Commander in Chief: How Truman, Johnson, and Bush Turned a Presidential Power into a Threat to America's Future

by Geoffrey Perrett

This is a story of ever-expanding presidential powers in an age of unwinnable wars. Harry Truman and Korea, Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam, George W. Bush and three presidents, three ever broader interpretations of the commander in chief clause of the Constitution, three unwinnable wars, and three presidential secrets. Award-winning presidential biographer and military historian Geoffrey Perret places these men and events in the larger context of the post-World War II world to establish their collective a presidency so powerful it undermines the checks and balances built into the Constitution, thereby creating a permanent threat to the Constitution itself.

In choosing to fight in Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq, Truman, Johnson, and Bush alike took counsel of their fears, ignored the advice of the professional military and major allies, and were influenced by facts kept from public view. Convinced that an ever-more powerful commander in chief was the key to victory, they misread the moment. Since World War II wars have become tests of stamina rather than strength, and more likely than not they sow the seeds of future wars. Yet recent American presidents have chosen to place their country in the forefront of fighting them. In the course of doing so, however, they gave away the secret of American power—for all its might, the United States can be defeated by chaos and anarchy.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, American History

448 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Geoffrey Perrett is an author who writes about American history. His work focuses primarily upon the political dynamics that influence strategic and tactical military decisions, as well as broader political themes. He has published over thirteen books dealing with a variety of topics, among them the U.S. Presidency - including several biographies of iconic Presidents such as John F. Kennedy and Ulysses S. Grant - leading American military commanders such as Douglas MacArthur, and pivotal American military engagements.

Perrett was born in the UK and went on to serve in the U.S. Army for 3 years. Later he studied at Long Beach City College and then obtained his undergraduate degree summa cum laude from the University of Southern California in 1967. He was also elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He obtained his postgraduate degree from Harvard University in 1969 and then studied law at the University of California at Berkeley.

Reviews

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

"The results of the Third Front are to be seen now in every town and city across the broad republic. Take a typical Saturday for the Jones family of Anytown, U.S.A. They set off early for their nearest IKEA, in a city eighty miles away. When they finally reach the store, they buy Bleppo lamps for their teenage daughter's bedroom, a Sorprid computer table for Mr. Jones's home office, a Kragskadik bunk bed for their twin sons aged nine, and a set of fashionable glass plates that look as if they are melting. Mrs. Jones can hardly wait to use them, anticipating praise from the design-conscious friends she is thinking of having for dinner. Everything that she and Mr. Jones have bought has a small sticker on it that reads MADE IN CHINA.

They stop at Sears on the way home to buy some "Made in China" underwear for the twins and a weed whacker for Mr. Jones. It too was made in China. And when they finally get home, Mr. Jones has his first chance of the day to read the newspaper. 'Gee, Marge,' he says, looking up, 'it says here the Chinese are going to start making automobiles for export to the U.S. Do you think we should get our names down for one? You just know there's going to be a feeding frenzy from the get-go.' Vietnam was only one triumph of Mao's Third Front. The other is the conquest of American homes, businesses, and T-bills."

This is not Perret's best work. It is certainly not up to the level of his MacArthur biography. The first three-quarters is mainly a rehash of his earlier, biographical material. The last quarter -- dealing with George W. Bush and Iraq -- while true, is often near hysteria. It is more emotional than scholarly. There really is no overarching theme, as the title suggests.

[Rage · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was written by a guy who has Fox News as a credit, so make of that what you will. It isn't right-wing, to be fair to him, but it isn't...much of anything either, beyond what seems like picking 3/44 (grover cleveland, people) and thinking 'ah yes let me dump everything I can find out about them'. As has already been picked out in the reviews there's not much of a theme, and even between the three Chosen Ones he still talks about the bearing that other presidents had on...whatever. American foreign policy, maybe? A lot of his writing seems too subjective to be fact, as well, and I had a hard time taking things at face value (as you might not be able to do in, say, a newspaper article, but ought to be able to do in a footnoted book, although of course as my history professors have drummed into me you should always check the notes). I'm sure there are far better books on these subjects out there.

[Kim Zinkowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unrated at completion. So what I learned by reading this book was that men who don't have the qualifications to become President do, in fact become President. Take the current example as an invitation to revise his volume in the Trump era...maybe he must wait until Trump engages the country in another unwinnable war...like Truman: Korea; Johnson: Vietnam; Bush: Iraq. Hopefully Trump will be impeached before he destroys the world.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author comes across as a professional critic whose cynical, negative rants against every person who has occupied a position of power and responsibility in American history since WW II will render the reader exhausted and numb. His condescending, omniscient manner is like that of a sports fan doing the Monday morning quarterbacking. He even denigrates the senior Bush by stating about his WW II service as a torpedo bomber pilot that "it was what happened to fliers who were not good enough to handle fighters, but steady and competent enough to fly a less-demanding warplane." It's this combination of damning with faint praise and strident character assasination that begin to gnaw at you. He attacks Dubya, Truman, and Johnson for their emotional leadership but he is guilty of the same crime in emotional rants against POTUS. It comes across as a condescending Ivy League rant on the less educated and racist leaders of our past.

His statements about the prosecution of the Falluja campaign don't tell the full story either-that the Marines did not want to attack the city because it would be seen as vengeance. He takes General Mattis' remarks about the fun of killing out of context too. If you read this book I don't think you will find anybody has done anything right in this country. Not much discussion of war powers and the Constitution but a diplomatic history of the US from WW II to present. Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading a good portion of this book. I agree with lots of what he said but his tone and depressing conclusion were a major bummer.

[The American Conservative]

'I suspect that the title of Geoffrey Perret’s excellent new book was the work of his publisher. The reader will not find here an evaluation of the Constitution’s commander-in-chief clause, followed by example after relentless example of its expansion or distortion, or even a conclusion that wraps up the story and ties the experiences of these three presidents together.

Yet this book is none the worse for all that. This is a chronicle of half a century of presidential supremacy, told primarily through the presidencies of Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, and George W. Bush, that reads more like a novel than a dissertation. And although Perret obviously considers Bush the worst of the lot, the history this book imparts suggests that we’ve been through it all before—the recklessness, the stupidity, the bull-in-a-china-shop foreign policy.'

Read the full review, "The Pleasure of the President," on our website:
http://www.theamericanconservative.co...