Commander in Chief: How Truman, Johnson, and Bush Turned a Presidential Power Into a Threat to America's Future

by Geoffrey Perret and Geoffrey Perrett

Book Overview

This is a story of ever-expanding presidential powers in an age of unwinnable wars. Harry Truman and Korea, Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam, George W. Bush and Iraq: three presidents, three ever broader interpretations of the commander in chief clause of the Constitution, three unwinnable wars, and three presidential secrets. Award-winning presidential biographer and military historian Geoffrey Perret places these men and events in the larger context of...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374102171
• ISBN13: 9780374102173
• Release Date: February 2007
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
• Length: 436 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Essential reading.

COMMANDER IN CHIEF: HOW TRUMAN, JOHNSON, AND BUSH TURNED A PRESIDENTIAL POWER INTO A THREAT TO AMERICA'S FUTURE is a powerful history linking expanding presidential powers to unwinnable wars. The three selected presidents profiled here each share the attribute of confronting wars that no American force could win. How they reacted would change the shape of politics, executive powers and freedoms in America, making COMMANDER IN CHIEF a top recommendation above the usual military library. Public libraries also will find the blend of military history and biography, with its focus on civil liberties, to be essential reading.

Excellent book

Perret does a fine job of showing how the war powers of congress have been gradually eroded to the point where the president may take the country to war at whim and not be held accountable. He shows how the trend actually began with Truman and continued with a the series of our "smaller" wars. Overall, a very good analysis. No one else has summed up this material quite as well.