Johnson, Nixon, and the Doves

Library Journal

Most studies of the Vietnam years have focused either on government officials who made foreign policy or on dissenters who worked both in and outside of the political system to end the war. Small is the first historian to deal at length with a very important question: Did the antiwar movement influence the decisions made by politicians and diplomats of the Johnson and Nixon administrations? To analyze this question, Small dissected the era's foreign policy and domestic events, and interviewed many of the Vietnam War debaters. While the link remains quite unclear, Small concludes that Vietnam policymakers became increasingly aware of the protests and fashioned a policy that sought to neutralize dissent. A well-reasoned, informative work worth reading. Charles K. Piehl, Mankato State Univ., Minn.