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Starting With The People

Daniel Yankelovich and Sidney Harman
Reviewed by By Gaddis Smith
Fall 1988
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Daniel Yankelovich and Sidney Harman
Houghton Mifflin
1988
279 pp.
$18.95

The authors document from public opinion polls that American foreign policy with its emphasis on containment and deterrence is no longer congruent with the values of the American people. It is essential, they say, for consensus to be restored. They present a strong case for "mutually assured security" in Soviet-American relations; specifically, they suggest a reduction of 95 to 99 percent in nuclear weapons and a buildup of non-provocative conventional weapons, combined with mutual forbearance in the Third World.

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