Robert Francis McNamara

Woodrow Wilson's vision of a collective international action to resist aggressive conflict after the carnage of World War I failed tragically. Over 160 million people died in war during the 20th century, and in Wilson's Ghost, Robert S. McNamara and James G. Blight put forth a decisive, multi-faceted action program for realizing Wilson's dream during this century. The plan begins with a moral imperative that establishes as a major goal of foreign policy across the globe the avoidance of war. To that end, enforcement entails only multilateral intervention on the part of the United States; full reconciliation with Russia and China to integrate those nations into relations with the other Great Powers; restructuring the United Nations to greater effectiveness; defining and deterring war crimes; creating UN enforcement; and finally, reducing nuclear danger by eliminating the huge arsenal held by the United States and Russia, and by signing into law the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The authors support their plan with specific, achievable steps that can begin now to ensure a more peaceful 21st century.

Explores the thaw in U.S.-Soviet relations and America's post-Cold War future.

10th grade

"The ghost of Woodrow Wilson, whose presidency encompassed the First World War and its immediate aftermath, has haunted world leaders from his day to ours. Wilson's vision - of a collective international action to resist aggressive conflict after the carnage of the First World War - failed tragically. As a consequence, over 160 million people died in conflict during the 20th century, making it the bloodiest by far in all of human history. Will the 21st century take humanity along the same violent path?". "In Wilson's Ghost, former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara and Brown University Professor James G. Blight hold up the Wilsonian tragedy as a historical mirror in order to illuminate our own security risks, and as a stimulus to finding ways to lower those risks. In a provocative synthesis of the pragmatic, historical, and philosophical arguments for avoiding war and achieving a sustainable peace, McNamara and Blight put forth a multi-faceted action program for realizing Wilson's dream in our new century. The plan begins with a moral imperative that establishes the reduction of human carnage as a major goal of foreign policy across the globe, and details the necessity of adopting new policies to support that goal."--BOOK JACKET.