Failures of the Presidents, Thomas J. Craughwell
Failures of the Presidents, Thomas J. Craughwell
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Failures of the Presidents
From the Whiskey Rebellion and War of 1812 to the Bay of Pigs and War in Iraq

Author: Thomas J. Craughwell, M. William Phelps

Narrator: Jonathan Yen

Unabridged: 11 hr 26 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/02/2021


Synopsis

Everybody makes mistakes, but when an American president blunders, the results can be catastrophic.

In an effort to put an end to Britain and France’s policy of seizing American ships and sailors, Thomas Jefferson calls for an embargo.

The result: 30,000 sailors put out of work; mercantile families bankrupted overnight; a nationwide economic depression; and the New England states, which depended heavily on international commerce, threaten to secede from the Union.

In an effort to install a capitalist government in the Middle East, stabilize the region, and protect America from a possible Iraqi terrorist assault using weapons of mass destruction, George W. Bush orders the invasion of Iraq.

The result: More than 4,000 American soldiers and personnel dead; estimated hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians dead; hundreds of billions of dollars spent; the torture of prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction leave American global credibility in tatters.

All of these, and many more, incredible lapses in judgement are explained in this book.

About Thomas J. Craughwell

Thomas J. Craughwell is the author of several nonfiction books, including This Saint Will Change Your Life, The Greatest Brigade, and Stealing Lincoln's Body, which was adapted into a documentary by the History Channel. He lives in Bethel, Connecticut.


Reviews

Review originally published December 2008 Last month, American voters spoke loud and clear that our nation is in need of a change in the current political atmosphere. After serving as President of the United States for eight years, George W. Bush will leave office with the lowest approval rating......more

Goodreads review by Mark

A series of short articles on a variety of presidential debacles... those 50+ years in the past seem to be relatively balanced in their coverage. More recent events are much less balanced - the Bay of Pigs article lets JFK off the hook while Iran-Contra manages to attack both Reagan & Bush I repeate......more

Goodreads review by Ilze

This is a good in-a-nutshell type of read that skims through a number of so called presidential failures. I was rather agrieved that Clinton was not called to task for Waco at least. It's oversights like that brings out the dittoheads with screams of bias. Also I think including the Trail of Tears wa......more