Book Reviews : 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.)

• Published date: 01 September 1960
• Date: 01 September 1960
• Author: J. Keith Melville
• DOI: 10.1177/106591296001300317
• Subject Matter: Articles

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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
...