Melvin Small

The title of Melvin Small's book is somewhat deceptive. Johnson, Nixon, and the Doves sounds like a book concerned with antiwar protesters. It is not. Small is concerned with the impact of protesters on the Oval Office. In this sense it is a highly conventional study of high politics. Using presidential papers and interviews with former high advisors to Johnson and Nixon, Small makes, the case that the antiwar movement had an important impact on policy formulation at certain key junctures. As proof of this contention he demonstrates that the presidents and their advisors were concerned with the impact which their policies would have on public support for the war effort. The ultimate triumph of the antiwar movement was the fact that Nixon felt obligated to hide the incursions into Cambodia from the public. At that point the whole country had become opposed to the war - the antiwar movement's success had made it superfluous.… (altro)