C. Dale Walton is a Lecturer in International Politics and Strategic Studies at the University of Reading, UK. He is the author of Geopolitics and the Great Powers in the Twenty-First Century: Multipolarity and the Revolution in Strategic Perspective (Routledge, 2007) and The Myth of Inevitable US Defeat in Vietnam (Frank Cass/Routledge, 2002).

• Introduction 1. Beyond All Expectations: The American Rise to Preeminence 2. Victory Disease: Cold War Triumph and its Aftermath 3. The Slow Drift: Power without Strategic Clarity 4. The Decider: The Importance of Presidential Greatness 5. Feet of Clay: Making Inadequate Strategists and War Leaders 6. Lost Wars, Bleak Place: The Tragedy of Presidential Weakness Conclusion

C. Dale Walton is a Lecturer in International Politics and Strategic Studies at the University of Reading, UK. He is the author of Geopolitics and the Great Powers in the Twenty-First Century: Multipolarity and the Revolution in Strategic Perspective (Routledge, 2007) and The Myth of Inevitable US Defeat in Vietnam (Frank Cass/Routledge, 2002).

• Introduction 1. Beyond All Expectations: The American Rise to Preeminence 2. Victory Disease: Cold War Triumph and its Aftermath 3. The Slow Drift: Power without Strategic Clarity 4. The Decider: The Importance of Presidential Greatness 5. Feet of Clay: Making Inadequate Strategists and War Leaders 6. Lost Wars, Bleak Place: The Tragedy of Presidential Weakness Conclusion

C. Dale Walton is a Lecturer in International Politics and Strategic Studies at the University of Reading, UK. He is the author of Geopolitics and the Great Powers in the Twenty-First Century: Multipolarity and the Revolution in Strategic Perspective (Routledge, 2007) and The Myth of Inevitable US Defeat in Vietnam (Frank Cass/Routledge, 2002).

• Introduction 1. Beyond All Expectations: The American Rise to Preeminence 2. Victory Disease: Cold War Triumph and its Aftermath 3. The Slow Drift: Power without Strategic Clarity 4. The Decider: The Importance of Presidential Greatness 5. Feet of Clay: Making Inadequate Strategists and War Leaders 6. Lost Wars, Bleak Place: The Tragedy of Presidential Weakness Conclusion