Gareth Porter presents a new interpretation of how and why the US went to war in Vietnam. He provides a challenge to the prevailing explanation that US officials adhered blindly to a Cold War doctrine that loss of Vietnam would cause a 'domino effect' leading to communist dominance of the area.

Introduction -- Unipolarity and the system -- Unipolarity and nuclear weapons -- Unipolarity and perception -- Identifying the enemy image -- Unipolarity and strategy -- Unipolarity and grand strategy -- Unipolarity and its conclusion

Revisiting the racial origins of the conflict between “civilization” and “savagery” in twentieth-century America The atomic age brought the Bomb and spawned stories of nuclear apocalypse to remind us of impending doom. As Patrick Sharp reveals, those stories had their origins well before Hiroshima, reaching back to Charles Darwin and America’s frontier. In Savage Perils, Sharp examines the racial underpinnings of American culture, from the early industrial age to the Cold War. He explores the influence of Darwinism, frontier nostalgia, and literary modernism on the history and representations of nuclear weaponry. Taking into account such factors as anthropological race theory and Asian immigration, he charts the origins of a worldview that continues to shape our culture and politics. Sharp dissects Darwin’s arguments regarding the struggle between “civilization” and “savagery,” theories that fueled future-war stories ending in Anglo dominance in Britain and influenced Turnerian visions of the frontier in America. Citing George W. Bush’s “Axis of Evil,” Sharp argues that many Americans still believe in the racially charged opposition between civilization and savagery, and consider the possibility of nonwhite “savages” gaining control of technology the biggest threat in the “war on terror.” His insightful book shows us that this conflict is but the latest installment in an ongoing saga that has been at the heart of American identity from the beginning—and that understanding it is essential if we are to eradicate racist mythologies from American life.

From the author of Resource Wars, a landmark assessment of the critical role of petroleum in America's actions abroad In his pathbreaking Resource Wars, world security expert Michael T. Klare alerted us to the role of resources in conflicts in the post-Cold War world. Now, in Blood and Oil, he concentrates on a single precious commodity, petroleum, while issuing a warning to the United States-its most powerful, and most dependent, global consumer. Since September 11th and the commencement of the "war on terror," the world's attention has been focused on the relationship between U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and the oceans of crude oil that lie beneath the region's soil. Klare traces oil's impact on international affairs since World War II, revealing its influence on the Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon, and Carter doctrines. He shows how America's own wells are drying up as our demand increases; by 2010, the United States will need to import 60 percent of its oil. And since most of this supply will have to come from chronically unstable, often violently anti-American zones-the Persian Gulf, the Caspian Sea, Latin America, and Africa-our dependency is bound to lead to recurrent military involvement. With clarity and urgency, Blood and Oil delineates the United States' predicament and cautions that it is time to change our energy policies, before we spend the next decades paying for oil with blood.

Explores JFK’s role in US invasion of Vietnam and a reflects on the political culture that encouraged the Cold War.

Until the early nineteenth century, "risk" was a specialized term: it was the commodity exchanged in a marine insurance contract. Freaks of Fortune tells the story of how the modern concept of risk emerged in the United States. Born on the high seas, risk migrated inland and became essential to the financial management of an inherently uncertain capitalist future. Focusing on the hopes and anxieties of ordinary people, Jonathan Levy shows how risk developed through the extraordinary growth of new financial institutions-insurance corporations, savings banks, mortgage-backed securities markets, commodities futures markets, and securities markets-while posing inescapable moral questions. For at the heart of risk's rise was a new vision of freedom. To be a free individual, whether an emancipated slave, a plains farmer, or a Wall Street financier, was to take, assume, and manage one's own personal risk. Yet this often meant offloading that same risk onto a series of new financial institutions, which together have only recently acquired the name "financial services industry." Levy traces the fate of a new vision of personal freedom, as it unfolded in the new economic reality created by the American financial system. Amid the nineteenth-century's waning faith in God's providence, Americans increasingly confronted unanticipated challenges to their independence and security in the boom and bust chance-world of capitalism. Freaks of Fortuneis one of the first books to excavate the historical origins of our own financialized times and risk-defined lives.

"Privilege--the word, the idea, the j'accuse that cannot be answered with equanimity--is the new rhetorical power play. From social media to academia, public speech to casual conversation, "Check your privilege" or "Your privilege is showing" are utilized to brand people of all kinds with a term once reserved for wealthy, old-money denizens of exclusive communities. Today, "privileged" applies to anyone who enjoys an unearned advantage in life, about which they are likely oblivious. White privilege, male privilege, straight privilege--those conditions make everyday life easier, less stressful, more lucrative, and generally better for those who hold one, two, or all three designations. But what about white female privilege in the context of feminism? Or fixed gender privilege in the context of transgender? Or weight and height privilege in the context of hiring practices and salary levels? Or food privilege in the context of public health? Or two parent, working class privilege in the context of widening inequality for single parent families? In The Perils of Privilege, Phoebe Maltz Bovy examines the rise of this word into extraordinary potency. Does calling out privilege help to change or soften it? Or simply reinforce it by dividing people against themselves? And is privilege a concept that, in fact, only privileged people are debating?"--

An unforgettable true story, Two Souls Indivisible stirringly recounts the forging of a legendary, heroic bond between two soldiers. Fred Cherry and Porter Halyburton first met in their shared cell in a brutal POW camp in Vietnam. Cherry, an air force pilot, was badly injured after his plane crashed; he became the first black officer to be captured by the North Vietnamese. Halyburton, a young navy flier, was a naive white southerner thrown in as Cherry's cellmate. Their captors hoped close quarters would inflame American-bred racial tensions and break both men. Instead, American integrity and honor flourished, and as Cherry was nursed back to health, a friendship grew strong. The intense connection, powerfully reported by James S. Hirsch, would sustain both men through the war and throughout their lives. Inspiring, heartbreaking, remarkable, and never more timely, Two Souls Indivisible shows how good people can achieve greatness in the most hellish of circumstances.

"Going the Distance" identifies eight key obstacles to the long-term success of great businesses--and shows exactly how to overcome them. Former Cisco SVP Kevin Kennedy and leading consultant Mary Moore show how to assess corporate health and correct weaknesses in leadership, strategy, product, marketplace alignment, governance, and more--before it's too late. "Going the Distance" provides a total framework for maintaining market leadership into the next generation!

Where did we take a wrong turn? That’s what proud conservatives are asking. The era of liberal dominance is finally over, but sometimes you wouldn’t know it. Government spending is out of control, huge waves of illegal immigration endanger our security and our American identity, more and more Americans look to Washington for the “quick fix,” the government grabs for more power at the expense of our liberty, American businesses are fleeing overseas, and terrorism threatens us more than ever. How do we deal with these crises when our leaders refuse to? By following Edwin J. Feulner and Doug Wilson’s unique and practical six-point plan: specific steps that every one of us can take to put America back on course. As conservative leaders—Feulner as president of the nation’s preeminent think tank, The Heritage Foundation; Wilson as chairman of America’s leading conservative news and community website, Townhall.com—the authors know that what will rescue us now are the things that have always made this nation great: free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, a strong national defense, and the rule of law. We must demand accountability and a return to our core principles. Getting America Right reveals: • Stunning real-world examples of government run amok, and how it hurts you • The politicians who are selling out, and the brave souls who are fighting for what’s right • How to restore fiscal discipline among Washington’s pork-addicted pols—Feulner and Wilson identify ridiculous programs we should slash now • The blueprint for getting the federal government out of our way and out of our pockets • The threats Washington is ignoring, and the steps we must take at home and abroad to ensure our security • What you can do to hold politicians accountable What is at risk if we fail? Nothing less than the freedom, prosperity, and security of ourselves and our children and grandchildren. We must get it right—each and every one of us. And we need to start today. As Newt Gingrich writes in his foreword to Getting America Right, “The blueprint for our action—yours and mine—is contained within the pages of this remarkable book.” Also available as an eBook. Visit GettingAmericaRight.com for more resources to join the fight to put America back on track.