IDEAS, PEOPLE AND PEACE

There are few people writing today who can cram more sound statesmanship into brief compass than Chester Bowles. This little book has a lot to say that needs to be said to build a positive viewpoint towards democratic principles, spiritual concepts and a practical application in America's policy in the world today. We are facing a critical time in world history. The challenge is made by millions of awakening people. We must prove to them that a Moscow dominated world is not a practical goal; that we can create with them conditions for lasting peace; that we can provide leadership. But this is not a book of theories. He explores the steps by which we have lost that leadership in exchange for a narrow military viewpoint. He feels that we must strengthen the rising forces in rural Asia, Africa, Latin America; must take a positive position in relation to colonialism; must provide the of success in India and Pakistan, key to independent Asia. Hope for a stable world rests on creating a society worth defending. He approaches realistically- if at times optimistically- the flaws in the Soviet tactics that we can build upon; he charts the goals, the successes, the failures -- and our contribution to both sides. He sees the new Soviet strategy directed to fostering economic disunity under the threat of their military achievements. We must close the economic gaps- without demanding agreement along lines of American democracy if we would stem the anti-American wave. Most illuminating is his analysis of what is happening in India, the country he knows at first hand. Most heartening is his faith that America can create global conditions in which peace may be found.