making. In the dynamic between the two, dependency on food imports—a signal feature of the Cuban economy—was set in place. Cuban efforts to diversify the economy through expanded rice production were met with keen resistance by U.S. rice producers, who were as reliant on the Cuban market as sugar growers were on the U.S. market. U.S. growers prepared to retaliate by cutting the sugar quota in a struggle to control Cuban rice markets. Pérez’s chronicle culminates in the 1950s, a period of deepening revolutionary tensions on the island, as U.S. rice producers and their allies in Congress clashed with Cuban producers supported by the government of Fulgencio Batista. U.S. interests prevailed—a success, Pérez argues, that contributed to undermining Batista’s capacity to govern. Cuba’s inability to develop self-sufficiency in rice production persists long after the triumph of the Cuban revolution. Cuba continues to import rice, but, in the face of the U.S. embargo, mainly from Asia. U.S. rice growers wait impatiently to recover the Cuban market.

Defining Government Speech: Recent Approaches and the Germaneness Principle

2005 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 398-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward L. Carter
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
First Amendment ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Federal Courts ◽  
Private Speech ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Government ◽  
The U.S

In the last decade, the U.S. Supreme Court and lower federal courts have fashioned the -principle that the First Amendment does not limit the government's ability to determine the content of its own messages. Yet the Supreme Court has not defined what is meant by “government speech.” Defined broadly, it may encompass viewpoint-based messages on controversial social issues, privately funded advocacy on behalf of certain industries, and official endorsement of certain ideologies. In the face of this uncertainty, and confronted with numerous recent cases in which the government asserts its right to expression, the U.S. courts of appeal have devised three major approaches to distinguishing government speech from private speech. The Supreme Court touched on aspects of these approaches in an important 2005 opinion, yet significant questions remain about the definitional contours of the Court's developing government speech doctrine.

Places of Protest: The Public Forum in Principle and Practice

2006 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
John McCarthy ◽  
Clark McPhail
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Historical Time ◽  
Public Forum ◽  
The Public ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Unrestricted Access ◽  
The Government ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Do So

Protest events occur in historical time and geographical place. In the U.S., some places are now constitutionally privileged with respect to citizen access and free assembly and speech. These venues are known as the traditional commons or the public forum. It is our contention that in recent years (1) these spaces have been shrinking in number, (2) citizens have experienced increasing difficulty in gaining unrestricted access to them, and (3) such venues are no longer where most people typically congregate in large numbers. Nevertheless, as we will show, when citizens gather to express dissenting views toward the government at the turn of the twentieth century they overwhelmingly choose spaces in the public forum to do so.

scholarly journals “The Problem from Hell”: Examining the Role of Peace and Conflict Studies for Genocide Intervention and Prevention

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Cormier ◽  
Peter Karari ◽  
Alka Kumar ◽  
Robin Neustaeter ◽  
Jodi Read ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Conflict Studies ◽  
Peace And Conflict Studies ◽  
Peace And Conflict ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Will ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Do So

Genocide is one of the most challenging problems of our age. In her book, “A Problem from Hell:” America and the Age of Genocide, Samantha Power (2002) argues that the United States, while in a position to intervene in genocide, has lacked the will to do so, and therefore it is incumbent on the U.S. citizenry to pressure their government to act. This article reviews how the topic of genocide raises questions along the fault lines of the field of Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS). In this article, a framework is provided to examine genocide and responses to it. This includes a review of a multiplicity of factors that (a) facilitate genocide, (b) constrain action in the face of it, and (c) facilitate intervention. In this analysis, further consideration is given to the location of the actor either within the region of the conflict or external to it. Our goal is to situate the study of genocide in the PACS field and promote to the articulation of possibilities for intervention by individuals, organizations, and policymakers.

Prosecuting the President

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Coan
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
American People ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Civic Duty ◽  
The People ◽  
Special Prosecutor ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Right ◽  
Political Scandals ◽  
Do So

The first special prosecutor was appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1875. Ever since, presidents of both parties have appointed special prosecutors and empowered them to operate with unusual independence. In short order, such appointments became a standard method for neutralizing political scandals and demonstrating the president’s commitment to the rule of law. This long, mostly forgotten history shows that special prosecutors can do much to protect the rule of law under the right circumstances. It also shows that they are fallible. Many have been thwarted by the formidable challenges of investigating a sitting president and his close associates. Some have abused the powers entrusted to them. Yet such cases are rare. At their best, special prosecutors function as avatars of the people channeling an unfocused popular will to safeguard the rule of law. But special prosecutors can function effectively only if the people care about holding the president accountable. If a president thinks he can fire a special prosecutor without incurring serious political damage, he has the power to do so. Ultimately, only the American people can decide whether the president is above the law. At any given moment, this question can seem like a purely partisan one. All Americans, however, have a profound stake in preserving the “government of laws and not of men” passed down to us by previous generations. Prosecuting the President provides the information every American needs to perform this civic duty intelligently and responsibly.

scholarly journals Standardizing Government Standard-Setting Policy for Electronic Commerce

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Lemley
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property Rights ◽  
Standard Setting ◽  
Technical Standards ◽  
Setting Process ◽  
Open Standard ◽  
Open Standards ◽  
The Government ◽  
The One ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Do So

The U.S. government's policy towards open standards in electronic commerceis inconsistent. On the one hand, the Magaziner Report endorses the idea ofinteroperable standards and open standard-setting processes for electroniccommerce. It also suggests that governments should not be involved insetting technical standards. Unfortunately, the Report also endorsesgovernment intervention in the standard-setting process in the case ofencryption. Further, it recommends expanding intellectual property rights,without acknowledging the difficulties this can cause for open standards.Professor Lemley's article draws attention to this inconsistency, andsuggests ways that the government could help promote open standards if ittruly wished to do so.

Kissinger, China, Congress, and the Lost Chance for Cambodia

2010 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 205-229
Author(s):  
Chris Connolly
Keyword(s):  
Khmer Rouge ◽  
Coalition Government ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
Henry Kissinger ◽  
Negotiated Settlement ◽  
South Vietnam ◽  
Head Of State ◽  
Ultimate Cause ◽  
The U.S

AbstractHenry Kissinger has been persistent in his claim that the U.S. Congress's failure to adequately supply South Vietnam was the ultimate cause of its collapse in 1975 – a claim many historians dispute. An incident that has received less attention is the role of Congress in terminating a potential negotiated settlement of the civil war in Cambodia by imposing a halt of U.S. bombing there in the summer of 1973. This article demonstrates that in this case, Kissinger's claims are not without foundation. Although the conclusions are tentative without the full Chinese record, the evidence suggests that terminating U.S. military operations in Cambodia fatally undermined Chinese efforts to negotiate the removal of Lon Nol as Cambodian head of state and the establishment of a coalition government involving the Khmer Rouge but with Sihanouk at its head.

Verán ustedes las chozas más humildes. El discurso de pobreza en la diplomacia pública cardenista dirigida a Estados Unidos

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-281
Author(s):  
Sylvia Dümmer Scheel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New Deal ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Government ◽  
Lazaro Cardenas ◽  
The New Deal

El artículo analiza la diplomacia pública del gobierno de Lázaro Cárdenas centrándose en su opción por publicitar la pobreza nacional en el extranjero, especialmente en Estados Unidos. Se plantea que se trató de una estrategia inédita, que accedió a poner en riesgo el “prestigio nacional” con el fin de justificar ante la opinión pública estadounidense la necesidad de implementar las reformas contenidas en el Plan Sexenal. Aprovechando la inusual empatía hacia los pobres en tiempos del New Deal, se construyó una imagen específica de pobreza que fuera higiénica y redimible. Ésta, sin embargo, no generó consenso entre los mexicanos. This article analyzes the public diplomacy of the government of Lázaro Cárdenas, focusing on the administration’s decision to publicize the nation’s poverty internationally, especially in the United States. This study suggests that this was an unprecedented strategy, putting “national prestige” at risk in order to explain the importance of implementing the reforms contained in the Six Year Plan, in the face of public opinion in the United States. Taking advantage of the increased empathy felt towards the poor during the New Deal, a specific image of hygienic and redeemable poverty was constructed. However, this strategy did not generate agreement among Mexicans.

Challenging Gender Hierarchies in Narratives of the Nation: Representations of Women in Zintgraff and the Battle of Mankon and Hard Choice

Imbizo ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Epongse Nkealah ◽  
Olutoba Gboyega Oluwasuji
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Gender Differentiation ◽  
Hard Choice ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Gender Hierarchies ◽  
The Face ◽  
The One ◽  
Representations Of Women ◽  
Do So

Ideas of nationalisms as masculine projects dominate literary texts by African male writers. The texts mirror the ways in which gender differentiation sanctions nationalist discourses and in turn how nationalist discourses reinforce gender hierarchies. This article draws on theoretical insights from the work of Anne McClintock and Elleke Boehmer to analyse two plays: Zintgraff and the Battle of Mankon by Bole Butake and Gilbert Doho and Hard Choice by Sunnie Ododo. The article argues that women are represented in these two plays as having an ambiguous relationship to nationalism. On the one hand, women are seen actively changing the face of politics in their societies, but on the other hand, the means by which they do so reduces them to stereotypes of their gender.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document