Book Review: The Shaping of Postwar Germany
| Published date | 01 June 1961 |
| Date | 01 June 1961 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206101600211 |
| Author | Hans Kohn |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REVIEws
83
In
conformity
with his thesis Sir
Victor
Goddard
argues
that
there
must
be
adequate
deterrence
at
every
level if
it
is
to
be of
any
use.
Small
attacks must
be
met
by
the
menace
of
efficient
repulsion
on
the
same
level.
"It
is
no
use
having
only
great
weapons
or
only
small.
If
you
are
going
to
have
weapons
at
all
you
must
have
the
lot,
or
quit
the
arenas
of
major
powers.
France
understands
that"
(p.
70).
He
maintains
that,
if
more nations
have
nuclear
weapons,
the
greater
will
be
the
menace
and
therefore the
less likelihood
of
war,
since
"the
more
unlikely
it
becomes
that
one
country
can
make
a
one-sided
bargain
involving
force"
(p.
71).
As
to
the future,
the
Air
Marshal's
view
seems
to
be
that
there
will
come
a
day
when
the
only
weapons
of
menace
will
be
in
the
hands
of
the
United
Nations
and
that
this
will
effectively
prevent
war.
Whether
or
not
this
idea
is
at
all
connected
with
reality,
it
does
not
affect
things
at
present,
as, until
that
time
comes,
the nuclear
deterrent
must
be
retained.
He
sees
the
opposition
to
nuclear
armaments
as
the
result
of
fear
which
causes
men
to
blind
themselves to
the
true
facts.
This
point
of view
is
certainly
one
which
has
to
be
taken
seriously.
It
is
an
argument to
which
no
exception can
be
taken
on
moral
grounds,
so
long
as
the
weapons
are restricted
to menace
and
are
not
used.
The
question of
the
use of
nuclear
weapons
is
not
discussed
in
detail
in
the
book.
Sir
Victor
Goddard's
thesis
about
nuclear
deterrence
is
mixed
up
with
much
philosophizing
about
the
world
in
general and
the
nature
of
man,
largely
based on
a
private
religion
of
his
own
invention.
His
sweeping
statements about
Christianity,
the
New
Testament,
the real
meaning
of
Jesus,
are
often
debatable, and
in
a number
of
cases
demonstrably
wrong. His
use
of
language
is
odd
and
difficult,
e.g.,
he
uses
the
word "Deist"
when
he
mean
"Theist",
and
tries
to
draw
dis-
tinctions
between
Ethics
and
Morals
which
will
merely
cause
confusion.
The
reviewer
is
of
course
a
"mentally
conditioned
Christian"
(p.
34),
and
he
believes
that
the
central argument
of
the
book
is
not
assisted
by
these
extraneous
excursions.
Manotick,
Ontario
CAoN
HERBERT
M.
WADDAMS
THE
STAGES
OF
EcONOMIc
GROWTH:
A
Non-Communist
Manifesto.
By
W. W.
Rostow.
1960.
(Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Toronto: Macmillan
Co.
Ltd.
xi,
179pp.
$1.45.)
Seldom
has
a
book
had
such
a
send-off
before
publication
as
this
one.
Given
first
as
lectures
at
Cambridge
in
1959,
it
was
published
in
synopsis
by
The
Economist
in
August,
1959.
Then
Pravda
attacked
it
hotly
for
"digging
in
old
rubbish
dumps"
to
refute
Marx.
At
this
point
Fortune
took up
the
debate,
and
attacked
Rostow
for
assigning
im.
portance
to
the
state
in
promoting
economic
growth.
Then
Encounter
devoted
an
article to the
book
in
December,
1959,
and
in
its
January
1960
number
Professor
Rostow
replied
to
his critics.
Only
after
all
this
and
more
did
the
book
appear.
It
is
available
now
in
a
handsome
and
inexpensive
paper-back
edition.
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