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From House to Haig: Private Life and Public Style in American Foreign Policy Advisers
Author(s) -
Elms Alan C.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.618
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1540-4560
pISSN - 0022-4537
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1986.tb00223.x
Subject(s) - style (visual arts) , foreign policy , politics , authoritarianism , idealism , private life , machiavellianism , life style , id, ego and super ego , public policy , sociology , political economy , social psychology , political science , psychology , law , personality , democracy , human rights , big five personality traits , history , epistemology , philosophy , archaeology , demography
Personal history may determine the individual's style of expressing political beliefs as much as or more than it influences the beliefs themselves. Connections between private life history and public political style have most often been studied in U.S. presidents. However, studies of prominent foreign‐policy advisers can be just as useful for an understanding of how individual life history shapes the expression of political beliefs. This paper examines areas of apparent linkage between private life and public style in four of the most prominent American foreign policy advisers of the 20th century: House, Dulles, Kissinger, and Haig. Three styles of dealing with foreign policy issues—Machiavellianism, ego‐idealism, and authoritarianism—are considered in relation to the public and private behavior of each man.