Under the Pax Ballistica -- the precarious balance of terror which has given us twenty years without a "major war" -- "may actually lead to small wars." Since the Second World War the world has been again and again plagued and threatened by "limited" wars. -- from the book jacket.

Limited war and the development of U.S. defense policy -- The varieties of limited war -- The civil war in Greece, 1946-1949 -- The war in Korea, 1950-1953 -- Limited war for national independence: the Israeli-Arab War, 1947-1949 -- Sinai and Suez, 1956 -- The American landing in Lebanon, 1958 -- The Chinese attack on the Himalayan frontier of India, 1962 -- "Wars of national liberation": the French colonial war in Viet Nam, 1946-1950 -- "Wars of national liberation": the Franco-Communist war in Viet Nam, 1950-1954 -- "Wars of national liberation" -- The lessons of limited war.