REPORT FROM IRON MOUNTAIN

by Leonard C.-Ed. Lewin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 30, 1967

Billed as a secret U.S. document, the result of two and a half years' secluded study by a group of experts on the problems posed by a hypothetical state of complete peace. Adequate evaluation of the book would require pages; it if is a fraud, it is a clever one...if not, it is a chilling case for the necessity of war as policymakers see it--not as the public has been taught to see it--and will provide magnificent fodder for radicals et al. Indeed, it sounds like an abstract of neo-Marxist critiques of U.S. political economy--except that the recommendations are different, for although the supposed authors make much of their RAND-type ""value-free"" approach, they never consider changing the basic system which requires, as they emphasize, huge expenditures for non-productive purposes. Military spending, they assert, is ideal in this respect; various other alternatives (like social welfare) can't do the job; in peacetime, a modern form of slavery might have to be introduced to keep the gears rolling. The study is predicated on the belief that a general peace may be negotiable, which is hard to believe. The basic analysis, however, is frightfully plausible, and guaranteed to create a furor about the real functions of war ""beyond the ostensible defense and advancement of 'national interests.'

Pub Date: Nov. 30, 1967

ISBN: 143912311X

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dial

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1967

Categories: NONFICTION