Arnold A. Offner is Cornelia F. Hugel Professor of History at Lafayette College. He is the author of American Appeasement: United States Foreign Policy and Germany, 1933-1938 and The Origins of the Second World War: American Foreign Policy and World Politics, 1917-1941, and co-editor of Victory in Europe, 1945: From WorldWar to ColdWar.
"This major book is a critical revisionist portrait of Truman's personal role in shaping U.S. foreign policy toward the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China... The importance of the scholarship, the author's careful voice of reasonable criticism, the lucid writing style - all should give the book a popular readership that reaches beyond the university and foreign policy publics." - J. Garry Clifford, University of Connecticut "At a moment in the early 2lst century when the choices in a new crisis seem simply black and white, this is precisely the kind of historical perspective we should have. Professor Offner has reopened a long overdue debate on Harry Truman - both on the man and his role in the origins of the Cold War... [I]t certainly demands to be read and widely discussed." - Walter LaFeber, Cornell University and author of America, Russia and the Cold War "In this cogently argued and meticulously documented study, Arnold Offner challenges popular attitudes about Harry Truman's leadership. Another Such Victory presents a powerful indictment of a president whose inexperience, provincialism, and uncritical acceptance of the superiority of American values and interests led to needlessly provocative policies that exacerbated international tensions at a crucial juncture in modern world history... [O]ne of the most important books about the early Cold War to appear in the past decade." - Robert J. McMahon, University of Florida "Offner has written a provocative, critical analysis of Harry S Truman, now the most acclaimed president of the Cold War era. Everyone who has read McCullough on Truman will want to read Offner and reexamine previous conclusions. If you are interested in executive decision-making in times of international crisis, this is a book worth reading and pondering." - Melvyn Leffler, University of Virgina and fellow, The Woodrow Wilson Center "This important contribution to Truman biography and Cold War history runs against the grain of much recent scholarship. It is certain to generate controversy and open up debate." - David Reynolds, Christ's College, Cambridge University
"This major book is a critical revisionist portrait of Truman's personal role in shaping U.S. foreign policy toward the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China... The importance of the scholarship, the author's careful voice of reasonable criticism, the lucid writing style - all should give the book a popular readership that reaches beyond the university and foreign policy publics." - J. Garry Clifford, University of Connecticut "At a moment in the early 2lst century when the choices in a new crisis seem simply black and white, this is precisely the kind of historical perspective we should have. Professor Offner has reopened a long overdue debate on Harry Truman - both on the man and his role in the origins of the Cold War... [I]t certainly demands to be read and widely discussed." - Walter LaFeber, Cornell University and author of America, Russia and the Cold War "In this cogently argued and meticulously documented study, Arnold Offner challenges popular attitudes about Harry Truman's leadership. Another Such Victory presents a powerful indictment of a president whose inexperience, provincialism, and uncritical acceptance of the superiority of American values and interests led to needlessly provocative policies that exacerbated international tensions at a crucial juncture in modern world history... [O]ne of the most important books about the early Cold War to appear in the past decade." - Robert J. McMahon, University of Florida "Offner has written a provocative, critical analysis of Harry S Truman, now the most acclaimed president of the Cold War era. Everyone who has read McCullough on Truman will want to read Offner and reexamine previous conclusions. If you are interested in executive decision-making in times of international crisis, this is a book worth reading and pondering." - Melvyn Leffler, University of Virgina and fellow, The Woodrow Wilson Center "This important contribution to Truman biography and Cold War history runs against the grain of much recent scholarship. It is certain to generate controversy and open up debate." - David Reynolds, Christ's College, Cambridge University
Readers of this cramped assessment of foreign policy during Truman's watch won't learn that the accidental president inherited the Cold War instead, he and his "parochial and nationalistic heritage" apparently bear much of the blame for it. Offner, a professor at Lafayette College, also considers Mao a "populist" despot and deems Stalin obsessed by legitimate national security concerns. Yet after dumping on Truman for his inexperienced, shoot-from-the-hip leadership, Offner reluctantly acknowledges the unprepared president's surprising resolve and capacity. Containment of Soviet ambitions was a "jaundiced" Truman strategy that worked, for example. But in the pre-Cold War chill bequeathed to Truman, even Lend-Lease American aircraft being ferried to Russia in 1941 could not cross into Soviet space with American pilots, a fact the author ignores. And Truman's decisions in Korea, the author argues, would lead his successors to make "extravagant claims of presidential power while leading the nation into conflicts that ultimately diminished the office." Also, Truman's airlift to save West Berlin, his creation of NATO and the economic miracle of the Marshall Plan sowed discord and divided both Germany and Europe in "indefinite stalemate." In scolding Truman for personal diplomacy and for giving in to congressional hawks (as on China), Offner also ignores the constraints that the Republican opposition placed upon him. B&w photos. (Mar.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
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