Decision Making During National Security Crisis: The Case of the JFK Administration

Decision-making during crises is an important task that many elected officials face during their time in office. This thesis seeks to identify principles that make up a sound policy decision-making process and may lead to more positive outcomes. The analysis here is a comparative case study of three national security crises that faced the John F. Kennedy administration: the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Vietnam conflict. Each case is examined for the presence of indicators of groupthink. I hypothesize that the relative absence of groupthink is related to a positive outcome. That hypothesis is examined by reviewing each case; the cases that contained higher levels of the indicators of groupthink tended to have a poorer quality process than those with less evidence of groupthink.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Political Science

Department dc:contributor.department

Political Science

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• Beckner, Lauren Renee

Chairs dc:contributor.committeechair

• Pourchot, Georgeta V.
• Hult, Karen M.

Committee member dc:contributor.committeemember

• Dixit, Priya

• Decision-making
• Kennedy administration
• Crisis
• National security
• Bay of Pigs
• Cuban Missile Crisis
• Vietnam

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

etd-09202012-225955

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/35130