Waging Peace: How Eisenhower Shaped an Enduring Cold War Strategy

Waging Peace offers the first fully comprehensive study of Eisenhowers "New Look" program of national security which provided the groundwork for the next three decades of Americas Cold War strategy. Though the Cold War itself and the idea of containment originated under Truman it was left to Eisenhower to develop the first coherent and sustainable strategy for addressing the issues unique to the nuclear age. To this end he designated a decision-making system centered around the National Security Council to take full advantage of the expertise and data from various departments and agencies and of the judgment of his principal advisors. The result was the formation of a "long haul" strategy of preventing war and Soviet expansion and of mitigating Soviet hostility. Only now in the aftermath of the Cold War can Eisenhowers achievement be fully appreciated. This book will be of much interest to scholars and students of the Eisenhower era diplomatic history the Cold War and contemporary foreign policy.