Gavin, Francis J. Gold, Dollars, and Power: The Politics of International Monetary Relations, 1958-1971 (2007)

Some of the 5 million items in the National Archives and Records Administration’s JFK Records Collection are available online, including: Sergunin, Alexander. "John F. Kennedy’s Decision-Making on the Berlin Crisis of 1961." Review of History and Political Science, vol. 2, no. 1 (2014): 1-27. online

Essential Books on the JFK Assassination

Vice-president Lyndon Baines Johnson takes the presidential oath of office in Dallas, Texas, two hours after Kennedy was shot. Photograph: Reuters Powaski, Ronald E. "John F. Kennedy, the Hawks, the Doves, and the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962." in American Presidential Statecraft (2017) pp. 11-65. Newmann, William W. "Searching for the Right Balance? Managing Foreign Policy Decisions under Eisenhower and Kennedy." Congress & the Presidency 42#2 (2015).

Pelz, Stephen E. "“When Do I Have Time to Think?” John F. Kennedy, Roger Hilsman, and the Laotian Crisis of 1962." Diplomatic History 3.2 (1979): 215-230. Tell me about JFK, the man—and your book about him, the first volume of your planned two-part biography, which I asked you to discuss as one among the five books you’ve named.

Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam, your 2012 history of America’s involvement in Vietnam, won both the Pulitzer and Frances Parkman prize. Is writing about Vietnam what led you to JFK? Ward, John William. 1969 Red, White, and Blue: Men, Books, and Ideas in American Culture . New York: Oxford University Press This volume . . . plows much of the Kennedy ground with such dexterity and such wisdom. Misty-eyed Kennedy acolytes of a certain age will read it and weep. Modern, less romantic readers will read it and reap the benefit of Logevall’s acuity.” — The Boston Globe

Doyle, William (2015). PT-109: An American Epic of War, Survival, and the Destiny of John F. Kennedy. New York City: Harper-Collins. ISBN 978-0-06-234658-2. You’ve named a book by Sorensen next on your list of books to read about JFK. Before we talk about that one, I wanted to ask whether you think Kennedy can be seen as ‘a profile in courage’ for any stance that he took during his time in the Senate. The core question in Profiles in Courage is: When and in what circumstances should politicians seek to go beyond their own personal self-interest and consider what’s best for the nation? When should politicians defy the wishes of their constituents, their party or their region to take policy positions that they think are in nation’s interest? The book investigates why certain senators took such stances throughout U.S. history, how they did it and what we can learn from them. In this way I would argue it’s a timeless book that still has resonance for us today, almost seven decades after publication.

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Douglass, James W. (2008). JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters. Maryknoll, N.Y: Orbis Books. ISBN 978-1-57075-755-6. Simpson, Bradley. Economists with Guns: Authoritarian Development and U.S.-Indonesian Relations 1960-1968 (2008)