9/II and American Foreign Policy

Diplomatic History

Volumn 29, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 395-413

  Leffler, Melvyn P ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA   (United States)

^b LIBRARY OF CONGRESS   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 21144449368     PISSN: 01452096     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7709.2005.00491.x     Document Type: Article

References (127)

1. For criticism, see, for example, James Mann, Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet (New York, 2004);
2. Ivo H. Daalder and James M. Lindsay, America Unbound: The Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy (Washington, DC, 2003);
3. John Newhouse, Imperial America: The Bush Assault on the World Order (New York, 2003);
4. for praise, see, for example, Rowan Scarborough, Rumsfeld's War: The Untold Story of America's Anti-Terrorist Commander (Washington, DC, 2004);
5. for understanding, see Robert Kagan, Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order (London, 2003);
6. David Frum and Richard Perle, An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror (New York, 2003);
7. for a sympathetic portrait, Bob Woodward, Bush at War (New York, 2002);
8. for a subsequent, less sympathetic portrait of the administration's policymaking, Bob Woodward, Plan of Attack (New York, 2004);
9. for reflective, insightful evaluations placing Bush policy in historical perspective, see especially Niall Ferguson, Colossus: The Price of America's Empire (New York, 2004);
10. John Lewis Gaddis, Surprise, Security, and the American Experience (Cambridge, MA, 2004);
11. Andrew Bacevich, American Empire: The Realities and Consequences of U.S. Diplomacy (Cambridge, MA, 2003).
12. "The National Security Strategy of the United States of America," September 2002, p. 3, available at http:// www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss.html (hereafter cited as "Bush National Security Strategy").
13. I b i d.
14. "A National Security Strategy for a Global Age," December 2000, available at http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/nss/ nss_dec2000_contents.htm.
15. "Bush National Security Strategy," 10-11.
16. Mann, Rise of the Vulcans, 329-30;
17. see also Daalder and Lindsay, America Unbound, 199.
18. Mann, Rise of the Vulcans, 20.
19. Samuel Flagg Bemis, The Latin American Policy of the United States: An Historical Interpretation (New York, 1943), 110, 151-67;
20. in a recent account, Frank Ninkovich calls it "preemptive imperialism." See Frank Ninkovich, The United States and Imperialism (Malden, MA, 2001), 91.
21. Samuel I. Rosenman, ed., The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1941 (New York, 1950), 384-92.
22. "Bush National Security Strategy," 11.
23. Condoleezza Rice, "A Balance of Power that Favors Freedom," Wriston Lecture at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, October 1, 2002, available at http://www.manhattaninstitute.org/html/wl2002.htm;
24. Testimony by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, February 6, 2003, p. 43. Available from: LexisNexis™ Congressional (Online Service). Bethesda, MD: Congressional Information Service.
25. U.S. Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development, Security, Democracy, Prosperity: Strategic Plan, Fiscal Years 2004-2009 (Washington, DC, 2003), U.S. AID Publications 11084, p. 1.
26. Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952-1954 (Washington, DC, 1984), 2:721 (hereafter cited as FRUS).
27. Ibid., 718.
28. Ibid., 12:772.
29. Ibid., 12:753.
30. Ibid, 1961-1963: 8:499-500.
31. Ibid., 506.
32. Ibid., 22:339;
33. see the illuminating article by William Burr and Jeffrey T. Richelson, "Whether to 'Strangle the Baby in the Cradle': The United States and the Chinese Nuclear Program, 1960-1964," International Security 25 (Winter 2000/2001): 54-99.
34. FRUS, 1961-1963, 7:801.
35. Burr and Richelson, "Whether to Strangle the Baby in the Cradle," 73-91.
36. The Kennedy tapes reveal that all the discussion was about what form of preventative action the United States should take. The discussions were not about whether to take preventative action. The issue was how to get the missiles out of Cuba without provoking a nuclear war; the need for some sort of preventative military action was assumed by all the decision makers. See Ernest R. May and Philip D. Zelikow, The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House during the Cuban Missile Crisis (Cambridge, MA, 1997).
37. "Bush National Strategy Statement," 11.
38. Fredrik Logevall, Choosing War: The Last Chance for Peace and the Escalation of War in Vietnam, (Berkeley, CA, 1999), 2-3, 84, 123-33, 222-28, 278-80, 373.
39. The British tempered their criticism, but refused to assist the United States militarily. "We can't kick our creditors in the balls," said Prime Minister Harold Wilson. See the review article, John W. Young, "Britain and LBJ's War, 1964-1968," Cold War History 2 (April 2002): 63-92. The quotation is on p. 88.
40. FRUS, 1964-1968, 27:135.
41. Ibid., 1961-1963, 8:291.
42. Ibid., 1952-1954, 2:64
43. Ibid., 657.
44. I develop this argument at considerable length in A Preponderance of Power: National Security, the Truman Administration, and the Cold War (Stanford, CA, 1992), 18-19, 208-19, 262-63, 354-63, 396-410, 438-50, 488-92, 502-10.
45. William Burr, "The 'Horror Strategy' and the Nixon Administration's Search for Limited Nuclear Options, 1969-1972," Journal of Cold War Studies, forthcoming.
46. Bacevich, American Empire, 125-27;
47. see also William F. Odom and Robert Dujarric, America's Inadvertent Empire (New Haven, CT, 2004), 64-96.
48. "A National Security for a Global Age," Part 2, p. 11.
49. Combined Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joint Vision 2020: America's Military: Preparing for Tomorrow, 1. The performance of the U.S. military establishment, of course, did not always match its ambition.
50. See Bacevich, American Empire, 133-40.
51. "A National Security Strategy for a Global Age," Part 2, p. 11.
52. JCS, Joint Vision 2020, 1.
53. "A National Security Strategy for a Global Age," Part 1, p. 4.
54. Presidential Decision Directive 39, "U.S. Policy on Counterterrorism," June 21, 1995, especially pp. 1, 3, 9, available at http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/pdd39.htm.
55. "A National Security Strategy for a Global Age," Part 2, p. 14.
56. Samuel Berger, "9/11 Prepared Testimony," National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, March 24, 2004, pp. 3-4, available at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4593926.
57. For recent analyses of American unilateralism, as it is perceived by non-Americans, see Richard Crockatt, America Embattled: September 11, Anti-Americanism and the Global Order (London, 2003);
58. David Malone and Yuen Foong Khong, Unilateralism and U.S. Foreign Policy: International Perspectives (Boulder, CO, 2003).
59. The United States Commission on National Security in the 21st Century, "New World Coming: American Security in the 21st Century," p. 6, September 15, 1999, available at http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/nssg/ Reports/NWC.pdf
60. Kagan, Paradise and Power, 27.
61. See, for example, Testimony, by R. James Woolsey, January 10, 1995, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, "World Wide Threats to U.S. National Security," available at LexisNexis™ Congressional (Online Service);
62. Testimony, by George J. Tenet, February 6, 1997, Senate Committee on Armed Services, "World Wide Threats to National Security," ibid.;
63. Testimony, by Tenet, February 2, 2000, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, "Annual Assessment of Security Threats against the United States," ibid.;
64. Testimony, by Tenet, February 7, 2001, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, "World Wide Threats to U.S. National Security," ibid.
65. This is my conclusion based on my reading of the testimony before the 9/ 11 Commission. See http://www.9-11commission.gov/.
66. Also see the revealing testimony of Rumsfeld, June 21, 2001, Senate Armed Services Committee, "U.S. National Security Strategy," available at LexisNexis™ Congressional (Online Service);
67. Richard A. Clarke, Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror (New York, 2004).
68. Rice, "A Balance of Power that Favors Freedom";
69. Remarks, by Condoleezza Rice at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London, June 26, 2003, available at http:// www.iiss.org/showdocument.php?docID=220.
70. Testimony, by Paul Wolfowitz, September 19, 2002, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, "Joint Inquiry Hearing on Counterterrorist Center," pp. 22, 24, 31, available at LexisNexis™ Congressional (Online Service);
71. Paul Wolfowitz, Remarks at Conference on Iraqi Reconstruction, Georgetown University, November 4, 2003, available at http:// www.defenselink.mil/speeches/2003/sp20031104-depsecdefo662.html.
72. Remarks by Paul Wolfowitz at the 38th Munich Conference, February 2, 2002, p. 3, available at http://www.dod.mil/speeches/2002/ s20020202-depsecdef2.html.
73. Press Conference with Donald Rumsfeld and General Richard Myers, January 29, 2003, available at http://www.dod.mil/transcripts/2003/ t01292003_to129sd.html.
74. Quoted in Joseph Cirincione, Jessica T. Mathews, George Perkovich, with Alexis Orton, WMD in Iraq: Evidence and Implications (Washington, DC, 2004), 57.
75. Bush's introductory letter to the National Security Strategy Statement, September 17, 2002, available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/ 2003/02/counter_terrorism/counter_terrorism_strategy.pdf
76. See Woodward, Bush at War;
77. Woodward, Plan of Attack;
78. National Security Council, "National Strategy for Combating Terrorism," February 2003, available at http://usinfo.state.gov/ topical/pol/terror/strategy.
79. Steven Rappoport, "The Use of Exceptionalist Rhetoric in Times of Crisis," seminar paper at the University of Virginia, 2004.
80. "National Security Strategy of the United State," August 1991, pp. 1-3ff., available at http://www/fas.org/man/docs/918015-nss.htm.
81. This was particularly true in their last strategy statement, "A National Security Strategy for a Global Age," December 2000, especially Part 1, pp. 4-5.
82. Condoleezza Rice, "Campaign 2000 - Promoting the National Interest," Foreign Affairs 79 (January-February 2000): 1-8.
83. George W. Bush, "A Distinctly American Internationalism," November 19, 1999, available at http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/ bush/wspeech/htm.
84. "Bush National Security Strategy," 4.
85. "President Delivers Graduation Speech at West Point," June 1, 2002, available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/06.
86. Woodward, Plan of Attack, 88-89.
87. Remarks as delivered by Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, October 10, 2003, available at http://ww.dod.mil/speeches/2003/sp20031010-secdefo582.html.
88. Remarks by Wolfowitz at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, October 30, 2003, p. 7, ibid.
89. Douglas J. Feith, "Strategy and the Idea of Freedom," November 24, 2003, p. 2, ibid.
90. U.S. Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development, Strategic Plan, Fiscal Years 2004-2009, 1.
91. Colin Powell, "Remarks on the Occasion of George Kennan's Centenary Birthday," February 20, 2004, available at http:// www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/usa/2004/usa-040220-usiaoi.htm.
92. Daalder and Lindsay, America Unbound;
93. also see Clyde Prestowitz, Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions (New York, 2003);
94. Newhouse, Imperial America.
95. See, for example, Ernest R. May, "Lessons" of the Past: The Use and Misuse of History in American Foreign Policy (New York, 1973);
96. Richard E. Neustadt and Ernest R. May, Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision-Makers (New York, 1986);
97. Yuen Foong Khong, Analogies at War: Korea, Munich, Dien Bien Phu, and the Vietnam Decisions of 1965 (Princeton, NJ, 1992).
98. Feith, "Strategy and the Idea of Freedom," 2.
99. Bush, "A Distinctly American Internationalism," 1.
100. Melvyn P. Leffler, A Preponderance of Power, 141-81;
101. John Lewis Gaddis, Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of Postwar American National Security Policy (New York, 1982), 25-88;
102. David Mayers, George Kennan and the Dilemmas of US Foreign Policy (New York, 1988), 105-88;
103. Wilson D. Miscamble, George F. Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy, 1947-1950 (Princeton, NJ, 1992).
104. Leffler, Preponderance of Power, 312-97;
105. Gaddis, Strategies of Containment, 89-126.
106. For the nuanced view of Eisenhower and Dulles, see Richard H. Immerman and Robert R. Bowie, Waging Peace: How Eisenhower Shaped an Enduring Cold War Strategy (New York, 1998);
107. David L. Snead, The Gaither Committee, Eisenhower, and the Cold War (Columbus, OH, 1999);
108. H. W. Brands, The Specter of Neutralism: The United States and the Emergence of the Third World, 1947-1960 (New York, 1989);
109. but also see H. W. Brands, The Devil We Knew: Americans and the Cold War (New York, 1993), 31-85;
110. Robert J. McMahon, "Eisenhower and Third World Nationalism: A Critique of the Revisionists," Political Science Quarterly 101 (Fall 1986): 453-73;
111. Jeff Broadwater, Eisenhower and the Anti-Communist Crusade (Chapel Hill, NC, 1992);
112. Ira Chernus, General Eisenhower: Ideology and Discourse (East Lansing, MI, 2002).
113. There is a vast literature, but see Richard J. Barnet, Intervention and Revolution: America's Confrontation with Insurgent Movements around the World (New York, 1968);
114. Gordon H. Chang, Friends and Enemies: The United States, China, and the Soviet Union, 1948-1972 (Stanford, CA, 1990);
115. Robert J. McMahon, The Cold War on the Periphery: The United States, India, and Pakistan (New York, 1994);
116. Logevall, Choosing War;
117. David Kaiser, American Tragedy: Kennedy, Johnson, and the Origins of the Vietnam War (Cambridge, MA, 2000);
118. George Herring, America's Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950-1975, 3rd ed. (New York, 1996);
119. Gareth Porter, Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam (Berkeley, CA, 2005);
120. Douglas Little, American Orientalism: The United States and the Middle East since 1945 (Chapel Hill, NC, 2002);
121. Walter LaFeber, Inevitable Revolutions: The United States in Central America (New York, 1984).
122. See, for example, Matthew Evangelista, Unarmed Forces: The Transnational Movement to End the Cold War (Ithaca, NY, 1999);
123. Robert D. English, Russia and the Idea of the West: Gorbachev, Intellectuals, and the End of the Cold War (New York, 2000);
124. Jacques Levesque, The Enigma of 1989: The USSR and the Liberation of Eastern Europe (Berkeley, CA, 1997);
125. Walter D. Connor, "Soviet Society, Public Attitudes, and the Perils of Gorbachev's Reforms," Journal of Cold War Studies 5 (Fall 2003): 43-80;
126. Timothy W. Ryback, Rock around the Bloc: A History of Rock Music in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union (New York, 1990).
127. The Pew Global Project Attitudes, "A Year after Iraq War: Mistrust of America in Europe Ever Higher, Muslim Anger Persists," March 16, 2004, available at http://www.people-press.org.