Book Synopsis
In 1969 President Nixon made statements to the press in Guam that were not intended to be an official announcement of a change in foreign policy, but nevertheless they were taken to be a new direction in foreign policy. This direction was markedly different from that of Kennedy and Johnson and in time came to be known as the Nixon Doctrine. The Nixon Doctrine has been studied to various degrees and the debate has varied over time as to whether the doctrine was intended only for the region of Southeast Asia or was intended to be more global in scope. What has been missing from the debate up to this point is a detailed analysis of the Nixon tapes which the president recorded while in office. Until this study, these conversations remained untranscribed and overlooked despite being available, in some cases, for several years. This study shows the influence and evolution of various presidential doctrines and their impact on the foreign policy of the United States and evaluates the Nixon Tapes to determine if the Nixon Doctrine was intended to be a grand strategy or a regional policy.