THE CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY

This attempt to project a Caribbean community that is ""supported"" but not ""led"" by the U.S. bears the earmarks of the liberal State Department view, ornamented by ruminations about ""whether romantic imagination is the integrating element"" and how the U.S. can pursue its national interest in a manner inoffensive to Caribbean customs and inhabitants. Commentary on the tensions between island contrasts and similarities, conservation and change, are grafted onto textbookish histories and discussions of present prospects for each nation. Puerto Rico is hailed as the jewel of the Antilles; Crassweller doubts that other nations can soon develop all their industry, tourism, and so forth, but regional cooperation would help, and the Caribbean Free Trade Association, Caribbean Development Bank, Central American Common Market, OAS, AID, World Bank, Alliance For Progress and organizations representing private investors are to bring their capital and other resources to bear on the problems of the area's development. Though he is repeatedly struck by the ""complexities"" of the problem, Crassweller makes scant attempt to analyze phenomena like the failures of the Alliance For Progress. He concludes with a call for imagination, humility, and U.S. treatment of the Caribbean ""as a single regional entity for important political purposes."" Exactly whom this fluff is directed toward is never made clear.