All Fall down: America's Tragic Encounter with Iran by Gary SickReview by: Gaddis SmithForeign Affairs, Vol. 64, No. 1 (Fall, 1985), p. 180Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20042504 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 22:47

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Council on Foreign Relations is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to ForeignAffairs.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 188.72.126.182 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 22:47:41 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

180 FOREIGN AFFAIRS

to understand the other. The analysis and criticism of the Carter Adminis tration?when d?tente gave way to confrontation and American officials

persistently distorted or misread Soviet actions?is better than anything yet written on that subject. The quotation from Machiavelli at the head of the book is apt: "In order to know what is going to happen, one must know

what has happened." Anyone dealing with Soviet-American relations today should start with this book and take the many hours required to read it

carefully.

ALL FALL DOWN: AMERICA'S TRAGIC ENCOUNTER WITH IRAN. By Gary Sick. New York: Random House, 1985, 366 pp. $19.95.

The author, then a U.S. navy captain, was the National Security Council's

expert on Iran during the Carter Administration. This is the best book yet to appear on the American side of the story. It is based on special access to

classified sources and a scholarly understanding of the larger context as

well as on unique personal experience. Sick writes without malice about the

collapse of the Shah, the triumph of Khomeini's revolution, and the 444

day crisis when the Americans were held hostage in Teheran. He sees no

American heroes or villains, but instead describes how "all fell down" in the attempt to find nonexistent solutions to a situation over which the

United States had little control. His defense of the attempted military rescue is less than convincing.

SECRECY AND DEMOCRACY: THE CIA IN TRANSITION. By Stans field Turner. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1985, 304 pp. $16.95.

Admiral Turner, director of Central Intelligence during the Carter

Administration, reflects on the inevitable tension between the openness on

which democracy depends and the secrecy necessary for effective intelli

gence and counterintelligence. Turner favors congressional oversight of

intelligence activities and suggests how it can be done responsibly. The book is explicitly not a memoir or chronicle of events. There are no juicy tidbits, although the arms-length relationship between Turner and National

Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski is evident.

ROOSEVELT TO REAGAN. By Hedley Donovan. New York: Bessie/

Harper, 1985, 332 pp. $19.95. This is a perceptive, witty and informal commentary by a journalist who

was editor-in-chief of Time, Inc. for 15 years and a senior adviser to

President Carter for 12 months. The chapters on Carter's personality and on events in the White House during 1979-80, comprising a third of the

book, are especially good.

SECRETS OF STATE: THE STATE DEPARTMENT AND THE STRUGGLE OVER U.S. FOREIGN POLICY. By Barry Rubin. New York:

Oxford University Press, 1985, 352 pp. $25.00. A lively description and analysis of the difficulties besetting the Depart

ment of State and professional Foreign Service officers during the last half

century. The principal conclusion is eminently sound: identify the best

people and promote them quickly to positions of responsibility.

A SEASON OF INQUIRY: THE SENATE INTELLIGENCE INVESTI GATION. By Loch K.Johnson. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky,

1985, 317 pp. $31.00.

This content downloaded from 188.72.126.182 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 22:47:41 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions