AROUND THE EDGE OF WAR

A trenchant, authoritative appraisal of the United States' diplomatic failures during a period of military stalemate between the United States and the Soviet Union. The author explains our dwindling influence in the world in terms of the concepts and methods that have characterized our foreign policy. The Soviet Union, through the use of people as a new leverage of power, has successfully nullified the military and economic superiority of the United States in those areas of the world where submerged majorities are rising against their minority leaders. On the other hand, American policy, determined by the pressures of overseas investors, has insistently aligned itself with the minority cliques and petty dictatorships operating in these upheaval areas. Immobility in foreign policy is not the sole cause for our continued losses on the peoples' front. There are serious flaws in our instruments of policy formation and enforcement, in our intelligence service and propaganda agencies, and in our recent adoption of the little war as the answer to the folk-war. Mr. Amory believes that if the United States could free itself from its enforced alliance with the power elites, it could rapidly eliminate the Soviet Union as a major influence in the underdeveloped areas. Recommended for both the student and general reader.