An Outsider in the White House: Jimmy Carter, His Advisors, and the Making of American Foreign Policy

New
Illustrated
2010
$44.26

Jimmy Carter entered the White House with a desire for a collegial staff that would aid his foreign-policy decision making. He wound up with a team of rivals who contended for influence and who fought over his every move regarding relations with the USSR, the Peoples' Republic of China, arms control, and other crucial foreign-policy issues.
In two areas-the Camp David Accords and the return of the Canal to Panama-Carter's successes were attributable to his particular political skills and the assistance of Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and other professional diplomats. The ultimate victor in the other battles was Carter's national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, a motivated tactician. Carter, the outsider who had sought to change the political culture of the executive office, found himself dependent on the very insiders of the political and diplomatic establishment against whom he had campaigned.
Based on recently declassified documents in the Carter Library, materials not previously noted in the Vance papers, and a wide variety of interviews, Betty Glad's An Outsider in the White House is a rich and nuanced depiction of the relationship between policy and character. It is also a poignant history of damaged ideals. Carter's absolute commitment to human rights foundered on what were seen as national security interests.
New data from the archives reveal how Carter's government sought the aid of Pope John Paul II to undercut the human-rights efforts of the El Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero. A moralistic approach toward the Soviet Union undermined Carter's early desire to reduce East-West conflicts and cut nuclear arms. As a result, by 1980 the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) was in limbo, and a nuclear counterforce doctrine had been adopted.
Near the end of Carter's single term in office Vance stepped down as secretary of state, in part because Brzezinski's muscular diplomacy had come to dominate Carter's foreign policy. When Vance's successor, Edmund Muskie, took over, the State Department was reduced to implementing policies made by Brzezinski and his allies. For Carter, the rivalry for influence in the White House was concluded and the results, as Glad shows, were a mixed record and an uncertain presidential legacy.

Synopsis

Jimmy Carter entered the White House with a desire for a collegial staff that would aid his foreign-policy decision making. He wound up with a team of rivals who contended for influence and who fought over his every move regarding relations with the USSR, the Peoples' Republic of China, arms control, and other crucial foreign-policy issues.

In two areas-the Camp David Accords and the return of the Canal to Panama-Carter's successes were attributable to his particular political skills and the assistance of Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and other professional diplomats. The ultimate victor in the other battles was Carter's national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, a motivated tactician. Carter, the outsider who had sought to change the political culture of the executive office, found himself dependent on the very insiders of the political and diplomatic establishment against whom he had campaigned.

Based on recently declassified documents in the Carter Library, materials not previously noted in the Vance papers, and a wide variety of interviews, Betty Glad's An Outsider in the White House is a rich and nuanced depiction of the relationship between policy and character. It is also a poignant history of damaged ideals. Carter's absolute commitment to human rights foundered on what were seen as national security interests.

New data from the archives reveal how Carter's government sought the aid of Pope John Paul II to undercut the human-rights efforts of the El Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero. A moralistic approach toward the Soviet Union undermined Carter's early desire to reduce East-West conflicts and cut nuclear arms. As a result, by 1980 the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) was in limbo, and a nuclear counterforce doctrine had been adopted.

Near the end of Carter's single term in office Vance stepped down as secretary of state, in part because Brzezinski's muscular diplomacy had come to dominate Carter's foreign policy. When Vance's successor, Edmund Muskie, took over, the State Department was reduced to implementing policies made by Brzezinski and his allies. For Carter, the rivalry for influence in the White House was concluded and the results, as Glad shows, were a mixed record and an uncertain presidential legacy.

$44.26

Quantity

2 in stock

More Information

Format: Illustrated
Pages: 414
Edition: Illustrated
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Published: 01 Feb 2010
ISBN 10: 0801448158
ISBN 13: 9780801448157

Media Reviews

This is a whale of a book by a fine writer with an eye for social and psychological detail and an encyclopedia knowledge of everything that was thought and said and written by everyone involved in foreign policy formulation during every hour of the Carter administration. -American Spectator

Betty Glad has written a thoroughly researched and richly detailed account of the Carter White House foreign policymaking process. Although there are many worthy previous scholarly works on Jimmy Carter's foreign policy and White House decision-making process, Glad's book brings new insights that she developed from years of careful examination of original documents, personal interviews, and correspondence with key players, among many other valuable sources. Her book is a model of solid academic research and analysis that will stand for years as the definitive work on this topic. -Political Science Quarterly

An Outsider in the White House is a deeply insightful analysis of U.S. foreign policy during the Carter years. Betty Glad, the dean of Carter studies, brilliantly uses new archival material to shed important new light on everything from Camp David to the Panama Canal to America-China policy and everything-in between. Highly recommended! -Douglas Brinkley, author of The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America

In a fascinating study of the interaction between Jimmy Carter and his advisors, Betty Glad has enriched our understanding of the the individuals, the processes, and the substance of American foreign policy. Based on archival research and deep knowledge, this book is essential reading for all those interested in the Carter administration. -Robert Jervis, Adlai E. Stevenson Professor of International Affairs, Columbia University

An Outsider in the White House contributes significantly to presidential studies, diplomatic history, the study of the dynamics of policymaking, and international relations theory, especially as it bears on realism and idealism in foreign policy. Betty Glad's impressively documented and vividly written book is full of fascinating anecdotes. A compelling read. -Fred I. Greenstein, Princeton University, author of The Presidential Difference: Leadership Style from FDR to George W. Bush

Betty Glad provides a sophisticated and nuanced analysis of conflict among Carter's foreign policy advisors and the gradual triumph of Brzezinski and his views regarding the Soviet Union and the Cold War. Glad's comprehensive book provides balanced coverage of the foreign policy highlights of the Carter years. -Robert A. Strong, William Lyne Wilson Professor of Politics, Washington and Lee University, author of Working in the World: Jimmy Carter and the Making of American Foreign Policy

Exhaustively researched and persuasively analyzed, Betty Glad's definitive account of how Zbigniew Brzezinski outmaneuvered Cyrus Vance in the battle to influence Jimmy Carter's foreign policy is an astute blend of history and political science. It will command a wide readership. -J. Garry Clifford, University of Connecticut and coauthor of American Foreign Relations: A History, Seventh Edition

An Outsider in the White House is an eminently readable account of Jimmy Carter, his foreign policies, and the political-bureaucratic context in which they were made and implemented. Betty Glad's assessment of the president-and of the ideological and cognitive limitations of his principal advisors-will stand the test of time. -Richard Ned Lebow, James O. Freedman Presidential Professor of Government, Dartmouth College, and Centennial Professor of International Relations, London School of Economics and Political Science