Book Reviews : Communist China and Asia. By A. DOAK BARNETT. (Published for the Coun cil on Foreign Relations. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1960. Pp. xi, 575. $6.95.)

• DOI: 10.1177/106591296001300318
• Date: 01 September 1960
• Published date: 01 September 1960
• Subject Matter: Articles

804

and

applicability.

Professor

Auerbach

obviously

cares

little

for

&dquo;Conservatism,&dquo;

but

he

still

takes

it

far

too

seriously.

WILLIAM

H.

HARBOLD

University

of

Washington

The

Great

Arms

Race

:

A

Comparison

of

U.S.

and

Soviet

Power

Today.

By

HANSON

W.

BALDWIN.

(New

York:

Frederick

A.

Praeger,

1958.

Pp.

ix,

116.

$2.95.)

The

Great

Arms

Race

was

written

following

the

successful

launching

of

the

first

sputnik

in

order

that

reason

might

replace

hysteria

in

the

American

mind.

Its

great

value

lay

in

the

period

immediately

following

publication,

but

it

still

remains

a

useful

handbook

of

comparative

military

statistics

of

the

United

States

and

the

Soviet

Union

at

the

time

of

the

writing.

New

developments

must

be

added

for

an

up-to-date

perspective.

The

author

evaluates

the

nuclear

deterrent

strategy

of

the

United

States

in

light

of

the

newly

acquired

capacity

of

the

leaders

in

the

Kremlin

to

fight

an

unlimited

or

limited

nuclear

war,

or a

non-nuclear

war.

Subscribing,

with

some

reservations,

to

the

&dquo;two

scorpions

in

a

bottle&dquo;

thesis,

each with

the

sting

of

death

and

neither

being

able

to

defend

itself,

Mr.

Baldwin

suggests

that

serious

consideration

should

be

focused

on

the

problem

of

small-scale

aggression,

the

creeping

infiltration

of

communism,

the

limited

war

on

the

unstable

flanks

of

Asia,

the

Middle

East,

and

Africa.

As

an

aid

to

this

consideration

he

tabulates

the

relative

strength

of

conventional

arms,

evaluates

the

over-all

strategy,

points

up

the

strengths

and

weakness

of

current

military

potential,

and

concludes

with

recommendations

to

remedy

the

areas

of

weakness

-

not

in

the

military

alone

but

in

the

whole

fabric

of

the

body

politic.

J.

KEITH

MELVILLE

Brigham

Young

University

Communist

China

and

Asia.

By

A.

DOAK

BARNETT.

(Published

for

the

Coun-

cil

on

Foreign

Relations.

New

York:

Harper

&

Brothers,

1960.

Pp.

xi,

575.

$6.95.)

The

purpose

underlying

Mr.

Barnett’s

very

competent

work

is

implicit

in

the

subtitle

of

his

book:

&dquo;Challenge

to

American

Policy.&dquo;

From

the

American

viewpoint,

he

sees

Communist

China

as

&dquo;the

principal

threat

to

...

basic

Amer-

ican

aims

and

interests

in

Asia.&dquo;

He

summarizes

these

as:

blocking

Communist

expansion,

preventing

the

domination

of

Asia

by

any

single

state,

and

encourag-

ing

the

growth

in

Asia

of

democratic,

non-Communist

Asian

states.

The

first

thirteen

substantive

chapters

deal

largely

with

evaluations

of

Chinese

Communist

actions

in

the

fields

of

domestic

and

foreign

policy

that

are

relevant

to

American

policy

in

Asia.

His

chapter

on

&dquo;The

Policy

of

Nonrecognition&dquo;

quite

correctly

emphasizes

that

the

discussion

of

China

policy

at

that

level

fails

to

get

&dquo;to

the

heart

of

the

problem

of

deciding

what

policy

the

United

States

should

pursue

toward

China,&dquo;

and

that

what

are

involved

in

&dquo;recognition&dquo;

by

the

United

States,

or

&dquo;seating&dquo;

in

the

UN,

&dquo;are

essentially

tactical

issues&dquo;

only.