Not Yet Too Late
Neumann, William L
Not Yet Too Late In Place of Folly, by Norman Cousins. Harper. 224 pp. $3.00. Russia, America, and the World, by Louis Fischer. Harper, 244 pp. $4.50. The Necessity for Choice, by Henry A....
...His new book, The Necessity for Choice, presents an involved and vigorous indictment of the policies which he believes have already resulted in a drastic loss of American power...
...A popular morning television program recently asked listeners to send in proposals as to the contributions they were personally ready to make for their country...
...If this is an indication of the present state of American thinking, then the Kennedy Administration will have to face the unpleasant task of scaling down its efforts and aiming only at minor goals which can be achieved with the limited efforts sustainable by a complacent and self-centered citizenry...
...Henry Kissinger is best known for his earlier book, Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy, which attacked the policy of massive retaliation and supported the concept of limited nuclear war...
...He thus rejects the view strongly maintained under the Dulles era that Soviet moves were understandable only when related to quotations from obscure writings of Marx or Lenin...
...among his books is "Communism and World Religion...
...He also explores the problem of sovereignty in a disarming and a disarmed world and urges steps to make the United Nations into something more than a league of sovereign states...
...DAVID FELLAAAN is a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin...
...Louis Fischer's book, Russia, America, and the World, is a rambling mixture of the commonplace with a sprinkling of the thoughtful generalizations one expected in the author's earlier volumes...
...On the other hand, the enthusiastic response of many American college students to the concept of the "Peace Corps" is evidence that there is still some vigor to be marshalled by imaginative leadership...
...THE REVIEWERS WILLIAM L. NEUMANN, formerly director of the Foundation for Foreign Affairs, teaches diplomatic history at Goucher College...
...370 pp...
...As a leading proponent of disarmament, Norman Cousins has written a useful primer, In Place of Folly, on the nature of thermonuclear war as well as on the potential of CBR (chemical-bacteriological-radiological) warfare...
...Thousands of letters have poured in, but some forty per cent of the writers have been able to suggest only the obverse—what government should do for them...
...All three authors seem to believe that it is late, but not yet too late...
...The Necessity for Choice, by Henry A. Kissinger...
...Reviewed by William L. Neumann If books could cure, the health of American foreign policy would be assured...
...In his final chapter, entitled "Checklist of Enemies," he includes those who refuse to be concerned about the problems of war, the fatalists who proclaim man's helplessness in his predicament, and the trusting souls who feel that only officials in high places are in a position to think and act...
...TOM BURKE is on the editorial staff of a national magazine...
...WILLIAM McCANN reviews paperbacks regularly for The Progressive...
...Many of the other writers' concepts of sacrifice were to accept well-paid government jobs or to be honest about their income tax returns...
...The election of a new President has brought hope once more for a drastic change in policy and encouraged diagnosticians and therapists to make another effort to save the Republic...
...Can this country be mobilized to make the major effort necessary if the United States is to play the desired role...
...Kissinger calls for an heroic effort to "arrest narcissism and the collapse which starts at the moment of seemingly greatest achievement...
...Kissinger has now come to the conclusion that major reliance must be placed on conventional weapons and that nuclear arms should be used only as last-ditch defense measures...
...As a Russian specialist one of his themes merits special emphasis: Soviet Russia, like Communist China, he insists, behaves like a nation, and nations behave with a constancy which is irrespective of their particular ideology or social and political systems...
...He reviews the conventional arguments in support of the nuclear deterrent and attacks the false dichotomy by which opponents of disarmament frequently equate all such moves with surrender and slavery...
...When the new cabinet officers have been asked in interviews about the sacrifices which their departments are going to call upon citizens to make, they have been most evasive...
...Like President Kennedy in his inaugural address, Kissinger calls upon Americans to make sacrifices for their country in order to maintain American leadership in this disordered world...
...Cousins' book can be recommended for those who have yet to give any serious consideration to the issue of disarmament...
...Each of the volumes has something of value to offer, although the quality and character of the contributions vary widely...
...This trio of books comes from the editor of the Saturday Review, from a veteran journalist and specialist in Russian affairs, and from a Harvard professor of political science...
...CHARLES S. BRADEN is a former professor of the history and literature of religions at Northwestern University...
...5.50...
...GEORGE AAOSSE specializes in European intellectual history at the University of Wisconsin...
...But when Fischer comes to prescribe for American policy vis-a-vis the Soviet Union today, he repeats far too many vague and platitudinous statements...
...Only ten per cent seem to have been able to grasp the fact that they were being asked to think about giving rather than receiving...
Vol. 25 • April 1961 • No. 4
