Book Review: International Politics and Economics: Megamurder
| Published date | 01 March 1967 |
| Date | 01 March 1967 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070206702200110 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
94
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
"are
discussing
world
problems
on
an
equal footing.
A
world
society
is
emerging,
in
which
it
will
be
culture,
rather
than
race,
that
provides
community
of
interests.
For
a
hard-working
international
civil
servant,
Robert
Gardiner
keeps
a
tenacious
hold
on
his
faith.
University
of
Alberta
KING
GORDON
MEGAMURDER.
By
Lt.
Gen.
E. L.
M.
Burns.
1966.
(Toronto:
Clarke,
Irwin.
xiii,
288pp.
$5.00)
In
a
previous
book,
General
Burns
instructively
narrated
his experi-
ences
as
a
peacekeeper
"between
Arab
and
Israeli"
As
a
consequence
of his
other
professional
role
as
a
representative
for
Canada
in
inter-
national disarmament
deliberations,
General
Burns
might
well
have
performed
an
invaluable
service
by
presenting
more
analytical
impres-
sions
of
the
negotiations
and
how
they
might
henceforth
most
expediti-
ously
proceed.
Instead,
he
has
produced
a
work,
however
substantive,
in
the
true
tradition
of
the
multitudinous
apocalyptic
volumes of
the
mid-
20th
century.
Diverse
authorities
ranging
from
Herman
Kahn
to
Steve
Allen
are
evoked
to
convince
the reader
of
the
horror
of
nuclear
war
fare.
But
mankind
is
convinced,
yea,
even
a
good
many
of
the
genre
of
air
generals
and
strategy
analysts
whom
General Burns
selects
as
his
main
targets,
and castigates.
General
Burns
does,
however,
go
further
than
most
contemporary
prophets
of doom.
He offers
a
way
out:
that
being
to
put
the
thought
into
the
minds
of
military
men,
and
especially
those
in
high
office,
that
if
they
follow
the
way
of
war
that
has
developed
from
a
beginning when men
learned
to
fly
to
a
flowering
in
the
nuclear
missile
age,
they
have
fallen
away
from
their
true
function as pro-
tectors
of
the
civil
population, and
have
become
agents
for
promoting
a mass
slaughter
which
would
make the
authorities
at
Dachau,
Ausch-
witz
and
other
extermination
camps
very small-time
operators
indeed.
This
jacketed
phrase
captures
the
essence
of
the
entire
book;
doubtless
its
reception
will
be widely
diverse.
The
development
of
air
warfare
theory
from
Douhet to
the
present
constitutes
the
greater
part
of
the
text,
and this
summary
should
be
useful to
some
readers.
The indictment
of
air
power
characterizes
the
analysis
everywhere,
and
undoubtedly
acts
to
the
detriment
of
other
points,
otherwise
well
made.
The
text
reflects
the
deep
convictions
of
General
Burns
on
the
responsibilities
of
military
men.
He
has
expressed
his
views
quite
forcibly but
the
reader,
bombarded
to
the
very
last
word with
"Mega-
murder"
may
be
reminded
of
General
Burns'
own
dictum:
"It
makes
one
cautious
about
accepting any
general's
assessment
of
the
probable
development
of
war
and
perhaps
should
make
all
generals
wary
of
delivering
unqualified
judgments.
Washington,
D.C.
ARNOLD
KRAMISH
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