THE WAR CALLED PEACE

This is the book the Overstreets must have felt compelled to write when they recognized again how many were blind to the warnings raised in their last book, What We Must Know About Communism. For here, in this new book, some of the dangers have raised their heads. Once again they clarify and simplify an understanding of a political philosophy that confuses, threatens, frightens and propagandizes the unaware. Every type of reader from the hard-boiled anti-communist to the over-optimistic liberal can learn something of the true and false face of Communism and its leaders. Those with faith in the human individual and the freedom of the people must know all that is possible about Communism. They cannot risk being half-informed. We must learn to distinguish between a political philosophy that can bandy familiar words and yet fail to apply to those words the meanings we apply to them. They can be ruthlessly impatient when they fail to get what they want on their own terms -- witness Khrushchev at the U.N., the Congo, Hungary, East Berlin. This is an opportune book as a new administration comes to the fore -- a warning note to those who cry peace at any price, rebel against cost of armament, think that cultural exchange may provide the salve. Here is the armor and the testament for those who believe in the inviolate right of the individual, of dissent, of the search for truth, of freedom of religion, the press, association, of respect for the role of the loyal opposition, the sovereignty of the people. An immense amount of examination of primary sources has gone into this. The facts and the theories are substantially documented. An essential book.