The Foreign Service Journal, January 2011

44 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 1 B O O K S Speaking Truth to Power Superpower Illusions: How Myths and False Ideologies Led America Astray — and How to Return to Reality Jack F. Matlock Jr., Yale University Press, 2010, $30, hardcover, 344 pages. R EVIEWED BY E RNEST H. L ATHAM J R . Ambassador Jack Matlock brings to his chosen theme, American foreign policy errors of the past 20 years, un- paralleled experience and insight gained from four Foreign Service tours in Moscow — the last as ambassador from 1987 to 1991 — as well as his work on Soviet affairs back in Wash- ington. He also participated in 14 of the 15 U.S.-Soviet summits between 1972 and 1991. The book is divided into three sec- tions. The first is titled “Getting His- tory Right,” which Matlock empha- tically believes America has not done. He supports his belief by explicating four American myths and a half-truth. The myths center around the idea that America outgunned the Soviet Union and caused its collapse, while the half- truth is that America won the Cold War — to which the author replies that everyone won. Countering the myths, Matlock identifies two realities that helped Mikhail Gorbachev modify Soviet be- havior: President Ronald Reagan’s ne- gotiating from a position of strength and not insisting on “regime change.” The author admires Reagan, who knew what he didn’t know, asked ques- tions and learned from others’ exper- tise and experience. The second section is bluntly called “Missing the Point: Sixteen Misdi- rected Years,” a wasted period charac- terized by Bill Clinton’s and GeorgeW. Bush’s shared “unipolar delusion.” Matlock faults Clinton for his indiffer- ence to foreign policy and disarma- ment, which led him (despite George Kennan’s advice) to disregard Russian sensitivities about NATO’s eastward creep, among other mistakes. If Matlock finds the Clinton admin- istration lackluster, he views the George