Book Reviews

A REVIEWER'SNOTEBOOK JOHN CHAMBERLAIN The StrategicMetals War WHEN the fates, in the guise of whatever forces guide the shifting of the earth's tectonic plates, picked the southern African plateau and Soviet Siberia as the home sites of at least fifty rare metals, they acted with lit tle regard for either social or ethnic realities. The results confound mo rality, make a mess of industrial choreography, and guarantee a schizophrenic dimension to what ever passes for statecraft both inside and outside the UN. The whole big blooming mess de mands some intricate charting if we hope to make a stab at predicting future world history. Seemingly, we are caught between two inexorable movements. The capitalist West, with its "hi-tech" economy, depends on a steady flow of all sorts of hard ening alloys. The Big Four of cobalt, chromium, platinum and man ganese are absolutely essential. The West needs cobalt for jet aircraft, for computers, for space shuttles, and for most electronic equipment. It needs chromiurn for roller and ball bear ings, for automobile connecting rods, for high speed drills and dies. It needs platinum for catalytic action in au tomobile exhaust systems. And it needs manganese-the remaining rare metal in the Big Fou!-for the simple reason that no one knows how to make steel without it.

The Soviets have their own chrome and other rare metals. But the west ern world must have Zaire and Zam bia for cobalt. It must have Zim babwe (Rhodesia) and South Africa for chrome. Some of the platinum group of metals come from Canada, but South Africa is the big supplier. The fates were more liberal with their distribution of manganese (there is a lot of it on the floor of the oceans, and Brazil has been a big source of it). But, again, it is South Africa that is the world's leading supplier of highly processed ferromanganese. So the "Z's"-Zambia, Zaire, Zim babwe-have it, along with their ethnic enemies, the beleaguered white rulers of "apartheid" South Africa. If economics, the economics of the market, ruled men's minds, the "Z" problem would bother no body. But African politics, with many 313 314 THE FREEMAN May a nudge from the Soviet Union and its sidekick of Castro's Cuba, threat ens the market. A race war in South Africa, coupled with an OPEC-type price conspiracy of the "Z's" and an invasion of Southwest Africa (Na mibia) by the 20,000 Cubans now stationed in Angola, would bring all the high-tech nations of the western world to their knees.

A Study in Political Economy In a book that was originally pro jected as an investment guide, The Strategic Metals War, authors James E. Sinclair and Robert Parker (New York, Crown, 185 pp., $17.50) found so many warning signals that what they started as a compendium for stock market advisers becomes something else again. This is not only an investment guide, it is a prime work in modern political economy. The authors are inevitably com pelled to be geopolitical experts. They raise all sorts of inconvenient ques tions. With Admiral Mahan (The Influence of Sea Power on History) looking over their shoulders, they indicate the importance of control of the oceans around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa. Shi ps carrying oil from the Persian Gulf to North European and Carib bean-Gulf of Mexico destinations need support from safe harbors in South Africa. So do the ore freight ers that bring fifty rare metals from the mines of the South African plaJohn Chamberlain's book re views have been a regular fea ture of The Freeman since 1950.

We are doubly grateful to John and to Henry Regnery for now making available John's autobi ography, A LiffJ with the Printed Word. Copies of this remarkable accountof a man and his times our times-are available at $12.95 from The Foundation for Economic Education, Irvington on-Hudson, New York 10533. teau (including the "Z" nations) to the unloading points for factories in the West German Ruhr and in Pennsylvania. n is easy to scoffat those who think that politics can permanently over whelm markets. The libertarians who trust markets to prevail have a point when they tell us that recent oil discoveries in Mexico, Alaska and the North Sea have helped break the back of OPEC and so made the Per sian Gulf less important to the West than it was in 1973. But frantic search for cobalt, 'chrome and plati num (along with germanium, tan talum, vanadium and antimony) hasn't resulted in strikes with a dis tribution comparable to the new sources of oil all around the world.

The three "Z's" and South Africa, along with Siberia, still maintain 1983 THE STRATEGIC METALS WAR 315 their near monopoly of the more im portant rare metals. Wars Over Cobalt The history that is recounted in The Strategic Metals War is one of narrow escapes. In 1978 some 3,000 men of the Marxist-leaning Congo National Liberation Front based in Angola (where they were trained by Cubans) passed through Zambian terri tory and took over the mining center of Kolwezi in the Zaire prov ince of Shaba. The invaders encoun tered no resistance from the army of Zaire. They first ordered the closing of the Kolwezi mines. Then they herded the white women into a hotel and forced them to dance on a small stage before being raped and shot. More than 90 whites and 750 Afri cans were murdered by the invad ers. Meanwhile the price of cobalt in world markets started jumping. The Soviets, who had advance notice of the invasion, had been buying up available cobalt at the pre-invasion price of $6.85 a pound. When the in vasion hit the world headlines co balt went all the way up to $49 a pound.

With cobalt mining in Shaba to tally suspended, President Mobutu of Zaire put in a hurry call to Presi dent Valery Giscard d'Estaing of France. With help from U.S. mili tary aircraft a rescue force of French foreign legionnaires and Moroccan troops were flown into Shaba. The Marxist invaders, who had flooded the mines, were quickly driven over the border into Zambia and Angola. It took fifty days to restore normal operations in the mines. In 1979 and 1980 cobalt had to be ferried out of Shaba by air at a cost of $1.50 a kilogram. What the West must face is that it may take force to keep supplies from the three "Z's" moving. It cer tainly takes a nimble diplomacy. The railways running from Zaire and Zambia direct to the Atlantic and Indian Oceans are only intermit tently operative. The "Z" nations are compelled to cooperate with the hated South Africans in order to get their metals to market by way of Cape ports.

In Zimbabwe, at the moment, tribal troubles are threatening min ing operation. There is no reason to suppose that the tribal rivalries will completely disrupt the chrome mar ket-after all, South Africa has chrome to sell, too, and there is no immediate difficulty in getting blacks to do the mining. But Mr. Sinclair tells us that, since the Shaba trou bles in Zaire, it has become increas ingly difficult to attract western capital into African mining. Mining equipment is wearing out. And so the metals war goes into a "cold" stage. It could get hot again tomorrow. Stockpiling in the West is in order. @ 316 THE FREEMAN May JOHN DICKINSON: CONSERVATIVE REVOLUTIONARY by Milton E. Flower (University Press of Virginia, P.O. Box 3608, Charlottesville, VA 22903), 1983 338 pages • $27.50 cloth Reviewed by Gottfried Dietze THIS attractive volume contains a well-written biography of one of the great founders of the United States, known as the "penman of the Revo lution," and a symbol of that event.

In the New World, the American Revolution was another dimension of the English Revolution of the pre ceding century. After Montesquieu had classified Britain as republican in substance, Americans made their government republican also in form. The United States became the only country founded in the year of the publication of The Wealth of Na tions, in which Adam Smith urged free enterprise for the good of man kind. After the adoption of popular forms of government, Americans soon became aware of the major problem of democracy, namely, to what de gree the ruling majority should be restricted for the sake of the rights of the individual, among which those of property ranked highly. All this shows that the American Revolu tion was a conservative revolution. John Dickinson was a conservative revolutionary. According to Mr. Flower, "Dickinson's approach was a crystallization of the whig theory that dominated the thinking of American leaders." Dickinson, whom Voltaire compared to Cicero, was born in 1732 in Talbot County, Maryland, and died in 1808 in Wil mington, Delaware. He studied law at the Middle Temple in London and had an outstanding career, as a law yer and a public figure. This corre sponded with the words of Tacitus he had recorded in his commonplace book, "To despise fame is to despise the Virtues by which it is acquired."

Aside from occupying important positions in Delaware and Pennsyl vania, Dickinson played a major role on the American level. He repre sented Pennsylvania in the Stamp Act Congress of 1767 and drafted the Declaration of Rights and Griev ances. In 1767-68, he published the Letters from a Farmer in Pennsyl vania, to the Inhabitants of the Brit ish Colonies. They reached a wide audience so that prior to indepen dence, Dickinson, with the excep tion of Benjamin Franklin, was probably the American known to more colonists than any other. They helped turn public opinion against the Townshend Act, under which new duties were to be collected to pay for the salaries of British officials in the colonies. Flower writes that Dickinson was "the first native political hero: the 1983 OTHER BOOKS 317 outstanding harbinger of American protest against arbitrary British measures and a true defender of lib erty," who up to the convening of the Second Continental Congress was recognized as the chief spokesman for American rights. Dickinson was a delegate from Pennsylvania in the First Continental Congress. In the Second Continental Congress, he was the principal author of the Declara tion, setting forth the causes and ne cessity of taking up arms. He helped in the preparation of the first draft of the Articles of Confederation. A signer of the United States Consti tution, Dickinson worked for its adoption and defended it in a series of letters signed "Fabius," the mas tery and dignity of which won the praise of George Washington.

Dickinson's concept of freedom was a comprehensive one. "Men cannot be happy," he declared, "without freedom; nor free without security of property; nor so secure, unless the sole power to dispose of it be lodged in themselves." He feared big gov ernment and denounced govern mental regulations from unfair tax ation to restriction of manufacturing to the control of the shipment of goods, and so forth. He wanted lib erty to be protected not only from the English, but also from represen tatives Americans had elected. In 1769, Dickinson wrote that he had been incensed at the Pennsylvania Assembly's permitting "the vilest acts of despotism." Similar fears were voiced by Dr. Benjamin Rush, who founded Dickinson College in his honor. His love of liberty did not make Dickinson favor anarchy or political turbulence. He was convinced that "the Cause of Liberty is a cause of too much dignity to be sullied by turbulence and tumult." He be lieved in the rule of law, which to him was the guardian of the individ ual's rights from arbitrary govern ment as well as the protector of these rights from infringements by fellow men: "The law delights in certainty and quiet because, without these, there can be no liberty." A contem porary of Adam Smith, Immanuel Kant and Thomas Jefferson, Dick inson had a strong sense of morals and virtue. When in 1782 an old friend had voiced strong approval of his gubernatorial proclamation against vice and immorality, Dick inson replied that he was convinced "that the happiness of men in this life as well as in the next depends on the prevalence of piety and virtue among them."

The penman of the American Rev olution believed that "every friend to mankind must rejoice, in contem plating the actual and probable con sequences of our revolution to other nations." Never bending to public opinion if he felt it to be wrong, Dickinson urged Americans to favor free government; "As for me, I will 318 THE FREEMAN May assuredly contend for that glorious plan of Liberty handed down to us from our ancestors; but whether my labors shall prove successful or in vain, depends wholly on you, my dear Countrymen." Mr. Flower's work furnishes a de tailed description not only of the po litical life of Dickinson, but also of his private life. It is a well organized scholarly study, supplied with a careful bibliography and a long in dex. When Charles J. Stille pub lished his biography of Dickinson in 1891, less than a quarter of the Dickinson Papers had been avail able to him. Mr. Flower was fortu nate to draw on a vast collection of sources and write what in alllikeli hood will be the definite description of the life of a great American. It makes good reading. , STALIN'S SECRET WAR by Nikolai Tolstoy (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 383 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10017), 1981 463 pages. $18.50 cloth Reviewed by Bettina Bien Greaves IN his 1944 classic, The Road to Serfdom, Nobel Laureate, economist F. A. Hayek explained "why the worst get to the top." And now in Stalin's Secret War, Nikolai Tolstoy shows how "the worst" stay on top once they get there. Dictator of all the Russias for almost three decades, Joseph Stalin was certainly one of "the worst," and the tactics he used to stay on top were brutal and barbaric.

Nikolai Tolstoy describes Stalin as physically unattractive-short, "only five feet four inches high, ... thin, swarthy and heavily pock-marked." As he aged, "his hair greyed and thinned considerably and his belly began to hang within the loose-fit ting uniforms he affected. His pock marked features appeared more li ned and pitted than hitherto, his moustache was scrawny and streaked, and his teeth blackened and stained." He spoke in a "monot onous" tone and "with a harsh Geor gian accent." However, physical appearances are not crucial. It is character that in fluences action. Stalin was ruthless, a characteristic his predecessor and idol, Lenin, apparently appreciated. He helped to finance the "revolu tion" by robbing banks. When im prisoned by the Tsarist regime, he associated, not with the "politicals," but with the common criminals. He was vicious and crude. Nikita Khrushchev, Stalin's successor as Soviet dictator, described him as "brutish ... harsh ... coarse and abusive with everyone." Yet he felt insecure; he had an inferiority com plex, and this, according to Nikolai Tolstoy, led to fear and paranoia. He became obsessed with the belief that 1983 OTHER BOOKS 319 he was surrounded by enemies. The methods he used to stay on top, therefore, are explainable by his character-his ruthlessness, his re spect for gangster types, his fears and his paranoia.

Ambition plus ruthlessness en abled Stalin to rise to power over Trotsky and all other contenders. In time he came to hold sway over mil lions and "virtually owned the So. viet Union in as absolute a sense as property can acquire." The country's fairly proper constitution, code of laws and regulations were largely ignored by Stalin and his gangster type associates; they were above the law. "No real property rights existed in the Soviet Union except Stalin's; he could literally do as he chose with anything." Any who dared to hint, or who was suspected of hinting, at opposition was effectively silenced by the secret police. Yet these very po lice-state methods added to Stalin's fears for his own personal safety. He trusted no one. Stalin admired his fellow-despot, Adolf Hitler. He was apparently de lighted when the German-Soviet Non-aggression Treaty was signed (1939), leading to the partition of Poland between their two countries.

Stalin considered Hitler a friend. It was with complete disbelief that he learned, on June 22,1941, that Ger man military forces had attacked Russian soldiers stationed along their common border in the middle of Poland. Warnings of a possible Ger man attack had reached Stalin from U.S., British and Russian intelli gence sources, but he had chosen to ignore them. As a result, the Rus sians were utterly unprepared and chaos reigned. When his men at the front reported to Moscow they were under fire, they were told, "You must be feeling unwell," or "Do not give in to provocation, and do not open fire!" According to Nikolai Tolstoy, "There was in fact no battle-plan; only Stalin could issue instruc tions." And Stalin apparently pan icked. His Foreign Minister, Molo tov, announced the German attack to the Russian people. Stalin had become a prisoner of his own paranoia. It was not until two weeks after the German attack that he came out of seclusion to broadcast to the Soviet nation. Ac cording to Tolstoy, Stalin appeared more fearful of assassination, an up rising in Russia and the possible overthrow of his own government than he was of the German inva sion. These fears led to his "secret war," the war against his own peo ple. In one chapter, "War on Two Fronts," Tolstoy describes Stalin's two bitter struggles-one against the Germans at the fighting front and the other against the Russians be hind the front.

As Stalin trusted no one, his se cret police were ordered to arrest anyone suspected ofopposition to him 320 THE FREEMAN or his government. He especially feared persons with leadership qual ities. Purges were carried out in Russian-occupied territories, and also in Russia, against military officers, professionals and intellectuals. To forestall a Polish uprising, thou sands of Poles were arrested shortly after partition; many were executed, often after having been cruelly tor tured. His henchmen were no less ruthless in their treatment of Rus sian nationals. Stalin's insecurity persisted even after the fighting stopped. He was still fearful of domestic uprisings and determined to liquidate all potential opposition before trouble could start. In his view, anyone who had ob served life outside the Soviet Union might have acquired foreign ideas and thus become a threat to the So viet regime. As the Yalta Agree ment called for the repatriation of "Soviet citizens," that Agreement became the grounds for the Soviet government's demand that the thousands of refugees from the east who were in Allied hands at war's end be "repatriated." With Allied help and without adequate screen ing, therefore, many thousands, in cluding many non-Soviet citizens, were tricked into railroad box cars and lorries and then forcibly carted off to imprisonment, torture and death in the U.S.S.R. One important chapter in this book is devoted to this sad event in history.

This post-World War II forced transport of refugees to Russia was not without precedent in Russian history, a precedent which drew it to Nikolai Tolstoy's special atten tion. Petr Tolstoy (1645-1729), an ancestor of Nikolai's, was an ambi tious and unscrupulous aide to the Russian Tsar, Peter the Great. When the Tsar wished to change the suc cession, he commissioned Petr Tol stoy to bring the Tsar's son, Alexius, back to Russia against his will. Petr deceived Alexius, returned him to Russia, where his father had him imprisoned, tried and eventually tortured to death. Shakespeare wrote of Henry IV, "Uneasy lies the head that ·wears a crown." Although Stalin wore no ac tual crown, his power was more ab solute and his reign more ruthless and cruel than that of most kings. So his uneasiness was more pro found and his position more precar ious. This insight makes Stalin's fears, his paranoia and his ruthless tactics comprehensible. It helps us to conclude with Nikolai Tolstoy that "Stalin was not mad." As Adam Ulam wrote in Stalin: The Man and His Era: "The madness lay in the sys tem that gave absolute power to one man and allowed him to appease ev ery suspicion and whim with blood."

Stalin's Secret War is a remark able book, not a pleasant one, but one that reveals a great deal about the nature of one-man government.@ the Freeman VOL. 33, NO.6 • JUNE 1983 The Strangleholdof "Big Business" CharlesDykes 323 The large business enterprise, for all its faults, is vital in the defense of liberty. Primitivism:The Thrustof Government Intervention ClarenceB. Carson 328 The intrusionof governmentinto marketactivitiesleads back toward the primitive life. The Academyversusthe MarketPlace John Hospers 339 Concerning the reasons for the antipathy of the academic profession toward the free market. Unemploymentin Puerto Rico Hans R Sennholz 358 A classic instance of the harmful consequences of good but misguided intentions. Abundanceand Scarcity Ben Barker 369 An examination ot-opposing views about the nature and distribution of wealth. Book Reviews: 377 "At the Eye of the Storm: James Watt and the Environmentalists" by Ron Arnold "USSR: The Corrupt Society" by Konstantin M. Simis "Development Without Aid: Growth, Poverty and· Government" by Melvyn B. Krauss "Privatizing the Public Sector: How to Shrink Government" by E. S.