Book Reviews

Laurence W. Beilenson, in a stimu lating book, Survival and Peace in the Nuclear Age (Regnery-Gateway, Chicago, Illinois, 169 pp., $10.95) has a natural sympathy for the lib ertarian's position, but he is sure that simple trust is not enough. To keep one's enemies at a distance in the age of the intercontinental bal listic missile requires a canny mix ture of what Beilenson calls avoid ance and deterrence. Avoidance demands nimble diplomats; deter rence dictates the spending of money, which, of course, brings the hated tax collector into the picture. Since Mr. Beilenson believes in 188 freedom, he wants to make the best deal for his country that can be managed within the bounds of real ism. As the author of The Treaty Trap and Power Through Subver sion he knows that we have always had wars in the past and, presum ably, could have them in the future. When wars do occur, the embattled governments may follow conven tions up to a point. But nobody is going to forswear the use of a weapon, no matter how hideous, if, by turn ing to it, one can insure one's sur vival. The chances are that nuclear weapons would come into play in a war for western Europe the minute that one side or the other was threatened with defeat.

Mr. Beilenson doesn't want to give western Europe to the Communists. But, on the other hand, he doesn't SURVIVAL IN THE: NUCLEAR AGE 189 A FlexibleStand With the two values in mind, we ,1V0uld be forced to rely on the same type of thinking that has enabled the followers of Lenin to win victo ries without risk of premature em broilment. The Leninists have fol lowed a double-pronged strategy, Inixing subversion with opportunist E~xploitation of occasional revolu tionary situations. Detente and ((wars of liberation" are ideologically in c:ompatible, but when they are sep arated geographically they have not resulted in any worldwide ((final conflict." Mr~ Beilenson doesn't ask for any foolish consistency from our policy makers as long as the Rus sians are permitted their inconsiswant to see the United States trapped by its present commitment to pour conventional forces into a theater where reliance on convention would be abandoned practically at the out set.

a real power center on its own, the United States will no longer be the primary target for Soviet ballistic missiles. Europeans shouldn't object to this, for with two targets to worry about, the Soviets would be less in dined to start anything. A Policyof Deterrence With American ground forces Thinking the ((unthinkable," Mr. 'withdrawn from Europe and Asia, Beilenson calls for an approach that and with Washington matching accepts nuclear war as the norm in :Moscow ((nuke for nuke," we would the European theater unless some be combining a minimum of forward way is to be found to forestall war of . area provocation with a maximum any kind. Treaties signed with the of reserved menace if, by any chance, Communists won't help-the Sovi-our diplomacy should fail. Mr. ets used SALT I as a screen behind Beilenson's proposal creates an odd which they vastly added to theirnu-perspective. But the perspective ac clear capabilities. What the United commodates the two values of avoid States should do is to match the So-ance and deterrence.

viets in deterrence, but with an ef fort to develop simpler and cheaper weapons (say the neutron bomb and the cruise missile). Civil defense should come into the picture. Then, having informed the world through our actions that we mean to defend ourselves, we should put it up to the West Europeans to do something on their own behalf. Mr. Beilenson would share our nuclear knowledge and weapons with the other NATO nations even at the risk of wide atomic proliferation. The West Germans should have nuclear weapons on their own soil. Mean while our forward garrisons in West Germany should be reduced over a five-year period. Once western Eu rope has been persuaded to become 190 THE FREEMAN March tency. His suggested rules amount to what he calls ((the Lenin Adapta tion in Reverse." The rules begin with a statement that ((we are for peace and we will not go to war to aid communist dissidents." But if we do not propose to be an ((interna tional busybody," we should never theless stand ready to give financial and other aid to dissidents short of sending troops.

Angola would have been a good staging area for the Lenin Adapta tion in Reverse. Mr. Beilenson thinks Jimmy Carter acted wisely when he refused to send American soldiers to oppose the Cubans in Angola. But Carter was mistaken when he put his faith in merely deploring what Castro had done. In Beilenson's opinion Carter should have ((sent American foreign aid for freedom af ter open announcement. He should have said bluntly: (The Cubans are foreign intruders in Africa. To any Africans willing to kill the Cuban intruders, the United States will give cannon. And the weapons we give will match in quality the Soviet weapons.' " This would be giving the Soviets tit for tat. Our policy of subversion should be conducted in the open, not ((covertly." It should be just as hon est as Lenin's own opportunism. Mr. Beilenson thinks that much of our so-called strategic thinking in regard to ((flanks" and ((lifelines" is based on past wars. To be worried about the control of the oil ((lifeline"

through the Indian Ocean and around the Cape of Good Hope is silly when the real danger is that the Soviets might close the Persian Gulf ports by parachute drops and local coups d'etat. Similarly, it is a waste of time to be concerned with the ((northern flank" of Denmark and Norway in Europe when the real menace is a nuclear clash in the West German center. An EnergyPolicy Where Mr. Beilenson's book lets the reader down is in his failure to tell us what we can do about energy while we are trying to move toward the policy of balancing between uavoidance and deterrence." It would be futile to see American troops taken out of western Europe and South Korea merely to send them to Sinai or Oman or Turkey or Saudi Arabia. However, that looms up as a dangerous possibility. Threatened with a gasoline shortage, American motorists may shortly be importun ing Congress to commit ((mobile" forces to the Persian Gulf area.

We need a policy of building quickly to an energy sufficiency within the western hemisphere if ((avoidance and deterrence" are to have a real chance. The hope here is that free pricing will lead to the dis covery and exploitation of thou sands of new gas wells in Louisiana and the beginnings of ((tertiary re1981 SURVIVAL IN THE NUCLEAR AGE 191 covery"in the oil fields ofWest Texas. With our cars running and our fur naces working, Mr. Beilenson's ideas would have some chance of success. But if we don't have energy we could be led into some disastrous adven ture before we have the Udeterrence" we need. , THE COMING VICTORY by Tom Rose and Robert Metcalf (Christian Studies Center, P.O. Box 1110, Memphis, Tennessee 38111) 192 pages • $6.95 paperback Reviewedby Roger Ream THIS BOOK covers a wide range of subjects, from· economics and public policy·to religion and tips on how to raise children. The basic theme of the book is that liberty is a gift from God. Men stand as free and self-re sponsible individuals before God.

ttThe great sin of modern-day Amer ica is that the people have made the civil authority their god. Clearly, the proper role of civil government in a society of free and self-respon sible God-created beings is to re strain and punish evil." To discover the specifics of what government should or should not do, the authors turn to the Bible. A foot note concerning the energysitua tion provides an example of the methodology used: uAmerica's real shortage-of-oil problem stems from a faulty theological. approacb. The problem exists because the· people are turning to the humanist state as a secular savior. Only when this false god-image is set aside and statist controls are done away with will in di.vidual initiative be creatively re leased." The authors raise some welcome and provocative questions concern ing the voting franchise. ttAs the voting franchise has been broad ened and broadened, there has grown an ever-greater demagogic ten dency for elected politicians to strive to gain popularity among the broader voting populace. With promises of new tbenefits,' politicians find they ca.n, in effect, buy the votes of those ci1tizens who have little interest in maintaining a stable society over the long haul." The authors suggest that government might stay within its proper limits of protecting life, liberty and property if those .who vote have a stake in each, i.e., if ownership of property were a pre requisite to the privilege of voting.

They suggest ttit is dangerous when the vote is given to non-propertied individuals, for their vote often un dermines property rights." Unfortu na.tely,. the general nature of the book permits only cursory exami na.tion of this controversial subject. The methodology of the authors leads them astray in their discus192 THE FREEMAN sion of corporate responsibility. They accept the popular notion that the limited liability corporation is ((a fictitious person created by fiat of the state." Evidently the authors missed Robert Hessen's able refuta tion of this myth in his recent book, In Defense of the Corporation. The authors interpret their belief that man is responsible to God to mean that individuals should not be able to limit their responsibility to other men-that limiting liability in contractual business activities is wrong. They write, ((The principle which should guide all business ac tivity is this: Those who stand to reap the profits of enterprise should also stand all the risks involved."

Limited liability, like insurance, certainly minimizes personal re sponsibility for risks undertaken, yet it would exist in any society where government is properly limited since it is based on voluntary contract. The authors ably diagnose many of the political and economic prob lems facing the United States. They correctly trace the cause of these problems to a spiritual weakness and suggest a number of ways to over come the political, economic, and es pecially the 'moral problems which plague our civilization. i HANDSOME BLUE LEATHERLEX FREEMAN BINDERS $3.00 Order from: THE FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION, INC. IRVINGTON-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK 10533 the Freeman VOL. 3"1, NO.4 • APRIL 1981 EnergyEthics:A Positive Response James A.Weber 195 The purpose of energy is to do work. The most ethical energy policy is to increase the supply. When Water Is Scarce Henry Hazlitt 202 Unmetered use at taxpayers' expense spells waste.