Criticizes U.S. policy towards Noriega, who offered aid to the contras in exchange for $200,000 a year and a blind eye to his illegal activities

This book's unique combination of case studies and commentaries provides the basis for a systematic discussion of the role of individual leaders and complex institutions in U.S. foreign policy making. The case studies present routine and urgent, controversial and consensus-driven decisions in nine presidential administrations--"from Harry Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan in 1945, to George W. Bush's responses to international terrorism in the wake of 9/11. Each chapter includes essential background information, a chronology of events, and primary source documents. Through all these elements, even students with little or no background in history will gain a new understanding of how presidents, institutions, and issues all shape American foreign policy.

Kempe recounts the history of the United States' relationship with Noriega from his recruitment by the CIA to his capture in 1990. He examines why and how the United States became involved with the Panamanian dictator and how the involvement has affected its standing in Latin America.

Character and Consequence by Robert A. Strong, looks at important foreign policy decisions of George H. W. Bush through the lens of character and asks how personal traits like loyalty, compassion, reticence and audacity had an impact on American foreign policy at a pivotal point in world history. Combining biographical observations with in-depth case studies of complicated international events, the book explores foreign policy decision-making and presidential personality for a broad audience. It is recommended to those curious about a critical era in U.S. diplomatic history, and to students of American politics and international relations who want to understand America’s forty-first president and his decisions and actions at the end of the Cold War.

The role and development of the Roman dictatorship over three centuries

Cottam explains the patterns of U.S. intervention in Latin America by focusing on the cognitive images that have dominated policy makers' world views, influenced the procession of information, and informed strategies and tactics. She employs a number of case studies of intervention and analyzes decision-making patterns from the early years of the cold war in Guatemala and Cuba to the post-cold-war policies in Panama and the war on drugs in Peru. Using two particular images-the enemy and the dependent-Cottam explores why U.S. policy makers have been predisposed to intervene in Latin America when they have perceived an enemy (the Soviet Union) interacting with a dependent (a Latin American country), and why these images led to perceptions that continued to dominate policy into the post-cold-war era.

A portrait of a commanding American politician and of the conservative movement he forged. Early on, Helms realized the power of television, and across North Carolina in the 1960s, he battled the civil rights movement, campus radicalism, and the sexual revolution. Desegregation was a central issue in solidifying his base and mobilizing political support, but also important was his discomfort with what he believed was a rising tide of immorality. In 1973, he was elected to the Senate, where he remained until 2003. As Senator, Helms became a national conservative leader and spokesman for the revitalized American Right, playing a prominent role in the Reagan Revolution of the 1970s and 1980s and the rising tide of Republicanism of the 1990s. Historian William Link tells the story of one of the most powerful Americans of the twentieth century and the conservative mark he left on the American political landscape.--From publisher description.