4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Texan with a sense of humor, December 20, 2005
This review is from: Lyndon Johnson and Europe: In the Shadow of Vietnam (Hardcover)
Complaining bitterly to Dean Acheson about the public affection that had surrounded John Kennedy and the coolness toward him, Lyndon B. Johnson wondered aloud why people didn't like him. "Mr. President," Acheson replied, "you're not a very likeable man."
Contrary to Acheson's opinion, shared by most contemporaries and by many subsequent historians, Johnson emerges from this thoroughly researched and well-crafted study, not only as a shrewd politician, an able negotiator and a skillful foreign-policy leader, but also as an almost likeable person.
Schwartz finds that LBJ, after he settled into office, became "an astute and able practitioner of alliance politics," one who developed a keen understanding of the perspectives and preoccupations of European leaders and who dominated the foreign policy process. His policy toward Europe, the author writes, was "one of the most important achievements of his presidency." Schwartz unravels a series of complex negotiations-over arms control, the future of NATO, a Multilateral Force, and international economic issues-, and asserts that LBJ, determined to combat nationalism and unilateralism, effectively pursued his vision of a further integration of Europe and a relaxation of cold war tensions.
What makes Johnson an engaging character are the many quips and axioms of popular wisdom that he brought to a foreign policy realm traditionally dominated by soft-spoken diplomats and cosmopolitan personalities. When his advisors reminded him that America was committed to the creation of a Multilateral Force and had to find a compromise even though the Europeans didn't really want it, Johnson proposed to drop the idea altogether by remarking: "While you're trying to save face, you'll lose your ass." This Texan brought up in a German-American community developed a good friendship with Chancellor Eckard but advocated the following course of action toward his ally: "There's only one way to deal with the Germans. You keep patting them on the head and then every once in a while you kick them in the balls".
He resisted the advice to react strongly to the public attacks by de Gaulle by remarking that he didn't want to get into a "pissing match with the French" and, commenting on de Gaulle's decision to exit NATO's integrated defense system and have American troops evacuate France, noted soberly: "When a man asks you to leave his house, you don't argue; you get your hat and go." He also brought fresh ideas to international economic policy debates, bringing the Kennedy Round to completion and salvaging the Bretton Woods system, although he rarely talked publicly about those issues - he once told John Kenneth Galbraith that "making a speech on economics is a lot like pissing down your leg: it seems hot to you, but it never does to anyone else."
Indeed, Schwartz makes the case that LBJ's gut feelings and instinctive understanding of power politics often trumped the judgment of more experienced foreign policy experts and made him a natural leader of the Atlantic alliance. The book opens with a reference to Lyndon Johnson as "the Ugly American" and concludes with a quote from Charles de Gaulle, who once said that "Roosevelt and Kennedy were masks over the real face of America. Johnson is the very portrait of America. He reveals the country to us as it is, rough and raw." The quote wasn't intended as a compliment, but may be taken as one.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A reexamination of Johnson�s European foreign policy...., June 5, 2003
This review is from: Lyndon Johnson and Europe: In the Shadow of Vietnam (Hardcover)
A reexamination of Johnsons European foreign policy, that puts him successfully at the helm
In contrast to the traditional view, Prof. Schwartz presents a convincing and extremely well written case that President Johnson successfully guided American foreign policy towards Europe. The book tells a story of a talented power politician whose astute understanding of his allies and foes domestic political environments, enabled him to hold NATO and the Atlantic Alliance together, while maintaining a viable global economic system and effectively moving towards détente with the Soviet Union.
The book weaves together the complexities of Johnsons personality and the dynamics of his inherited administration into a compelling and clear historical narrative shedding new light on the usual uninspiring vision of the president.
The book attempts to break away from the Vietnam bias of historical accounts of Johnsons foreign policy. However even for someone interested in Vietnam, this book provides many missing pieces of the puzzle and clarity of insight into the functioning of the Johnson Administrations foreign policy that are invaluable in understanding the era.
Well worth the read!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Lyndon Johnson and Europe": An Important Reappraisal, July 13, 2003
This review is from: Lyndon Johnson and Europe: In the Shadow of Vietnam (Hardcover)
"Lyndon Johnson and Europe" provides a fresh reassessment of Johnson's foreign policy. Thoroughly researched and clearly written, "Lyndon Johnson and Europe" uses solid historical analysis to tear down the notional, knee-jerk response that Johnson's presidency put the U.S. in a foreign policy funk. Schwartz also avoids overstating his point. Johnson was not perfect, but, like every President, he worked within the international context in which he found himself. In Johnson's case, Schwartz provides enough evidence to show that given the circumstances, Johnson actually enjoyed a good measure of success. On one level, Schwartz's work is an academic revisionist history of Johnson's foreign policy with Europe, attractive in and of itself. But more broadly it reads as a diplomatic/political history of America, its friends, and its foes, during the turbulent 1960s. Easily forgotten cross-Atlantic spats (the Multilateral Force, France's break with NATO, the Kennedy Round, Prague Spring, et al.) all spring back to the relevancy that they held during Johnson's presidency through Schwartz's skilled hand. Schwartz's ability to capture the big picture while proving his point make this book not only an important reappraisal of Johnson's foreign policy, but also of great use to every student of American history, politics, and diplomacy.
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