Keepers of the keys : a history of the National Security Council from Truman to Bush

Foreword Acronyms Prologue Brokers Ike's Hidden Hand Keepers in Camelot Lyndon Johnson's Vantage Point Vietnam: Arrogance to Adversity King Richard & Prince Henry Between Power & Principle The Years the Locusts Ate The President's Lieutenants A Note on Sources Notes Index Contents Acronyms Prologue: “Is That U.S. Policy?” Part I. Brokers Creation of the National Security Council Fist on the Table “You Could Depend on Him” “A Plan for National Psychological Warfare” Part II. Ike’s Hidden Hand “Tantamount to an Executive Agency” Managing Policy Hill “In a Comfortable Position” “The President Wanted Me” Senator Jackson’s Committee Part III. Keepers in Camelot Servants of the President “The Best and the Brightest” Part IV. Lyndon Johnson’s Vantage Point Opening Chords One Trip Too Far Lyndon’s Apparat Rites of Passage The Man of Ideas Days of War, Decades Without Resolution The Summit That Almost Was Part V. Vietnam: Arrogance to Adversity “We Seek an Independent Non-Communist South Vietnam" “Pleikus Are Like Streetcars” Washington at War Bomb and Talk, Bomb and Fight, Bomb or Talk Twilight of a Presidency Part VI. King Richard and Prince Henry Prince Henry the Navigator The Crucible To the Top of Policy Hill The Illusion of Peace A Gathering Storm A Ford Not a Nixon Part VII. Between Power and Principle “I Have Got Excellent Advisers!” Détente to Confrontation Paying the Piper Triumph and Tragedy Part VIII. The Year The Locusts Ate No Vicar for Foreign Policy Into the Land of the Blind A Splendid Little War “Something Wrong with the Way This Country Makes Foreign Policy” Best Laid Plans All the King’s Horses Another New Beginning A Note on Sources Notes Index The True Story Of How The National Security Council Was Transformed From A Small Advisory Board Under Truman, Virtually To Supplant The State Department Under Nixon, And Then To Conduct Covert, Illegal Operations Under Ronald Reagan. John Prados. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 574-607).