International Relations and Security Network The Center for Security Studies and ConflictResearch, ZurichReview by: Eliot A. CohenForeign Affairs, Vol. 79, No. 3 (May - Jun., 2000), p. 167Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20049762 .

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Recent Books

a defense study that proposes modest

cuts in military spending based on an

all-too-familiar recipe: a high/low mix of

weapon systems (similar to the combina

tion of expensive, high-performance F-15

jets and the cheaper F-i6s in the past); smaller hardware purchases; and prudent research that stops short of weapons acqui sition. But unlike in previous works with a

similar approach, the author takes aim at

the debate over the so-called revolution

in military affairs (rma). In this polemic

against rma proponents?who

are rarely identified by name and are generally

lumped together into an undifferentiated,

ill-informed mass of technological enthusiasts?O'Hanlon's basic message is "not so fast." Building

on the belief

that technology does not change war

all that quickly, he expects that the mili

tary of 20 years hence will look like the

military of today, give or take a few micro

chips. O'Hanlon may be right, and he

offers much prudence here. But had

he said the same thing in 1900 or 1920, he

would have been very wrong indeed. Too

many straw men clutter his book, against which precision-guided arguments such

as his are not needed.

The Secret War Against Hanoi: Kennedys and Johnsons Use of Spies, Saboteurs, and

Covert Warriors in North Vietnam. BY

richard H. shultz, jr. New York:

HarperCollins, 1999, 408 pp. $27.50. This sprawling and fascinating study was drawn chiefly from the papers of the

Studies and Observation Group (sog), which ran America's covert war against North Vietnam. Torn between scholarly detachment and an understandable ad

miration for the courage and ingenuity of

America's operatives and their Vietnamese

allies, the author draws up a discouraging balance sheet. According to Shultz,

every agent who infiltrated the North

either ended up dead or turned back

against the United States. Most diaboli

cal psychological warfare schemes

fizzled; bureaucratic rivalries and com

plications stifled many good ideas.

And the basic military targets, including the all-important Ho Chi Minh trail,

were attacked but never dealt a mortal

wound. In the end, Shultz's respect for

the agents involved does not compro mise his dispassionate assessment of

their accomplishments.

International Relations and Security Network, the center for

security studies and

conflict research, zurich.

http://www.isn.ethz.ch

Developed by the Swiss Institute of

Technology in Zurich, this large Web site serves as one of Switzerland's con

tributions to the Partnership for Peace

program. With a generous array of links to

a wide range of subjects from terrorism

to regional security problems, it offers

interesting features like educational

modules and databases. Topics such

as migration and demography receive

attention as well as the traditional military

subjects, including particularly good sections on contemporary European

security issues. Conference crawlers

will like the section devoted exclusively to their needs, but the desk-bound

students of international security will

also find more than enough to absorb

their attention. The European tilt is

noticeable?and welcome?for refugees from the American Web site "Defenselink"

and its counterparts.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS May/June 2000 [167]

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