Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower

"Zbig" Brzezinski (March 28, 1928 - May 26, 2017) was a Polish-American diplomat and political scientist. He served as a counselor to President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1968 and was President Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor from 1977 to 1981. Major foreign policy events during his time in office included the normalization of relations with the People's Republic of China; the signing of the second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty; the brokering of the Camp David Accords; the transition of Iran from an important U.S. ally to an anti-Western Islamic Republic led by Khomeini; the United States' encouragement of dissidents in Eastern Europe in order to undermine the influence of the Soviet Union; the arming of the mujahideen in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan; and the signing of the Torrijos-Carter Treaties relinquishing U.S. control of the Panama Canal after 1999. This book presents a story of wasted opportunity and squandered prestige-the history of the last three U.S. presidents' foreign policy. Brzezinski, offers a reasoned but unsparing assessment of the foreign policy of America's last three presidential administrations. Though spanning less than two decades, these administrations cover a vitally important turning point in world history: the period in which the US, having emerged from the Cold War with an unprecedented degree of power and prestige, managed to squander both in a remarkably short time. This is a tale of decline: from the competent but conventional thinking of the first Bush administration, to the good intentioned self-indulgence of the Clinton administration, to the mortgaging of America's future by the "suicidal statecraft" of the second Bush administration. Brzezinski concludes with a chapter on how America can regain its lost prestige, if not its former dominance. This scholarly yet highly opinionated book is sure to be both controversial and influential.