Maximalist : America in the world from Truman to Obama / Stephen Sestanovich.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 339-379) and index.

"From a writer with long and high-level experience in the U.S. government, a lively, provocative, and eminently readable reexamination of American foreign policy, capturing not only its extraordinary achievements but the diplomatic missteps, intellectual confusion, and political discord from which they usually emerge. American foreign policy since World War II has long been seen primarily as a story of strong and successful alliances, domestic consensus, and continuity from one administration to the next. Why then have so many presidents--even those most admired today--left office condemned for their foreign policy record? In his fresh and compelling history of America's rise to dominance, Stephen Sestanovich makes clear that U.S. diplomacy has always stirred controversy, both at home and abroad. He shows how successive administrations have struggled to find new solutions, alternating between bold "maximalist" strategies and retrenchment efforts to downsize America's role. Almost all our presidents--and all their most important decisions, from defeat in Vietnam through victory in the Cold War to today's new challenges--emerge from this vivid retelling in a sharp and unexpected light. "-- Provided by publisher.

Prologue : "We do big things" -- Truman at the creation : "The United States must run this show" -- Containment at war : Truman, the military, and regime change -- "Enough is enough" : Eisenhower and the perils of retrenchment -- Boy commandos of the New Frontier : "making maximalism safe" -- "Mainly violins, with touches of brass" : Johnson against his advisers -- "We have not been divided : Johnson at war -- Retrenchment and Vietnam : "get going, take risks, be exciting" -- Retrenchment and detente : "a nihilistic nightmare" -- "Outspend them forever" : did empathy and optimism end the Cold War? -- "No one else can do this" : Bush, Clinton, and the retrenchment that wasn't -- Things related and not : Bush and September 11 -- No wiggle room : Obama and retrenchment.