Book Review: United States: The United States in the Postwar World
| Published date | 01 March 1967 |
| Author | John F Melby |
| Date | 01 March 1967 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206702200130 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
118
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Crisis,
whereas
the
politicians
were questioned
several
weeks
later,
when
tension had
eased,
and
just
before
the
leader
of one
of
the two
major parties
abandoned
his opposition
to
nuclear
arms.
The
public
sampling,
moreover,
was
taken
by
a
neutral
agency,
whereas
the
politicians knew
they
were being
questioned
by
"Peace"
researchers.
One
cannot
say
how
much
such
differences
in
timing
and
approach
affected
the
results,
but
they
both
cast
doubt
upon
the
proposition
that
Canadian
politicians
are
notably more
pacific
(Fraser)
or
blind
(Acheson)
than
the
Canadian
public.
Acheson
is
also
wide
of
the
mark
when
he suggests
that
the present Canadian leaders
have
failed
to
r•ecognize
that
U.N.
peace-keeping
is
peripheral
in
importance, and
that
the
main
burden
for
maintaining
peace
and
stability
remains
on
American shoulders.
Many
of his
scathing
comments,
however,
are
distressingly
accurate.
After
demonstrating
that
U.S.-Canadian
lack
of
understanding
does
not
stem
from
an
absence
of
communication,
but
rather
from
a
colossal
disparity
in
power,
James
Reston recommends
that
the
American
com-
munications
industry
pay
more
serious
attention
to
Canada.
The well-
informed
criticism
found
in
this
volume,
however,
makes
one
wonder
if
it
is
really
in
the
Canadian
interest
that
the
Americans get
to
know
Canadians
better.
Carleton
University
PEYTON
V
LYON
United
States
THE
UNITED
STATES
IN
THE
POSTWAR
WORLD.
What
we
have
Done,
What
we
have
left
Undone,
and
What
we
Can and
Must
Do. By
James
P
Warburg.
1966.
(New
York:
Atheneum.
Toronto:
McClelland
&
Stewart.
xviii,
327pp.
$8.00)
This
is
an
important
book,
with
which
a
good
many
people
will
have
strong
disagreements.
This
may make
it
all
the
more
important,
not
only
for
the
many
Americans,
but
also
for
the perhaps
even
larger
percentage
of
non-Americans,
who
are
both
baffled
and
frustrated
by
American
foreign
policy
and
what
seems
to
be
a
perennial
inability
of
the
United
States
to
achieve
its
stated
objectives.
The
major
portion
of
the
book
is
a
devastating
account of
what
has actually
happened
since
1945
and
is
quite
possibly
the clearest
and
simplest
exposition
yet
written
of
these
events.
Mr.
Warburg
then
lists
somewhat
more
briefly
the
important
things
he
believes
the
United
States
has
not
done,
or
at
least has attempted
to
do
much
too
inadequately to
accomplish
anything.
He
then
gives his
prescription
for
the
future
which will
be
familiar
to all
who
have
known his
dis-
tinguished
and
voluminous
writings
over
a
long period
of
years.
Perhaps the
most
fascinating and
important
part
in
the
whole
book
is
chapter
14,
"Who
Makes
Our
Foreign
Policy9"
"Not public
opinion"
says Mr.
Warburg,
for
the
public
has
been
so
consistently
and
deliberately
misled
as
to
what
the Government was
doing
that
it
is
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