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Historians William Appleman Williams and Walter LaFeber began characterising the United States as an empire several decades ago, and this has since become the dominant interpretation in the history...

This commentary challenges the major conclusion of a 1997 article which appeared in this journal. There, Philip Zelikow argued that previous treatments of the Council of Foreign Ministers 1947 meeting in Moscow erred in their characterization of the role of US Secretary of State Marshall. Earlier studies, in Zelikow’s view, failed to understand that Marshall, refusing to be constrained by the recently announced containment policy, made a serious effort to meet Soviet demands for reparations from current German output. It is contended here that a review of the evidence, especially materials from the John Foster Dulles papers and from British archives, does not support Zelikow’s conclusion. Frank Costigliola, Carolyn Eisenberg, Walter LaFeber, and Edmund Wehrle offered suggestions and encouragment. Robert Hannigan gave invaluable editorial advice. Over the years Marilyn Sheffer and Amy Syrell of Skidmore’s Interlibrary Loan Office have been unfailingly supportive. The author thanks them all while taking ful...

I would like to thank the many people in La Paz, Bolivia, and Washington, D.C., who allowed me to interview them, and Barb Bergman, Arnoldo De Le6n, Daniel Castro, Jerome Crowder, Walter LaFeber, Jane Mangen, and Stephen Streeter for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article. I would also like to thank Albert (Ace) Freeman for help with word processing and Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman and Jonathan Zimmerman for their help when I first conceptualized the article. In addition, former Peace Corps country directors for Bolivia, Derek Singer and Gerold "Gino" Baumann, proved extremely helpful, even sharing parts of their personal archives. 1. Examples include Gary May, "Passing the Torch and Lighting the Fires: The Peace Corps," in Thomas G. Paterson, ed., Kennedy 's Quest for Victory: American

Book reviewed in this article: Walter LaFeber, The Clash: A History of U.S.-Japan Relations

WALTER LAFEBER. The Clash: US-Japan Relations throughout History. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997. Pp. xxii, 508. $29.95 (US); PATRICK SMITH. Japan: A Reinterpretation. New York: Pantheon Books, 1997. Pp. 385. $27.50 (US); MICHAEL SCHALLER. Altered States: The United States and Japan since the Occupation. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Pp. 320. $44.50 (CDN); STEPHEN D. COHEN. An Ocean Apart: Explaining Three Decades of US-Japanese Trade Frictions. Westport: Praeger, 1998. Pp. xi, 256. $65.00 (US). Reviewed by Warren I. Cohen

Volume 1: The Creation of a Republican Empire, 1776-1865. By Bradford Perkins. (New York, Cambridge University Press, 1993. xii + 254 pp.) Volume 2: The American Search for Opportunity, 1865-1913. By Walter LaFeber. (New York, Cambridge University Press, 1993. xvi + 263 pp.) Volume 3: The Globalizing of America, 1913-1945. By Akira Iriye. (New York, Cambridge University Press, 1993. xii + 240 pp.) Volume 4: America in the Age of Soviet Power, 1945-1991. By Warren I. Cohen. (New York, Cambridge University Press, 1993. xiv + 283 pp.)

Writing in "Life" magazine in February 1941, Henry Luce memorably announced the arrival of "The American Century". The phrase caught on, as did the belief that America's moment was at hand. Yet as Andrew J. Bacevich makes clear, that century has now ended, the victim of strategic miscalculation, military misadventures, and economic decline. To take stock of the "Short American Century" and place it in historical perspective, Bacevich has assembled a richly provocative range of perspectives. What did this age of reputed American preeminence signify? What caused its premature demise? What legacy remains in its wake? Distinguished historians Jeffry Frieden, Akira Iriye, David Kennedy, Walter LaFeber, Jackson Lears, Eugene McCarraher, Emily Rosenberg, and Nikhil Pal Singh offer illuminating answers to these questions. Achievement and failure, wisdom and folly, calculation and confusion all make their appearance in essays that touch on topics as varied as internationalism and empire, race and religion, consumerism and globalization. As the United States grapples with protracted wars, daunting economic uncertainty, and pressing questions about exactly what role it should play in a rapidly changing world, understanding where the nation has been and how it got where it is today is critical. What did the forging of the American Century - with its considerable achievements but also its ample disappointments and missed opportunities - ultimately yield? That is the question this important volume answers.

In 1972, the United States returned the Ryukyu island chain to Japa nese sovereignty, ending negotiations over the status of this chain and the Bonin islands. The return of these two island chains, which in cluded Okinawa and Iwo Jima, was an example of diplomacy at its very best. The United States and Japan reached a settlement through negotiations that met the minimum needs of both nations. Japan re gained lost territory, while the United States maintained an alliance critical to an international system that made it the predominate power in the Pacific. The return of these islands brought continuity through change. Previous writers working on this topic have focused only on the changes Okinawa reversion brought about. The failure to mention continuity is present in studies exploring this event from either a bi lateral or international perspective. Two scholars examined U.S.-Japa nese relations in light of the war in Vietnam. Walter LaFeber contends that Okinawa, trade, China, and the war wrecked relations between the two countries, invoking a new era. This new relationship resembled the 1920s more than the time between 1945 and 1960. While Japan was strong, it was hardly capable of or interested in pursuing a course totally independent of the United States, because of Okinawan rever sion. Thomas H. R. Havens argues that the war forced the United States to return Okinawa, and Japan to expand its defense commit ment to include South Korea. Havens gives too much credit to the war. Even if there had there been no Vietnam War, Okinawa still would have been returned. There were a number of bilateral factors, sepa rate from the war, that compelled the United States to do so. Given that fact, studies examining the return of the island solely from Japa nese and American perspectives are more likely to give a more accu rate account. Even then, these works only discuss the changes reversion brought. In a doctoral dissertation published as a book in 1970, Akio

Acknowledgments 1. Introduction Warren I. Cohen 2. Lyndon B. Johnson: change and continuity Waldo Heinrichs 3. Johnson, Vietnam, and Tocqueville Walter LaFeber 4. A time in the tide of men's affairs: Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam Richard H. Immerman 5. Threats, opportunities, and frustrations in East Asia Nancy Bernkopf Tucker 6. Toward disillusionment and disengagement in South Asia Robert J. McMahon 7. Lyndon B. Johnson, Germany, and 'the end of the Cold War' Frank Costigliola 8. The promise of progress: United States relations with Latin America during the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson Joseph S. Tulchin 9. Keeping Africa off the agenda Terrence Lyons 10. Balancing American interests in the Middle East: Lyndon Baines Johnson vs. Gamal Abdul Nasser Warren I. Cohen 11. Lyndon Johnson: the final reckoning Nancy Bernkopf Tucker.

Oliver Stone has left an indelible mark on public opinion and political life and has generated enormous controversy and debate among those who take issue with his dramatic use of history. This text brings Stone face-to-face with some of his critics and supporters and allows Stone himself ample room to respond to their views. Featuring such luminaries as David Halberstam, Stephen Ambrose, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr, Walter LaFeber and Robert Rosenstone, this book provides a critique of Stone's most contested films to show how they may distort, amplify or transcend the historical realities they appear to depict. Films including "Salvador", "Platoon", "Wall Street", "Born on the Fourth of July", "The Doors", "JFK", "Heaven and Earth", "Natural Born Killers" and "Nixon" are examined, aiming to give a fuller appreciation of Stone as both artist and intellectual. In response, Stone offers a defence of his artistic vision.

"The most provocative and informative insider's account we have on U.S. policy toward Cuba and Central America during the Carter and Reagan years. It should especially enliven the sharpening debate over U.S. policy toward Central America".--Walter LaFeber (Inevitable Revolutions). Photos.

HISTORIANS have amply demonstrated the widespread interest in foreign markets following upon the growth of manufacturing and the closing of the frontier. This article tests the rhetoric of the generation between I890 and I9I4 against the realities of the China market for American goods and against the specific efforts of both business and government to capture it. We need not cover in any detail what other scholars have already covered. Great numbers of Americans did much writing and even more talking about the future importance of China as a market for American goods. Journalists told of 400,000,000 customers and how, if they added but one inch to their frock coats, the textile mills of New England would be kept busy for years to come. Historians have documented the far-reaching hopes of Americans. Charles Campbell in his Special Business Interests and the Open Door (New Haven, Conn., I95I) gives an account of the American Asiatic Association, a group of merchants engaged in the China trade, and their extravagant hopes during the late I890's. Julius Pratt in his Expansionists of I898 (Baltimore, I936) discusses the interest in the China market during the same decade, and Walter LaFeber in The New Empire (Ithaca, N. Y., I963) likewise deals at length with the business community's discussion of the importance of China as an outlet for surplus goods. Although these accounts terminate with the decade of the I890's, an extreme optimism prevailed for the next several years. The American Asiatic Association promoted the cause in political councils throughout the first decade of the century. At the same time, the weekly New York newspaper, the journal of Commerce and Commercial Chronicle, carried forward the campaign. It flattered the ego of Americans to think of their country as the supplier of the world's market and coincided with their nationalistic spirit. It likewise seemed to promise a solution to the problem of the much-discussed surplus. Why this interest focused on China is not clear. To be sure, exports to that country increased sufficiently in the I890's to provide some basis for