Assignment Pentagon: The Insider's Guide to the Potomac Puzzle Palace by Perry M. SmithReview by: Gregory F. TrevertonForeign Affairs, Vol. 68, No. 4 (Fall, 1989), p. 199Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20044125 .

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RECENT BOOKS 199

NATO IN THE 1990s. Edited by Stanley R. Sloan. Washington: Perga

mon-Brassey's, 1989, 347 pp. $30.00. A North Atlantic Assembly Publi

cation.

In a few scant years the United States overturned George Washington's advice and the presumption of its history by entering what turned out to

be a permanent alliance in Europe. Historians still argue, but at this distance NATO looks like a masterful act of statecraft, the right risk-averse choice even if it played some part in confirming Stalin's hostility and the division of Europe. The story has been told before, but Cook, a distinguished foreign correspondent, helps us think about whether existing arrangements are still the right choice. The chapters in the Sloan volume were background to a report of the North Atlantic Assembly, the group of NATO parlia

mentarians. There is no finer set of authors; they cover the range from defense burden to nuclear weapons to out-of-area issues, so called. Yet the

theme of the assembly report?increasing NATO's European "pillar" so as to keep America fully engaged, even if deficits impel it to withdraw some

troops?seems like yesterday's issue, and so is a reminder how fast events are moving in an area where change used to be glacial.

ASSIGNMENT PENTAGON: THE INSIDER'S GUIDE TO THE PO TOMAC PUZZLE PALACE. By Maj. Gen. Perry M. Smith, USAF (Ret.).

Washington: Pergamon-Brassey's, 1989, 271 pp. $25.00 (paper, $15.95). POAC, the "Tank"?if you want to know more about these Pentagon

institutions, this book is for you. Readably written by a retired Air Force

general with a wealth of experience in the Pentagon hallways and folkways, the book is primarily nuts and bolts?complete with maps and a nine-page glossary of Pentagonese?but it also gives a flavor of how the Goldwater Nichols reorganization affects the work of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

UNGUIDED MISSILES: HOW AMERICA BUYS ITS WEAPONS. By Fen Hampson. New York: Norton, 1989, 370 pp. $19.95. AFFORDING DEFENSE. By Jacques S. Gansler. Cambridge: MIT Press,

1989,415 pp. $24.95. "A biography

... of the lives of weapons" that "outlive their political sponsors (and critics)," ranging from the B-l bomber to the M-l tank, is how Hampson, a Canadian and a subtle observer of American politics, describes his book. He lays out the weapons acquisition cycle in clean prose, and he dissects the politics of procurement. "Efficiency is not one of

democracy's virtues," Hampson writes, and he argues that lengthy acquisi tion cycles weaken political accountability. Gansler's canvas is broader and his approach more scholarly. He is one of America's foremost students of defense acquisition, the author of The Defense Industry, and his conclusions

overlap with Hampson's. Neither author's remedies are new?shorten lead times for weapons while lengthening and making more directly competitive the budgeting process?but Hampson's conclusions emerge strongly from

his "biographies," and his emphasis on Congress is apt. Gansler's recom mendations illustrate just how deep the political change will have to be; his case for removing "Congress's detailed regulation of the procurement process" is strong but is not the way this season's political winds are blowing.

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