Unsupported Assertions
PIPES, RICHARD
Unsupported Assertions The Giants: Russia and America By Richard J. Barnett Simon & Schuster. 190 pp. $8.95. Reviewed by Richard Pipes Professor of History, Harvard University; author, "Russia...
...He tries to be impartial...
...He expected to be harangued about the "great revolutionary struggle" and the "indomitable will of the Vietnamese people...
...Elsewhere Barnett tells us that in 1969 Soviet leaders arrived at the same assessment of the global correlation of forces as their U.S...
...The nuclear balance is a highly complicated matter, involving a great variety of disparate factors: the quantity of launchers, the throw-weight and accuracy of missiles, the numbers and yields of warheads, the ability of bombers to penetrate defenses, and so on...
...It so happens that at the time he met Yuri Arbatov, director of the Soviet Institute of the United States...
...In his exposition, the "giants" are treated not as powers with genuine and often conflicting interests, but as two naughty children who misbehave because they misunderstand one another...
...The Giants is journalism because it is the product not of close familiarity with the evidence and mature reflection, but of hasty plucking of information required to weave a story...
...The first thought that came to my mind as I read the sentence was that if this was indeed the case, then all Moscow had to do was suspend its massive military deliveries to North Vietnam...
...In 1970, the percentage was 25.3 in the U.S...
...Actually, neither the United States nor the Soviet Union has anywhere near that many people in its 10 largest cities, as any World Almanac could have informed the author...
...If the Russian does sometimes act aggresively, that is simply his overreacting, in his insecurity, to American aggressions...
...Barnett states that by 1969 the Soviet Union "wanted to see the Vietnam War ended on whatever terms...
...counterparts—a claim he does not and cannot document...
...Of the very unrigorous argumentation, a few examples will suffice...
...He employs the nuclear vocabulary in a most cavalier manner...
...defense needs...
...I do not know how Barnett actually composed his book, but one gets the impression that he had in front of him stacks of newspaper clippings and notes which he merely strung together in the process of dictation...
...author, "Russia Under the Old Regime" This book is journalistic fluff dressed up as scholarship...
...It is not important enough to disturb relations between two great nations...
...He further informs us that the Russians have been "educated" into adopting the American view of nuclear strategy, although this is contradicted by all the evidence of Soviet military doctrine and deployments...
...But like too many American liberals, the author is extremely susceptible to the confidences of Soviet officials and does not hesitate to base his conclusions on them...
...opinion is piled on opinion and "fact" on "fact" in order to produce in the reader's mind the cumulative effect desired by the author...
...military effort...
...but like any teacher in real life he simply cannot help showing favoritism...
...Factual errors abound as well...
...in 1974, it was a mere 8.3 in the USSR...
...So the teacher decides that the American has to take the first steps toward reconciliation: He must come to realize that all his fears of a "Soviet threat" are a specter of his own imagination...
...It consists of a long string of emphatic assertions, drawn from unidentified sources (there are no footnotes...
...In reality, it is emotional in tone, propagandistic in purpose, selective (and often mistaken) in the use of evidence, and too old hat in its arguments to influence anyone but those already converted...
...An error of such magnitude has the additional effect of casting deep doubts on how thoroughly the author has done his homework, and certainly does not inspire confidence in his emphatic (and often quantified) assertions about the balance of power and U.S...
...The American brat is rich, spoiled and combative...
...Barnett's entire argument is woven of very thin yarn, and the fabric does not withstand the slightest strain and stress of critical inquiry...
...Since Barnett's figure is a pure figment of the imagination, the conclusion drawn from it?the Soviet Union has as great a problem saving its population in a nuclear war as the United States, and perhaps a greater one"—is completely unsubstantiated...
...In his zeal to demonstrate that the Soviet Union is as vulnerable to nuclear war as the U.S., for instance, Barnett declares that "in both countries about 40 per cent of the population is concentrated in 10 cities...
...To his amazement, the normally tight-lipped Arbatov confided in him: "Let us get rid of this unpleasant incident...
...Barnett does not even contemplate the possibility...
...Richard Barnett sets out to lay bare the roots of the U.S.-Soviet rivalry, and thereby help to reduce international tensions and the risk of war...
...The publisher touts it as a work "so authoritative, comprehensive and fascinating" that it will "influence the way we think about the Soviet Union for years to come...
...Were Barnett half as skeptical of Soviet pronouncements as he is of American ones, he might have asked himself why Arbatov took in private conversation a line so contrary to his government's...
...His preferred term, "nuclear weapons," has little meaning and certainly cannot be quantified, as he attempts to do repeatedly...
...The Russian, while no angel, is poor and happens to have undergone traumatic experiences in his infancy (all those foreign invasions and interventions...
...To compare how many "nuclear weapons" (or even launchers or warheads) both sides have, and then to conclude that they are balanced, is equivalent to counting "factories" or "businesses" in two countries as a means of estimating their respective gross national products...
...Nowhere is Barnett's unfamiliarity with the relevant data more apparent than in his discussion of the nuclear balance, a subject critical to his ultimate plea for a reduction in the U.S...
...Barnett assumes the role of teacher...
...Anyone who wishes to make a convincing case for the proposition that U.S.-USSR tensions are due largely to American actions, and that easing them requires American initiatives and concessions, will have to master the facts and the rules of evidence better than Richard Barnett has done in writing this disappointing volume...
Vol. 60 • December 1977 • No. 24
