American Trade and Power in the 1960s

Drawing from a wide array of previously untapped sources, Thomas Zeiler examines United States foreign trade policy in the 1960s. His study probes the Kennedy and Johnson presidencies as they faced the rise of what was then the six-nation European Economic Community and Japan as trade rivals. Trade policy was influenced by five sources: the international environment, the government, American society, the economy, and individual decisionmakers. These five levels are used to examine the motives, aims, policymaking process, and results of U.S. trade programmes during the Kennedy-Johnson years. The in-depth historical analysis is a way toward understanding the reasons for the nation's policies toward its rivals, and America's subsequent decline in world power and predominance in international trade by the end of the decade.