Books in the An Administrative History of the Johnson Presidency series

An examination of regulatory policy and its development in the Johnson administration.

This book explores the process of making judicial appointments, examining how judges were selected during Lyndon Baines Johnson's administration and the president's own participation in the process.

Drawn from a wealth of primary material in the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, the study probes the objectives of President Johnson and other framers of new policies and programs, within the institutional and political context of the 1960s.

This book addresses the relationship between scientists, few of whom have political backgrounds, and presidents, few of whom are knowledgeable in matters of science and technology.

This exploration of Lyndon B. Johnson's highly personalized White House operations provides far-reaching implications for the nature of effective presidential management.

';[A] compelling analysis... A solid addition to our understanding of the Vietnam War and a president.' Publishers Weekly The Vietnam War remains a divisive memory for Americanspartisans on all sides still debate why it was fought, how it could have been better fought, and whether it could have been won at all. In this major study, a noted expert on the war brings a needed objectivity to these debates by examining dispassionately how and why President Lyndon Johnson and his administration conducted the war as they did. Drawing on a wealth of newly released documents from the LBJ Library, including the Tom Johnson notes from the influential Tuesday Lunch Group, George Herring discusses the concept of limited war and how it affected President Johnson's decision making, Johnson's relations with his military commanders, the administration's pacification program of 19651967, the management of public opinion, and the ';fighting while negotiating' strategy pursued after the Tet Offensive in 1968. This in-depth analysis, from a prize-winning historian and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, exposes numerous flaws in Johnson's approach, in a ';concise, well-researched account' that ';critiques Johnsons management of the Vietnam War in terms of military strategy, diplomacy, and domestic public opinion' (Library Journal).

In this insightful study, Paul Y. Hammond, an experienced analyst of bureaucratic politics, adapts and extends that approach to explain and evaluate the Johnson administration's performance in foreign relations in terms that have implications for the post-Cold War era. The book is structured around three case studies of Johnson's foreign policy decision making. The first study examines economic and political development. It explores the way Johnson handled the provision of economic and food assistance to India during a crisis in India's food policies. This analysis provides lessons not only for dealing with African famine in later years but also for assisting Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The second case study focuses on U.S. relations with Western Europe at a time that seemed to require a major change in the NATO alliance. Here, Hammond illuminates the process of policy innovation, particularly the costs of changing well-established policies that embody an elaborate network of established interests. The third case study treats the Vietnam War, with special emphasis on how Johnson decided what to do about Vietnam. Hammond critiques the rich scholarship available on Johnson's advisory process, based on his own reading of the original sources. These case studies are set in a larger context of applied theory that deals more generally with presidential management of foreign relations, examining a president's potential for influence on the one hand and the constraints on his or her capacity to control and persuade on the other. It will be important reading for all scholars and policymakers interested in the limits and possibilities of presidential power in the post-Cold War era.