PRECARIOUS SECURITY

by Maxwell D. Taylor ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 28, 1976

General Taylor was the theorist of the early-1960s doctrine of ""flexible response"" and an ardent sponsor of the Vietnam War. In this brief volume he champions a 40% increase in the US military budget and specific reorganizations of the armed forces, including a flexible expeditionary force closer to the Soviets but also a redeployment of NATO along a Frankfurt-Antwerp axis (which implies war on West German soil). The population explosion, the energy dry-up, and Soviet aggressiveness are among the justifications for Taylor's proposals, along with the dangers of ""vandals and self-destructive forces within,"" and the threat by ""have-nots"" to global ""peace and order."" Indeed, after a US- Soviet thermonuclear exchange, there might occur an invasion of Mexican wetbacks, who would ""swarm across the Rio Grande to regain the Southwest"" (those maniacal have-nots don't even fear radioactive suicide, it seems). Taylor also outlines such domestic reorderings as a military-run Civilian Conservation Corps and inclusion of ""economic leaders"" in the National Security Council. Echoing military-political figures of the 1930s, Taylor declares that ""we will have to submit ourselves to a Stern program of regeneration, reject decadent ways, and seek out new and dynamic causes. . . ."" A garrison state with a democratic veneer?

Pub Date: June 28, 1976

ISBN: 0393334570

Page Count: -

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1976

Categories: NONFICTION