Sampling CIA's New Document Retrieval System: McCone Telephone Conversations during the Six Crises Tempest

Documents recently made available at the National Archives by the CIA are accessed through non-traditional archival means: researchers use keywords at computers to obtain them. Most of the documents will be uninteresting or worthless to scholars. Some add important or colorful details to our knowledge of the Agency. An example is a small set of documents detailing 1962 telephone conversations of DCI John McCone with President Kennedy, former DCI Dulles, and former Vice President Nixon about the latter's best-selling book Six Crises, which charged Kennedy with having acted unscrupulously as a presidential candidate in 1960 by advocating covert action against Cuba.     

Book reviews

Radical Transitions. The Survival and Revival of Entrepreneurship in the GDR. By Andreas Pickel. Boulder, San Francisco and Oxford: Westview Press, 1992. £25.95 pb.

Europe and German Unification. By Renate Fritsch‐Bournazel. Oxford: Berg, 1992. £30 hb, £8.95 pb.

The Oder‐Neisse Line ‐ A Reappraisal under International Law. By Philip A. Bühler. Boulder: Eastern European Monographs, distributed by Columbia University Press, 1990. $32.50 hb.

Recasting the Ruhr, 1945–1958. Manpower, Economic Recovery and Labour Relations. By Mark Roseman. Oxford: Berg, 1992. £42 hb.

The US Congress and the German Bundestag: Comparisons of Democratic Processes. Edited by Uwe Thaysen, Roger H. Davidson and Robert Gerald Livingston. Boulder, San Francisco, Oxford: Westview Press, 1990. £31.50 pb.

Der verkappte Einheitsstaat. By Heidrun Abromeit. Opladen: Leske und Budrich, 1992.

Wir Kollaborateure. Der Westen und die deutschen Vergangenheiten. Edited by Cora Stephan. Reinbeck bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1992. DM9.90 pb.

Die CDU. Organisationsstrukturen, Politiken und Funktionsweisen einer Partei im Föderalismus. By josefschmid. Opladen: Leske und Budrich, 1990. DM48.

Moscow, Germany and the West from Khruschchev to Gorbachev. By Michael J. Sodaro. London: I.B. Tauris, 1991. £29.95 hb, £12.95 pb.

Deutsche Irrtümer. Schönfärberei und Helfershelfer der SED‐Diktatur im Westen. By Jens Hacker. Berlin: Ullstein, 1992. DM68 hb.

Föderalismus in der Bewährung: die deutschen Länder vor der Herausforderung fortschreitender EG‐Integration. Edited by Bernhard Vogel and Günther H. Oettinger. Köln: Deutscher Gemeindeverlag/Kohlhammer, 1992.

The Territorial Imperative: Pluralism, Corporatism, and Economic Crisis. By Jeffrey J. Anderson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. £35 hb.

The Federal Republic of Germany and NATO: 40 Years After. Edited by E.J. Kirchner and J. Sperling. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992. £45 hb.

The Economy of United Germany: Colossus at the Crossroads. By W.R. Smyser. London: Hurst &; Co., 1992. £25 hb.     

Enabling hybrid space: epistemological diversity in socio-ecological problem-solving

Although it can be challenging, engagement with diverse knowledges and knowledge systems can lead to better decisions. The purpose of this paper is to open a dialog about transrational (spiritual) knowing within socio-ecological decision-making with two common interest goals in mind: (1) making better decisions for long-term sustainability for all beings, including those who are human and those who are not, and (2) animating processes for decision-making that are inclusive of ways of knowing of all peoples. I suggest that serious consideration of transrational knowing is critical to addressing the incommensurability of Western and Indigenous knowledge systems, and meeting the identified goals.     

The curious career of an African modernizer: South Africa's Thabo Mbeki

Thabo Mbeki, South Africa's second democratically elected president, was born into left-wing politics. In exile, he became the face of the African National Congress (ANC) and developed a reputation as a modernizer. He returned to the country and built relations, not with the ANC's internal allies, but with the country's business community. In 1996, as Mandela's deputy, Mbeki implemented a neo-liberal economic package, called GEAR, which alienated many. In office, he both failed to acknowledge the threat of HIV/AIDS to the country and refused to pressure the failing regime in Zimbabwe; but it was his bypassing of parliament that ultimately led to his failure as president.     

Balancing Accountability and Efficiency in a More Competitive Public Sector Environment

Extract from a speech delivered at Government-in-Excellence Summit 2000, 'Reinventing Government — A Manifesto for Achieving Excellence and Managing for Results in the New Millennium', 24–26 May, Singapore, (For the full text see www.anao.gov.au)     

Advice about Life Plans from Mothers,Fathers, and Siblings in Always-Married and Divorced Families during Late Adolescence

The frequency of advice about life plans that older adolescents in always-married and divorced families received from mothers, fathers, and siblings was examined. Also, a pattern-analytic approach that grouped adolescents according to the amount of advice about life plans received from each parent and a sibling was employed to explore the connections between patterns of advice and adolescents' future occupational, educational, and family plans. The sample included 544 and 95 older adolescents in always-married and divorced families, respectively. Findings suggested that while adolescents relied on mothers for advice in both always-married and divorced families, adolescents in divorced families depended on fathers and siblings for advice less often than did adolescents in always-married families. Although there was some evidence of family context differences in the connections between patterns of advice and life plans, overall, adolescents in both family contexts who received more advice from a parent and, in some cases, a sibling compared to other adolescents were the most positive about their future life plans.     

Comparison of point-of-collection screening of drugs of abuse in oral fluid with a laboratory-based urine screen.

Oral fluid is becoming increasingly useful for the detection of drugs, since it is a non-invasive specimen to collect and, because collection is directly observed, it is difficult to adulterate. A point-of-collection (POCT) oral fluid drug analysis kit has been developed for use in many drug testing situations. This paper summarizes the results of field evaluations of the ORALscreen System for screening of drugs in oral fluid. The ORALscreen System consists of an oral fluid collection device and a test device containing a lateral flow membrane immunoassay system. Paired samples (oral fluid and urine) were collected from drug users and the results from the ORALscreen POCT system were compared to urine screening results conducted in a licensed laboratory. The results demonstrate that the ORALscreen System has excellent percent agreement with the laboratory-based urine screening test results for the detection of cocaine and opiates through 2.5-3 days following drug use, respectively. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) was detected by ORALscreen on the day of use and 1 day after use. Good correlation between urine and oral fluid screening results was observed for the methamphetamine positive samples; however, the number of days following drug use was not determined.