Invincible Ignorance in American Foreign Policy—The Triumph of Ideology Over Evidence

Newman (formerly, U. of Pittsburgh) reviews nine incidents of post-World War II US foreign policy decision making, arguing that in each case policy-makers ignored available evidence in favor of ideological preconceptions, frequently leading to disastrous consequences. The essays discuss Paul Nitze's conclusion that the Japanese would have surrendered without the dropping of the atomic bombs, the purge of the "China Hands" from the ranks of American diplomacy, the failure to predict the Chinese response to the 1950 American invasion of North Korea, Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist witch hunts, the Bay of Pigs, the Vietnam War, the Iran/Contra scandal, and George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Robert P. Newman completed a BA at the University of Redlands, was a MacLeish Scholar at the University of Chicago’s Divinity School, earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in politics, philosophy and economics at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and was granted a PhD from the University of Connecticut. He spent most of his career at the University of Pittsburgh. His eight books on debate and evidence, recognition of Communist China, Cold War controversies over government figures, Truman and the Hiroshima cult, the Enola Gay controversy, and now American foreign policy since World War II earned scholarly awards from the National Communication Association and Gustav Myers Center as well as Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, and Los Angeles Times Book Prize nominations.
David Deifell (PhD, The University of Iowa) is an Associate Professor at Ashford University, Clinton, Iowa. Deifell has taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Puget Sound, Drake University, Appalachian State University, Lees-McRae College, and East Tennessee State University and has worked actively with Amnesty International and Students Against Sweatshops. His dissertation was on educational discourses and student movement rhetoric. Deifell’s scholarship can be found in Communication Teacher and South Atlantic Philosophy of Education Yearbook. His current projects involve political communication, critical/cultural studies, historiography, communication pedagogy, and rhetorical criticism.