THE U.S. IN WORLD AFFAIRS 1965

The Council on Foreign Relations has been publishing annual surveys like this one since 1931, except for a four-year hiatus during WWII. The task of compiling concise yet coherent ""preliminary accounts"" of U.S. activities in international affairs hasn't become any easier and 1965 had both Vietnam and the Dominican Affair to account for. Still the author succumbs to easy explanations of the ""official line."" And unless one accepts his penchant for ""balanced judgments"" so that one can sum it all up by saying ""United States policy in this period has been better in conception than execution"" and let it go at that, one must seriously question the value of the book. Perhaps the world has grown too complicated since the time of Hoover for this kind of series to continue with relevance. A plain, honest, almanac approach might serve better than temporizing judgments.