How important is presidential personality and leadership style in foreign policy decisions? To answer this question, Thomas Preston takes readers inside the Bush administration's decision making process and use of intelligence to better understand how administration officials justified the Iraq War--and how they sought to avoid blame for the consequences of their actions. Based on extensive interviews with key Bush administration officials, Preston offers students of American foreign policy, presidential decision making, the dynamics of blame avoidance, and future practitioners with an in depth.

A tale of two Texans : the leadership styles of George W. Bush and Lyndon Johnson -- The politics of blame avoidance : presidential strategies for surviving the Washington "blame game" -- Opening Pandora's box : blame avoidance, 9/11, and the push for war with Iraq -- Opening Pandora's box : blame avoidance during the Iraq War -- Bush and Iraq : revisiting the Vietnam analogy.