The Failures of the Presidents: From the Whiskey Rebellion and War of 1812 to the Bay of Pigs and War in Iraq

By Thomas J. Craughwell

Book Overview

Everybody makes mistakes, but when an American president blunders, the results can be catastrophic. The Failures of the Presidents takes an in depth look at presidential decision-making processes gone wrong. The book examines the seemingly promising policies and courses of action that turned out to be the worst decisions American presidents have made.

From the Whiskey Rebellion and War of 1812 to the Bay of Pigs and Iraq, the stories featured here altered the course of the nation's history, and in some cases changed the history of the world for the worse. What were they thinking?

In an effort to put an end to Britain and France's policy of seizing American ships and sailors, Thomas Jefferson calls for an embargo. The Result: 30,000 sailors put out of work; mercantile families bankrupted overnight; a nationwide economic depression; and the New England states, which depended heavily on international commerce, threaten to secede from the Union.
To promote the doctrine of popular sovereignty, Franklin Pierce approves the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and permits residents of Kansas and Nebraska to decide whether their territories will admit slavery.
The Result: Dozens of settlers murdered; Lawrence, Kansas, burned and looted; John Brown elevated to the status of national hero among abolitionists; the country moves closer to civil war.
Convinced the 20,000 men, women, and children of the Bonus Army were Communists and criminals, Herbert Hoover sends 600 crack troops, a detachment of cavalry, and five tanks to drive the protesters out of Washington.
The Result: 4 dead, including two infants; more than 1,000 injured; the Communist Party in America enjoys a public relations field day; Hoover is driven into political exile.
In an effort to install a capitalist government in the Middle East, stabilize the region, and protect America from a possible Iraqi terrorist assault using weapons of mass destruction, George W. Bush orders the invasion of Iraq.
The Result: More than 4,000 American soldiers and personnel dead; estimated hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians dead; hundreds of billions of dollars spent; the torture of prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction leave American global credibility in tatters.
All of these, and many more, incredible lapses in judgement are explained in these pages.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0785836632
• ISBN13: 9780785836636
• Release Date: July 2018
• Publisher: Crestline
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 7.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

The blunders of the great and the not so great

"Failures of the Presidents" is a fantastically illustrated and written chronicle of the some worst mistakes (The Bay of Pigs, Pearl Harbor, etc)that some of our finest and not so finest Presidents have ever made. This is a lavish, beautiful book.

Good food for thought... A Great Read!

At first glance, the most noticeable thing about "Failures of the Presidents" is that aside from chapters on the Alien and Sedition Acts, Watergate, the "Energy Crisis Malaise" under Jimmy Carter, the Iran-Contra affair and one or two others, most of this publication's twenty chapters deal with the use of military force under past and - at the time of this writing - current presidential administrations. What was not included was some of the hair-brained stuff that, while not resulting in mass discontent or catastrophy, should have sent up red flags. Things like the introduction of Lyndon Johnson's rat control bill which was embarrassingly defeated; Warren Harding's dismal presidential record; The Francis Gary Powers mess during the Eisenhower administration; and other scandals involving minor Washington players are appropriately left out. Most notably missing is a chapter devoted to the onset of the great depression and Herbert Hoover's inept responses to it. Also missing are any references to the succession of scandals and intelligence blunders which embarrassed the Clinton administration, almost led to impeachment, and ultimately left a nation morally divided and at extreme risk to international terrorism after his term of eight years. The explanation in the book's introduction concerning the reasons for this exclusion sounds a little lame. That, plus the inclusion of chapter 20, "The War in Iraq" would indicate a little bias. Even though I do not envision the situation in the middle east as becoming more stable as a result of U.S. military intervention, the results of alternate choices of action during the time leading up to the Iraq invasion were unpalpable. There were simply no good choices. Only briefly mentioned are the mismanagement of resources and the failure to reinforce existing troops on the ground in much greater numbers during the subsequent occupation. That's where everything really went wrong. "Where is Zhou En-Lai when we need him?," is the last sentence of "Failures," and a reference to the length of time it will take to judge the real impact of George W. Bush's presidency. In the introduction of "Failures", the authors also mention the unpopularity of Harry Truman and how his legacy drastically changed over the course of two or three decades as being further testimony for the passage of time as having the final sayso. Another example would be how, as a sitting president, Ronald Reagan was never taken that seriously by many pundits and Washington insiders, yet his impact is still being felt almost two decades after the fact. Apart from these observations about presidential legacies, "Failures of the Presidents" is greatly readable history and extremely enjoyable. The dark sides of the American experience are explained concisely; The insightful narrative that drives this book may have a point of view, but what is communicated here is not revisionist history. Highlights of the book include chapters on Andrew Jackson

Fascinating

This books takes a few of the Presidents of the United States and delves into a mistake they have made. It discusses what led up to the decisions that were made, the consequences and long term impacts. This was written in chronological order. This is not a fun-light-poke-fun at history book. It is also not a text book type of a book. Rather it is a book written for a person who has an interest in U.S. history, knows some of the basics and would like to know more. Some of the events really did not seem like a big deal looking back on them now. For example, the Whiskey Rebellion. Some of the events are a bit too recent to look back on and say with any certainty this is a mistake or this was a good decision. The author himself in his opening speaks of how history and time can tell and allows us to look back on an event with some objectivity and allows us to see the long term consequences. While everyone might have an opinion about it, the War in Iran, is one of those decisions that need more time to pass before including it in a book such as this. It is still going on and the long term, much less all of the short term consequences are still unknown. There are other times in U.S. history this author could have included; such as, the teapot dome scandal. However, it seems that this author was limited in space and furthermore tried to cover things that might not normally be included in a normal history text book. The illustrations and photos only add to the text. This was an interesting book. Enjoy.

'The rest of the story' of America's past

There is so much more than is taught in public school American history classes or published in traditional American history textbooks. That is why "The Forgotten History Of America: Little-Known Conflicts Of Lasting Importance From The Earliest Colonists To The Eve Of The Revolution" by historian Cormac O'Brien is such an important contribution to personal, community, and academic library American History reference collections and supplemental reading lists. The focus on the often overlooked events that shaped the course of American political life and helped to create the country that we all live in today. For example, it was not Jamestown or Plymouth that holds the honor of being the first European settlement in America, but rather the Spanish town of St. Augustine in Florida. While George Washington was indeed an exemplary leader of the newly emergent United States of America, while a young office in the it was an incident he created in the Pennslyvania woods in 1754 that set of an international conflict that came to be called the French & Indian War. These stories and more are the subject of an informed, informative, and iconoclastic history of our country. Nicely enhanced by a profusion of color illustrations throughout, "The Forgotten History Of America" is especially recommended for school and community library American History reference collections and non-specialist general readers with an interest in knowing 'the rest of the story' of America's past that was to prove so influential in creating its present.

A beautiful and interesting book

Failures of the Presidents is simply a beautiful book. The paper is a very high quality gloss and they have included wonderful pictures of events and prior to widespread camera use some great art of the time. Fair Winds press has done a terrific job with this book. There are twenty sections covering most of U.S. history with two presidents Carter and Nixon having two sections apiece. It is written in an easy to go through style that keeps pages turning, and with each section being roughly ten to twenty pages, it's very easy to tell yourself O.K. just one more section before I go to bed. Some of the other reviewers have complained about another book about the negative aspects of U.S. history. I would like to point out to any potential buyers, this is not a Howard Zinn book, yes it covers some mistakes made but it does so with a reasonable attitude, the book is not trying to portray America as evil, only that on a few occasions a few men did either stupid or malicious things, which consequentially is the truth. It's more of a book demonstrating the law of unintended consequences than it is a book where the authors have an axe to grind with their past. The authors break no new ground but it is a wonderful collection of vignettes, and as an additional positive they do not assume you know anything about the subject matter which is handy in case you've forgotten some of it. The book can also be read out of order in chapter four I believe they have in paranthesees for more information about this see chapter 2. This is handy if you are already familiar with a subject or just don't care about a particular event. It is a good book for starting discussions and for giving you good trivia questions for your friends, such as which first lady saved the Declaration of Independence? I would recommend the book for the quality and art alone. A great popular level history book and a good christmas gift for the History Channel watcher.