Review: United States: The Myth of Liberation
| Author | Stephen D. Kertesz |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207402900423 |
| Date | 01 December 1974 |
| Published date | 01 December 1974 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
672
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL.
maintaining
what
for
the
sake
of
morale
seemed
to
be
most
desirable
but
in
reality
was,
at
best,
Wishful
thinking.
Farrar's
study represents
an
excellent
synthesis
of
diverse
themes,
and
in
this
lies
its
shortcoming
because,
for instance,
it
precludes
any
detailed
discussion
of
the
mutation
of
the
military
plans.
It
does
not
allow
due
emphasis
to
be
placed
on
the
complexity
of
the
events
as
well
as
on the
variety
of
the
responses
elicited
by
them.
This
might
have
made
the
book
less
brief
but
it
would
have
helped
to
point
in
a
meaningful
way
to the
ultimate
significance
of
the
contradictions
inherent in
the
assumptions
of
politicians
and
soldiers
in
1914.
H.W.
Koch/University
of
York
UNITED
STATES
THE
MYTH
OF
LIBERATION
East-Central
Europe
in
U.S.
Diplomacy
and
Politics
since
1941
Bennett
Kovrig
Baltimore:
Johns
Hopkins
University
Press
[Toronto:
Copp
Clark],
1973,
xiv,
36opp,
$13.22
This
book
is
the
first
comprehensive
account
of
United
States
diplo-
macy
and
politics toward
East-Central
Europe.
The
author
examined
all
available documentary
material
and
the huge
literature,
including
memoirs
and
papers
of
some
of
the
chief actors.
The
narrative
shows
that
the
policy
of
liberation
was
not
so
much
a
policy
as
a
slogan
for
domestic
politics
and
was
taken
seriously
only
by
some
ethnic
and
exile
groups
and
possibly
by
some
congressmen.
The
Republican
administration
in
the
1950s
continued
the
policy
of
containment.
The
knights
of
liberation
did
nothing during
the
East
German rebellion
and
the
Hungarian
revolution. Indeed,
during
the
crucial
days
of
the
latter
revolt
Secretary
of
States
Dulles
publicly
assured
the
Russians
of
United
States passivity.
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