A revealing look at presidential politics and foreign policy-making from the aftermath of Vietnam to the NATO intervention in Kosovo. The book illuminates the relationship between presidents' domestic and foreign policy priorities and the key role of public opinion in constraining presidential initiatives, particularly the ability of a president to use military force overseas. In case studies ranging from the invasion of Grenada through the Gulf War and the dilemmas of Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia and Kosovo, Melanson provides compelling portraits of presidents Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton, and their different efforts to forge a foreign policy consensus.