• Saddam Hussein
• George W. Bush
• 9/11
• Iraq
• Coercive diplomacy
• A special relationship
• Deciding
• Resolve
• Mission awry
• Conclusion: Fear, power, hubris

"Based on a unique set of interviews and British and American documents, this book examines the motives for the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, examines the decision-making inside the Bush administration, and assesses the reasons for the chaotic, bloody, and costly occupation. The attack on America on 9/11 by al Qaeda terrorists transformed the thinking and actions of Bush and his top advisers. Bush conceived the administration's response. Fear, power, and hubris shaped his approach - fear of another attack; pride in American values; and confidence in America's ability to effectuate change. Worried about another attack on American soil - this time with biological or chemical weapons - Bush turned his attention to Iraq because of Saddam Hussein's history with weapons of mass destruction and because of his record of aggression, brutality, and duplicity. To achieve his goals, the American president embraced a strategy of coercive diplomacy. If Iraq faced a military threat, Bush hoped Hussein would open his country to inspections, relinquish his alleged weapons of mass destruction, flee, or be toppled. When Hussein admitted inspectors yet remained obstructive, Bush denounced the dictator's defiance and believed America's credibility was at stake. Without resolving the ambiguities and inconsistencies in his strategy of coercive diplomacy and failing to assess the consequences of an invasion or to plan effectively for its many contingencies, Bush ordered U.S. troops to invade Iraq. Friction and acrimony within the administration turned the occupation into a tragedy, the consequences of which we are still living with"-- Provided by publisher

• Series Editor s Preface viii
• Acknowledgments x
• List of Illustrations xi
• Introduction: Topic and Themes 1
• 1 Expanding the Continental Republic, 1811 1897 10
• 2 The Cuban Crucible: Experiments in Overseas Empire, 1898 1922 34
• 3 Monopolizing the Central American Isthmus, 1903 1926 55
• 4 Wilsonian Interventions, 1913 1919 72
• 5 Accommodation and Resistance, 1917 1930 95
• 6 From Occupier to Good Neighbor, 1921 1936 115
• 7 Warding Off Global Ideologies, 1935 1954 133
• 8 Containing Revolution, 1959 1990 148
• 9 Identifying Post ]Cold War Political Threats, 1986 2016 172
• Conclusion: Multitudes of Interventions 194
• Bibliography 202
• Index 209.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

A Short History of U.S. Interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean presents a concise account of the full sweep of U.S. military invasions and interventions in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean from 1800 up to the present day. Engages in debates about the economic, military, political, and cultural motives that shaped U.S. interventions in Cuba, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Guatemala, Mexico, and elsewhere Deals with incidents that range from the taking of Florida to the Mexican War, the War of 1898, the Veracruz incident of 1914, the Bay of Pigs, and the 1989 invasion of Panama Features also the responses of Latin American countries to U.S. involvement Features unique coverage of 19th century interventions as well as 20th century incidents, and includes a series of helpful maps and illustrations.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction / Beth Bailey and Richard H. Immerman
• Part I. The wars and their origins
• The wars' entangled roots: regional realities and Washington's vision / Michael A. Reynolds
• 9/11: Bush's response / Terry H. Anderson
• Part II. The possibilities and limits of American military and diplomatic strategy
• Intelligence and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan / Richard H. Immerman
• Assessing strategic choices in the War on Terror / Stephen Biddle and Peter D. Feaver
• Military strategy in Afghanistan and Iraq: learning and adapting under fire at home and in the field / Conrad C. Crane
• Human rights as a weapon of war / Jonathan Horowitz
• Part III. Waging and the wages of war
• The combatants' experiences / Lisa Mundey
• Fighting (against) the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan / David Farber
• Limited war in the age of total media / Sam Lebovic
• "Watching war made us immune": the popular culture of the wars / Andrew C. McKevitt
• Part IV. Lessons and legacies
• Veterans' readjustment after the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars / David Kieran
• The lessons and legacies of the War in Iraq / Robert K. Brigham
• The lessons and legacies of the War in Afghanistan / Aaron B. O'Connell.

Choice Outstanding Academic Title of 2016 Investigates the causes, conduct, and consequences of the recent American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan Understanding the United States' wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is essential to understanding the United States in the first decade of the new millennium and beyond. These wars were pivotal to American foreign policy and international relations. They were expensive: in lives, in treasure, and in reputation. They raised critical ethical and legal questions; they provoked debates over policy, strategy, and war-planning; they helped to shape American domestic politics. And they highlighted a profound division among the American people: While more than two million Americans served in Iraq and Afghanistan, many in multiple deployments, the vast majority of Americans and their families remained untouched by and frequently barely aware of the wars conducted in their name, far from American shores, in regions about which they know little. Understanding the U.S. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan gives us the first book-length expert historical analysis of these wars. It shows us how they began, what they teach us about the limits of the American military and diplomacy, and who fought them. It examines the lessons and legacies of wars whose outcomes may not be clear for decades. In 1945 few Americans could imagine that the country would be locked in a Cold War with the Soviet Union for decades; fewer could imagine how history would paint the era. Understanding the U.S. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan begins to come to grips with the period when America became enmeshed in a succession of "low intensity" conflicts in the Middle East.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Machine generated contents note:
• The Miraculous Journey: Joe Sorrelman in Vietnam
• The Grim Reaper Descends
• The Death Angel Returns
• Two Friends
• Last Man There
• The Long Trip Home: The Journey of Sgt. Clive Garcia, Jr.
• Life after Deaths: Dealing with the Absence of Loved Ones
• Remembering the Fallen: Community, Memory, and the Nine
• Epilogue
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index.

In 1966, nine young men left the Arizona desert mining camp of Morenci to serve their country in the far-flung jungles of Vietnam, in danger zones from Hue to Khe Sanh. Ultimately, only three survived. Each battled survivor's guilt, difficult re-entries into civilian life, and traumas from personally experiencing war--and losing close friends along the way. Such stories recurred throughout America, but the Morenci Marines stood out. ABC News and Time magazine recounted their moving tale during the war, and, in 2007, the Arizona Republic selected the "Morenci Nine" as the most important veterans' story in state history. Returning to the soldiers' Morenci roots, Kyle Longley's account presents their story as unique by setting and circumstance, yet typical of the sacrifices borne by small towns all across America. His narrative spotlights a generation of young people who joined the military during the tumultuous 1960s and informs a later generation of the hard choices made, many with long-term consequences. The story of the Morenci Marines also reflects that of their hometown: a company town dominated by the Phelps Dodge Mining Corporation, where the company controlled lives and the labour strife was legendary. The town's patriotic citizens saw Vietnam as a just cause, moving Clive Garcia's mother to say, "He died for this cause of freedom." Yet while their sons fought and sent home their paychecks, Phelps Dodge sought to destroy the union that kept families afloat, pushing the government to end a strike that it said undermined the war effort. Morenci was also a place where cultures intermingled, and the nine friends included three Mexican Americans and one Native American. Longley reveals how their backgrounds affected their decisions to join and also helped the survivors cope, with Mike Cranford racing his Harley on back roads at high speeds while Joe Sorrelman tried to deal with demons of war through Navajo rituals. Drawing on personal interviews and correspondence that sheds new light on the Morenci Nine, Longley has written a book as much about loss, grief, and guilt as about the battlefield. It makes compelling reading for anyone who lived in that era--and for anyone still seeing family members go off to fight in controversial wars.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Chapter 1: Getting In, 1945-1952 1. Ho Chi Minh: The Untried Gamble 2. The United States, Its Allies and the Bao Dai Experiment
• Chapter 2: Fighting Shy, 1953-1961 3. Dwight D. Eisenhower and Wholehearted Support of Ngo Dinh Diem 4. Geneva, 1954: The Precarious Peace 5. The CIA Comes to Vietnam
• Chapter 3: Digging In, 1961-1968 6. No "Non-Essential Areas": Kennedy and Vietnam 7. The Tonkin Gulf Resolution 8. Lyndon Johnson Chooses War 9. The Tet Offensive, 1968 10. A Dissenter in the Administration
• Chapter 4: Getting Out, 1968-1975 11. Nixon, Kissinger, and a Pax Americana 12. Bombing Hanoi, Mining Haiphong, and the Moscow Summit 13. Stabbed in the Back
• Chapter 5: Allies and Enemies 14. Ngo Dinh Diem, the Impossible Ally 15. Ngo Dinh Diem, Modernizer 16. The Foreign Policy of North Vietnam 17. The National Liberation Front and the Land
• Chapter 6: The Battlefield 18. Getting Hit 19. Feeling Cold 20. Nursing and Disillusionment 21. They Did Not Know Good From Evil 22. My Lai: The Killing Begins
• Chapter 7: International Dimensions of the War 23. The Soviet Union and American Escalation 24. China and American Escalation 25. The Vietnamese and Global Revolutions
• Chapter 8: Laos and Cambodia 26. The War in Laos 27. Bombing Cambodia: A Critique 28. Bombing Cambodia: A Defense
• Chapter 9: Interpreting the War 29. A Clash of Cultures 30. An Opportunity for Power 31. A Defense of Freedom 32. An Act of Imperialism 33. An Assertion of Manhood
• Chapter 10: The War in America 34. Working-Class War 35. Seeds of a Movement 36. Women at the Barricades, Then and Now
• Chapter 11: The Legacy of War 37. Saigon: The End and the Beginning 38. Homecoming USA 39. Amerasians: A People in Between
• Chapter 12: Afterword 40. Letting Go.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Of all of the wars in which the U.S. has been engaged, none has been as divisive as the conflict in Vietnam. The repercussions of this unsettling episode in American history still resonate in our society. Although it ended more than 30 years ago, the Vietnam War continues to fascinate and trouble Americans. The third edition of Light at the End of the Tunnel gives a full overview of the conflict. Starting with Ho Chi Minh's revolt against the French, editor Andrew J. Rotter takes the reader through the succeeding years as scholars, government officials, journalists, and others recount the important events in the conflict and examine issues that developed during this tumultuous time. This book is essential reading for anyone who has an interest in understanding the Vietnam War. The readings in it will enlighten students about this turning point in the history of the United States and the world. The third edition includes greater coverage of the Vietnamese experience of the war and reflects the growing interest in understanding the war as an international event, not just a bilateral or trilateral conflict.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xiii INTRODUCTION 1 PART I ORIGINS
• CHAPTER 1 The Coming of the Cold War to Korea 11
• CHAPTER 2 Syngman Rhee, the Truman Doctrine, and American Policy toward Korea, 1947-1948 39
• CHAPTER 3 Why the Korean War, Not the Korean Civil War? 61 PART II COURSE
• CHAPTER 4 The Road to Chinese Intervention, July-November 1950 87
• CHAPTER 5 Why the War Did Not Expand beyond Korea, November 1950-July 1951 118
• CHAPTER 6 Negotiating an Armistice, July 1951-July 1953: Why Did It Take So Long? 143 PART III BROADER ISSUES
• CHAPTER 7 The Korean War and the American Relationship with Korea 185
• CHAPTER 8 The Korean War as a Challenge to American Democracy 213 Abbreviations 241 Notes 245 Index 277.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Fought on what to Westerners was a remote peninsula in northeast Asia, the Korean War was a defining moment of the Cold War. It militarized a conflict that previously had been largely political and economic. It also solidified a series of divisions - of Korea into North and South, of Germany and Europe into East and West and of China into the mainland and Taiwan - which were to persist for at least two generations. Two of these divisions continue to the present, marking two of the most dangerous political hotspots in the post-Cold War world. The Korean War grew out of the Cold War, it exacerbated the Cold War and its impact transcended the Cold War. William Stueck presents an analysis of the Korean War's major diplomatic and strategic issues. Drawing on a cache of information from archives in the United States, China and the former Soviet Union, he provides an interpretive synthesis for scholars and general readers alike. Beginning with the decision to divide Korea in 1945, he analyses first the origins and then the course of the conflict. He takes into account the balance between the international and internal factors that led to the war and examines the difficulty in containing a.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)