Book Review: The Great Contest
| Date | 01 December 1960 |
| Author | Robert H. McNeal |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206001500422 |
| Published date | 01 December 1960 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BooK
RmviEws
371
measure,
for
those
who would
want
to
know
more
about
the
already
amply
discussed
subjects.
The
result
is
a weighty
tome
which
I,
for
one, would
recommend
less
for
consecutive
reading
than
as
a
valuable reference and
as
a
source of
"familiar
quotations".
There
are,
of course,
the
classical
discourses
on
air
power
which
are
always
worth
re-reading,
such
as
the
excerpts
from Trenchard's
Air
Power
and
National
Security,
and
Dou-
het's
The
Command
of
the Air,
or,
of
more recent
offerings,
Kissinger's
brilliant
Force and
Diplomacy.
In
general,
however, only
the author's
own
introductions
fit
firmly
together.
They
contain
statements
which
are
arguable-as
when Dr. Emme says flatly
that
"old
fashioned
wars,
when
limited
political
objectives
could
be decisively
won
with
con-
ventional
military
forces, seem
forever
relegated
to
the history
books"
-but
they
certainly present,
with
sometimes
frightening clarity,
the
present
American
doctrine
of
the
use
of
air
power.
As
to the
texts
by
other writers
which
form
the
greater
part
of
the
book,
they
are
generally
well
chosen.
Sometimes,
though,
the
author
forgets
that
an
anthology,
by definition,
is
a
critical
selection
from
a
literature.
Otherwise
he
could
not have put,
to
give
but
one
instance,
a
typical after-dinner
speech,
full
of
annoying
clichrs,
by
Captain
"Eddie"
Rickenbacker
side-by-side
with an
excerpt
from James
T.
Shotwell's
The
Last
Frontier.
Finally,
it
should
be
mentioned
that
among
the
ablest
writings
in-
corporated
in
the
book,
two
come
from
the
pen
of
a
Canadian
hardly
known
beyond
the
borders
of
this
country,
James
I.
Jackson.
Toronto
JOHN
GELLNmz
THE
GRBAT
Co0Tws.
Russia
and
the
West.
By
Isaac
Deutscher.
1960.
(New
York:
Toronto:
Oxford
University
Press.
vii,
86pp.
$2.75.)
Isaac
Deutscher,
the
outstanding biographer
of
Stalin and
Trotsky,
may
be
fairly
described
as
a "free Marxist".
His
latest
volume,
con-
sisting
of
four
lectures
delivered
in
Canada
in
1959,
reveals
his
candid
faith
in
his
own
version
of
Marxism,
and
demonstrates
how
provocative
such
a
commentator
can
be.
The
Great
Contest
is
a
book
well
worth
an
evening,
which
is
all
that
its
eighty-odd
pages
require,
but
it
should
not
be
approached
without
a
healthy
sense
of
critical
skepticism,
for
the
book
bristles with
highly questionable
interpretations
as
well
as
the
most
challenging
insights.
Although
Mr.
Deutscher's
admiration
of
Trotsky
is
probably
proof
that
he
will
maintain
his
integrity
as
a
Marxist
not
beholden
to
the
Kremlin,
Khrushchev
has
moved
Soviet
doctrine
close
enough
to
Deutscher's
views
that
the
latter
appears
willing to
swallow
elements
of
the
current
Soviet
line
that
many
readers
will
find
indigestible.
For
example,
Mr.
Deutscher
accepts
the gist
of
Khrushchev's
assertion
that
the
USSR
has
always
adhered
to
peaceful
co-existence
as
the
basis
of
its
foreign
policy
and
that
only
"capitalist"
powers
have
violated
this
principle
(p.
64.)
In
support
of
this
Deutscher
notes
that
the
Allied
intervention
after
1917
and
the
German invasion
of
1941
are the
only
breaches
of
co-existence.
In
other
words,
it
would
appear
that
Soviet
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