Presidents at War

As a longtime scholar of the twentieth-century American presidency, I looked forward to the History Channel's Presidents at War, covering seven future presidents who served as officers in World War II, including four who faced combat—Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, George H. W. Bush, and Gerald R. Ford—and three who did not—Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, and Ronald Reagan. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Americans were driven to serve. Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Bush came out of the war as genuine heroes, which would have a profound effect on their future political careers. The production narration is by Mocean Melvin, and onscreen commentary was provided by military and political historians, including H. W. Brands, Evan Thomas, Davarian L. Baldwin, Marc Selverstone, Barbara A. Perry, and John C. McManus, as well as by foreign pilots, an Iraq War veteran, and a former speechwriter. While some of the film clips and photographs, especially on Eisenhower, have appeared elsewhere, the documentary also utilizes rare contemporary sources, including photographs of Nixon and Ford in uniform in the South Pacific. Overall, the production did create a sense of drama

Ancient history · Art · Art history · Drama · George (robot · Literature · Military history · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Presidency · Spanish Civil War · Vietnam War · American History and Culture · American Political and Social Dynamics · Classics · History · Law · Rhetoric and Communication Studies