05155nam 2200709 a 450 991096992980332120251117083104.01-282-42427-097866124242740-299-22683-2(CKB)2520000000006592(EBL)3444930(SSID)ssj0000344534(PQKBManifestationID)11272939(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000344534(PQKBWorkID)10313511(PQKB)11671021(MiAaPQ)EBC3444930(OCoLC)832462392(MdBmJHUP)muse12288(Au-PeEL)EBL3444930(CaPaEBR)ebr10351487(CaONFJC)MIL242427(OCoLC)560696763(BIP)46273763(BIP)14873975(EXLCZ)99252000000000659220071010d2008 ub 0engur|n|---|||||txtccrWith honor Melvin Laird in war, peace, and politics /Dale Van Atta ; foreword by Gerald R. FordMadison, Wis. University of Wisconsin Pressc20081 online resource (660 p.)"An abridged edition [of The Laird legacy], entitled With honor : Melvin Laird in war, peace and politics (ISBN 978-0-299-22680-0 [i.e. 978-0-299-226808]), is published by the University of Wisconsin"--The Laird legacy, t.p. verso.0-299-22680-8 Includes bibliographical references (p. 603-614) and index.""Contents""; ""Foreword by Gerald R. Ford""; ""Acknowledgment""; ""Prologue""; ""1. The Man from Marshfield""; ""2. Guns and Butter""; ""3. A House Divided""; ""4. Laird Also Rises""; ""5. Cloud Riders""; ""6. Into the Quagmire""; ""7. Fight Now, Pay Later""; ""8. The Resurrection of Richard Nixon""; ""9. Looking for an Exit""; ""10. Off the Menu""; ""11. Going Public""; ""12. Dueling Machiavellis""; ""13. Ending the Draft""; ""14. Objections Overruled""; ""15. Black September""; ""16. Friends in High Places""; ""17. "Management by Walking Around"""; ""18. Minority Report""""19. The Secret War""""20. The Hawks Have Flown""; ""21. Withdrawal Symptoms""; ""22. Easter Offensive""; ""23. No Time for Quitters""; ""24. Watergate""; ""25. Picking a President""; ""26. Kitchen Cabinet""; ""27. A Second Career""; ""28. War and Peace and War""; ""29. Another Vietnam?""; ""Epilogue""; ""Notes""; ""Bibliography""; ""Index""In 1968, at the peak of the Vietnam War, centrist Republican Melvin Laird agreed to serve as Richard Nixon s secretary of defense. It was not, Laird knew, a move likely to endear him to the American public but as he later said, Nixon couldn t find anybody else who wanted the damn job. For the next four years, Laird deftly navigated the morass of the war he had inherited. Lampooned as a missile head, but decisive in crafting an exit strategy, he doggedly pursued his program of Vietnamization, initiating the withdrawal of U.S. military personnel and gradually ceding combat responsibilities to South Vietnam. In fighting to bring the troops home faster, pressing for more humane treatment of POWs, and helping to end the draft, Laird employed a powerful blend of disarming Midwestern candor and Washington, D.C. savvy, as he sought a high moral road bent on Nixon s oft-stated (and politically instrumental) goal of peace with honor. The first book ever to focus on Laird s legacy, this authorized biography reveals his central and often unrecognized role in managing the crisis of national identity sparked by the Vietnam War and the challenges, ethical and political, that confronted him along the way. Drawing on exclusive interviews with Laird, Henry Kissinger, Gerald Ford, and numerous others, author Dale Van Atta offers a sympathetic portrait of a man striving for open government in an atmosphere fraught with secrecy. Van Atta illuminates the inner workings of high politics: Laird s behind-the-scenes sparring with Kissinger over policy, his decisions to ignore Nixon s wilder directives, his formative impact on arms control and health care, his key role in the selection of Ford for vice president, his frustration with the country s abandonment of Vietnamization, and, in later years, his unheeded warning to Donald Rumsfeld that it s a helluva lot easier to get into a war than to get out of one. "Cabinet officersUnited StatesBiographyVietnam War, 1961-1975United StatesLegislatorsUnited StatesBiographyLegislatorsWisconsinBiographyUnited StatesPolitics and government1963-1969United StatesPolitics and government1969-1974Cabinet officersVietnam War, 1961-1975LegislatorsLegislators355.6092BVan Atta Dale1864097MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910969929803321With honor4470821UNINA