Table of Contents

Preface - Kennedy's Wars
Dramatis Personae
Introduction
Section 1: The Cold War and How to Fight It1: Liberal Anti Communism
2: Beyond Massive Retaliation
3: The Third World Alternative
4: Policies and People
Section 2: Berlin and Nuclear Statagy5: The New Strategy
6: To Vienna and Back
7: The Berlin Anomaly
8: A Contest of Resolve
9: The Wall
10: Tests and Tension
11: Flexible Response
12: Berlin to Cuba
Section 3: Cuba13: Removing Castro
14: A Deniable Plan
15: A Undeniable Fiasco
16: Still Castro
17: Mongoose
18: Searching for Missiles
19: The Options Debated
20: Blockade
21: Military Steps
22: Political Steps
23: The Denoument
24: A Crisis Managed
25: Aftermath
26: Back to Square One
Section 4: Alliances and Detente27: The Sino-Soviet Split
28: Towards a Test Ban
29: The Test Ban Treaty
30: Measured Response
Section 5: Vietnam31: Counter-Insurgency
32: Laos
33: Commitment Without Combat
34: Deciding Not To Decide
35: The Taylor Report
36: Decisions
37: The Influence Of Laos
38: In the Dark
39: Coercion and Clients
40: Diem's Assassination
41: Kennedy to Johnson
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography

About the Author

Lawrence Freedman has been Professor of War Studies at King's College, London since 1982. He has written extensively on nuclear strategy and the Cold War, as well as commentating regularly on contemporary security issues. Elected a fellow of the British Academy in 1995, he was appointed by Prime Minister Tony Blair as Official Historian of the Falklands Campaign in 1997.

Reviews

"Lawrence Freedman's Kennedy's Wars is an elegant work, incisively written, penetrating and dispassionate in analysis--the best account we have of President Kennedy's foreign policy."--Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
"In this superbly researched and elegantly written book, Lawrence Freedman sheds new light on the Kennedy and Johnson administrations' handling of foreign affairs. Freedman's analysis of the brinkmanship of the Cold War and Vietnam is original. While I do not agree with every interpretation, Kennedy's Wars challenges common knowledge about what happened and why and points to lessons we can apply to the future."--Robert S. McNamara, Secretary of
Defense, 1961-1968
"Combining remarkable insight into issues of nuclear strategy and a detachment from American controversies and emotions about Camelot, Kennedy's Wars powerfully illustrates both the intricacy and the horror of the Kennedy administration's endless debates over issues such as 'program packages' and the SIOP. It not only evaluates what exactly was at stake; it does so with some of JFK's own coolness."--Ernest May, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard
University
"Freedman brings an erudite and penetrating intelligence to his study of Kennedy's foreign policy...An excellent treatment of U.S. foreign policy during this dynamic era and an insightful portrait of John F. Kennedy as a leader."--Library Journal
"An admirably rich and careful study."--The Economist

"Lawrence Freedman's Kennedy's Wars is an elegant work, incisively written, penetrating and dispassionate in analysis--the best account we have of President Kennedy's foreign policy."--Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. "In this superbly researched and elegantly written book, Lawrence Freedman sheds new light on the Kennedy and Johnson administrations' handling of foreign affairs. Freedman's analysis of the brinkmanship of the Cold War and Vietnam is original. While I do not agree with every interpretation, Kennedy's Wars challenges common knowledge about what happened and why and points to lessons we can apply to the future."--Robert S. McNamara, Secretary of Defense, 1961-1968 "Combining remarkable insight into issues of nuclear strategy and a detachment from American controversies and emotions about Camelot, Kennedy's Wars powerfully illustrates both the intricacy and the horror of the Kennedy administration's endless debates over issues such as 'program packages' and the SIOP. It not only evaluates what exactly was at stake; it does so with some of JFK's own coolness."--Ernest May, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University "Freedman brings an erudite and penetrating intelligence to his study of Kennedy's foreign policy...An excellent treatment of U.S. foreign policy during this dynamic era and an insightful portrait of John F. Kennedy as a leader."--Library Journal "An admirably rich and careful study."--The Economist