Book Reviews : Political Power: USA/USSR. By ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI and SAMUEL P. HUNTING- TON. (New York: The Viking Press, 1963, 1964. Pp. xiii, 461. $7.50.)

• Author: Louis Wasserman
• DOI: 10.1177/106591296401700423
• Published date: 01 December 1964
• Date: 01 December 1964
• Subject Matter: Articles

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committee to please Hull during his Moscow visit and restored it soon thereafter?
Can Blum and Paul-Boncour be honestly described as &dquo;ambitious demagogues&dquo; bent
on exploiting rising discontent? The Russian civil war did not end with General
Yudenich’s defeat. The Stavisky &dquo;scandals&dquo; occurred in 1934 and not in 1936. Names
are misspelled, and typographical errors occur. These memoirs are a sorry com-
mentary on one of the nation’s leading commentators on foreign affairs.
ISAAC A. STONE
City College of New York
Political Power: USA/USSR. By ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI and SAMUEL P. HUNTING-
TON. (New York: The Viking Press, 1963, 1964. Pp. xiii, 461. $7.50.)
Unannounced motivations are sheer speculation, but it would seem that the
authors had become disturbed by the spread of the &dquo;convergence theory&dquo; and de-
cided to do something about it. The present study accordingly addresses itself to
three material questions regarding the American and Soviet political systems. First,
what similarities and what differences do the two exhibit? Second, what are their
respective strengths and weaknesses? And third, are they likely to move toward a
common
pattern in the future? Four operational political categories are selected for
the purposes of comparison: the role of ideology as it impinges upon policy deter-
mination ; interaction between the regime and its citizenry; the selection and training
of leadership; and the actual mechanics of decision-making. These are apt subjects
for systematic analysis, and the authors devote the first part of their work to a pene-
trating description, dissection, refinement, and reduction of the two opposed polities
as functioning systems. After this they proceed to exemplify the &dquo;dynamics of power&dquo;
in each country, as specifically manifested to meet the challenge of some half-dozen
parallel crises encountered in recent years -
among them the civil-military collisions
of Truman-MacArthur and Khrushchev-Zhukov,...