Analogies at War Korea, Munich, Dien Bien Phu, and the Vietnam Decisions of 1965 / Yuen Foong Khong.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Khong, Yuen Foong, 1956-

Series:

Princeton paperbacks.

Princeton paperbacks

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

International relations--Decision making.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 286 pages) : illustrations.

Manufacture:

Baltimore, Md. : Project MUSE, 2021

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1992.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

From World War I to Operation Desert Storm, American policymakers have repeatedly invoked the "lessons of history" as they contemplated taking their nation to war. Do these historical analogies actually shape policy, or are they primarily tools of political justification? Yuen Foong Khong argues that leaders use analogies not merely to justify policies but also to perform specific cognitive and information-processing tasks essential to political decision-making. Khong identifies what these tasks are and shows how they can be used to explain the U.S. decision to intervene in Vietnam. Relying on interviews with senior officials and on recently declassified documents, the author demonstrates with a precision not attained by previous studies that the three most important analogies of the Vietnam era--Korea, Munich, and Dien Bien Phu--can account for America's Vietnam choices. A special contribution is the author's use of cognitive social psychology to support his argument about how humans analogize and to explain why policymakers often use analogies poorly.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Figures and Tables

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Chapter 1. Analogical Reasoning in Foreign Affairs: Two Views

Chapter 2. The AE Framework

Chapter 3. America's Vietnam Options

Chapter 4. Containment, Analogies, and the Pre-1965 Vietnam Decisions

Chapter 5. Korea

Chapter 6. Dien Bien Phu

Chapter 7. Munich and the 1930s

Chapter 8. The Psychology of Analogical Reasoning

Chapter 9. Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 265-277) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780691078465

0691078467

9780691212913

0691212910

OCLC:

1227050641