A review by mpetruce
Ike's Bluff: President Eisenhower's Secret Battle to Save the World by Evan Thomas

4.0

As more and more presidential files get declassified, the historical view of presidents change, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. As this book points out, Eisenhower was a much better, or at least much more interesting, president than past history has given him credit for. I enjoyed Thomas' book about Robert Kennedy as well. His scholarship is neither blind worship, nor is it utterly damning. He reveals the facts and analyzes them fairly and honestly. The result in this book was a much more complex president than people thought, at least in the realm of foreign policy.

I would add that this book, and many like it, should be required reading for those who insist this period in U.S. history was a more gentle, simple, innocent time. It really was not. They may end up dismayed with what they discover.