Elmo Zumwalt has logged his own run-ins with landlubbers.

On Watch By Elmo Zumwalt Quadrangle, 568 pp., $12.50 Elmo Zumwalt’s On Watch is an exposé of an unusual order. It is an exposé of a man—Elmo Zumwalt; of a system—high-level intramural military politics in Washington; and of a crisis —the crisis Zumwalt believes the United States faces as it slips into second place as a world military power.

All three elements are epitomized in the last few pages of the book, where Zumwalt quotes in its entirety a letter he wrote to President Nixon in June 1974, just a few days before retiring as Chief of Naval Operations. The letter sets forth the author’s deep conviction that within the asymmetrical framework of the SALT I agreements and the SALT II negotiations, the balance of power is shifting toward the USSR and will continue to do so unless either 1 ) the USSR genuinely accepts the original premise of “no unilateral advantage,” or 2) the U.S. strikes out for strategic equivalence without extending the SALT Interim Agreement. The rise of Soviet power, as Zumwalt documents it, is startling; the constriction of American power is alarming.

NH

About the Author

Norman B. Hannah

Featured Tags

On Watch By Elmo Zumwalt Quadrangle, 568 pp., $12.50 Elmo Zumwalt’s On Watch is an exposé of an unusual order. It is an exposé of a man—Elmo Zumwalt; of a system—high-level intramural military politics in Washington; and of a crisis —the crisis Zumwalt believes the United States faces as it slips into second place as a world military power.

All three elements are epitomized in the last few pages of the book, where Zumwalt quotes in its entirety a letter he wrote to President Nixon in June 1974, just a few days before retiring as Chief of Naval Operations. The letter sets forth the author’s deep conviction that within the asymmetrical framework of the SALT I agreements and the SALT II negotiations, the balance of power is shifting toward the USSR and will continue to do so unless either 1 ) the USSR genuinely accepts the original premise of “no unilateral advantage,” or 2) the U.S. strikes out for strategic equivalence without extending the SALT Interim Agreement. The rise of Soviet power, as Zumwalt documents it, is startling; the constriction of American power is alarming.