The Kennedys in the World: How Jack, Bobby, and Ted Remade America’s Empire explores how the Kennedy brothers reshaped America’s federation for more than six decades after World War II. For all the millions of words written about them, no one has explored this fascinating, pervasive, and, in the end, hugely consequential aspect of their lives. This book provides a new look at the Kennedy clan, their relationships with one another, and how those relationships influenced America’s foreign policy. Over the course of their collective careers, the Kennedy brothers did more than anyone else to reshape America’s Cold War policies and then to upend its “Cold War consensus” - the belief that America’s top global challenge was to contain the Soviets. But while they shared certain views about America’s global role, the brothers never forged a full-blown “Kennedy doctrine” to guide America through the end of the Cold War and into the multi-polar world that we now confront. Because the brothers were such influential figures on foreign affairs, Lawrence J. Haas and the brothers’ story offers a new window into the rise and fall of America’s post-war empire - from the Cold War consensus from the late 1940s to early 1960s to the futile search for a consistent and effective U.S. global role ever since.
