MAN IN THE STRUGGLE FOR PEACE

Dr. Malik, a citizen of Lebanon, is a distinguished scholar and statesman and a former President of the U.N. General Assembly. In this book, predictably, it is only in and through the U.N. that he sees any chance of winning real peace; but he does not soft-pedal the problems to be encountered there. The first third of his volume is ""An Existential Interpretation"" of the life and work there, and it is hardly an idealized portrait. ""You begin by being pure and innocent and buoyant, gradually you are inducted into the horror of the world in which conditions and dealings are too questionable to bear; and yet you bear them all the same."" The middle section,"" A Political Interpretation"", is a grimly astute examination of the Russia-U.S. power struggle within the organization. The final part calls for and outlines a ""fundamental revolution"" in the West, as the only alternative to being ""buried"" or ""fried alive"". The Communists, he says, are preparing for both war and peace, but we are prepared only for war; the peace, then, only they can win, and no one of course can win the war. Perhaps Dr. Malik is offering nothing new, nothing in fact we have not been told over and over again -- but he says it more strongly than many and more clearly than most. He deserves the widest public possible. One may only hope this book will set in motion part, at least, of what he proposes.