WAIST DEEP IN THE BIG MUDDY: Personal Reflections on 1968

by Richard Rovere ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 29, 1968

Less an analysis of the current scene than a reappraisal of American foreign policy of the past twenty years from the vantage point of the present, this is also something less than a survey or a definitive statement; rather, in the manner of TV's proto-interview Conversations with. . . , it is Rovere's prolegomenon of his position vis a vis our position. Taking off from and returning frequently to comparison between the Korean War and the war in Vietnam, he sees the latter intervention as differing from the former chiefly in relation to the change in international Communism: whereas it appeared, in 1948, to be monolithic, it is now revealed as polycentric, making the policy of obdurate opposition unsound. Which leaves a still more fundamental problem, aggravated by growing American repugnance to war generally--the wisdom of trying to maintain a global balance of power; but we are boxed in by past promises (""some dominos might fall in a certain way because we have set them up that way"") and by the administration's inability to admit mistakes. What prospects? regard policy, any policy, as a necessary adjustment rather than a permanent commitment; what answers? a salient examination of failures to do so. Much of this appeared recently in The New Yorker and it's a trifle steep at $4.50 (for 116 pages) but still worth a second thought.

Pub Date: April 29, 1968

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1968

Categories: NONFICTION