Books in Brief: Best Laid Plans

Best Laid Plans: The Inside Story of America’s War against Terrorism, by David C. Martin and John Walcott (Harper & Row, 392 pp., $22.50)

Best Laid Plans chronicles the United States’ wins and losses in our recent attempts to counter this war-bymurder that has been waged against us. Written by two respected reporters, David C. Martin of CBS and John Walcott of the Wall Street Journal, it pulls together the facts—and occasionally unearths new ones—about such episodes as the aborted 1980 Iran hostage-rescue mission, the retaliatory raid on Libya, the Iran-Contra affair, and more. These are woven loosely together in a skein of political opinion—on matters such as the Reagan Administration’s anti-Communism, terrorism’s real threat, the wisdom of accepting the professional advice of bureaucrats. Broadly speaking, Martin and Walcott think terrorism is a sickness that is resistant to medication, a political AIDS that the body politic has to tolerate because the cure is too costly. Within a week of his inauguration, President Reagan—having been informed that 1980 had been the biggest year for terrorist attacks on American citizens since 1968, when the government started keeping records—publicly vowed to answer terrorism with “swift and effective retribution”—a pledge the authors wish he had not made. “Ten Americans killed [the toll in 1980, along with 94 injured] was . . . fewer than had been killed by lightning that same year.” From this perspective, little justifies retribution or even response; Iran-Contra was flawed in justification as well as execution; and earlier Administration concerns were over-reactions, or worse. But buried in this analytical lightheadedness is a wellwritten and carefully researched piece of reporting. Shifting from the war against terrorists to the political circus of Iran-Contra, Martin and Walcott uncover Ollie North’s “real source of power—the ability to work man-killing hours with an intensity that only a true believer could sustain.” North is duly painted as a kook, Poindexter a meritocrat, Reagan a sentimental old pail of tears. Psychological cartoons and thumbnail sketches dominate the analysis of this episode. Now, trading hostages for arms was a mistake. But Reagan’s over-all willingness to use force succeeded. Martin and Walcott, however, do not admit that. They think we’ve exaggerated the threat, and should resign ourselves to containing rather than destroying it. They think that law may be “the indispensable weapon” against terrorists. But supporters of international terror are more impressed by the threat of a naval air strike or of deadly force in general than by a legion of subpoena-waving lawyers. This is because—contrary to the authors’ final and least tenable conclusion—terrorism is a threat not merely to law and order, but to national security itself.

About the Author

Seth Cropsey

Seth Cropsey is president of Yorktown Institute. He served as a naval officer and as deputy undersecretary of the Navy. The U.S. Naval Institute Press published his most recent book, co-authored with Harry Halem, Breaking the New Axis: A U.S. Grand Strategy for Eurasia, in April.

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Best Laid Plans: The Inside Story of America’s War against Terrorism, by David C. Martin and John Walcott (Harper & Row, 392 pp., $22.50)

Best Laid Plans chronicles the United States’ wins and losses in our recent attempts to counter this war-bymurder that has been waged against us. Written by two respected reporters, David C. Martin of CBS and John Walcott of the Wall Street Journal, it pulls together the facts—and occasionally unearths new ones—about such episodes as the aborted 1980 Iran hostage-rescue mission, the retaliatory raid on Libya, the Iran-Contra affair, and more. These are woven loosely together in a skein of political opinion—on matters such as the Reagan Administration’s anti-Communism, terrorism’s real threat, the wisdom of accepting the professional advice of bureaucrats. Broadly speaking, Martin and Walcott think terrorism is a sickness that is resistant to medication, a political AIDS that the body politic has to tolerate because the cure is too costly. Within a week of his inauguration, President Reagan—having been informed that 1980 had been the biggest year for terrorist attacks on American citizens since 1968, when the government started keeping records—publicly vowed to answer terrorism with “swift and effective retribution”—a pledge the authors wish he had not made. “Ten Americans killed [the toll in 1980, along with 94 injured] was . . . fewer than had been killed by lightning that same year.” From this perspective, little justifies retribution or even response; Iran-Contra was flawed in justification as well as execution; and earlier Administration concerns were over-reactions, or worse. But buried in this analytical lightheadedness is a wellwritten and carefully researched piece of reporting. Shifting from the war against terrorists to the political circus of Iran-Contra, Martin and Walcott uncover Ollie North’s “real source of power—the ability to work man-killing hours with an intensity that only a true believer could sustain.” North is duly painted as a kook, Poindexter a meritocrat, Reagan a sentimental old pail of tears. Psychological cartoons and thumbnail sketches dominate the analysis of this episode. Now, trading hostages for arms was a mistake. But Reagan’s over-all willingness to use force succeeded. Martin and Walcott, however, do not admit that. They think we’ve exaggerated the threat, and should resign ourselves to containing rather than destroying it. They think that law may be “the indispensable weapon” against terrorists. But supporters of international terror are more impressed by the threat of a naval air strike or of deadly force in general than by a legion of subpoena-waving lawyers. This is because—contrary to the authors’ final and least tenable conclusion—terrorism is a threat not merely to law and order, but to national security itself.

About the Author

Seth Cropsey

Seth Cropsey is president of Yorktown Institute. He served as a naval officer and as deputy undersecretary of the Navy. The U.S. Naval Institute Press published his most recent book, co-authored with Harry Halem, Breaking the New Axis: A U.S. Grand Strategy for Eurasia, in April.