This is a well-research, well-argued and still-relevant book. As other reviewers have noted, the author adopts an explicit neo-Marxist (or World-systems) perspective. Based on this, two reviewers have summarily dismissed the author's argument as "clap trap" or "mumbo-jumbo." Yet, not surprisingly, they offer nothing of substance to support their views. They do not show exactly how and why the author's position is wrong. It's an ad hominem attack par exellence. The author, by contrast, provides plenty of support, backed by a coherent framework of analysis. Not everyone will agree, of course, but that is the nature of the academic enterprise. Still, it is undeniable that economic interests--and specifically, the interests of the most powerful economic actors--underlie much of what the United States has done in the world. The "domino theory" provides a perfect example. Consider what President Eisenhower had to say on this subject (in 1954):
"You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences.
Now, with respect to the first one, two of the items from this particular area that the world uses are tin and tungsten. They are very important. There are others, of course, the rubber plantations and so on. Then with respect to more people passing under this domination, Asia, after all, has already lost some 450 million of its peoples to the Communist dictatorship, and we simply can't afford greater losses.
But when we come to the possible sequence of events, the loss of Indochina, of Burma, of Thailand, of the Peninsula, and Indonesia following, now you begin to talk about areas that not only multiply the disadvantages that you would suffer through loss of materials, sources of materials, but now you are talking really about millions and millions and millions of people.
Finally, the geographical position achieved thereby does many things. It turns the so-called island defensive chain of Japan, Formosa, of the Philippines and to the southward; it moves in to threaten Australia and New Zealand.
It takes away, in its economic aspects, that region that Japan must have as a trading area or Japan, in turn, will have only one place in the world to go-that is, toward the Communist areas in order to live. So, the possible consequences of the loss are just incalculable to the free world."
Needless to say, the domino theory informed American foreign policy in a profound way during the entire cold war. And it is clear from the quote above that American political leaders framed the domino principle in primarily economic terms. In the most simple sense, this is one of the key points that McCormick makes in his book.
Any reader with an open mind, any reader who wants to achieve a better, more comprehensive understanding of US foreign policy, therefore, will have something to learn from this book. And, again, even if you don't buy the entire argument, this does not mean that it is clap trap or mumbo jumbo.
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