United States Foreign Policy 1945-1968

Between 1945 and 1968, the possibility of Mutual Assured Destruction led to a host of odd realities, including the creation of an affable cartoon turtle named Bert who taught millions of school children that nuclear war was survivable if they simply learned how to "duck and cover." Meanwhile, fear of Communism played out against the backdrop of potential Armageddon to provide justification for a variety of covert operations involving regime change, political assassination, and sometimes bizarre plot twists. United States Foreign Policy 1945-1968: The Bomb, Spies, Stories, and Lies takes a fresh look at this complex, often confusing, and frequently farcical period in American and world history.

Michael Wayne Santos is professor of history at the University of Lynchburg.

I The Unsatisfying Nature of Satisficing
II Endings and Beginnings: Factors Shaping the Narrative
III Competing Challenges in an Uncertain World
IV Enemies From Within and From Without
V One Step Forward, One Step Back
VI Caught in the Middle
VII Things Are Seldom What They Seem
VIII Persisting Problems on the New Frontier
IX Assumptions vs. Realities
X To the Edge of Armageddon and Back Again
XI Down the Rabbit Hole
XII Hot Spots Beyond Vietnam
XIII Rationalizing Away Qualms
XIV A Matter of Sovereignty
XV Looking Back Across Twenty-Three Years