Not since the 1960s, when American troops were bogged down in Vietnam, has the U.S. role on the world stage been so controversial. The Iraq War now enters its fourth year, its merits still contested by leading politicians in the United States and elsewhere, as well as at the grassroots. And revelations suggest that the president's highly respected secretary of state, Colin Powell, had opposed going to war. Historians have often analyzed the relationship between presidents and their advisers-but rarely the influence of those counselors who have dissented from the views of the chief executive. Mark White's innovative book considers the question of alternative policies by examining the response of presidents, from Harry Truman to Lyndon Johnson, to dissent within their own administrations on key national security issues.

Mark J. White a Reader in History at the University of London (Queen Mary).