Book Review: Military and Scientific Affairs: Communist China and Arms Control
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206702200224 |
| Author | Michael E. Sherman |
| Published date | 01 June 1967 |
| Date | 01 June 1967 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
328
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
is
unconcealed,
but
his
praise
for
their
prowess
should
not
obscure
the
fact-as
it
does
here-that
in
Russia's
four foreign
wars
from
1815
to
1914,
her
armies
were
victorious
against
a
decrepit
Turkey
alone,
and
only
then
after
immense
exertions.
Colonel
Garder
also lays
undue
stress
on
the
"religious"
nature
of
the
Russian
people,
unbroken
by
revolution. The
party
is
described
as
"a
religious
order,"
the
political
structure
as
"a
bureaucratic military
'theocracy'
A
limited
com-
parison might
indeed
be
drawn
between
the
orgamzational
framework
of
the
Communist
Party
and
the
Catholic
Church,
but it
is
risky
to
harp
constantly
on
this analogy
and
ludicrous
to
refer
to
the
First
Secretary
in
1964
as "Pope"
of
world commumsm
and
head
of
the
Soviet
state-in
fact
he
was
neither.
The
author then
concludes
with
a
coy
prediction
that
on
the
basis
of
the
47
year
history
of
the
Soviet
army,
"one
might
say"
army
and
state
"are
on
the
brink
of
extremely
important
events
the
magnitude
of
which
might
well
sur
prise
us.
Perhaps
so,
but
his
account
provides
no
grounds
for
believing
it.
The
bibliography
is
extremely
unimpressive.
The
University
of
Calgary
ROBERT
H.
JOHNSTON
COMMUNIST
CHINA
AND
ARMS
CONTROL.
By
Morton
H.
Halperin
and
Dwight
H.
Perkins.
1965.
(New
York:
Frederick
A.
Praeger.
To-
ronto: Burns
&
MacEachern.
xi,
191pp.
$9.00
Although
specialists
have
been
concerned
with
the
subject
of
this
book
for
some
time,
it
was
not
until
1964
that
the
general
public
became
aware
of
China
as
an
arms
control
problem.
In
October
of
that
year
the
Chinese,
somewhat ahead
of
Western
predictions,
detonated
their
first
nuclear
device. Since
then,
both
experts
and laymen have
been
con-
cerned-one
might
say
obsessed-with
the
possible
implications
for
international
stability
of
a
revisionist
China
armed with
nuclear
wea-
pons.
The
contribution
of
Professors
Halperm and
Perkins
is
in
bridging
the
inevitable gap
between
professional
China-watchers and
those
who
see
little
more
than
is
available
in
the
daily press.
The
picture
which
emerges
from
their
account
is
often
at
variance
with many
popular
notions
of
Chinese
military
policy.
For
example,
the
authors
challenge
the
view
which
holds
that
China's
leaders,
unaware
of
the
destructiveness
of
nuclear
war,
are
impatient
for
the
day
when
their
atomic
arsenal
will be
big
enough
to
start
one.
On
the contrary
this
book
suggests
they
seem
very
sophisticated in
strategic
matters,
well
aware
of
what
a
nuclear
war
would
mean
for
China,
and
over-all
as
conservative
in
their
operative
military
policy
as
they
are
intemperate
in
many
of
their
policy
statements.
Indeed,
an
interesting
theme
of
the
volume
is
that
if much
of
the
world
regards
Chinese
leaders
as
nuclear-armed
fanatics,
those
leaders
have
only
their
Soviet
"ally"
to
thank.
Despite
this
somewhat
more
sober
view
of
Chinese
military
inclina-
tions,
the
authors warn
us
against
erring
on
the other
side.
We
cannot,
they
feel,
be
very optimistic
in
the short
run
about
translating
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