Street Without Joy

New York: Xchocken Bookx, 1972. Fourth Edition Fifth Printing . Trade Paperback. Very Good. 5 1/2" x 8. Minor, Wendell - Dessign. 408 Pages indexed. The last name of a previous owner "Clarke" is on the half title page. This is the May 1967 Fourth Edition. Georges Clemenceau is reputed to have said (and perhaps he did) that war was too important to be left to soldiers. Nobody seems to have come forward with the obvious corollary, which is that peace is too precious to be left to politicians. Such aphorisms, while they may delight those who like their thinking supplied for them in tasty capsules, wholly over-simplify the complex problem with which they deal. They can be true, certainly, but at the same time they are nonsense. For war is itself a political act. Politics cannot be separated from war, nor war from politics. Political considerations do not cease abruptly with the onset of war, and military considerations can never be far from the politician's mind, even in times of peace. The threat of war, particularly in this day of air-delivered nuclear weapons, must inevitably temper political decisions. Conversely, war conducted in a political vacuum is not war at all but pointless slaughter. In the end, war becomes the last resort of the politician, who must turn over its conduct, though not its ultimate objectives, to soldiers.