Presidential Personality and National Security Leadership

A Comparative Analysis of Vietnam Decision-making

Bibliographic Data

ID6299043
AuthorsJoy Patricia Burke (0000-0002-0825-2494, University of Vermont), John P Burke (University of Vermont), Fred I Greenstein (Princeton University)
Year1989
Volume10
Issue1
Pages73-92
Publication date1989-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Political Science Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0192-5121 • E-ISSN: 1460-373X
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/019251218901000105
OpenAlexW2136606027
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited16

This essay presents a framework for analyzing the effect of presidential personality on policy making, while avoiding the fallacy of simply "reducing" the explanation of presidential performance to the president's individual characteristics. Using an approach that simul taneously takes account of the larger political environment, and the president's constellation of immediate associates (the "institutionalized presidency"), as well as the president's individual characteristics, we present data comparing presidential decision-making with respect to Vietnam in 1954 and 1965. All three levels of evidence must be examined to establish why the United States did not inject military force in 1954 at the time of the fall of Dienbienphu and did in 1965, in the face of the incipient collapse of South Vietnam

Epistemology · Face (sociological concept · Fallacy · National security · Personality · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Presidency · Presidential system · Social science · Sociology · Law · Military History and Strategy · Psychology · Public Administration · Social Psychology · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub