Book Review: Military and Scientific Affairs: Tizard
| Author | Gordon A. Craig |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206702200124 |
| Published date | 01 March 1967 |
| Date | 01 March 1967 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
110
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
accurately
indicate
its
coverage.
The
first
third
of
the
book
discusses
A
Peace-loving
yet
Military
Republic"
(to
use
the
title
of
the
bridge
chapter
between
those
on
the
"Thought
and Experience"
of
World
Wars
I
and II).
Chapter
IV
deals
with
"Natural
Science
and
Strategy
V
with
"Massive
Retaliation
and
Limited
War,
VI
with
"Thinking
About
the
Unthinkable,
VII
with
Advanced
Thought
Applied,
and
VIII
sums up
the
American
military
intellectuals'
advance
"From
Zero
to
Leadership"
in
the
Western
alliance.
Mr.
Schwarz
has
not
tried
to
trace the
connections between
their
works
and
internal
politics,
the
armaments
boom,
and
the
economy.
He
notes
the
British
origins
of
many
key
doctrines,
but
does
not
stress
British
sober
second
thoughts
about
the
resulting
ideas
of
air
power,
deterrence,
and
massive
retalia-
tion
or British
contributions
to
American
thinking about
limited
and
"sub-limited
war.
The
latter,
he
comments,
"is
a
field
that
is
not
yet
fully
explored.
A
neutral
survey of
American
policy-Mr.
Schwarz
was
foreign
editor
of
the Neue
Zuircher
Zeitung
from
1942
to
1965-may
carry
some
weight
in
Western
Europe,
and
the
author
does
note
that
some American
"thinking
about
the
unthinkable"
is
"bizarre.
But
any
such
survey
runs
the danger
of
making
American
military
intellectuals
seem
more
rational
than
real.
The
road
to
hell
may
now
be
paved
with
good
in-
tentions,
scientifically documented.
Since
Mr.
Schwarz
does
mention
Vietnam,
one
wonders
whether the
tenor
of
that
debate
documents
his
conclusion
that
"the
American
tradition
of
a
completely
free
ex-
change
of
opinions,
the
full
participation
in
the
arms
debate
of
the
scientific
community,
the military
and
the
policy
makers, has
made
possible
the
extraordinary
and
positive achievement
of
strategic
maturity
In
his
generally expert summary
of
the
American
tradition
he missed
the
key notion
that
there
are
no
unsolvable
problems.
In
spite
of
occasional
lapses
into
American
jargon,
Mr.
Schwarz's English
can
be
highly
recommended
to American
writers
on
strategic
subjects.
Duke
Unwersity
THEODORE
RoPP
TIZARD.
By
Ronald
W
Clark.
1965.
(London:
Methuen.
Toronto: Ryerson.
xvii,
458pp.
$11.00)
It
is
doubtful
whether the
defences
of
any
modern
nation
have
ever been
improved
so
quickly
as
those
of
Great
Britain
in
the
brief
period
between
July
1936
and
the
outbreak
of
war
in
September
1939.
The
man
with
the
best
claim
to
the
honour
of
having sparked
this
transformation
was
Sir
Henry
Tizard,
for
it
was
he
who
inspired
and
carred
through
the
so-called
Biggin
Hill
Experiment,
which
tested
the
capabilities
of
the
new
weapon
radar,
convinced
the airmen
who
would
have
to
use
it
of
its
importance, and
thus
made
it
operational
in
time
for
the Battle
of
Britain
in
which
it
was to
play
so
significant
a
part.
This
remarkable
achievement
is
generally
the
only
thing
that
is
remembered
when
writers
on
the
scientific
aspects
of
the
Second
World
War mention Tizard's
name
(unless
it
is
his
long
and
frequently
bitter
rivalry
with
Churchill's
scientific
adviser
Charles Lindemann).
But
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