The Kremlin and the West: A Realistic Approach

Much of this work is elementary exposition of the Soviet system, but Leonhard also selects his data to reinforce his principal message. Too many in the West, he contends, are either hardline anti-communists or naïve believers in détente. He argues for a more realistic approach, less concerned with military power and arms control, more concerned with forces at work within the U.S.S.R. and the Soviet bloc. He believes the system, under the inevitable pressure of internal problems, to be capable of reform that will affect foreign as well as domestic policy. His proposals for a "new Western approach" to help the process along, however, do not seem very new.