American Foreign Policy Three Essays 1969 1st Edition, 1st Printing, Weidenfeld. Condition is good, DJ has a few small tears top and bottom, pencil price on EP, boards good, internally very good, no writing or tears, small stain to page edges, sent Royal Mail Second Class

In this book the Special Assistant to President Nixon for National Security Affairs examines the framework of American foreign policy, the stresses to which that framework is being subjected, and the prospects for world order in an era of high international tension.

In the initial essay Professor Kissinger contrasts the pragmatic tradition in the conduct of American foreign policy with the ideological approach of the Soviet Union and the revolutionary approach characteristic of new nations with charis- matic leaders. In tracing these different approaches to their sources in domestic- social and political structures, he underlines the dangers inherent in excessive empiricism at one extreme and unchecked ideological fervour at the other. He stresses, too, the potential for stalemate when leaders of societies with divergent perspectives attempt the solution of an international crisis.

The second essay carries this analysis into the current international environment: a world dominated militarily by two super- powers but divided politically into complex networks of alliances. Professor Kissinger concludes that overwhelming military strength in the nuclear age is no guarantee that a nation can act with decisiveness on the international stage. This conclusion is illustrated dramatically by the American involvement in Vietnam, the subject of the final essay. After reviewing the events that led to the peace talks in Paris, Professor Kissinger points out the risks involved in negotiating a cease-fire, or in trying to impose a coalition government on South Vietnam. He argues instead for an effort to reach agreement with North Vietnam on the ultimate goal of a phased withdrawal of United States and North Vietnamese troops that would enable the contending forces in South Vietnam to work out their own political destiny, and he outlines specific proposals to set the peace negotiations on a productive course.

Taken together, the three essays in thi volume reveal the range and originality of the ideas that Professor Kissinger has brought to his critical post in Washington.