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Beginning with the Cold War and concluding with the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Hannah Gurman explores the overlooked opposition of U.S. diplomats to American foreign policy in the latter half of the twentieth century. During America's reign as a dominant world power, U.S. presidents and senior foreign policy officials largely ignored or rejected their diplomats' reports, memos, and telegrams, especially when they challenged key policies relating to the Cold War, China, and the wars in Vietnam and Iraq. The Dissent Papers recovers these diplomats' invaluable perspective and their commitment to the transformative power of diplomatic writing.Gurman showcases the work of diplomats whose opposition enjoyed some success. George Kennan, John Stewart Service, John Paton Davies, George Ball, and John Brady Kiesling all caught the attention of sitting presidents and policymakers, achieving temporary triumphs yet ultimately failing to change the status quo. Gurman follows the circulation of documents within the State Department, the National Security Council, the C.I.A., and the military, and she details the rationale behind "The Dissent Channel," instituted by the State Department in the 1970s, to both encourage and contain dissent. Advancing an alternative narrative of modern U.S. history, she connects the erosion of the diplomatic establishment and the weakening of the diplomatic writing tradition to larger political and ideological trends while, at the same time, foreshadowing the resurgent significance of diplomatic writing in the age of Wikileaks.
Javan Frazier:One of the best compliments that can be paid to a book is to say that it made the reader think and this book certainly accomplished that.
Laura Belmonte:...a welcome celebration of elegent prose and careful analysis.
John H. Brown:...well-researched and spared of academic jargon...
Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman, San Diego State University, author of Broken Promises: A Novel of the Civil War:Hannah Gurman's approach and evidence are fresh and original. She brings disparate yet connected stories together to show how diplomats used the primary tool given to them: language.
Frank Ninkovich, St. John's University, author of Global Dawn: The Cultural Foundation of American Imperialism, 1865–1890:The Dissent Papers is an outstanding account of dissent in the State Department since the Second World War. I know of no other work that treats the issue in this synoptic manner. The volume's later chapters present new material in a particularly subtle and provocative way. The book is fresh, unique, and stimulating.
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