Introduction Richard Holbrooke, a career diplomat, took on one of the most difficult international crises of his day. In his book, To End a War, He tells of how he was sent to Bosnia as the Chief Negotiator for the United States towards the end of 1995. As a negotiator, his moral values and reasoning ability was among the best. He had sincere passion to bring peace to the Balkans and risked life and limb in carrying out his mission. In the fourteen weeks that formed the core of his story, Holbrooke encountered conflict, confusion and tragedy in an unpredictably dangerous situation. Those involved, consisted of more than the team members who were with him and reached as far as President Clinton, Secretary of State Warren Christopher …show more content…
Leading the Dayton conference for several weeks they signed a peace treaty, but it took them three years to pull together constitutions, set up states and come to agreements. Deadlocks on principles occurred and the conference was to end at midnight. Holbrooke meant business and those whom he was negotiating with learned the hard way. Agreements were reached soon after. There was criticism of the way in which Dayton handled it, but it worked, and it worked well and put an end to the Bosnian war in 1995. He showed his capacity to resolve the crisis. The writer explained that NATO allies were unwilling to intercede and afraid of embarrassment because the area of concern was connected to Europe. It was also difficult to get support from home with the strategy that Holbrooke had created. After an attack on Sarajevo that killed several civilians, the United States Air Force carried out an air strike that stopped the Bosnian Serb military, allowing the Croats to take over part of the territory. This, coupled with sanctions against Serbia, forced Milosevic to negotiate with the United States along with getting an agreement with Prime Minister versus President, Bosnians, and parties to come to terms with unifying a …show more content…
A wise statement by a wise man who tried his hardest to bring peace. I found Holbrooke’s writing style easy to follow. He uses his pen to paint each scene in a way that the reader feels as if they are on his journey with him, while explaining the political background. He laid out the situations that he had experienced in a way that one could easily follow and understand what he had been up against. One such example was the effect that author Rebecca West, who wrote a travel book called, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, in 1941 had caused. Her pro-Serbian viewpoints were that Muslims were racially inferior. Holbrooke explained that this book had influenced a couple of generations of policy makers and politicians. She revisited her ideas in another book that was published in 1993, which was a best seller, called Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History, leaving readers to believe that nothing could be done by those outside of this region because there was so much hatred between the inhabitants of the region between one another. Words are powerful and according to Holbrooke, these books influenced President Clinton and members of his Administration, leaving them convinced that it was fruitless to get involved. All the while Serbs were committing heinous atrocities on the Muslims who were imprisoned in Bosnia. It is fascinating how impactful a book can be to both leaders of
Is it true Americans are rightfully notorious for creating inaccurate paradigms of what really happened in historical events Americans are tied to? Has America ever censored historical events in order to protect Americans innocent democratic reputation? After reading, “The Best War Ever” by Michael C.C Adams, I have found the answers to these questions to be yes. Some of the myths that Adams addresses in his book include: 1. America was innocent in world war two and was an ever acting protagonist in the war; 2. World war two or any war for that matter can be, or is a “good war” and bring prosperity to America; 3. War world two brought unity to Americans.
Richard Russell was a steadfast individual who believed that the United States should not support, or even attempt to enter into any kind of conflict without direct provocation or dire need of American intervention. This mindset played a major role in influencing his decisions on foreign policy issues such as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, and the Vietnam War. Since there was what seemed to him a lack of antagonization on the part of the Vietnamese towards the United States, he believed that it would be a waste of money, time, and American lives to enter into a conflict that would bring no benefits to the United States. Russell being as adamant as he was, would make this point to his long time friend Lyndon Johnson on multiple occasions in an attempt to sway him from getting the United States involved. His attempt at swaying his long time friend from war would prove
Mark Atwood Lawrence’s The Vietnam War: A Concise International History shows readers an international affair involving many nations and how the conflict progressed throughout its rather large existence. Lawrence starts his book in a time before America was involved in the war. It starts out with the French trying to colonize the nation of Vietnam. Soon the United States gets involved and struggles to get its point across in the jungles of Indo-China. Much of the book focuses on the American participation in helping South Vietnam vie for freedom to combine the country as a whole not under Communist rule. Without seeing many results, the war drug on for quite some time with neither side giving up. This resulted in problems in Vietnam and the U.S.
Michael C. C. Adams' book, The Best War Ever: America and World War II, attempts to dispel the numerous misconceptions of the Second World War. As the title suggests, Americans came out of the war with a positive view of the preceding five turbulent years. This myth was born from several factors. Due to the overseas setting of both theaters of the war, intense government propaganda, Hollywood's glamorization, and widespread economic prosperity, Americans were largely sheltered form the brutal truth of World War II. Even to this day, the generation of World War II is viewed as being superior in morality and unity. The popular illusion held that 'there were no ethnic or gender problems, families were happy and united, and children worked hard in school and read a great number of books.' (115)
War termination and the decision of when to negotiate peace are rarely effectively planned before a war. The Russo-Japanese War is one of a few historical exceptions. The Russo-Japanese War provides three enduring lessons about war termination in a conflict fought for limited aims. First, the most effective war termination plans are created before the war. Second, continued military and political pressure can effectively improve your position to negotiate peace. Third, common interests and compromise are required for durable peace.
This investigation assesses the success of the policies of Henry Kissinger during the tense period of the Cold War and the sequential years, specifically pertaining to the peace summits with Russian officials in 1972 and 1973 with regard to the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaties. This investigation evaluates Kissinger’s impact during the period of the SALT treaties on the reduction of nuclear arms and the implementation of détente. Specifically, how Kissinger got what he wanted, the risks involved, and the outcome of the treaties. The sources used, Détente and the Nixon Doctrine, by Robert S. Litwak and Kissinger: 1973, The Crucial Year, by Alistair Horne, will then be evaluated for their origins, purposes, values, and limitations.
The United States Involvement in Bosnia; is it positive or negative. After a lifetime of war in Bosnia, can the United States really offer positive change? To truly get a feel for the conflict in this region we must first look at the long-standing hatred between the occupying ethnic groups: Serbs, Muslims, and Croats. From 1481 to 1903 the Ottoman Empire was the ruling body over the entire Balkan region. By the early nineteen hundreds the Ottoman Empire had collapsed. In 1918, at the end of World War One, Russia annexed the Balkan region renaming it Yugoslavia. In 1919 Joseph Stalin, Communist ruler of Russia and its satellite states (i.e. Yugoslavia), appointed Tito to be the head of Yugoslavia. Tito quickly became an iron fisted and ruthless dictator. The Machiavellian characteristics exhibited by Tito have given all Serbs a reputation as being strong armed and merciless. With Tito’s death in 1991, Yugoslavia collapsed and split into 3 independent states: Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Croatia. In 1994 Slovadon Malosovitch was elected ruler of the Serbian state. Incidents of mass genocide and several other war crimes became regular occurrences under his rule. The Bosnian crisis has shown the world the worst of human nature. On behalf of the United Nations, in an effort to settle the unrest in the Balkan region, The United States became involved in 1995. The United States involvement includes: the commitment of twenty thousand troops, the troop support of legions of tanks and other vehicles, and the “full support” of the United States Government.
During the Peace Conference there was two themes that was very critical. The first is that each victorious European ally had betrayed the new diplomacy of President Woodrow Wilson and therefore deprived the postwar international order of its moral
In his book, “Woodrow Wilson Revolution, War, and Peace” by Arthur Link, Link walks step by step through President Woodrow Wilson’s career beginning from the time he was born and focuses on his role during and after World War I. Through his entire book, Link acts as an apologist for the actions of Wilson as well as argues against the opinions of other historians. Link speaks about Wilson almost as if he idolizes him; as if despite what other historians and public opinion might say that he can do no wrong.
Henry A. Kissinger, perhaps one of the most powerful American diplomats of the twentieth century, remarked that in his time, “[George F. Kennan] came as close to authoring the diplomatic doctrine of his era as any diplomat in our history” (Kissinger, 1979: 135). It is interesting to note, however, Kissinger’s appraisal of the doctrine as being a success in his time—not all time, and perhaps not even in Kissinger’s time. Despite the relative absence of scholarly consensus surrounding the body of thought that has become Kennan’s strategic canon, few could plausibly deny that Kennan had a profound impact on the exercise of American foreign policy during the Cold War.
Barker, Nancy and Brown, Marvin L. JR., ed. Diplomacy in an Age of Nationalism: Essays in Honor of Lynn Marshall Case. Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, 1971.
War has been a consistent piece of mankind 's history. It has significantly influenced the lives of individuals around the globe. The impacts are amazingly adverse. In the novel, “The Wars,” by Timothy Findley, Soldiers must shoulder compelling weight on the warzone. Such weight is both family and the country weight. Many individuals look at soldiers for hop and therefore, adding load to them. Those that cannot rationally beat these difficulties may create Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Tragically, some resort to suicide to get away from their insecurities. Troops, notwithstanding, are not by any means the only ones influenced by wars; relatives likewise encounter mental hardships when their friends and family are sent to war. Timothy Findley
Their action to prevent this was to dissolve the rest of Yugoslavia and created Serbia and Montenegro. This was the end of Yugoslavia.
... has been providing a military there to ensure safety, trying to return displaced persons to their homes, and making an effort to reconcile the armed forces of Bosnia-Croat Federation and the Republika Srpska. NATO also created the Security Cooperation Program (SCP) which helps strengthen stability and promotes reconciliation in the Bosnian community, like the UN,. NATO has also been involved with the complications in Kosovo. In October of 1998, NATO threatened air strikes to force the Milosevic regime in Kosovo to withdraw their forces, help bring an end to the violence, and to let the refugees return to their homes. President Milosevic agreed. The next year, after months of continued threats NATO began to bomb Yugoslavia on March 24th 1999, because Milosevic refused to make peace. The war in Kosovo has killed more than two thousand people and forced more than four hundred thousand from their homes.
War is such a debatable topic of whether it is just to wage a war on our neighbours or invade a country.One thing is very clear there are consequence and a cost. Martin Luther once stated,“War is the greatest plague that can afflict humanity, it destroys religion, it destroys states, it destroys families”. This was exactly what did. War was not a fun game like what Jessie Pope described it as in her poem, ‘Who’s for the game’. What war did was it changed people and society. The war caused soldiers to suffer from PTSD, it left families to face the feeling of grief and it crippled the economy.