Review of presidents in crisis by Bohn Michael

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Bohn, Michael K. Presidents in Crisis Tough Decisions inside the White House from Truman to Obama. New York: Arcade, 2015. Print. (Review)

Introduction

Michael Bohn is the former director of the white house situation room. He was a career naval intelligence officer from 1969 to 1988. He also served as a social aide to President Nixon before becoming the white house situation room director for President Reagan. The situation room is the president’s alert and communication centre. Bohn’s book President’s in crisis is a relative study of how American Presidents make decisive and bold actions when faced with a crisis, or when American lives are in danger. His primary objective is to let the reader in on the fascinating accounts of how American presidents have steered fundamental foreign policies.

Bohn’s book covers the entire period from the reign of Truman to the current President Obama. He helps bring out to the ordinary citizen, the importance of the situation room, how it has been exploited by different Presidents, and the political affairs included in communicating relevant information to whoever who needs to know it on a real time basis.

Each crisis in the book is explained in a numerous page account followed by the consequences of the president’s actions. Bohn reflects on George bush’s response to the Iraq invasion of Kuwait in 1990, the Cuban missile crisis handling by Kennedy and the success Kissinger and Nixon’s diplomacy in 1973. (Townley 66)

His most contentious review is the acknowledgement of President Obama's response to the use of chemical weapons in 2014.The author describes that there is a significant gap between what a president can practically accomplish in crisis and what the ordinary public expect. Citizens want crucial and bold actions to right wrongs and rescue the innocent. This cannot be achieved in real life as there are decisions to make. Presidents endeavour to be wielders of decisive foreign policies, yet circumstances force them to make temporary fixes.

Most presidents use an international crisis to divert the public from a domestic dilemma. The author describes this as tail wagging (Bouhn 56). Most of the Presidents who have taken this approach have always succeeded. A classic example is the 1962 Cuban crisis where President Kennedy made a deal with the Soviets and avoided war (Bohn 88). On the contrary, there are factors that cause presidents to take ill-advised actions such as presidential scandal or election campaigns.

Conclusion

In stating the accounts of seventeen historic presidential decisions, the author succeeds in explain to the reader why national security situations are not as simple and straightforward as they are often thought to be. He argues that daring presidential actions seldom resolve foreign policy crisis adequately. (Bohn 98) However, he manages to offer valuable insight into the critical decision making of Presidents Truman through Obama.

The book heaves doubt about the significance of doctrines as guides for action and succeeds in making the reader agree sympathetically with the careful approaches in decision making that the Presidents have been criticized for following. He reminds us that these presidents have had to deal with unanticipated crises, and the choices they make are never easy.

The author manages to arrange his ideas in a way that there is smooth prose flow and the reader easily gets what the author is communicating. He offers different citations and supporting evidence in his book. He also cites an article he wrote; ranking the twelve presidents in 2015. American leadership and its presidents have always come under scrutiny. However, Bohn manages to bring out a more lively approach to a familiar tale.

Works Cited

Bohn, Michael K. Presidents in Crisis Tough Decisions inside the White House from Truman to Obama. New York: Arcade, 2015. Print.

Townley, Justin. "Is The Color Of The Economic Crisis The Color Of Presidential Fear?." Berkeley La Raza Law Journal 22.(2012): 51-66. Academic Search Premier. Web. 9 Apr. 2015.