Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965
Mark Moyar - 2006
Through the analysis of international perceptions and power, it shows that South Vietnam was a vital interest of the United States. The book provides many new insights into the overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963 and demonstrates that the coup negated the South Vietnamese government's tremendous, and hitherto unappreciated, military and political gains between 1954 and 1963. After Diem's assassination, President Lyndon Johnson had at his disposal several aggressive policy options that could have enabled South Vietnam to continue the war without a massive US troop infusion, but he ruled out these options because of faulty assumptions and inadequate intelligence, making such an infusion the only means of saving the country.
WHITE HOUSE USHER: Stories from the Inside
Christopher Beauregard Emery - 2017
government—an usher in the White House. For more than 200 years, a small office has operated on the State Floor of the White House Executive Residence. Known as the Usher's Office, whose mission is to accommodate the personal needs of the first family, and to make the White House feel like a home. The Usher's Office is the managing office of the Executive Residence and its staff of 90-plus. The staff consists of butlers, carpenters, grounds personnel, electricians, painters, plumbers, florists, maids, housemen, cooks, chefs, storekeepers, curators, calligraphers, doormen, and administrative support. Ushers work closely with the first family, senior staff, Social Office, Press Office, Secret Service Agency, and military leaders to carry out White House functions: luncheons, dinners, teas, receptions, meetings, conferences, and more. Chris Emery was only the 18th White House Usher since 1891, and had the honor and privilege to serve presidential families for three years during the Reagan administration, four years for President H. W. Bush, and 14 months under President Clinton. His vignettes recreate intimate White House happenings from an insider’s viewpoint. Chris Emery was the only White House Usher to be terminated in the 20th century. Turn the pages to find out which first lady fired him... “With his book, White House Usher: Stories from the Inside, former usher Chris Emery gives his readers a peek inside what happens upstairs at the White House. Chris’ anecdotes tell a rich story of how America’s house really is the First Families’ home. I loved my trip down memory lane.” - Former First Lady Barbara Bush (October 2017)
A World Transformed
George H.W. Bush - 1998
. . . An excellent book." -Eugene V. Rostow, The Wall Street JournalIt was a pivotal administration in the history of American foreign policy--for during George Bush's presidency a series of international events took place that had a profound impact on the course of America and on the future of world diplomacy. In A World Transformed, Mr. Bush and his national security advisor, Brent Scowcroft, provide a fascinating account of a president and an administration faced with unprecedented obstacles and unrivaled opportunities as they forged a foreign policy at the end of the Cold War. Solidarity comes to power in Poland. East and West Germans dance on the wall that separated them for half a century. And on Christmas Day, 1991, the hammer-and-sickle flag descends from the Kremlin for the last time. It is also a candid analysis of a new chapter in foreign affairs, when the United States led an international alliance to confront the threat presented by Saddam Hussein and presented a dynamic response to the Tiananmen crisis. Balanced and intelligent, A World Transformed offers a landmark treatise on American foreign policy and international diplomacy from two of its principal architects."Reveals not only a wealth of detail about the main lines of foreign policy at the highest level during a most portentous period of our history, but also of the truly admirable characters of the men who made it." -The Philadelphia Inquirer"In a strong new book, the ex-president recalls dangerous days. . . . It should leave little doubt how lucky we were that we had such a seasoned hand on the tiller at a time when foreign policy really counted." -Michael R. Beschloss, Newsweek
Barack and Joe: The Making of an Extraordinary Partnership
Steven Levingston - 2019
The two men, their characters and styles sharply contrasting, formed a dynamic working relationship that evolved into a profound friendship. Based on original interviews, media reports, memoirs and other accounts, Barack and Joe is the first book to tell the full story of their historic relationship and its substantial impact on the Obama presidency and its legacy.Their affinity was not predestined. Barack and Joe began wary of each other, as senators each eyeing a run at the presidency; gradually they came to respect their competitor's values and strengths, growing so fond of each other they were often caught on camera hugging, joking and even crying together. Never had such a relationship been witnessed within the walls of the White House. Side-by-side through two tension-filled terms, they shared the day-to-day joys and travails of leading the most powerful nation on earth. Joe took on an unprecedented role as chief adviser to Obama, reshaping the vice presidency. Together, they took Americans through a dire economic crisis, passage of health care reform, changing perceptions of gay marriage, a national reckoning with mass shootings and police killings of unarmed black men, a shift in America's policy in Iraq, and the elimination of Osama bin Laden. As friends, Barack and Joe weathered the strains on their relationship--magnified by intense media scrutiny--and experienced joy and sadness together: Barack provided comfort to Joe through the loss of his son Beau. As high-level exemplars, the president and the vice president modeled the virtues of male friendship for men everywhere. In the Trump era, many Americans are nostalgic for the Obama presidency, the absence of scandal, the dedication to truth, the respect for the media. What Americans also remember fondly is the warmth and decency of Barack and Joe's friendship.
The Jefferson Rule: How the Founding Fathers Became Infallible and Our Politics Inflexible
David Sehat - 2015
They have used an outdated context to make sense of contemporary concerns. This oversimplification obscures our real issues. From Jefferson to this very day we have looked to the eighteenth century to solve our problems, even though the Fathers themselves were a querulous and divided group who rarely agreed. Coming to terms with the past, Sehat suggests, would be the start of a productive debate. And in this account, which is by turns informative, colorful, and witty, he shows us why.
Grandmere: A Personal History of Eleanor Roosevelt
David B. Roosevelt - 2002
Roosevelt enjoyed a close relationship with his grandmother Eleanor Roosevelt. Now David shares personal family stories and photographs that show Eleanor as she really was.
Joe Biden: A Life of Trial and Redemption
Jules Witcover - 2010
history. Over the course of four decades, he carved a legacy for himself as one of the most respected legislators in the country, and was a close friend and partner to President Barack Obama, who valued his vice president’s vast experience in domestic and foreign affairs.Yet Biden's political success has been matched by personal tragedy and countless challenges. Within two months of being elected in 1972, Biden lost his wife, Neilia, and his young daughter in a tragic accident—a loss that brought him to the nadir of despair and shook his resolve to stay in politics. He suffered two brain aneurysms and career-threatening gaffes and miscues. In 2015, he lost his eldest son, Beau, to brain cancer. Biden then faced the biggest challenge of his political career as the Democratic nominee for the 2020 elections and won both the electoral college and popular vote. He is now poised to enter the White House once more—this time as President—at a time of great global uncertainty. Based on exhaustive research by one of Washington's most prolific journalists, including numerous exclusive interviews with Biden's confidants and family members, as well as President Obama and the President-elect himself, Joe Biden goes beyond conventional biography to track the forces that have shaped the man who will be the next President of the United States.
Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents
Cormac O'Brien - 2003
Presidents features outrageous and uncensored profiles of the men in the White House - complete with hundreds of little-known, politically incorrect, and downright wacko facts.
The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 1: 1832-1843
Abraham Lincoln - 2004
He successfully led the country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserved the Union, and ended slavery. He issued his Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, and promoted the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, abolishing slavery.This Special Congressional Collectors Edition contains Volume One of the Selected Papers and Writings of Mr. Lincoln, carefully selected from the Lincoln Archives by historian Rutger M. Lamont, a recognized expert in Civil War history and a respected Lincoln scholar. It includes The Gettysburg Address and the Emancipation Proclamation, two of the most significant historical documents by Lincoln, and a cornerstone of our nation's independence. It also contains an Introduction by Theodore Roosevelt, with 'The Essay on Lincoln' by Carl Schurz and 'The Address on Lincoln' by Joseph Choate. This book provides the reader with a rare glimpse into the intellect, humor and wit that made Abraham Lincoln one of the most important political figures not only in American History, but a man for and of the world at large and an icon for the ages."This book is quintessential Lincoln, capturing the essence of one of our greatest historical leaders" - The Congressional Record "This is the definative collection of Lincoln's writings. Rutger M. Lamont's Special Collectors Edition should stand the test of time and is a monumental achievement." - Washington Post "Easy to read and highly thought provoking." - U.S. News and World Report
Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus
Rick Perlstein - 2001
At the heart of the story is Barry Goldwater, the renegade Republican from Arizona who loathed federal government, despised liberals, and mocked “peaceful coexistence” with the USSR. Perlstein's narrative shines a light on a whole world of conservatives and their antagonists, including William F. Buckley, Nelson Rockefeller, and Bill Moyers. Vividly written, Before the Storm is an essential book about the 1960s.
Dear Mr. President: Letters to the Oval Office from the Files of the National Archives
Dwight Young - 2005
'05"There are more than 80 letters, reflecting both our history and our very American sense that when we speak, our president should listen." --The Arizona Republic, Dec. '05Drawn from the extensive holdings of the National Archives--which includes all of the Presidential libraries--these carefully chosen letters remind us that ours is a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people," which entitles us to make our views known to our leaders. Most of the letters come from working citizens; others were written by notable figures: John Glenn, Elvis Presley, Walt Disney, Ho Chi Minh, Nikita Kruschev, Upton Sinclair, John Steinbeck, Robert Kennedy, and many more.Grouped thematically, the sections cover such topics as civil rights, the Cold War, physical fitness, joblessness, World War II, western expansion, and the space race. An introduction by NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams and essays by Dwight Young evoke the tenor of the times in which the letters were written. A wonderful gift book for any American, Dear Mr. President is both enlightening and fun to read.
Candace Owens: An Unauthorized Biography of the Conservative Thinker and Founder of Blexit
Richard West - 2020
Owens launched the Blexit movement to encourage black voters to leave the Democrat plantation.Today, the mainstream media calls her a white nationalist, even though she is the black granddaughter of a Southern sharecropper. Some conservatives, on the other hand, believe she will one day be President.In this biography, Richard West provides Candace Owens’ life story, showing how she evolved from a victim-mentality liberal to a victor-mentality conservative. She went from being “a girl who started with nothing” to a true American success.
Flying High: Remembering Barry Goldwater
William F. Buckley Jr. - 2008
Buckley Jr. and Barry Goldwater. Buckley's National Review was at the center of conservative political analysis from the mid-fifties onward. But the policy intellectuals knew that to actually change the way the country was run, they needed a presidential candidate, and the man they turned to was Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater. Goldwater was in many ways the perfect choice: self-reliant, unpretentious, unshakably honest and dashingly handsome, with a devoted following that grew throughout the fifties and early sixties. He possessed deep integrity and a sense of decency that made him a natural spokesman for conservative ideals. But his flaws were a product of his virtues. He wouldn't bend his opinions to make himself more popular, he insisted on using his own inexperienced advisors to run his presidential campaign, and in the end he electrified a large portion of the electorate but lost the great majority. Flying High is Buckley's partly fictional tribute to the man who was in many ways his alter ego in the conservative movement. It is the story of two men who looked as if they were on the losing side of political events, but were kept aloft by the conviction that in fact they were making history.
Churchill
Ashley Jackson - 2011
He was, according to Evelyn Waugh, 'always in the wrong, surrounded by crooks, a terrible father, a radio personality'. To others, he was the saviour of the nation, even of Western civilization, 'the greatest Briton' who ever lived. Whatever one's view, Winston Churchill remains splendidly unreduced. He also remains enormous fun--a cartoonist's and caricaturist's dream on the one hand, one of the most powerful and successful statesmen in modern history on the other. Globally famed for his role as a leader during the Second World War, this study resists the temptation to conflate Churchill's post-war career with Britain's demise on the international stage. Nor does it endorse the notion that Churchill became an anachronism as he lived and continued to work, at a prodigious rate, through his seventies and eighties. As well as being Britain's most celebrated politician and war leader, Winston Churchill was a Nobel Prize-winning author. He was one of the most prolific writers of his age and his accounts of the momentous events through which he lived have indelibly marked the way in which modern British history has been conceptualized. Uniquely endowed with talent, energy and determination, Winston Churchill was, as a close wartime colleague put it, 'unlike anyone you have ever met before'. Ashley Jackson describes the contours and contradictions of Churchill's remarkable life and career as a soldier, politician, historian, journalist, painter, amateur farmer and homemaker. From thrusting subaltern to high-flying politician, Cabinet outcast to elder statesman, this is the eternally fascinating story of Winston Churchill's appointment with destiny"--Publisher's description, p. [2] of dust jacket.
The Red Thread: A Search for Ideological Drivers Inside the Anti-Trump Conspiracy
Diana West - 2019
officials were turning the surveillance powers of the federal government -- designed to stop terrorist attacks -- against the Republican presidential team. These were the ruthless tactics of a Soviet-style police state, not a democratic republic.The Red Thread asks the simple question: Why? What is it that motivated these anti-Trump conspirators from inside and around the Obama administration and Clinton networks to depart so drastically from "politics as usual" to participate in a seditious effort to overturn an election?Finding clues in an array of sources, Diana West uses her trademark investigative skills, honed in her dazzling work, American Betrayal, to construct a fascinating series of ideological profiles of well-known but little understood anti-Trump actors, from James Comey to Christopher Steele to Nellie Ohr, and the rest of the Fusion GPS team; from John Brennan to the numerous Clintonistas still patrolling the Washington Swamp after all these years, and more.Once, we knew these officials by august titles and reputation; after The Red Thread, readers will recognize their multi-generational and inter-connecting communist and socialist pedigrees, and see them for what they really are: foot-soldiers of the Left, deployed to take down America's first "America First" and most anti-Communist president.If we just give it a pull, the "red thread" is very long and very deep.