Out of the Cold: New Thinking for American Foreign and Defense Policy in the 21st Century

McNamara maintains that Washington's reaction to Mikhail Gorbachev's ``new thinking'' has been unduly skeptical, cautious and unimaginative. The former U.S. defense secretary under presidents Kennedy and Johnson argues that Gorbachev's reassessment of national-security and geopolitical objectives represents a profound break with the Soviet past; that his bold proposals have been accompanied by a remarkable flexibility at the negotiating table; and that the West must take advantage of ``the greatest opportunity since the end of World War II'' to end the Cold War. In this brief, trenchant essay, McNamara offers suggestions for a system of collective security based on a ``code of conduct'' which, if adhered to by the superpowers, would serve such areas of potential conflict as Arab-Israeli relations, the Persian Gulf, Latin America, and the sale of arms to Third World nations. The book offers a useful review of the origins and evolution of the Cold War, the practical results of Gorbachev's foreign and defense policy initiatives, as well as Western reaction to the dramatic shift in the Soviet position. (Sept.)