Kirkus Reviews QR Code
AMERICAN STRATEGY: A New Perspective by Urs Schwarz

AMERICAN STRATEGY: A New Perspective

By

Pub Date: June 17th, 1966
Publisher: Doubleday

This is subtitled ""The Growth of Politico-Military Thinking in the United States."" Whether one agrees with the viewpoint or not, this is really what Henry A. Kissingor says it is in his preface: a ""splendid little book."" Mr. Schwarz has managed to be at once concise and comprehensive, specific and general, impartial and partisan. His vantage point as a Swiss and as foreign editor of the Neue Zuercher Zeitung has doubtless helped. However only fine scholarly instincts and an indefatigably lucid mentality could have produced, in so brief measure, such a thorough description of the evolution of American strategic theory, from Alexander Hamilton to the Rand Corporation, from the conception of ""a peace-loving yet military Republic"" to the construction of a ""graduated, and hence credible deterrent"" of global scope. It might help in measuring Mr. Schwarz's achievement to note that, while he limits his attention to the origins and future development of existing strategic thought (excluding any and all differing opinions, the effect of which, he feels, ""has been very limited""), the critics of current politico-military policies should find his book fully as useful as the defenders--and even the formulators-- of these policies will.