The Great Universal Embrace: Arms Summitry-A Skeptic's Account

Adelman's prose is caustic, and his subject is something of a moving target. The book is strongest as an account of President Reagan's summits by one who was sufficiently "inside" to feel part of the team but "outside" and honest enough to register surprise at some of the proceedings. His theme-that arms control seldom reduces arms-should come as no surprise to any earthling. His argument for strategic defense is passionate but terse and disconnected from the rest of the book; by the same token, his advocacy of tacit or nonnegotiated restraints is as apt a reminder of a good old idea as it was when Adelman made it some years ago in Foreign Affairs.