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ID: 117427

At the end of the day: Macmillan's account of the Cuban missile crisis / Catterall, Peter

Catterall, Peter	Journal Article
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Publication

2012.

Summary/Abstract

Pre-publicity for the final volume of Harold Macmillan's memoirs, At the End of the Day, stressed that it would provide the British side of the Cuban missile crisis for the first time. The Churchillian model chosen, changes required by the Cabinet Office and Macmillan's desire to rebuke those political opponents who claimed that the crisis demonstrated a lack of British influence in Washington, however ensured a focus on his personal relationship with President Kennedy. His larding the text with contemporary observations from his diaries also skewed Macmillan's account and, in particular, underplayed the significance of British moves at the United Nations in New York to secure a credible United Nations inspection regime and a US guarantee of the inviolability of Cuba. Careful reconstruction of Macmillan's real-time experience of the Cuban missile crisis demonstrates the limitations of his own account of this event.

Key Words

Cuban Missile Crisis ; British Foreign Policy ; Macmillan ; Memoir - Writing ; Personal Diplomacy ; Cold War ;
United Nations

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ID: 123621

Electoral margins and American foreign policy / Potter, Philip B K

Potter, Philip B K	Journal Article
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Publication

2013.

Summary/Abstract

Conventional wisdom holds that large margins of electoral victory contribute to presidential power. How does this variation in power impact U.S. foreign policy? I argue here that presidents who win elections by a substantial margin authorize the use of substantial military force more regularly, but do so at the expense of personal diplomacy and low-level crisis engagement. This distinction stems from the variation in the external constraint that other political actors place on these policies. New presidents who are empowered by a decisive election have more leverage and are therefore better able to pursue otherwise constrained foreign policies such as the use of major force. In contrast, those who win by smaller margins have less political capital and are forced disproportionately to the less constrained arenas of diplomacy and crisis intervention.

Key Words

United States ; Elections ; US Foreign Policy ; Conventional Wisdom ; Personal Diplomacy

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