Richard Nixon and the Domestic Politics of Personal Diplomacy

2022 ◽  
pp. 104-127
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Richard Nixon ◽  
Personal Diplomacy

The Double Game

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Cameron
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Nuclear Strategy ◽  
Richard Nixon ◽  
Strategic Stability ◽  
Antiballistic Missile ◽  
Missile System

This book tracks the development of the United States’ first antiballistic missile system from the beginning of the John F. Kennedy administration through its almost total prohibition with the Antiballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, which the United States and Soviet Union signed in May 1972. Historians generally interpret the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks that led to the ABM Treaty as signaling the United States’ acceptance of strategic stability based on mutual assured destruction (MAD) and approximate nuclear parity between the superpowers. The book argues that this is mistaken, because declassified records indicate that Richard Nixon believed that the United States required nuclear superiority to maintain its national security commitments. Kennedy, Lyndon Baines Johnson, and Nixon all engaged in a double game, in which they attempted to reconcile their personal feelings about the utility of nuclear weapons with the demands of maintaining a façade of strategic coherence to the American public and Congress. Kennedy and Johnson, who were personally far more skeptical than Nixon regarding the merits of nuclear superiority, were forced to adopt a public posture that emphasized its importance, because that was the prevailing public and congressional sentiment at the time. This only changed when the Vietnam War precipitated a collapse in the American domestic consensus behind superiority in 1969, forcing President Nixon to sign strategic arms limitation agreements, the philosophy behind which he profoundly opposed. The book thereby places domestic politics at the center of the formulation of US nuclear strategy.

The 1968 Paris peace negotiations: a two level game?

2010 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 577-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID MILNE
Keyword(s):  
Vietnam War ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Vice President ◽  
International Negotiations ◽  
Richard Nixon ◽  
Peace Negotiations ◽  
South Vietnam ◽  
Seminal Article ◽  
Domestic Level

AbstractThis article draws on fresh archival research to challenge Robert Putnam's ‘Two Level Game Theory’. In his seminal article, ‘Diplomacy and Domestic Politics: The Logic of Two Level Games’, published by International Organization in 1988, Putnam contended that international negotiations proceed at the domestic level and at the international level. In taking diplomatic initiatives forward, leaders are compelled to respond to the needs of domestic constituencies, through granting concessions and building coalitions, while international negotiations are pursued with one goal in mind: that any agreement will not damage the domestic political calculus. This article contends that Lyndon Johnson's actions in 1968 disprove this thesis. The President was in fact relaxed about a Richard Nixon victory in the general election as his commitment to defend South Vietnam from communism was stronger than that of his sitting Vice President, Hubert Humphrey. The President's concern for the fate of South Vietnam thus superseded his concern for his ‘normal supporters'– the Democratic Party at large – who had become so hostile towards his management of the Vietnam War.

John Spargo and American Socialism

2009 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 272-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Seymour
Keyword(s):  
New Deal ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Darwinism ◽  
Benito Mussolini ◽  
Bolshevik Revolution ◽  
Richard Nixon ◽  
Socialist Movement ◽  
The Right

AbstractMarkku Ruotsila's impressive new biography of John Spargo is an incisive assessment of one of the earliest architects of neoconservatism. Spargo, a British socialist who spent most of his life in the United States, had moved gradually to the right of the socialist movement, advocating a gradualist and anti-revolutionary interpretation of Marxism. Having defended the American intervention in WWI, he was an early and avid critic of the Bolshevik Revolution. It was Spargo who composed the Colby Note that formalised the Wilson administration's anti-communist doctrine, and engaged in a political alliance with Benito Mussolini which he maintained through Italy's Fascist years on account of Mussolini's intransigent anti-communism. A harsh critic of the Roosevelt administration's 'New Deal' and its recognition of the USSR, he moved to the hard right in his domestic politics, supporting the Dies Commission and McCarthy, and later supporting first Richard Nixon then Barry Goldwater in the 1964 elections. This review examines Spargo's journey to the right in the light, not only of the peculiar Hyndmanite Marxism into which he was initially inducted and the reformist socialism to which he later graduated, but also of his social Darwinism, his support for colonialism, and his perceptions of the global racial order. I argue that Ruotsila, while providing an unprecedented glimpse into a neglected prehistory of neoconservatism, is mistaken to see Spargo's transition as a logical and linear progression in which he successfully preserved the core of his 'Social Gospel' even as he became a Republican activist. He also understates, I will maintain, the role of Spargo's racial concerns in the fervent anti-communism that he espoused after 1917.

scholarly journals Breaking the Eleventh Commandment

2021 ◽  
Vol 98 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-27
Author(s):  
Andrew L. Johns
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Moral Issue ◽  
Political Career ◽  
Presidential Nomination ◽  
Richard Nixon ◽  
Vietnam Era ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The U.S

A closer look at Representative Paul N. “Pete” McCloskey’s decision to challenge Richard Nixon for the 1972 Republican presidential nomination due to Nixon’s failure to bring the Vietnam conflict to a conclusion reveals some intriguing aspects of the relationship between domestic politics and foreign policy during the U.S. experience in Vietnam. In breaking the GOP’s “Eleventh Commandment”—the exhortation to not speak ill of fellow Republicans—McCloskey acted on the courage of his convictions in opposing the war and his party’s sitting president. For McCloskey, Vietnam transcended politics; it was a moral issue on which he was willing to sacrifice his political career—unlike most other members of Congress and politicians in successive administrations during the Vietnam era. Moreover, McCloskey’s failure to gain traction with voters in the GOP primaries with his antiwar stance presaged George McGovern’s struggles against Nixon in the fall campaign in 1972.

Reagan and Thatcher's Special Relationship

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally-Ann Treharne
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Special Relationship ◽  
Pivotal Moments ◽  
Political Relationships ◽  
Latin American Region ◽  
The Us ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Elite Interviews ◽  
Personal Diplomacy ◽  
The Cold War

Reagan and Thatcher’s Special Relationship offers a unique insight into one of the most controversial political relationships in recent history. An insightful and original study, it provides a new regionally focused approach to the study of Anglo-American relations. The Falklands War, the US invasion of Grenada, the Anglo-Guatemalan dispute over Belize and the US involvement in Nicaragua are vividly reconstructed as Latin American crises that threatened to overwhelm a renewal in US-UK relations in the 1980s. Reagan and Thatcher’s efforts to normalise relations, both during and after the crises, reveal a mutual desire to strengthen Anglo-American ties and to safeguard individual foreign policy objectives whilst cultivating a close personal and political bond that was to last well beyond their terms in office. This ground-breaking reappraisal analyses pivotal moments in their shared history by drawing on the extensive analysis of recently declassified documents while elite interviews reveal candid recollections by key protagonists providing an alternative vantage point from which to assess the contentious ‘Special Relationship’. Sally-Ann Treharne offers a compelling look into the role personal diplomacy played in overcoming obstacles to Anglo-American relations emanating from the turbulent Latin American region in the final years of the Cold War.

The United States and the Iranian Nuclear Programme

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Hurst
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Nixon Administration ◽  
Comprehensive Plan ◽  
The Us ◽  
Nuclear Issue ◽  
The Relationship

The United States, Iran and the Bomb provides the first comprehensive analysis of the US-Iranian nuclear relationship from its origins through to the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015. Starting with the Nixon administration in the 1970s, it analyses the policies of successive US administrations toward the Iranian nuclear programme. Emphasizing the centrality of domestic politics to decision-making on both sides, it offers both an explanation of the evolution of the relationship and a critique of successive US administrations' efforts to halt the Iranian nuclear programme, with neither coercive measures nor inducements effectively applied. The book further argues that factional politics inside Iran played a crucial role in Iranian nuclear decision-making and that American policy tended to reinforce the position of Iranian hardliners and undermine that of those who were prepared to compromise on the nuclear issue. In the final chapter it demonstrates how President Obama's alterations to American strategy, accompanied by shifts in Iranian domestic politics, finally brought about the signing of the JCPOA in 2015.

Japan: New Diplomatic Horizons, Old-Style Domestic Politics

Asian Survey ◽  
1968 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-51
Author(s):  
Hans H. Baerwald
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Politics

Is This the Care We Need?: An Examination of Childcare Policy in Pennsylvania

Commonwealth ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennie Sweet-Cushman ◽  
Ashley Harden
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Child Care ◽  
Current System ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Women And Politics ◽  
Richard Nixon ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Childcare Policy

For many families across Pennsylvania, child care is an ever-present concern. Since the 1970s, when Richard Nixon vetoed a national childcare program, child care has received little time in the policy spotlight. Instead, funding for child care in the United States now comes from a mixture of federal, state, and local programs that do not help all families. This article explores childcare options available to families in the state of Pennsylvania and highlights gaps in the current system. Specifically, we examine the state of child care available to families in the Commonwealth in terms of quality, accessibility, flexibility, and affordability. We also incorporate survey data from a nonrepresentative sample of registered Pennsylvania voters conducted by the Pennsylvania Center for Women and Politics. As these results support the need for improvements in the current childcare system, we discuss recommendations for the future.

Dichotomy of Consumerizm and Communitarism as a Method of Balance of Forces in Society

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-91
Author(s):  
Aleksey E. Shishkin
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Death Sentence ◽  
Consumer Society ◽  
Domestic Industry ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
The People ◽  
Food Programs ◽  
Balance Of Forces ◽  
New Community

Relevance. The market-imposed system of consumerism overstepped the boundaries of bifurcation and entered into “legitimate rights” to abolish the living traditional world, thereby disturbing the balance in society and thereby signed the death sentence to itself. The problem of research. Exploring the possibilities of social reloading from consumerism to communitarianism to restore the balance of power in society. Scientific novelty and research results. Our novelty of research lies in the application of scientific tools to analyze a possible reload. We used the complementarity principle of N. Bohr, the principle of spontaneous emergence of I. Prigogine, the principle of incompatibility L. Zade, the principle of managing uncertainties, the principle of ignorance of individual opinions and collective ideas, the principle of conformity, the principle of diversity of development of a complex system, the principle of unity and mutual transitions, the principle oscillatory (pulsating) evolution – showed instability in the management of society by mondialist-compradors and a possible countdown of the transition from the sensual age to the ideation nnuyu, and in our case – from consumerism to communitarianism. The main purpose of the work. From the apparent modern triumph of consumerism over communitarianism, we are not interested in a fact-problem, but in the idea of transforming reality that can stop the process of obscuration. Discussion and Conclusion. In the Middle Ages, during the construction of the project “Holy Russia”, communities were created according to the principle of “big”. Around the devotee of piety, voluntary monastic settlements were created, which grew into suburbs. Of these, the ascetic-hesychast stood out, who went into the forest and chopped down a new temple. To the righteous people flocked, yearning for a just life. This is how a new community was created. There was a new prayer book and then the big man blessed him to organize other settlements. The state should be interested in finding new forms of solutions for educational, economic, technical, cultural and food programs, therefore the initiative of communitarianists should not be punished, but supported. Today, foreign investors are becoming owners of not only factories, but even entire branches of domestic industry and are able to significantly influence domestic politics in our country. The growing number of immigrants as a destabilizing factor is becoming increasingly important. In such a situation, the fate of the country depends on the ability of the people to a new unification. It is necessary to unite on the basis of religious and cultural traditions on the principle of professional fraternities; if only there would be more centers of spiritual culture, but not by the principle of quantity, as is always the case with officials, but by the qualitative qualification of the “big man” as a center of creative and integrative power. From the foregoing, the idea of building ideational (communitarian) cohorts is born, which, through their ascetic life and creative work, should set a new vector for historical development (“salt”) consumer society.

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