Book Review: Russian Foreign Policy
| Author | Robert H. McNeal |
| Date | 01 March 1963 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206301800120 |
| Published date | 01 March 1963 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK REVIEW
107
English-language
text released
by
the
New
China
News
Agency
on
August
28,
1959,
of
the
shattering
speech
delivered by
Premier
Chou
En-lai
in
which
he
adjusted
the major
targets
of
China's
1959
national
plan.
Due
to
lack
of
experience, said
Chou,
calculations
of
the
1958
harvest
had
been
"a bit
high." The
Communists
had
boasted an
output
of
375
million
tons
of
grain
in
1958
though
actual
production
was
250
million
tons
(and Western
experts
put
it
nearer
to
the
200
million
ton
mark). In
Document
41
Chou
En-lai
officially
cut
the
estimated
grain
output
planned
for
1959
from the original
525
million
tons to
275
million
tons. Cotton production
targets
were more
than
halved
from
five
million
tons
to
2.3
million
tons.
Many
of
the
documents
reveal
the
strange
thinking
of
Mao
Tse-tung,
China's
powerful
leader,
who
rules
over
more
human
beings
today
than
any
other
dictator
in
the
history
of
mankind.
Daily, in
hundreds
of
thousands
of
cities,
towns
and
villages,
some
700,000,000
Chinese
bow
to
Mao
Tse-tung's
will.
The
48
documents
on
policy,
taken from the
pages
of
important
Chinese
newspapers
and
journals
such
as
the People/s
Daily
and
Red
Flag,
are
proof
of
Mao's
unlimited ambitions
as
a
global
communist.
They
represent the
birth
of one
of
his
great
dreams,
the
People's
Communes,
and they
spell
out
starkly
the
heavy
cost
the
Chinese
people
had
to
pay
for
the
Peking
regime's failures
in
planning.
Toronto
FREDERICK
NossAL
RussmN
FOREIGN
PoLicy.
Essays
in
Historical
Perspective.
Edited
by
Ivo
J.
Lederer.
1962.
(New
Haven:
Yale
University
Press.
Montreal:
McGill
University
Press.
xxiii,
62
0pp.
$10.00.)
It
is
probably
indicative
of
the
changing
mood
of
American
schol-
arship
on
Russia
that
the papers
of
a
symposium
of
1953
were published
under
the
title
The
Threat
of
Soviet
Imperialism,
while
the
volume
under
review
is
entitled
Russian
Foreign
Policy.
Essays
in
Historical
Perspective.
In
this
collection
of eighteen
essays
a
laudable
level
of
objectivity
is
maintained, and
in
this
sense
the
book
succeeds
in
providing
a
clearer
perspective
on
Russian foreign
policy.
Otherwise
the
kind
of
perspective
attempted
and
the
success achieved
varies
considerably
from
essay
to
essay,
as
is
natural
in
such
a
collection.
Working
on a
high
level
of
generalization,
Cyril
E.
Black
("The
Pattern
of
Russian
Objectives"),
Adam
B.
Ulam
("Nationalism,
Panslav-
ism, Communism"),
Richard
E.
Pipes ("Domestic Politics
and
Foreign
Affairs")
and
Henry L. Roberts ("Russia
and
America")
contribute
exceedingly
balanced
and
lucid
essays.
The
long
view
of some
more
specific
problems
is
developed
with
an
equal
sense
of
proportion
by
Robert
C.
Tucker
("Autocrats
and
Oligarchs"), Robert
M.
Slusser
("The
Role
of
the
Foreign
Ministry"),
Gordon
A.
Craig
("Techniques
of
Negotiation"),
Firuz
Kazemzadeh
("Russia
and
the
Middle
East")
and
Donald
W.
Treadgold ("Russia
and
the
Far
East").
Comparable
success
in
the
long-term
analysis
of
propaganda
and
"The
Use
of
International
Movements"
is
hardly
possible
because,
as
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