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The Foreign Policies of Lyndon Johnson: Beyond Vietnam. Ed. by H. W Brands. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1999. vi, 194 pp. $29.95, ISBN 0-89096-873-X.)
Did Lyndon B. Johnson merely follow in John E Kennedy's footsteps, or did he set out on his own to lead the nation into war? The authors here are concerned with other questions, beginning with: Did the Vietnam War loom so large that it prevented Johnson from accompushing anything else in foreign policy? Robert Dallek sets the stage nicely for a new consideration of LJ's supposed personal limitations, suggesting that despite Vietnam Johnson was ready to act effectively in other areas.
John Prados and Thomas Schwartz demonstrate LBJ's determination to hold the western alliance together yet seek detente with Russia. "I'll try to hold this Alliance together longer than anybody else will," he affirmed, "longer than the British will, and longer than the Germans. But they have got to put something...