An outsider in the White House

Jimmy Carter entered the White House with a desire for a collegial staff that would aid his foreign-policy decision making. He wound up with a "team of rivals" who contended for influence and who fought over his every move regarding relations with the USSR, the Peoples' Republic of China, arms control, and other crucial foreign-policy issues. Carter, the outsider who had sought to change the political culture of the executive office, found himself dependent on the very insiders of the political and diplomatic establishment against whom he had campaigned. Based on recently declassified documents and a wide variety of interviews, this is a rich and nuanced depiction of the relationship between policy and character. It is also a poignant history of damaged ideals. Carter's absolute commitment to human rights foundered on what were seen as national security interests. In the Camp David Accords and the return of the Canal to Panama, Carter's successes were attributable to his political skills and the assistance of Secretary of State Cyrus Vance. Near the end of Carter's single term in office Vance stepped down as secretary of state, in part because tactician Zbigniew Brzezinski's "muscular diplomacy" had come to dominate Carter's foreign policy. For Carter, the rivalry for influence in the White House was concluded and the results, as Glad shows, were a mixed record and an uncertain presidential legacy. --from publisher description