Review: United Nations: Guide to United Nations Organizations, Documentation & Publishing
| Date | 01 December 1979 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207903400420 |
| Published date | 01 December 1979 |
| Author | Patricia J. Appavoo |
| Subject Matter | Review |
736
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
defence
costs.
Increases
in
military
salaries,
double-digit
inflation,
and
astronomical
unit
prices
for
new
planes,
tanks,
and
ships
left
military
planners
with
two choices.
Would
limited
defence
funds
be
spent
on
ever
decreasing
numbers
of
soldiers
and
arms
in
order
to
remain
in
the
technological
race,
or would
governments
attempt
to
maintain
the
level
of
manpower
and
the
number
of
units
and
equipment?
In
face
of
re-
stricted and
sometimes
frozen
budgets,
the
latter option
meant
accept-
ing an
increase
in
the
longevity
of
weapon
systems
and
their
eventual
replacement
by
fewer
arms
or
ones
which
were
less
technologically
advanced.
The
choice
of
quality
versus
quantity,
though
subject
to
fi-
nancial
and
political restraints,
is
basically
a
military
one.
Military
advice
is
an
important
aspect
of
Canadian
defence
policy
which
In
Retreat
fails
to
assess.
Politicians,
though
not
required
to
accept
the
counsel
of
their
generals,
must
at
least consider
it.
It
is
in-
evitable
that
much
of
the
defence
policy
which
Porter
takes
such relish
in hanging about
the
neck
of
Trudeau
was
in
fact
the
product
of
proposals
or
compromises
put
forward
by
the
general
staff.
In
Retreat
quotes
many
a
service
officer
as
to
what
he
might
have
done,
but
there
are
few
revelations
about
the
actual
military
advice
on
which
final
decisions
were
based.
Selection
and
maintenance
of
the
aim
is
the
first
military principle.
Porter
had
wanted
to
warn
his
fellow
Canadians
about
the
state
of
the
armed
forces
but
the
result
is
little
more
than
a
personal
assault
on
Trudeau.
Perhaps
In
Retreat
will
stimulate
some
other author
to
ex-
amine
our
deteriorating
defence
capability.
M.V.
Charrier/Ottawa
UNITED
NATIONS
GUIDE
TO
UNITED
NATIONS ORGANIZATIONS,
DOCUMENTATION
&
PUBLISHING
For
Students,
Researchers,
Librarians
Peter
I.
Hajnal
Dobbs
Ferry,
NY:
Oceana,
1978,
xxxviii,
45opp,
$35.00
In
the
introduction
to
this
book,
reference
is
made
to
an
earlier
guide
to
United
Nations documents
where
it
was
lamented
that
'so
few
econ-
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