Word: sampson
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...business of arms sales there is a new intensity to which Sampson devotes most of his book. The threat of nuclear war and the polarizing effect of U.S. Soviet relations disrupts the old "every man for himself" ethic. The most revolutionizing effect, however, has been the oil crisis and the growing militance of third world nations. Not only do the Arab sheiks have the foreign exchange which the West desperately needs, they also have the economic power to demand choice weaponry, like F-14 fighter jets and computer-guided missiles. Of course, they often burden themselves with equipment they cannot...
Starting with Nobel and such other "merchants of death" as Alfred Krupp, Andrew Carnegie and the duPont family,Arms Bazaar by Anthony Sampson, a British journalist, traces the rise of the international arms market. As any good front-page journalist does, Sampson pays sharp attention to detail and leaves the analysis to more sophisticated writers. He merely tries to trace the industry point-by-point, producing an account valuable for researchers and pleasure readers...
...there was no deterrent effect in dynamite or mustard gas, and when the war ended, the industry entered a new dimension. Isolationism followed by depression dampened sales somewhat, but the rise of fascism in Europe led to an industry oriented toward production for national use. All through these years, Sampson ignores conventional history and economics, merely tracing the nefarious activities of a handful of peddlers. Sampson does not say what a Messerschmidt can do to an Ethiopian tribesman, nor does he fully examine the Krupp family's role in the Nazi war machine. He is more concerned with the individuals...
Clearly opposed to even the slightest justifications used by the "defense contractors," Sampson only cites their rhetoric in order to ridicule it. There is little room to argue over the economics of expanding sales to reduce the development costs for the home country, and exports do keep the production lines continually operating. But Sampson only cites the age-old argument about the "deterrent" effect of weapons to toy with its absurdity. The weapons companies' claim of merely selling to those in need or able to afford an "honest price" becomes even more painfully comic when Sampson shows how former Defense...
...Sampson's somewhat over-detailed accounts of bribery and cynical diplomacy take up space which could be devoted to developing a broader perspective. He cites Japan as one industrialized, oil-starved nation which has avoized any complicity in the arms market, but he does not study this anomaly in order to offer any morals to the rest of the world. In a similar vein, he outlines former President Richard M. Nixon's mistake in granting the Shah's colossal arms requests, but he fails to explore the deeper diplomatic ramifications of the arms trade. Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson (D-Wash...