Book Hints
Readers might be interested in some recent books on foreign policy. R.J. Rummel's Peace Endangered: The Reality of Detente (Sage, 1976, $10) and Paul Eidelberg's Beyond Detente: Toward An American Foreign Policy (Sherwood Sugden, 1977, $9.95/$2.95) make an interesting pair. Rummel argues the facts and figures of Soviet military superiority; Eidelberg demonstrates Communist strength in ideological propagandizing in spite of the moral superiority of the ideas of liberty and human rights that support the American tradition. Let's return to the principles of statesmanship of the founding fathers, says Eidelberg. No, let's reorganize, say Graham Allison and Peter Szanton in Remaking Foreign Policy: The Organizational Connection (Basic, 1976, $10.95)—for a successful foreign policy, presidents need more access to people and information and need more influence; hence, let's shuffle things around. If you want to read something by almost everyone (Nixon, Brzezinski, Brezhnev, Laird, Kissinger, Nitze, etc., etc.), plus U.S.-Soviet agreements, 1972-74, check out Detente and Defense: A Reader, ed. R.J. Pranger, (AEI, 1976, $4.50, pb). The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI)—where Gerald Ford is reputedly settling in—puts out a number of defense-related publications (all paperback). They organize and publish discussions between public figures, e.g., Who's First in Defense: The U.S. or The U.S.S.R.? How Much Defense Spending is Enough? and The Future of the United Nations (all 1976, $2.00). From an AEI and Hoover Institution collaboration comes Castroism and Communism in Latin America, 1959-1976. by W.E. Ratliff (1976, $4.00). AEI's Foreign Affairs Studies series takes on specific cases: The Strategic Balance in the Mediterranean, by J.W. Lewis (1976, $3.95), and The Crisis in the Lebanese System, by E.M. Koury (1976, $3.00), among others. Another series, Studies in Defense Policy, brings Soviet Nuclear Planning, by L.A. Fank (1977, $3.00), and Civil-Military Relations, by A.J. Goodpaster and S.P. Huntington (1977, $2.50). And now there's the AEI Defense Review, a new magazine/journal planned for bimonthly publication. Number one, out in February '77 ($1.50), is a debate between David Cortright and Strom Thurmond on unionization of the military. Finally, the issue of the draft is alive and well. Those who would like to bone up on the debate might consult Martin Anderson's Conscription: A Select and Annotated Bibliography (Hoover, 1976).
This article originally appeared in print under the headline "Book Hints."
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