Real Peace. by Nixon, Richard - 1984

Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1984. First edition of Nixon's fifth book. Octavo, original boards. Inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "To Ken Deeker- with best wishes from Richard Nixon." Fine in a fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Peter deAngeli. In this terse, closely argued book about geopolitical strategy, Richard Nixon asserts that while the tools of modern warfare have made war a practical impossibility, our differences with the Soviet Union remain profound, irreconcilable, and potentially deadly. How can we navigate between the impossible and the irreconcilable and establish a real, lasting peace is the sum and substance of the former President's message. First the author debunks what he calls the myths of peace, chimeras such as disarmament, peace-through-trade, personal friendships between leaders, and world government schemes. President Nixon says that such policies-pursued by themselves-have never averted war, and that we court disaster by pretending that they will now. Then he describes the key that can unlock the door to peace: "hard-headed detente," a pragmatic mixture of detente and deterrence that encompasses the full range of political and economic relations between east and West. He shows how we can use summitry, economic power and other means to deter Soviet misbehavior and at the same time reduce the chances of world war.