in addition to an influential national security adviser as was the case for jfk with bundy, in the case of fdr he didn't have a national security adviser, he had a very strong-minded secretary of war named stem son. at the risk of making another comparison, president bush was actually the decider. it is, therefore, possible to discuss the statecraft of george herbert walker bush because foreign policy in the period of 1989, i focus on through '91, was not corporate. it reflected a personal style. and let's look at how these differences among his advisers played out. the key issue coming in was how to manage the gorbachev phenomenon. many, including the president, thought that president reagan and secretary of state george schultz had oversold gorbachev and were way ahead of events in predicting the cold war. when the advisers began to think through how to deal with the gorbachev phenomenon, james baker, secretary of state and secretary of defense dick cheney defined the extremes in the debate over how to handle gorbachev. baker wanted maximum tactical flexibility to work with the kremli