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Leebaert investigates two generations of avoidable foreign policy failures, largely rising from 'magical thinking' that everyone wants to be like us, that we can accomplish anything out of righteousness with nigh-tech silver bullets (B-52s, helicopters, cruise missiles, etc.).
New presidents fill 8,000 senior jobs throughout federal departments and agencies. These individuals typically bring a sense of urgency and belief that any action is superior to restraint, faith that American-style business management can fix any global problem - given enough resources, and expectations of wondrous returns on investment (eg. Iraq would become a bulwark against Iran and a beacon of democracy in the Mid-East).
Mistake-wise we've gone from hopefully training Nicaraguan dictator Somoza's officer corps, 'saving' Asia from 'falling dominoes' of Communism, replacing Iran's elected leadership with the Shah for the sin of nationalizing their oil resources, building democracy in Iraq (maybe) while eliminating WMD (Not - instead spurred Iran), prodding China into joining the Korean War, and creating blowback by aiding the Afghans via Russia, and ignoring the PLO. Even careerists have bumbled. George Kennan suggested we ignore Latin America, allow Japan to reconstitute a South-East Asian empire, opposed creating NATO, and planned parachute missions into Russia), while George Marshall and Douglas MacArthur supported liberating North Korea, Eisenhower favored CIA-fostered rebellion in Hungary that was doomed, and more CIA intervention in Tibet vs. China. George H.W. Bush ended Gulf War I by luring thousands of Iraqi Shiites to their deaths in a future rebellion against Hussein.
Ideology dominates understanding when high-numbers of temporary leaders parachute in.Read more ›
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Derek Leebaert is a Georgetown University professor and he has written a stinging critique of the US foreign policy establishment. The book is an entertaining read and his conclusion is fairly devastating: "the American foreign policy establishment is not up to the task of world leadership as posed by the country's far-flung political and military involvements."
Leebaert focuses on the evolution of US foreign policy since the Korean War. He criticizes decision makers for their superficial analysis of problems and inability to look for alternatives. Often doing nothing might have been the best option. However the US has plenty of what Leebaert calls "emergency men." These are "the clever, energetic, self-assured, well-schooled people who take advantage of the opportunities intrinsic to the American political system to trifle with enormous risk." Emergency men are eager to "do something" and they tend to carry the day in Washington. Those that urge caution are often dismissed as too negative or defeatist, and are usually beaten into submission.
Emergency men include McGeorge Bundy, John F. Kennedy, Henry Kissinger, and Paul Wolfowitz. These men often plunge into situations without adequate research or an exit strategy. Later reflection indicates that what they recommended was doomed to fail. However the emergency men are supremely self-confident, notwithstanding their all-too-frequent lack of any real basis for such confidence.
The Iraq War presents an example of the emergency men in action. Leebaert calls Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney and Paul Bremmer "masters of mayhem.Read more ›
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In his C-span interview for this book, the author was asked if he believed America has done anything right in foreign policy since 1950. He said of course it has, and cites victory in the Cold War, establishing a new world economic order, and America's performance in the Gulf War and the Balkans campaign. But then he immediately asserts that America has a "pretty dismal record" over-all. I would ask, Compared to what? Compared to the imagined world of a Monday Night quarterback who has never had to make these foreign policy decisions?
Yes, we Americans do have a strong, unique, and often magical mythology that we export and that drives our dealings with other nations. The author identifies six aspects:
1.) emergency men (the Lone Ranger hero motif; whip a problem and then ride off) 2.) corporate management paradigm poorly applied to unmanageable problems 3.) star power (because other cultures don't share our obsession with celebs) 4.) expecting wondrous results overnight with minimal understanding and investment 5.) misused lessons of history; poor analogies 6.) the belief that other cultures want to be like us
This six-point scheme of American mythology seems perfectly reasonable and its impact on foreign policy worthy of criticism. Where I take issue with the author is his tone throughout the book:
"At the far end of self-deception, emergency men convince themselves that they know how their opponent actually thinks." (p104)
The author goes on to say that General MacArthur felt he knew the "oriental mind", Robert McNamara felt he knew the Red Army marshals' minds, and Henry Kissinger felt he knew how the Soviets think.Read more ›
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This item: Magic and Mayhem: The Delusions of American Foreign Policy From Korea to Afghanistan
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