Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions and FiascoesGroupthink - the psychological drive for consensus at any cost that suppresses disagreement and prevents the appraisal of alternatives in cohesive decision-making groups. In the first edition (Victims of groupthink), Iriving L. Janis showed how this phenomenon contributed to some of the major U.S. foreign policy fiascos of recent decades: the Korean War stalemate, the escalation of the Vietnam War, the failure to be prepared for the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the Bay of Pigs blunder. He also examined cases, such as the handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the formulation of the Marshall Plan, where groupthink was avoided. Here, in this revised and expanded edition, Janis applies his hypothesis to the Watergate cover-up, portraying in detail how groupthink helped to put the participants on a disastrous couurse and keep them there. In addition, he presents some fresh ideas on how and why groupthink occurs and offers suggestions for avoiding it. |
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Page 55
... risks Some grave risks should have been apparent to Truman's advisers long before the group became committed to approving MacArthur's efforts to conquer North Korea . For more than two months , the Peking government had been waging a ...
... risks Some grave risks should have been apparent to Truman's advisers long before the group became committed to approving MacArthur's efforts to conquer North Korea . For more than two months , the Peking government had been waging a ...
Page 283
... risks of a very hazardous venture . Rather , it means that to some extent the major risks are being minimized on the basis of a preconscious assumption that everything is going to work out all right because we are a special group . When ...
... risks of a very hazardous venture . Rather , it means that to some extent the major risks are being minimized on the basis of a preconscious assumption that everything is going to work out all right because we are a special group . When ...
Page 286
... risks , McLellan says that there would be no reason for them to keep the President ignorant of serious risks of which they were aware " unless we are to assume the President is the equivalent of the pre - war Japanese emperor " ( p . 30 ) ...
... risks , McLellan says that there would be no reason for them to keep the President ignorant of serious risks of which they were aware " unless we are to assume the President is the equivalent of the pre - war Japanese emperor " ( p . 30 ) ...
Contents
Why So Many Miscalculations? | 2 |
The Bay of Pigs | 14 |
The Wrong | 48 |
Copyright | |
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Acheson administration Admiral Kimmel advisers advisory group alternative American assumptions attack avoid Bay of Pigs bombing Castro Chiefs of Staff Chinese cohesive group Communist concurrence-seeking consensus course of action critical Cuba Cuban missile crisis danger Dean Defense deliberations discussion effect Ehrlichman enemy evidence Executive Committee expected fiasco forces group dynamics groupthink hypothesis groupthink syndrome groupthink tendencies Haldeman Hawaii Ibid in-group inner circle invasion plan issues Japanese Johnson Joint Chiefs judgment Kennan Kennedy's Korean War leader major Marshall Marshall Plan McNamara meetings military moral naval Navy group Nixon norms North Korea North Vietnam officers participants Pearl Harbor Pentagon Papers policy-making group political present President Kennedy President's pressures problem procedures psychological questions responsible risks Robert Kennedy role Rusk Schlesinger Secretary shared sion social Soviet Union stereotypes stress symptoms of groupthink thinking threat tion transcripts Truman Vietnam Vietnam War warning Watergate cover-up White House group Wohlstetter