Morality, Reason, and Power: American Diplomacy in the Carter Years

by Gaddis Smith

Examines U.S. foreign policy during the Carter administration, discusses the arms race, the Panama Canal, the Middle East situation, and the Iran hostage crisis, and suggests reasons for Carter's failure to be reelected

296 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1987

About the author

Gaddis Smith was an American historian who was the Larned Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University and an expert on U.S. foreign relations and maritime history.

Reviews

[Michael]

Gaddis Smith's prose is clear and readable. His portrait of the Carter administration's foreign policy is also written as tragedy, but without any insistence that things could have been better. Smith's book rests on no counterfactual premises.

Morality, Reason & Power is a comprehensive study of the Carter Administration's foreign policy which remains manageable because it does not attempt to be exhaustive. As the layout of the book's cover suggests, with its pictures of Cyrus Vance and Zbigniew Brzezinski flanking Jimmy Carter, the book's focus is on the interplay between these three key figures. Starting in 1977 with a mandate to effect "moral" reform in American foreign policy, Jimmy Carter is eventually moved by Soviet aggression and his own self-righteous personality (among other factors) to heed the hard-line advice of Brzezinski and ignore Vance's entreaties for moderation. In Smith's estimation it was tragic that Carter couldn't escape the narrow Cold Warriorism of his predecessors.

[Andrew]

A really useful reference book-ish book on the foreign relations during the Carter years. Could have been even better had Smith weighed different issues.

[Alex Hope]

summary without any analysis whatsoever
I do not understand why people write books on historical topics 5-10 years after “insert period here” happened. Not all the documents could be viewed, 90% remain classified, which gives a vague picture of what happened actually. I understand its relevancy and money, but my god, this is just horrific! Although i can give credit to the author for staying objective and not political — something modern authors lack