VIETNAM AND THE AMERICAN POLITICAL TRADITION: THE POLITICS OF DISSENT; ED. BY RANDALL WOODS

This volume is intended to demonstrate how opposition to the war in Vietnam, the military-industrial complex, and the national security state crystallized in a variety of different and often divergent political traditions. Indeed, for many of the figures discussed, dissent was a decidedly conservative act in that they felt that the war threatened traditional values, mores, and institutions, even though their definitions of what was sacred differed profoundly. To an extent many of the dissenters treated in this volume were at one time Cold War liberals. During the course of the Vietnam War, they came to see the foreign policy which they were supporting, with its willingness to invoke the democratic ideal and at the same time tolerate dictatorships in the cause of anticommunism, as morally and politically corrupt. Most dissenters increasingly came to perceive cold war liberalism as a radical departure that threatened the fundamental ideals of the republic. Cover......Page 1 Half-title......Page 3 Title......Page 5 Copyright......Page 6 Contents......Page 7 Contributors......Page 9 Introduction......Page 11 Anti-Imperialism in U.S. Foreign Relations......Page 22 World War II, Congress, and the Roots of Postwar American Foreign Policy......Page 52 The Progressive Dissent: Ernest Gruening and Vietnam......Page 68 “Come Home, America”: The Story of George McGovern......Page 92 Congress Must Draw the Line......Page 131 Dixie’s Dove......Page 159 Advice and Dissent: Mike Mansfield and the Vietnam War......Page 181 The Reluctant “Volunteer”......Page 214 The Boy from Possum Hollow......Page 215 The Evolution of the Reluctant Volunteer......Page 217 The Tennessee Progressive......Page 225 The Maverick......Page 237 The Clash of Titans......Page 240 Conclusion......Page 246 A Delicate Balance......Page 247 Friendly Fire......Page 269 The Commitments He Inherited......Page 270 The Ghost of TR......Page 272 The Big Stick Redux......Page 274 Where the Cold War Began......Page 277 Where the Dike Gave Way......Page 281 Targeting Doves......Page 288 The Beginning of the End of the Cold War......Page 290 Richard Nixon, Congress, and the War in Vietnam, 1969–1974......Page 292 Index......Page 311

Many came to see cold war liberals during the Vietnam War as willing to invoke the democratic ideal, while at the same time tolerating dictatorships in the cause of anticommunism. This volume of essays demonstrates how opposition to the war, the military-industrial complex, and the national security state crystallized in a variety of different and often divergent political traditions. Indeed, for many of the individuals discussed, dissent was a decidedly conservative act in that they felt the war threatened traditional values, mores, and institutions.

an Account And Discussion Of The Complexities Of Opposition To The Vietnam War.

What role has anti-imperialism played in U.S. foreign relations?