Secrets of State: The State Department and the Struggle Over U.S. Foreign Policy

A fascinating history of how policy-makers have created US foreign policy since the days of the early Republic, filled with portraits of the personalities who have held high decision-making posts, and with accounts of battles pitting agencies, individuals, and ideologies against one another. The author traces the development of the State Department, the National Security Council, and the White House staff, and shows how each president has organised the foreign policy system in his own way, and how powerful figures such as Franklin D. Roosevelt and Henry Kissinger have moulded policy for particular periods of history. Included are detailed analyses of US foreign policy during the Carter and Reagan administrations and indications of where our current structure and policy is leading. Students of American history and politics, and of international relations.