Waging Peace: How Eisenhower Shaped an Enduring Cold War Strategy

by Robert R. Bowie, Richard H. Immerman

Waging Peace offers the first fully comprehensive study of Eisenhower's "New Look" program of national security, which provided the groundwork for the next three decades of America's Cold War strategy. Though the Cold War itself and the idea of containment originated under Truman, it was left to Eisenhower to develop the first coherent and sustainable strategy for addressing the issues unique to the nuclear age. To this end, he designated a decision-making system centered around the National Security Council to take full advantage of the expertise and data from various departments and agencies and of the judgment of his principal advisors. The result was the formation of a "long haul" strategy of preventing war and Soviet expansion and of mitigating Soviet hostility. Only now, in the aftermath of the Cold War, can Eisenhower's achievement be fully appreciated.

This book will be of much interest to scholars and students of the Eisenhower era, diplomatic history, the Cold War, and contemporary foreign policy.

Genres: History

426 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1997

Reviews

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bowie and Immerman have given us the best study of Eisenhower's security policy and the processes by which it was produced. Both carry important lessons for our times and are supported by a wealth of detail and analysis. It changed my understanding of the Eisenhower administration.

Robert Jervis, Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University