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Jimmy Carter’s Presidency was America’s most recent chance to see what liberals can do. For a liberal, such as myself, it was a bitterly frustrating time of apparent divided counsel, hesitation, vacillation, and general weakness punctuated by abortive attempts at strength, both in foreign policy and in domestic economic policy, leading finally to disastrous losses, rejection at the polls, and a prevailing judgment of failure. Now Carter’s most famous pair of divided counselors, his Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance, and his National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, have written books to show that the Carter Administration had many major successes in foreign policy, to explain the things that admittedly went wrong, and to justify themselves against each other.

Vance came to high office with a reputation for integrity and conscientiousness—and for being something of a stuffed shirt and a bore. His book is very decent, informative, often convincing, essential for understanding the Carter years—and something of a bore. Brzezinski had a reputation for genuine brilliance—and for being cold-eyed, uninterested in anyone below the rank of ambassador. His book is longer, fuller, more convincing, more essential for understanding the Carter years. He writes with a novelist’s eye for character and incident; when he describes how grim Gromyko and Ustinov gently aided the ailing Brezhnev, physically and mentally, at the Vienna Summit in 1979, we feel human pity for these Communist tyrants. His book, too, is immensely decent—and very witty. The photos of high figures in goofy poses are wildly funny; the shot of former Prime Minister Fukuda of Japan could provoke another Pearl Harbor.

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Francis B. Randall

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Jimmy Carter’s Presidency was America’s most recent chance to see what liberals can do. For a liberal, such as myself, it was a bitterly frustrating time of apparent divided counsel, hesitation, vacillation, and general weakness punctuated by abortive attempts at strength, both in foreign policy and in domestic economic policy, leading finally to disastrous losses, rejection at the polls, and a prevailing judgment of failure. Now Carter’s most famous pair of divided counselors, his Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance, and his National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, have written books to show that the Carter Administration had many major successes in foreign policy, to explain the things that admittedly went wrong, and to justify themselves against each other.

Vance came to high office with a reputation for integrity and conscientiousness—and for being something of a stuffed shirt and a bore. His book is very decent, informative, often convincing, essential for understanding the Carter years—and something of a bore. Brzezinski had a reputation for genuine brilliance—and for being cold-eyed, uninterested in anyone below the rank of ambassador. His book is longer, fuller, more convincing, more essential for understanding the Carter years. He writes with a novelist’s eye for character and incident; when he describes how grim Gromyko and Ustinov gently aided the ailing Brezhnev, physically and mentally, at the Vienna Summit in 1979, we feel human pity for these Communist tyrants. His book, too, is immensely decent—and very witty. The photos of high figures in goofy poses are wildly funny; the shot of former Prime Minister Fukuda of Japan could provoke another Pearl Harbor.