My Twelve Years with John F. Kennedy


Book Description

This book is a groups of recollections of the woman who served as personal secretary to John F. Kennedy from his first days as Congressman through his years as President.




Why England Slept


Book Description

Originally published in 1940, Why England Slept was written by then-Harvard student and future American president John F. Kennedy. It was Kennedy's senior thesis that analyzed the tremendous miscalculations of the British leaders in facing Germany on the advent of World War II, and in doing so, also addressed the challenges that democracies face when confronted directly with fascist states. In Why England Slept, at the book's core, John F. Kennedy asks: Why was England so poorly prepared for the war? He provides a comprehensive analysis of the tremendous miscalculations of the British leadership when it came to dealing with Germany and leads readers into considering other questions: Was the poor state of the British army the reason Chamberlain capitulated at Munich, or were there other, less-obvious elements at work that allowed this to happen? Kennedy also looks at similarities to America's position of unpreparedness and makes astute observations about the implications involved. This re-publication of the classic book contains excerpts from the foreword to the 1940 original edition by Henry R. Luce, an American magazine magnate during that era; the foreword to the 1961 edition, also written by Luce; and a new foreword by Stephen C. Schlesinger, written in 2015.




Report to JFK


Book Description

"The Anglo-American crisis arose from a massive misunderstanding between the two governments. The British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, had been operating on the assumption that Washington would proceed with, and sell for British use, an airborne missile system named Skybolt. In its defense planning the United Kingdom relied on Skybolt to sustain its nuclear deterrence. The Americans, however, decided to cancel the program. This decision rocked the British government and seriously strained Anglo-American relations, while its hasty resolution gave President de Gaulle of France an excuse to veto British membership in the European Economic Community."--BOOK JACKET. "This volume adds to the report itself Kennedy's comments about it, a glossary, a cast of characters, new information gleaned from recently declassified British files, and Neustadt's comparison of British and American governments both at the time of the Skybolt affair and at present."--BOOK JACKET.







The Letters of John F. Kennedy


Book Description

Published for the fiftieth anniversary year of the assassination of JFK in Dallas in November 1963, these letters, many published for the first time, present both the politician and the man.







Street Without Joy


Book Description

First published in 1961 by Stackpole Books, Street without Joy is a classic of military history. Journalist and scholar Bernard Fall vividly captured the sights, sounds, and smells of the brutal— and politically complicated—conflict between the French and the Communist-led Vietnamese nationalists in Indochina. The French fought to the bitter end, but even with the lethal advantages of a modern military, they could not stave off the Viet Minh insurgency of hit-and-run tactics, ambushes, booby traps, and nighttime raids. The final French defeat came at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, setting the stage for American involvement and a far bloodier chapter in Vietnam‘s history. Fall combined graphic reporting with deep scholarly knowledge of Vietnam and its colonial history in a book memorable in its descriptions of jungle fighting and insightful in its arguments. After more than a half a century in print, Street without Joy remains required reading.