Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

Library Journal Review

The author, who was director of policy planning at the State Department during the Carter administration, has written a book about how foreign policy decisions are made. He carefully examines how our policy toward Nicaragua in 1978-79 emerged, describes the characteristics of the middle players in this decision-making process, and discusses the complexities which govern their two important groups--career officers and political appointees. The result is an insightful, objective, and clear account, based in part on frank interviews and personal experiences, that illustrates both policy-making groups' paradoxical positions and offers precise lessons to be learned from past dealings with Third World revolutions. Recommended.-- Roderic A. Camp, Central Univ., Pella, Ia. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Lake, director of policy planning in the State Department during the Carter administration and coauthor of Our Own Worst Enemy , here reconstructs Washington's reaction to the Nicaraguan revolution and the U.S. role in the downfall of Anastasio Somoza. Generally taking a sympathetic view, the author nonetheless exposes State's horse-on-ice responses to the crisis from the January 10, 1978, assassination of the editor-publisher of La Prensa to the entry of the Sandinistas into Managua on July 20, 1979, tracing the development of U.S. policy at various levels at a time when policymakers had been caught unprepared for the crisis. Most of the conferences reconstructed here revolved around the central dilemma of how to extricate the U.S. from Nicaragua without sacrificing American interests in the region, which makes this study a useful casebook for students of foreign policy. The author is critical of State's emphasis on training and promoting generalists and managers at the expense of the kind of ``area experts'' that were sorely needed and absent in our dealings with Nicaragua. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

CHOICE Review

The fall of Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza serves as a backdrop for Lake's insider study of US policy-making by the Carter administration. For those unaware of the conflicts in the foreign policy bureaucracy over the correct position with respect to Somoza, the book provides an objective appraisal of key decisions and decision-makers. Lake, who was director of Policy Planning at the State Department during the Carter presidency, effectively describes the often complex and contentious process of dealing with the fall of a close ally whose corrupt and repressive regime had become an embarrassment to Washington. The strength of the book is in its skillful discussion of the motivations and dilemmas of policymakers as they explored ways to create a transition from authoritarian rule. Lake's more personal and human analysis makes this book an excellent companion to Robert Pastor's Condemned to Repetition: The United States and Nicaragua (CH, Jan '88). Unlike Pastor, Lake is less interested in an apologia for US policy in Nicaragua and more concerned with clearly describing the last days of Somoza and the role the US played in ensuring his departure. The book concludes with an excellent discussion of the need for reform of the US Foreign Service and the qualities necessary to increase the level of performance of those who represent the US abroad. Upper-division undergraduates and general readers. -M. J. Kryzanek, Bridgewater State College

Booklist Review

Two new studies of politics and international relations in Latin America and specifically in Nicaragua. A former member of the foreign policy team of the Carter administration, Lake traces the series of events that led to the downfall of the Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua in 1979. Though not personally involved with Latin American affairs at the time, Lake ably reconstructs from various sources an intimate view of U.S. reaction to what was happening in Nicaragua and nearby countries while the revolutionary Sandinista movement eroded popular support for the Somoza dynasty once backed by the U.S. Decisions made by the State Department and by the White House at this time would have enormous effect on international relations between the U.S and Latin America down the line, and Lake's account lays out in impressive detail the cause-and-effect relationships that have occurred as a result. Notes; index. Sheehan, a foreign service officer and journalist, gives a more personal view of the Latin American situation based on his travels through Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. While he often reports on the political conditions in this region, Sheehan is more concerned with the social and economic situation at its most basic everyday level. The suffering and the deprivation that he has observed are described in devastating detail yet with ideological neutrality. Sheehan is also the author of The Arabs, Israelis, and Kissinger [BKL D 15 76]. Notes, bibliography; index. -- John Brosnahan

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

He served as national security advisor to President Clinton from 1993 to 1996. He first joined the State Department in 1962, eventually serving as an aide to Henry Kissinger & returned to the department in the Carter Administration. He is currently a professor at Georgetown University & lectures extensively across the country. He live in Washington, D. C..

(Bowker Author Biography)