demonstrating American "resolve" through both diplomacy and force, Washington hoped to convince Hanoi that it was futile to con- tinue fighting. But "signaling" was not really a strategy at all. Wash- ington "did not define a clear military mission . . . ," Rosen says, and, until 1968, "it did not establish a clear limit to the resources to be allo- cated." Nobody had a plan to win the war.
Limited war is "strange" war, Rosen concludes. Civilian...
David C. Jones, in The New
York Times Magazine (Nov. 7, 1982), 229 the Pentagon West 43rd St., New York, N.Y. 10036.
The Reagan administration's military build-up may be long overdue, but according to General Jones, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1978-82), a complete overhaul of the Pentagon bureaucracy is also needed to upgrade U.S. military effectiveness.
The Defense Department suffers the problems of all large organiza- tions, compounded structural flaws. The four independent...
striking compromises among themselves. The lack of a unified command also impairs military operations, Jones warns. In Vietnam, for example, each service maintained its own independent air contingent. Indeed, the two services responsible for the final air evacu- ation from Saigon in 1975each set their own "H-hours" for departure.
A greatly strengthened role for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs is needed to integrate defense planning and tighten control, says Jones. The chairman's staff...
William J. Gasser and David L. Rob- erts, in Federal Reserve. Bank of New York A Mixed Bag Quarterly Review (Autumn 1982), 33 Lib-
erty St., New York, N.Y. 10045.
The prospect of defaults heavily indebted international borrowers
such as Mexico and Argentina has raised fears that the entire Third
World is on the brink of financial collapse. Actually, most overseas
debtors improved their financial positions during 1982.
According to Gasser and Roberts, both economists at the New York
Federal...
Richard Greene, in Monthly Labor Review (Sept. 1982), Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402.
Record unemployment has made creating new private sector jobs a top priority of Washington policy-makers. According to Greene, a U.S. State Department econon~ist, focusing on the role of Big Business would be ill-advised. Recent studies show that small firms create the overwhelming majority of new jobs.
In a landmark 1979 study of 5.6 million businesses between...
Richard Greene, in Monthly Labor Review (Sept. 1982), Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402.
Record unemployment has made creating new private sector jobs a top priority of Washington policy-makers. According to Greene, a U.S. State Department econon~ist, focusing on the role of Big Business would be ill-advised. Recent studies show that small firms create the overwhelming majority of new jobs.
In a landmark 1979 study of 5.6 million businesses between...
fixing the price of gold arbitrarily, Washington would undermine the faith in its unchanging value. The public might regard the gold standard as "a fair weather vessel, likely to capsize and be abandoned in the first serious storm."
"Germany's World Class Manufacturers" Learning from Joseph A. Limprecht and Robert H. West Germany Hayes, in Harvard Business Review (NQV.-
Dec. 1982), Subscription Service Dept.,
P.O. Box 3000,Woburn, Mass. 01888.
Cultural differences make it...
S~CUY~~Y Peter G. Peterson, in The Neiv York Rei~ieiv
CY~S~S
ofBooks (Dec. 2 and 161, Subscriber Ser- vice Dept., P.O. Box 940, Farrningdale,
N.Y. 11737.
Washington today is struggling to resolve a Social Security financial crisis that could plunge the system into bankruptcy 1984. Yet Peter- son, chairman of Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb, argues that a far more ominous long-term crisis has gone unrecognized.
Many specialists assume that payroll tax increases scheduled to take effect between now...
Corset Century" Me1 Davies, in Co~npurative Studies in Society and History (Oct. 1982), Edinburgh Building, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 2RU, England.
The sudden drop in birth rates in most Western countries during the 1870s is often attributed by scholars to the economic woes of the era. Parents kept families small to preserve their standard of living. At the same time, according to Davies, a University of Western Australia his- torian, the fad for corsets among middle-class Victorian...
attested to
the . . .ability of the husband to maintain her idleness."
Tightlacing began to die out during the 1890s, as middle-class fash-
ion began to stress the importance of exercise and recreation. then,
Davies notes, smaller families had become the norm, and couples
turned to contraception and other means to limit family size.
"The Zoning of Enterprise" by Edward C.
Zoning,Enterprise Banfield, in The Cato Jow-rial (Fall 1982), 224 Second St. S.E., Washington, D.C....