Pay Any Price
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Overview
Lyndon Johnson brought to the presidency a political outlook steeped in New Deal liberalism and the idea of government intervention for the public good—at home or abroad. Seeking to fulfill John Kennedy's pledge in Southeast Asia, LBJ constructed a fatal coupling of the Great Society and the anti-Communist imperative. Pay Any Price is Lloyd Gardner's riveting account of the fall into Vietnam; of behind-the-scenes decision-making at the highest levels of government; of miscalculation, blinkered optimism, and moral obtuseness. Blending political biography with diplomatic history, Gardner has written the first book on American involvement in the Vietnam War to use the full resources and newly declassified documents of the Johnson Library, and to tell whole the story of Johnson and Vietnam. The book is filled with fresh interpretations, brilliantly incisive portraits of the president and his men, and new perspectives on America's most divisive foreign war. Gardner describes for the first time how, as tragedy swirled around the deliberations in Washington, Clark Clifford and Dean Rusk struggled for the president's soul, culminating in the bombing halt of 1968 and the Johnson decision not to run. The war finally sundered the liberal cold war consensus, Gardner argues, and brought to an end the New Deal politics that had dominated American political life since 1933. Pay Any Price is a major work of history by one of our most distinguished historians.Synopsis
A masterful account of Lyndon Johnson and America's fall into Vietnam by one of our finest historians, filled with fresh interpretations, deft portraits, and new perspectives. Absolutely terrific...simply the best book on the period. --Marilyn B. Young
Publishers Weekly
Gardner's masterful study takes a close look at President Lyndon Johnson's juggling of military strategy, international diplomacy and domestic politics during the Vietnam War. Most interestingly, Gardner (Imperial America) explores LBJ's dream of going beyond the Cold War policy of containment by offering the North Vietnamese huge incentives to abandon communism, e.g., a Mekong River project that would have surpassed the New Deal's Tennessee Valley Authority. The book features a clear explication of the views of key advisers, most notably Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and his struggle with moral and ethical dimensions of Vietnam policy. By the fall of 1967, according to Gardner, most advisers' conferences included a clash between McNamara and colleagues, particularly over the bombing of the North. Making judicious use of newly declassified documents at the Johnson Library in Austin, Tex., Gardner has written a major study of LBJ's incremental reactions to the war's shifting options, shedding new light on the internal debates over the conduct of the war. Photos. (Sept.)
Editorials
American Historical Review -
Remarkably rich analysis...an especially important and insightful contribution to the literature on the Vietnam War.Ronald Steel
Striking material...this subject has been written about often, but never with keener understanding.John Prados
The best in print...an impressive range of sources to craft a work that not only delineates LBJ's dilemmas but penetrates his motives.The Washington Post -
An unusually lucid and even gripping work of scholarship.Marilyn B. Young
An absolutely terrific book...Pay Any Price is simply the best book on the period anyone has written.The Washington Post
An unusually lucid and even gripping work of scholarship.— Jeff Stein
Publishers Weekly -
Gardner's masterful study takes a close look at President Lyndon Johnson's juggling of military strategy, international diplomacy and domestic politics during the Vietnam War. Most interestingly, Gardner (Imperial America) explores LBJ's dream of going beyond the Cold War policy of containment by offering the North Vietnamese huge incentives to abandon communism, e.g., a Mekong River project that would have surpassed the New Deal's Tennessee Valley Authority. The book features a clear explication of the views of key advisers, most notably Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and his struggle with moral and ethical dimensions of Vietnam policy. By the fall of 1967, according to Gardner, most advisers' conferences included a clash between McNamara and colleagues, particularly over the bombing of the North. Making judicious use of newly declassified documents at the Johnson Library in Austin, Tex., Gardner has written a major study of LBJ's incremental reactions to the war's shifting options, shedding new light on the internal debates over the conduct of the war. Photos. (Sept.)Library Journal
Gardner (Spheres of Influence, LJ 4/15/93), a highly regarded diplomatic historian, makes good use of recently declassified documents to show convincingly that Vietnam was not solely Lyndon Johnson's war but a series of inevitable conflicts forged in New Deal liberalism and Cold War diplomacy. Johnson's war was motivated by his need to show that the success of the Cuban Missile Crisis was no fluke but that the "loss" of China was. In addition, doves represented by diplomat George Ball and hawks like Gen. William Westmoreland added to the turmoil by presenting conflicting reports of the number of required troops and scenarios of probable outcomes. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara is portrayed as a near tragic figure who went from being chief booster of escalation to exile at the World Bank for recognizing Vietnam as the tragic quagmire it would become. (For McNamara's view of the subject, see In Retrospect, LJ 4/15/95.) A civil war-like home front joined with the looming presence of Robert Kennedy, Johnson's bte noire and probable contender for the 1968 election, to help drive Johnson from office and to an early death in 1973. This scholarly examination of the arrogance, uncertainty, and fears of the American foreign policy establishment is diplomatic history at its best. An excellent companion volume to Francis Fitzgerald's classic Fire in the Lake (1972); highly recommended for collections specializing in the Vietnam War.-Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, Pa.Booknews
Gardner (history, Rutgers U.) blends political biography and diplomatic history in his riveting account of Lyndon Johnson and America's fall into Vietnam, using newly declassified documents from the Johnson Library. He reveals new evidence on Johnson's use of the Gulf of Tonkin incident, the efforts of Kennedy men among LBJ's advisors to apply to Vietnam the techniques of crisis management learned in the Cuban missile crisis, and cooperation with the Soviet Union to restrain the conflict. Contains b&w photos. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)American Historical Review
Remarkably rich analysis...an especially important and insightful contribution to the literature on the Vietnam War.— Gary R. Hess