There is not even much to dispute in his portrait of the American economy as spectacularly, perhaps even naively, open and freewheeling. But beyond these generalities, his case crumbles because most of his material either does not support the points he wants to make or fails to accommodate prominent facts to the contrary. For example, Mr. Fialka devotes four chapters to China, a country he describes as ''by far the largest, most problematic player'' in the economic espionage game, and one that ''has flooded the United States with spies'' intent on uncovering our secrets. But three chapters tell of ''spies'' who were absolved of charges against them, convicted of comparatively minor crimes or whose most serious offenses appear to have been against China, not the United States. Even Mr. Fialka's most compelling case, involving China's rough-shod acquisition a few years ago of some militarily sensitive machine tools from a McDonnell Douglas plant in Columbus, Ohio, fails to bear the weight of his larger points.
Similar problems affect the rest of the story.
Mr. Fialka describes recent Japanese efforts to snap up American research and patents, without ever explaining why, if Japan's haul of our technology has been so great, the value of its stock market has fallen by half. He gives an elaborate account of Soviet economic espionage in the 1980's but barely makes mention of the fact the Soviet economy imploded. And he deserves credit for having the courage of his convictions. In a brief concluding chapter he appears to endorse a series of controversial policies, including repeal of the Freedom of Information Act, which he says makes it too easy for foreigners to unearth our technological treasures. And one wonders, if some incident finally does galvanize Americans in the fashion Mr. Fialka says they should they be, training their hatreds as powerfully as the cold war once did, whether Mr. Fialka and other economic nationalists will own up to the dark side of the new era they will have helped usher in.