Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy since 1938

Brinkley (b. 1960) is a professor of history and the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities at Rice University in Houston, Texas. Brinkley has written extensively about history. His books include Dean Acheson: The Cold War Years (1992), Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War (2004), Cronkite (2012), more than a half dozen of which made it to the New York Times bestseller list. He received several prizes for his books, including the Arthur S. Link–Warren F. Kuehl Prize for his 2016 The Nixon Tapes. Some of Brinkley’s books were used for documentaries, such as Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry.

Brinkley also popularizes history as CNN presidential historian, a contributing editor to publications like Vanity Fair, and participates in historical societies. He was awarded a 2017 Grammy Award for his work as co-producer of Presidential Suite: Eight Variations on Freedom. Brinkley is also a Board member of several organizations such as the Council of Foreign Relation and James Madison Council of the Library of Congress.

George Herbert Walker Bush (1924-2018) was the 41st president of the United States. He was in office for a single term between 1989 and 1993. He was a member of the Republican Party. Bush had a prolific political career serving as a member of the House of Representatives representing the state of Texas between 1967 and 1971. He was also the UN ambassador (1971-1973), the Chief of the Liaison Office to the People's Republic of China (1974-1975), and the Chairperson of the Republican National Committee (1973-1974). Prior to becoming president, Bush was Reagan’s vice president between 1981 and 1989.

Bush was president at an important time in history when the Cold War ended, and the US sought a new role in the international arena. The most important foreign-policy decision that Bush faced was the Gulf War (1990-1991). The latter was an international conflict which began with Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. The US supported Kuwait through its Operation Desert Storm, which ended in ceasefire. Whereas the US met its goal of expelling Iraq from Kuwait, this war did not resolve the longstanding regional issues.

Domestically, the president faced some major issues, including a recession. Famously, Bush’s "Read my lips: no new taxes" campaign promise did not turn out to be true.

George Walker Bush (b. 1946) was the 43rd president of the United States who served two terms (2001-2009). He is a member of the Republican Party. Prior to his election as president, Bush’s political career involved serving as a Governor of Texas (1995-2000). His father was the 41st US president.

George W. Bush’s most important domestic issues were directly linked to his foreign policy. The September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on American soil by Osama bin Laden led to the American invasion of Afghanistan—and subsequently other NATO countries—in an initial attempt to eliminate bin Laden and his al Qaeda accomplices. Bush also ordered the 2003 invasion of Iraq on the pretext of that country’s weapons of mass destruction, which was proven to be false. Bush was criticized for both wars that ended up being costly and long.

The president also launched a global war on terror with broad goals. Domestically, the war translated into the 2001 Patriot Act that gave the government greater power to surveil its citizens.

James Earl Carter Jr. (b. 1924) was the 39th president of the United States serving between 1977 and 1981. Carter represented the Democratic Party. His administration is best known for the question of human rights. Carter dealt with several foreign-policy issues, including the 1979 Soviet intervention in Afghanistan and the Iran hostage crisis (1979-1981). Prior to becoming president, Carter served as a state Senator for the state of Georgia (1963-1967). He was also the Governor of that state between 1971 and 1975.

Carter’s presidency represents the end of détente with the USSR, although the US and the Soviet Union engaged in SALT (II) talks. His administration responded to the Soviet entry into Afghanistan by aiding mujahideen to counter the Soviet Union.

After the 1979, Iranian Revolution, when the US-backed Shah was overthrown, the Carter administration addressed the hostage crisis. Dozens of Americans captured at the Embassy in Tehran were freed only after Reagan’s election in 1981. Carter also returned the Panama Canal Zone to Panama and established full diplomatic relations with China.

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (b. 1946) was the 42nd president of the United States serving between 1993 and 2001. Clinton is a member of the Democratic Party. Clinton’s political career included being the Governor of the State of Arkansas between 1979 and 1981 as well as 1983 and 1992. He also worked as the attorney general of the same state between 1977 and 1979.

Domestically, Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998 for lying under oath and obstruction of justice about his extramarital affair. He finished his second term as president because the US Senate acquitted him.

Clinton dealt with a radically different international landscape than his Cold War predecessors. He preferred to work on economic issues rather than foreign policy. In 1993, the US intervened in Somalia, and the deaths of American soldiers led to criticism. The United States also engaged in the Balkan conflicts in this decade, including the 1999 NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, without the approval of the UNSC, which killed civilians and destroyed civilian infrastructure.

The Clinton administration also managed the transformation of the post-Soviet space, including the backing of Boris Yeltsin in the 1996 Russian election. Shock-therapy and hyperinflation were some of the disastrous results of this economic campaign.

The issue of terrorism was also an important concern for the Clinton administration, such as seeking to capture the al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969) was the 34th president of the United States. He belonged to the Republican Party and was in power between 1953 and 1961. Eisenhower is also well known as the Supreme Allied Commander for Operation Overlord, or the 1944 Normandy landings, during the Second World War.

Eisenhower had an extensive military career attending the US Military Academy at West Point and serving in many locations, including the Philippines and the Panama Canal Zone. A five-star general and the Supreme Allied Commander during the Second World War, the realities of war shaped Eisenhower’s cautious and generally pragmatic foreign policy approach.

During his two terms as president, Eisenhower ended the Korean War in an armistice. He faced the question of nuclear weapons and the space race with the Soviet Union in the context of the Cold War. Eisenhower established NASA to challenge the USSR, which had many successes in this decade starting with the 1957 Sputnik launch.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK, 1917-1963) was the 35th president of the United States serving between 1961 and his assassination in 1963. Kennedy represented the Democratic Party. Despite the brevity of his Presidency, he tackled many important foreign-policy decisions, including the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the construction of the Berlin Wall, the space race with the USSR, as well as the Vietnam War. Domestically, this was the time of the Civil Rights Movement.

Kennedy was in the Navy during the Second World War and was awarded for bravery. His political career began with his election to Congress (1946) and to the Senate (1952).

Kennedy chose to counter the successful 1959 Cuban Revolution—and the new ideological opponent next door—by authorizing the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of that country, which failed. That same year Berlin was divided by a wall until 1989 into the two Cold War spheres.

The next year brought the Cuban Missile Crisis after the Soviet Union responded to the US placing missiles in Turkey by placing nuclear weapons in Cuba. The crisis was the closest the world came to a nuclear war and was resolved through negotiations.

Domestically, Kennedy supported the Civil Rights Act—passed by the next administration—during the Civil Rights movement for equality. JKF was assassinated on November 22, 1963.

Richard Milhous Nixon (1913-1994) was the 37th president of the United States. Nixon was in office between 1969 and 1974 and was the only president to resign. He belonged to the Republican Party and served as Congressman (1947-1950) and Senator (1950-1953) for the state of California. Prior to becoming president, Nixon was Eisenhower’s Vice president (1953-1961).

Nixon tackled several important foreign-policy concerns during his time as president. He inherited the Vietnam War and exploited the Sino-Soviet split to establish a détente with the Soviet Union and a basic diplomatic relationship with China. Domestically, he underwent the impeachment process and resigned as a result of the Watergate scandal involving abuses of power and a break-in into the Watergate building in Washington, DC in the context of the 1972 presidential election.

The authors of Rise to Globalism argue that Nixon, and his advisor Henry Kissinger, failed to meet their foreign policy goals. Their decisions unnecessarily extended the Vietnam war into the mid-1970s, costing more civilian lives in indiscriminate bombings in Southeast Asia and those of American soldiers. Nixon and Kissinger did not establish full diplomatic relations with China—this occurred in the late 1970s. In addition, Nixon’s actions in supplying Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War led to retaliation through an oil embargo and a domestic crisis.

Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911-2004) was the 40th president of the United States serving two terms between 1981 and 1989. Reagan transformed his career from an actor to a politician. Prior to becoming president, he was in office as a Governor of the state of California between 1967 and 1975 as a member of the Republican Party.

The authors describe an increasingly complex world of international relations in the 1980s during Reagan’s leadership. The president maintained significant trade relations with the Soviet Union—for instance, in the commodity export sector—while simultaneously building up armaments to challenge the Soviet Union in the context of the Cold War. Calling the USSR an “evil empire” (320) in the first half of the 1980s, Reagan achieved an amicable relationship with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and worked on reducing nuclear arsenals.

The American administration got involved in several other conflicts ranging from the invasion of Grenada to the Lebanese war. Its involvement in Latin America with El Salvador and Nicaragua was extensive. The authors how Regan experienced his own equivalent of the Watergate scandal. The mid-1980s Iran-Contra affair involved the sale of arms to Iran to fund the Contras in Latin America, while simultaneously calling Iran a state sponsor of terrorism.

Domestically, Reagan faced several issues such as the AIDS epidemic. The value of his economic policy known as Reaganomics is still debated.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR, 1882-1945) was the 32nd president of the United States between 1933 and 1945. Roosevelt held other political positions prior to leading America, including being the Governor of New York state. He represented the Democratic Party.

FDR inherited the Great Depression and implemented the New Deal programs to fight its challenges. In the realm of foreign policy, Roosevelt saw the worsening situation in Europe, with the rise of Hitler, and Asia, with Japanese imperialism, but he attempted to maintain neutrality. Gradually, he began to support the Allies through Lend-Lease and was drawn into the conflict after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

Ambrose and Brinkley describe Roosevelt as a careful and pragmatic politician in the international arena. For example, he remembered the lessons of the First World War and attempted to avoid the Second World War until the last moment. FDR also acknowledged the Soviet security concerns at Tehran and Yalta conferences, in contrast to Churchill, and, at times, agreed with Stalin on anti-colonial questions.