THE CONFLICTED RELATIONSHIP

Subtitled ""The West and the Transformation of Asia, Africa, and Latin America,"" this latest contribution to McGraw-Hill's Atlantic Policy Studies Series is a carefully delineated argument for a complete reassessment of U.S. and European attitudes towards the so-called ""Third World's"" so-called ""developing"" nations. It is so carefully delineated, in fact, that Mr. Geiger has redefined such a term as ""Asia"" to exclude both China and Japan. This special lexicon of his might well be challenged, but it is not to be missed. The author's chosen task is to free Americans from ""the self-intoxication of our own rhetoric,"" and to demonstrate how far from reality our expectations and demands vis a vis Africa, Latin America and Asia really are. If American aid is going to do more good than harm, says Mr. Geiger, and quite pragmatically, if our own interests are not to be forfeited, we had better learn what Asians, Africans, and Latin Americans actually are, have been, and want to become.