Can anyone recommend any good books on American foreign policy?

February 5, 2014 | Ennis85

[Ennis85]

About a year ago, I posted a thread asking for recommendations for good republican memoirs.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2981964/posts

Since then I've complied quite a reading list. Going on the recommendations that were given to me(which I'm pretty grateful for), I got a few Richard Nixon books(No more Vietnams, The real war, Leaders) George Bush and Dick Cheney's books and others.

I'm still to get through the last two, but I've finished reading through No more Vietnams and currently getting through the other Nixon books. But No more Vietnams really quite impressed me by how well detailed and informative it was and this is the only book I've read about the the Vietnam war so far.

Having read it motivated me to look for other books about not just Vietnam but other aspects of American foreign policy. So I just wanted to ask people here for their recommendations again.

To specify what topics I'm looking for(but not necessarily limited to), American policy towards Central America in the 1980s, Panama war, the first and second gulf wars or the middle East in general.

[plainshame]

Yes!The Federalist Papers.

[leprechaun9]

MAD COMICS! Hillary and the RESET BUTTON!

[demshateGod]

Looming Tower.

[tomkat]

Give War a Chance: Eyewitness Accounts of Mankind's Struggle Against Tyranny, Injustice and Alcohol-Free Beer

 P.J. O'Rourke

[tbw2]

The Politically Incorrect Guide series. They have books on everything from Islam to the Constitution to the Vietnam War to the Middle East.
I think you’d like The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Middle East.

[DannyTN]

Why Free Trade Doesn't Work: What should replace it and why by Ian Fletcher

[gunsequalfreedom]

The Gathering Storm, Churchill

[Lorianne]

Anything by Robert D. Kaplan but especially his book Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power

The Pentagon’s New Map by Thomas P.M. Barnett

[woweeitsme]

The Looming Tower is a great book.

[hinckley buzzard]

The classic is Politics Among Nations by Hans Morgenthau. You will immediately recognize the blueprint GHW Bush followed in putting together the coalition for collective security in Desert Storm.

[Repeat Offender]

Compliments of John F'n I was in Vietnam Kerry.

Secretary of State

[OneWingedShark]

It's not a book, but: Doctor Strangelove.

;)

[Plummz]

re American policy towards Central America in the 1980s

this one was popular on FR back in the 1990s:

http://www.amazon.com/Compromised-Clinton-Bush-Terry-Reed/dp/1561712493

[ClayinVA]

Got to agree with you on Kaplan. Imperial Grunts was very good, I need to find my copy and reread it.

[JmyBryan]

Really enjoying “Power, Faith and Fantasy” by Michael Oren.

Excellent overview of US involvement in the Middle East.

[cunning_fish]

Kissinger’s Diplomacy is a good book. Author is not a perfect person and often biased but I think it is still the best.

[demshateGod]

I've read two books on foreign policy. That one and Blackhawk Down.

[Fee]

Rise and Fall of Great Powers; Clash of Civlization and the Remake of the New World Order; Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire; Grand Strategy of the Byzantine. All these books are not US foreign policy history, but its historical principles apply to what lead the US to today situation of over extension, bankruptcy and limitations of our military power despite having the largest DoD budget in the world and the most advanced military equipment/forces. Rise and Fall of Great Powers illustrate how past great powers rose and fell (history does not repeat exactly but it rhymes). US has followed this pattern and faces limits and possible decline. Second book destroys the neocon and liberal notion that everyone is like us. At some basic human level yes, but as societies conditioned by past experiences the answer is no. Jumping into wars assuming the individuals we are liberating is actually an American wanting to burst out has lead us into wrong decisions or worst disastrous nation building efforts that lead to naught. Or worst miscalculation of our adversaries as people we can placate with kindness and they will stop threatening us (ala Islam). The next two books on Rome and East Rome (Byzantine) actually is a good review on how empires full of hubris over extend, get into financial trouble and are forced to contract or fall. Rome failed to contract and it fell while its Eastern Rome (Byzantine) remained, badly weakened and surrounded by powerful enemies and was forced to adapt new strategies to survive 4 more centuries successfully. The Byzantine Empire may apply to the US today, financially constrained by debt and how it limits her ability to use military force and must adopt asymmetric counter measures to keep the threatening barbarians at bay.

[caveat emptor]

Maybe not what you're looking for, the second less so - more about the implementation of the policy of "Kill the Comanches"; it took quite a while, and almost didn't get past the first few encounters.

A Choice of Enemies: America confronts the Middle East. Covers late 70s to early 2008. I've read only a few chapters but it's interesting so far.

Empire of the Summer Moon: Quannah Parker and the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. Again, I've read only a couple of chapters and it is interesting and .... "thrilling" according to the cover blurb - I can't disagree so far.


The Comancheria, Lost Homeland of a Warrior Tribe