Inside The Oval Office is a book written by William Doyle that explores the differences in the occupational tendencies of the Presidents of the United States since Franklin D. Roosevelt. The actual transcripts from calls and discussions from within the oval office walls in the White House give you a “behind the scenes” look at the Presidency in a manner that has never before been expressed, to my knowledge. Reading books of this nature are not only interesting, but they bring to light new perspectives that you may not have previously expected to think about. Some questions that are raised in this book range from the understanding particular Presidents had of certain key political events in our history, to what exactly the President did on a day to day basis and was his service of this country what the American public would have expected it to be. In my writing, I will summarize how both Presidents Kennedy and Nixon gathered and used information in making decisions and also how reliable and useful this information was in making key political decisions.Since President Kennedy served first of the two, I will follow the logic of chronological order in this paper and begin by saying that President Kennedy used several different sources to gather information, including high ranking security officers, congressional advisors and members, state governors, and numerous other aides and committees. Despite the sometimes “pointed” commentary by officials providing the president with information, President Kennedy maintained his profile as “The Rational Executive” just as the chapter about him in this book is named (Doyle, 93). President Kennedy’s tenure forced him to face some very difficult issues that were very important and had severe impacts on the way our country has been governed since. The civil rights movement, the bay of pigs and Cuban missile crisis just to name a few. President Kennedy, through ...
