Pandora's trap
Subtitle: presidential decision making and blame avoidance in Vietnam and Iraq
By: Thomas Preston
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Lanham, Md
Language: eng
Number of pages: 264
ISBN-13: 9780742562646
Copyright date: 2011
Subjects: Politics and government; Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Political leadership; Presidents; Blame; Case studies; Iraq War, 2003-2011; Decision making
Description: "How important is presidential personality and leadership style in foreign policy decisions? To answer this question, Thomas Preston takes readers inside the Bush administration's decision making process and use of intelligence to better understand how administration officials justified the Iraq War--and how they sought to avoid blame for the consequences of their actions. Based on extensive interviews with key Bush administration officials, Preston offers students of American foreign policy, presidential decision making, the dynamics of blame avoidance, and future practitioners with an in depth examination of how presidential personality and leadership style impacted Bush's central foreign policy failure"--Provided by publisher.
Notes: Originally published: 2011.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 245-25) and index.
Table of contents: title: A tale of two Texans : the leadership styles of George W. Bush and Lyndon Johnson; title: The politics of blame avoidance : presidential strategies for surviving the Washington "blame game"; title: Opening Pandora's box : blame avoidance, 9/11, and the push for war with Iraq; title: Opening Pandora's box : blame avoidance during the Iraq War; title: Bush and Iraq : revisiting the Vietnam analogy.