Books by David F. Schmitz

A comprehensive analysis of American foreign policy and Mussolini's Italy. Schmitz argues that the US desire for order, interest in Open Door trade, and concern about left-wing revolution led American policymakers to welcome Mussolini's coming to power and to support fascism in Italy for most of the interwar period.

In Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War, accomplished foreign relations historian David F. Shmitz provides students of US history and the Vietnam era with an up-to-date analysis of NixonΓÇÖs Vietnam policy in a brief and accessible book that addresses the main controversies of the Nixon years. President Richard NixonΓÇÖs first presidential term oversaw the definitive crucible of the Vietnam War. Nixon came into office seeking the kind of decisive victory that had eluded President Johnson, and went about expanding the war, overtly and covertly, in order to uphold a policy of ΓÇ£containment,ΓÇ¥ protect AmericaΓÇÖs credibility, and defy the leftΓÇÖs antiwar movement at home. Tactically, politically, NixonΓÇÖs moves made sense. However, by 1971 the president was forced to significantly de-escalate the American presence and seek a negotiated end to the war, which is now accepted as an American defeat, and a resounding failure of American foreign relations. Schmitz addresses the main controversies of NixonΓÇÖs Vietnam strategy, and in so doing manages to trace back the ways in which this most calculating and perceptive politician wound up resigning from office a fraud and failure. Finally, the book seeks to place the impact of NixonΓÇÖs policies and decisions in the larger context of post-World War II American society, and analyzes the full costs of the Vietnam War that the nation feels to this day.

The twentieth century witnessed the rise of the United States as the preeminent player on the world stage. Henry L Stimson was among those individuals responsible for the American ascension in the arena of foreign policy.

Building on Schmitz's earlier work, Thank God They're on our Side, this is an examination of American policy toward right-wing dictatorships from the 1960s to the end of the Cold War. During the 1920s American leaders developed a policy of supporting authoritarian regimes because they were seen as stable, anti-communist, and capitalist. After 1965, however, American support for these regimes became a contested issue. The Vietnam War served to undercut the logic and rationale of supporting right-wing dictators. By systematically examining US support for right-wing dictatorships in Africa, Latin America, Europe, and Asia, and bringing together these disparate episodes, this book examines the persistence of older attitudes, the new debates brought about by the Vietnam War, and the efforts to bring about changes and an end to automatic US support for authoritarian regimes.

Analyzes what is arguably the most important event in the history of the Vietnam conflict. The author situates this book in the context of American foreign policy and the state of the war up to 1968 while carefully considering the impact of the media on American public opinion.