The White House Staff and the National Security Assistant: Friendship and Friction at the Water's Edge (Contributions in Political Science)

'œAs this review is written, newspapers and television across the US depict the activities of the presidential apparatus this book examines. Present reality varies shaprly from the practices it describes. Bock (BDM Corporation and a representative in the Missouri General Assembly) has the misfortune to write a major work that is confounded by events now unfolding. He considers the relation of the president's national security assistant to events and to 'apparent policy consequences' from the Truman era to the early years of the Reagan administration. Since his text runs only 185 pages, Bock must paint with a broad brush, but his work is useful and timely. One point emerges: with a dominant president strong enough to direct and control his staff at this sensitive level, lines of communication are open and operative; but if the president allows his policies to drift or remain unstated or vague, the office and its occupants will go out of control in a number of troublesome ways. In the absence of any other prescriptive work, Bock's book can serve as a blueprint for future scholars...'' ChoiceJoseph G. Bock is the author of 'The White House Staff and the National Security Assistant: Friendship and Friction at the Water's Edge (Contributions in Political Science)', published 1987 under ISBN 9780313256981 and ISBN 0313256985.