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Abstract

This essay presents a framework for analyzing the effect of presidential personality on policy making, while avoiding the fallacy of simply "reducing" the explanation of presidential performance to the president's individual characteristics. Using an approach that simul taneously takes account of the larger political environment, and the president's constellation of immediate associates (the "institutionalized presidency"), as well as the president's individual characteristics, we present data comparing presidential decision-making with respect to Vietnam in 1954 and 1965. All three levels of evidence must be examined to establish why the United States did not inject military force in 1954 at the time of the fall of Dienbienphu and did in 1965, in the face of the incipient collapse of South Vietnam.

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Presidential Personality and National Security Leadership: A Comparative Analysis of Vietnam Decision-making

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