ABSTRACT
When that distinguished doyen of the Washington press corps, the late Mr. James Reston, after talking to the White House incumbent and Pentagon “top brass,” wanted to tell us that some new pattern is emerging in American foreign policy, he would announce (as he had innumerable times over his three decades in Washington) that “We are now in a whole new ball game!.” This was supposed to be meaningful to all who know and love their fun and games. Is it really? It may be pithy, but is it in any way revealing or even pertinent? What was the old ball game? Was it something like baseball (or, say, cricket): slow moving and calling for great patience and endurance? Or was it as formally stylized as tennis, or perhaps rough-and-tumble like rugby? And that whole new ball game—football, or soccer, or basketball: fast breaking and full of sudden surprises?*
