Book Reviews : O Papel do Executive no Estado Moderno, Estudos Sociais E. Politicos 7. (Rio de Janeiro: Revista Brasileira de Estudos Politicos. Pp. 185.)

• Published date: 01 September 1960
• Date: 01 September 1960
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/106591296001300339
• Subject Matter: Articles

828

Meray

handles

particularly

well

a

portrait

of

Nagy

which

gives

substance

and

form

to

this

shadowy

figure

who,

on

the

one

hand,

has

been

acclaimed

as

a

martyred

hero

and,

on

the

other,

dismissed

as

a

weak

and

easily

influenced

man

who

was

a

revolutionary

in

spite

of

himself.

According

to

Meray,

Nagy

was

an

idealist

who

committed

the

ironic

and

fatal

error

of

trying

to

practice

his

ideals

in

the

face

of

Communist

reality,

a

planner

at

home

in

the

intricacies

of

agricultural

economics

but

cast

by

fate

in

the

role

of

the

leader

of

a

rebellion.

Although

some

of

the

conversations

reported

here

must

be

mostly

the

imagination

of

the

author

(who

reproduced

them

verbatim

here),

enough

of

the

historical

facts

are

based

mostly

on

newspaper

reports

to

give

them

acknowl-

edged

credence.

The

same

applies

to

the

incidents

in

which

Meray

was

a

partici-

pant.

All

in

all,

this

is

a

valuable

document

which

throws

a

spotlight

on

the

pattern

of

modern

revolutions

and

the

techniques

used

by

the

Russian

&dquo;libera-

tors&dquo;

to

keep

their

Iron

Curtain

empire

under

their

imperialistic

heel.

University

of

Bridgeport

JOSEPH

S.

ROUCEK

O

Papel

do

Executive

no

Estado

Moderno,

Estudos

Sociais

E.

Politicos

7.

(Rio

de

Janeiro:

Revista

Brasileira

de

Estudos

Politicos.

Pp.

185.)

This

book

is

the

translation

into

Portuguese

of

the

International

Bulletin

of

the

Social

Sciences

published

in

England

by

UNESCO

in

1958.

The

translation

was

authorized

by

UNESCO

and

presumbly

is

a

faithful

reproduction

of

the

original.

B.

R.

E.

Massive

Retaliation,

the

Policy

and

its

Critics.

By

PAUL

PEETERS.

(Chicago:

Henry

Regnery

Company,

1959.

Pp.

xii,

304.

$5.00.)

A

Democrat

and

a

political

scientist

will

find

this

a

difficult

book

to

review

with

a

full

measure

of

objectivity.

Mr.

Peeters

has

heroes

and

villains.

His

heroes

are

the

late

Secretary

of

State,

John

Foster

Dulles,

and

President

Eisen-

hower ;

his

villains

are

Adlai

Stevenson,

Senator

Humphrey,

and

many

other

Democrats,

intellectuals,

and

college

professors

who

write

on

international

politics.

Massive

Retaliation,

the

Policy

and

its

Critics

has

much

more

to

do

with

the

critics

of

this

doctrine

than

with

the

policy

itself.

Most

of

the

book

is

a

polemical

dissertation

against

those

who

reject

massive

retaliation

as

a

policy

in

seeking

to

provide

for

the

security

of

the

United

States.

Indeed,

once

the

author

has

stated

what

the

policy

of

massive

retaliation

means

(the

employment

or

potential

employment

of

our

full

nuclear

capabilities

to

cope

with

any

act

of

aggression),

he

doesn’t

proceed

to

discuss

the

variety

of

ramifications

of

this

policy

but

rather

devotes

the

bulk

of

his

volume

to

answering

criticisms

as

they

have

occurred

day

by

day

in

the

Congressional

Record,

The

New

York

Times,

and,

on

occasions,

in

other

publications.

Chapter

headings

have

little

meaning