Honorable Survivor:
Mao’s China, McCarthy’s
America and the Persecution
of John S. Service
Lynne Joiner, Naval Institute
Press, 2009, $37.95, hardcover,
450 pages.
The life of John S. Service
was one of many unfortunate
firsts: the first analyst to predict
the rise of Mao and the Chinese Communists, the first
diplomat to be laid upon the altar of McCarthyism, the
first FSO arrested on espionage charges and the first
fired for disloyalty.
In 10 years of exhaustive research and with the aid of
newly released personal papers and classified documents, journalist Lynne Joiner has reconstructed Service’s turbulent life. The result is a compelling tale of
loyalty under fire, great courage and resilience and, ultimately, redemption.
Lynne Joiner is an award-winning broadcast journalist, news anchor and documentary filmmaker. Her work
has included assignments for CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN,
NPR, Christian Science Monitor Radio, Newsweek and
L.A. Times Magazine.
The Hawk and the Dove:
Paul Nitze, George Kennan,
and the History of the
Cold War
Nicholas Thompson,
Henry Holt and Company,
2009, $27.50, hardcover,
403 pages.
Like the United States and
Russia during the Cold War era,
Paul Nitze and George Kennan did not agree when it
came to policy. Kennan, the “dove,” believed America
must end its dependence on nuclear weapons, whereas
his counterpart, the hawkish Nitze, advocated rearmament. Despite this, they maintained a lasting friendship
throughout the Cold War and both played influential
roles in policymaking.
Their remarkable careers are certainly deserving of
attention in their own right, but through the prism of
Nitze and Kennan’s lives, author Nicholas Thompson
also illuminates important aspects of Cold War history.
Nicholas Thompson, a grandson of Paul Nitze, has
written articles for The New York Times and Washington
Post and is a regular contributor to CNN. He is also an
editor at Wired magazine.
Adlai Stevenson’s
Lasting Legacy
Edited by Alvin Liebling,
with chapters by
Ambassadors George Bunn,
Harlan Cleveland and
James Goodby, Palgrave
Macmillan, 2009, $24.95,
paperback, 272 pages.
This collection of essays is not
so much a history as a nostalgic celebration of a man
worth celebrating.
Adlai Stevenson II played an influential role in the
creation of the modern world. He was essential to the
1945 establishment of the United Nations and served as
the U.S. permanent representative to the U.N. from
1961 to 1965. While serving as governor of Illinois, he
mounted two presidential campaigns, in 1952 and 1956,
and created the basis for modern nonproliferation structures from 1963 to 1996. In this volume, Stevenson's
colleagues and family members give insight into his positions on various policy issues, focusing especially on
political ethics, international cooperation and leadership,
and nuclear nonproliferation.
Editor Alvin Liebling, a retired administrative law
judge, former Justice Department and Environmental
Protection Agency attorney and Northwestern University lecturer, lives with his wife in Chicago. Ambassador
George Bunn was the first general counsel for the U.S.
Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and later
served as ambassador to the Geneva Disarmament Conference. Ambassador Harlan Cleveland served as President Lyndon Johnson’s envoy to NATO and, earlier, as
assistant secretary of State for international organization
affairs. Retired Senior Foreign Service officer James
Goodby served as ambassador to Finland and vice chairman of the U.S. delegation to the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks. He is currently a senior fellow at the
Brookings Institute and a member of the Bipartisan Security Group.
