This study examines the manner in which the Cuban missile crisis affected the belief system of President John F. Kennedy. The analysis uses data derived from primary source materials that have become available only in the last 2 years, in addition to well-known public statements by the president. The Verbs in Context System (VICS) was used to generate insights into how Kennedy's operational code differed across sources and changed during the period of the crisis. The results provide evidence of Kennedy's initial private belligerence and provisional support for the "Gettysburg thesis" while calling into question some other potential interpretations of the effects of the crisis on the president's beliefs.

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The study of midterm elections can reveal an important influence on the beliefs of presidents. Employing constructs from the “operational code “literature regarding presidential foreign policy-making, we examine the impact of midterm election results upon presidential beliefs during two “normal” midterm elections: 1990 and 1994. We hypothesize that midterm elections encourage presidents to find the nature of the political universe more conflictual, to develop a lower locus of personal control over their environment, and to adopt more adversarial positions about their approach to personal goals. These effects should vary with the scale of the midterm setback. We find support for these hypotheses, usually with greater effects in the 1994 than 1990 case. Given the larger effects of the 1994 election upon the president, its status as a “normal” midterm election lies in question. Further research into other midterm cases is necessary to formulate a typology of midterm effects upon presidential beliefs.

The unanimous passage of Security Council Resolution 1441 marked the onset of the most severe crisis of legitimacy that the United Nations has faced in the post-Cold War period. While some have asserted that the diplomatic clashes between erstwhile allies France and the United States were inevitable given the rise of American unipolarity, an analysis of events leading to the failed US attempt to gain a second resolution reveals that the outcome was among the least preferred for both participants. Using the Verbs In Context system, we conduct a computerbased content analysis of the public statements of the United States and French leaders. Our findings suggest that the diplomatic breakdown was exacerbated by each leaders' elevated sense of control over the situation and their inaccurate perception of their opponent's preferences.