There are two fundamental ways of discussing the roots of foreign policy. One is Primat der Innenpolitik (“the primacy of domestic politics”), the view that domestic policy and the needs of the domestic economic structure determine foreign policy. The other is Primat der Aussenpolitik (“the primacy of external relations”), the view that pressure from external competitors and predators is what determines foreign policy. The debate is not over whether external and internal policies are interdependent (scholars accept that they are) but over which has primacy in government thinking and decision-making. H. Bruce Franklin, holder of a chair in English and American Studies at Rutgers University in Newark, has always been a proponent of the first view of the sources of U.S. foreign policy—that they are internal and founded on the influence of wealthy elites and the military-industrial complex. His latest book is no different. The problem with this first view...

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