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BOOK REVIEWS 243 Psychological Operations: The Soviet Challenge. Edited byJoseph S. Gordon. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1988. 216 pp. $22.50/paper. Reviewed by James Voorhees, Ph.D. candidate, SAIS. Soviet foreign policy was born with two personalities. One was normal and grew to have the features that the foreign policy of other states had, such as a diplomatic corps, a foreign minister, treaties, and conferences. The other was unconventional and acquired features never before seen, such as the Comintern, foreign political parties beholden to it, and an emphasis on propaganda or psychological operations. This book is a collection of essays that try to describe the state of psychological operations today. While Soviet efforts are discussed in the first part and U.S. efforts in the second, the articles in the latter section do not really discuss a Soviet challenge, and to that extent the book's title is a misnomer. The articles are more concerned with how to improve one tool of foreign policy and military operations. This is especially true of the articles by Alfred Paddock and Michael W. Totten, who do a good job of arguing for improvements in the organization of psychological operations in the U.S. military. Most of the authors leave two important questions almost untouched. What are psychological operations and how effective are they? By not providing solid answers, they weaken the case for raising the priority level of psychological operations in this country. Confusion about the definition of psychological operations was noted as early as 1948 by men who attempted to incorporate its meaning into U.S. foreign policy, according toJohnJ. Yurchanko's fine article on psychological operations and U.S. policy planning. The articles by Paddock and Totten demonstrate how this semantic confusion has harmed the military institutions that are supposed to conduct these operations. But how useful is it to describe U.S. military psychological operations (PSYOPS), presumably designed for wartime , by the same term used to describe Soviet propaganda in the Third World? Are the operations similar in goals and methods or is one term broader than the other? Could John Oseth's term, "public diplomacy," with its Wilsonian overtones, be considered a synonym of either? According to the editor, the authors use the terms interchangeably. This failure to define terms clearly becomes a problem in discussing the effectiveness of psychological operations. Several of the authors note the difficulty of evaluating how well these operations have worked. Yet others, who seem to assume that Soviet propaganda efforts have been effective, argue that these require a response. Soviet psychological operations may indeed require a response , and let no one doubt that the Soviet effort is large and competent, but should we bother responding if the effort does not give the Soviets additional influence? Tugwell in particular blurs the distinction between what Soviet propaganda has achieved and what could easily have come about through other influences. For example, he asserts that "the Soviets have succeeded in indirectly dominating the agenda of the General Assembly (of the United Nations)," noting 244 SAIS REVIEW the interests shared by the Soviet Union and many Third World regimes. However , he treats the Third World as if their minds were putty in the hands of the Soviet propaganda machine. Paul A. Smith describes the Soviet propaganda apparatus as a good ifsomewhat dated mechanism. Peter Kenez's analysis of the lessons to be taken from the Soviet response to Western outrage after a Korean airliner was shot down in 1983 usefully outlines some of the problems in the Soviet system. David Hertzberg notes the differences between official Soviet broadcasts and those of clandestine radio stations transmitting to China, Iran, and Turkey. Joseph Gordon's description of an East German propaganda campaign in 1965 is an illuminating study of what can be done to try to influence opinion. Human Rights and American Foreign Policy: The Carter and Reagan Experiences . ByA. Glenn Mower, Jr. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1987. 167 pp. $37.50/cloth. Reviewed byJeffrey Allen Zuckerberg, M.A. candidate, SAIS. "The question of human rights has come to occupy a prominent place in the field of international relations." Numerous human rights treaties and conventions attest to this...

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