Mortal rivals

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Hyland, a Soviet specialist and editor of Foreign Affairs, served on the White House staffs of Nixon, Ford and Carter, and participated in four summit meetings between 1969 and 1977. He provides here a detailed insider's look at the unfolding of U.S.-Soviet relations with an emphasis on the question of howin a practical, face-to-face sensenegotiations actually are conducted. Hyland also witnessed the 1975 ``Halloween massacre,'' when Ford fired his secretary of defense and CIA director and relieved Henry Kissinger of his position as national security adviser, and presents an intimate glimpse of that strange episode. Appraising Kissinger's diplomatic efforts, the author concludes that ``despite Vietnam, despite Watergate, he left American foreign policy in better shape than he found it.'' (June 29)

Library Journal

Hyland, currently editor of Foreign Affairs , joined the CIA in the early 1950s as an analyst. By the 1970s he was deputy assistant for national security affairs in the Ford administration, and remained during the transition to the Carter presidency. As a senior White House official he participated in four summit meetings, and his insider's descriptions of the machinations of power, particularly the playing of the China card, are of special interest. Hyland's account of Nixon's and Ford's negotiations with Brezhnev are enlightening and somewhat discomforting, when one realizes that these rather pedestrian men had the fate of the world in their hands. However, his insights into the latter Carter years and the Reagan administration are no better than those of many other informed observers. Still, recommended. Jeff Northrup, Birmingham P.L., Ala.