EPITAPH FOR ANNA LOUISE STRONG
LYONS, EUGENE
Epitaph for Anna Louise Strong By Eugene Lyons Author of Assignment in Utopia and Our Unknown Ex-President THE FABLED INGRATITUDE of kings begins to look like pure generosity again* the...
...She could quite understand why her father should be upset by what she saw and heard, and she did not blame infidels like myself for telling the truth as wu saw it...
...A decade later I watched her brave and tearful battle for the unborn truth, and it seemed to me that she did not relish the teak, It was for her a grim hut inescapable duty- as killing might be to a pacifist somehow trapped by the exigencies of a just war...
...wfckh hat been the latest scene of her UUrary exploits, Perhaps she associated withthe "wrong" people among the Chinees Communist leaders and her disgrace is a tangential warning to those people to toe the Moscow line, of else...
...ANOTHER POINT made by the resolution supporters hooks up with the threat uttered by President Truman at jjbe Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner in Washington during which he said that ft- certain Congressmen continue to ^oppose the Democratic program, he would "get on a train again and tell the people" what is going on...
...in point...
...Fortunately he remained bedridden for the rest of his sojourn and i escaped making good on the promise...
...Should she speak out of turn, the blasphemy will have been properly discounted beforehand as the ravings of an exposed spy...
...But Anna Louise wanted more...
...John Rankin, Senator dHpy Byid and other Dixiecvats are JHteiated with the party...
...She simply regarded herself as made of sterner stuff—one who was capable of rising above the obvious but moribound truth...
...Another time she told mo a sad tale of the political-romantic genre...
...Though I did not really say too much, it seemed to prostrate the frail and sensitive clergyman...
...CARE parcels to be plainly labeled "U.S...
...She could have been thrown out of the Soviet paradise in mcirciful silence, to continue her missionary labors among the American infidels...
...Kingi, moved by whim or expediency, used to drive a devoted courtier ttom the royal precincts and that was that...
...The <Ao»erthe victim .Juf been to^he regime, indeed, the strtfhger...
...there {Bie always at least two truths, the Itruth that is dying and the truth that is •Coming mto existence...
...FAO objects Ih (it Enropi?u» farmers don't know hybrid corn and don't go in-for its planting...
...To speculate on the reasons for her ordeal seems futile at this writing...
...Obviously her identification as n traitor-spy ends her influence in these all-important sphere* and destroys a substantial Communist "property...
...M ¦ • * • } timi...
...Yet she was conscious that for a Russian Communist a foreign believer could never be anything more than a second-class comrade...
...She was aware that the Pemergix:g truth involved an immense [amount of lying...
...The possibilities in this situation are making everybody nervout...
...There was anguish in her voice as she complained that despite al her years of loyal service she was sjUU treated as an outsider...
...Another point made by the resolution supporters is that ADA's self-declared non-partisanship is universally regarded as a Action...
...the kremlin is due fee a blistered ear...
...he says farm labor wages constitute about one-third of a farmer's production costs, and that present parity levels compute farm wages at 1909-14 levels...
...Truman really meant getting on a Iron to carry on a campaign for the defeat of certain reactionary Democrats in their home districts...
...But Anna Louise has been formally and demonstratively disowned...
...Washin u ton and ih the Nation Which Way for ADA...
...I for one could not repress a surge of purely human sympathy for the woman when the news came through...
...he had set n. On one occasion, after a visit to some collectivized villages, she burst.into tears as she recounted the exepertence...
...As for Rankin, Byrd and the Dixiecrats, they argue, those gentlemen will never leave the Democratic Party of their own accord-and will have to be pushed out from the inside by liberal pressure...
...FAO is qfraid Europeans might eat the hybrid com instead of planting it, and the seed is poisonous when eaten...
...She is the kind woman who craves the warmth of comradeship, of "belonging" to an ideological family...
...Then she went to her room to write about the glories of collectivisation, to help the dying truth die a bit faster...
...These ADA'ers want to he in a position to appeal to the registered Democratic voters in the primaries for the support of liberal candidates for those party posts...
...Now, if she chooses (as is likely) to cling to Stalinism notwithstanding, her words will have an extra dimension of conviction, as the spurned lover whose love glows undiminished...
...The" point of the story is that Anna Louise was neither hlind to the horrors in which we were all engulfed nor calJous about them...
...I am inclined to believe that she is the victim, deservedly or not, of some oppositionist situation, either la Buesia itself or, mora likely, in China...
...pace, hsad of the house agriculture committee, want to recompute farm parity price levels...
...Epitaph for Anna Louise Strong By Eugene Lyons Author of Assignment in Utopia and Our Unknown Ex-President THE FABLED INGRATITUDE of kings begins to look like pure generosity again* the latterday ingratitude of dictators...
...This, was not put on...
...rep...
...The crimes and "mistakes" of the jrevolution are bitter medicine, which jjbe gulpt: down in u mood of heroic self^pscriflce...
...CARE, the relief organization, is promoting a seed package for Europe...
...It is no secret that other worshippers, barred from the Stalinist temples without publicity, have swallowed their sorrow and persevered zealously in the propagation of the faith...
...During the past year ADA was successively mixed up in promoting Eisenhower for the Democratic nomination in the Democratic convention and In writing some of the most important parts of the Democratic platform...
...Having identified himself fwith the regime and cut his bridges |lo the respectable world, he makes a teareer of his predicament...
...One the principal and critical issues "befoie the ADA convention will In""whether to abandon its stated position of noh-partisanship and to openly dc dare itself a Democratic 01 gani/ation A resolution to this effect is now be fore the Washington Chapter of ADA find is to be debuted in a special meeting...
...But evidently her dream of complete melting into the new world was burned into the nightmare of purge and banishment...
...u~'~~** this compulsion...
...are far from agreement among IJheroEelves...
...desertion from the ranks is an endemic disease in the American party...
...a promise that if he came to me ajjain I would avoid telling him any more distressing truths...
...jWhen Ar.na Louise returned from some 'trip into the interior of Soviet Russia...
...She had given up her country, her world, to embrace that dogma...
...Perhaps she will lift a corner of the veil of mystery before long...
...A preliminary survey discloses a sharp difference of opinion on the subject, With those opposed to the resolu: toil believed to be somewhat in the raajority at this writing...
...She would not lend herself, nor would she be trusted, for a machiavellian role...
...By Jonathan Stout New Leader Washington Correspondent mTASHINGTON, D. C. In fnv , weeks Americans for Demot cratic Action will hold its sec l«nd i.r.r.u«l convention, opening April I! jlor a three-day session in Chicago...
...j Anna Louise...
...I expressed my regrets...
...She might be induced to sacrifice her life for Stalin—but not the good opinion and affection of her friends and comrades...
...She did feel keenly the sufferings and brutalities about which she talked...
...In a sense \l is therefore a compliment: an acknowledgment of her importance...
...That, of course, becomes practical political business...
...Still another jHM) wishes to retain non-partisanship in order to be able to support liberal Republican candidates when they run for office...
...THERE WAS one afternoon when Anna Louise came to my office in an agitated condition...
...After all, persuasion remains indispensable until such time as police force can be used as a substitute...
...The chances are that she will take the most terrible blow of all, the accusation of treachery, in the same spirit...
...She will weep over it, that Is to say, in private while exhibiting a smiling face in public...
...ADA should abandon the fiction in favor of reality...
...that has enabled her to live with her conscience While lying for the cause...
...ouster of the soviet repatriation commissions from our occupied sones in europe...
...To be tagged as a notoriuos spy, she must realize, putt her in a class with Trotsky, Zinoniev, Kamenev, Karakhan and others far whom she once had unbounded admiration...
...She had to be branded conspicuously as a traitor, a spy, a notorious spy...
...Supporters of the resolution point to the fact that party primaries will be held in most parts of the United States next year and that there will be an opportunity to elect ADA and laborsupported candidates for membership on the Democratic State Central Committees «nd for county leaderships, both repositories of the actual reins of party leadership and political power...
...They are worried lest the opposition successfully portray the ADA candidates as "ringers" or "mugwumps...
...I remember the occasion largely because it was then I coined an aphorism which I have never tired of repeating...
...Wri.'.'Jiiiif/foit official circles, were reading between the lines of the statements of Togliatti and Thorez about Italian and French workers welcoming the Red Army, and are taking a serious view of t/ie meanings...
...Added to this, regulations require U.S...
...Being an intelligent woman and sensitive to these nuances of the ritual, her boundless distress, I am sure, Is touched with elation...
...THOSE OPPOSED to abandoning .ADA's declared non-partisanship rep .teaent several different points of view Ljpd...
...Again and again...
...j The other type—and a most unhappy lone—never ceases to rationalize the chores in idealistic terms...
...But when it came to the showdown he refused to marry her because she was a foreigner...
...They are unanimous on one point: that the organizational successes of ADA in the past year makes it possible now to oust reactionary leadership from Democratic Party posts in many places and for the liberals actually to take over the reins of political power and party control in those areas...
...WHEN I ffJUT met Anna Louisa she was writing political free verse far the New York CbS, under the barbae of Anise...
...you can'put ii down as definite that the stale department will score another bulls eye when they formally reject the soviet protest against u.s...
...He was a meek little man, in contrast with Miss Strong's aggressive bulk, and in Moscow at the time people quoted Lenin's saying: 'There is no fortress we Bolsheviks can't conquer...
...treiore, persons^ close to the White House (at least one of whom is an ardent supporter of the ADA resolution before the Washington Chapter) are sayinn lint Mr...
...You see how it is, Anna Louise," I said: "Love me love my dogma...
...Is the Army Mup Service, 011 the recommendation 0/ Senator Carl Hatch, about to appoint to its sl«JJ a certain Bulgarian refugee who once wus a leading member 0/ the Bulgarian Nazi Party and who, after the war, promptly became a member of the Communist Party until the recent purge of the Party in Bulgaria...
...For . that reason, they say...
...Thus, whether she turns out to be a Browder or a Budenz, the faithful will be protected against doubts...
...This was her apology as much to Bierself as to the reader—fur the delibJerate suppression of whole continents |of Soviet facts...
...Trie fiskTfhat she might "tell all" was too great...
...Included is hybrid com seed, despite the opposition of the UN Food and Agricultural Organization...
...The old*"man, a Congregational minister, had attended a religious conference in Geneva and decided to visit his daughter...
...It seemed that I had made her father sick, literally sick, by talking to him too candidly about the facts of life in Utopia...
...I have reason to susMpeet, bc.ungs in this second and rather ¦melancholy group In one of her Woks, §Tlns Soiiet World, she came very close to adiiii'.'.ing to the leader that she was " concealing some things...
...The more common and ibfniuaris the hard-boiled opportunist fptd charlatan...
...It is this family feeling that has sustained her In hours of doubt, depression and soulsearching...
...In the meantime she seemed to have achieved the complete acceptance for which she hungered, marrying a Soviet Communist, one Joel Shubin...
...A GREAT MANY YEARS have passed...
...Usually they leel compelled to destroy Me reputatidE^to emBfcTIish the injury wjrfh unlimited insult...
...Supporters of the ADA resolution are expecting a knock-down-and-dragout buttle between the liberal and conservative elements of the Democratic Party within certain Congressional districts...
...She had developed a more than friendly relationship with a fine handsome Russian Communist...
...KjA^VHlidlc-of-the-road opposition group MniMtS it can help achieve liberalifWOon of the Democratic Party by • exerting pressure as an outside group •* This group sees the Democratic Party KAJf|WttQgJi|*M a' positions in an effort to ^NJHlM^AjuA and win its support...
...in supporting the Democratic ticket during the campaign, and in electing a number of ADA members to Congifr.r on the Democratic ticket As a consequence of that record, the resolution supporters argue, ADA is not receiving any of the benefits of true non-partisanship while its technical declaration bars it from acquiring the reins of power in the party with Which it is universality identified...
...But seen from her own vantage point, it is a devasting tragedy all the same...
...The easy assumption that her branding is a propaganda trick, calculated to make her more effective among the heathens in her homeland, makes no sense to those who know the lady...
...There had been between them some talk of matrimony...
...In the first place, her chief value for the Kremlin has been In the Communist periphery of America, among the totalitarian liberals...
...WHAT HAS HAPPENED to Anna Louise is not an expulsion...
...But Anna Louise, whatever her mysterious sins, has become too much part of the regime to be consigned to the twiBight zone of exiled friends...
...abc TWO distinct types Hmeng the foreign retainers of the SoMet dictatorship...
...Gift Package," and they point out that in the German language —immersalli/ used throughout central Europe—the word "gift" means poison...
...m A considerable group make little pfeiffet of the fact they have not given UMkrbope for a third party and wish to Ifstarn a technically non-partisan posiH|aftfar that eventuality...
...It is a purge...
...Whether or ^¦Aei the Washington Chapter approves . t^t resolution, however, it is regarded j|s almost certain to come up at the national convention...
...I agreed that the thmg was unjust and even preposterous...
...I teii not tlie 'whole truth.'" she . Wrote, "for truth is never 'whole...
...Though he would prefer to be »truthful, he regards truth as a luxury "which he must forego in this baleful ^transition epoch in mortal history...
...She is emotional, even sentimental - Those who lived close to her—as I did for six years in Moscow—ore aware that she has not quite «tittTVed the poetic-romantic strain of her beginnings...
...My guess is worth no more than anyone alse's...
...Therefore her authority had to be undermined in advance...
...She commands too much authority among innocents in the women's clitbs, on the campuses, especially in the never-never land of American liberaiisrrf...
...Now, if the President wished to take on.a, general campaign of public education on the issues, it has been pointed Otttr he could cover more people, more ground and with greater personal com, "tort in a series of radio fireside chats...
...Compared with the cruelties she defended it is, of course, a minor tragedy...
...No, the theory that she would consent to be smeared as a spy—or that the krewd manipulators in the Kremlin Would cast her for luch a ro»e-<annot je credited...
...She has been useful also in maintaining morale among the card-bearing comrades themselves...
...Moreover, Anna Louise is decidedly not the type for such a tricky fame...
...Thf* fate of Anna Louise Strong is a ease...
...She knows too much...
...IN CONTRAST to the opposition, the supporters of the resolution to join the Democratic Party are far more unified...
...But dictators are rarely content merely to discard a superfluous flunkey...
...She would tell me frankly about the horrors...
...Only the accident of American citizenship has denied her the crowning glory of a salute by a firing squad...
...seen, Heard and Suspected...
...It was a cruel thing to 8*3, because she did love his dogma...
...His opportunism is concealed, especially from himijpelf...
...The excuse pained her more than the refusal...
...No doubt the decision was disconcerting but she couldn't very well keep him out...
...And they want their resolution adopted so they can play an active role in that struggle, and, incidentally, pick up the reins of party and political power There's a fnsl-cl;.ss debate for liberals in the making...
...A garden-variety press agent of the Kremlin like Maurice Hindus or Walter Duranty can be told off in bureaucratic contempt by denying him a visa...
...wUlA third group objects to association ISpi the Democratic Party as long ns jjhjn like Rep...
...She is not just another "bandit of the pen" like Max Eastman or Louis Fischer, but a beaten leader...
...He does the JiUrty chores of "the revolution" withlaut any sentimental qualms...
...chile is ths first nation to take advantage of president truman's offer to contribute american technical knowhow to industrially backward nations...
...Squalid and blood-stained as it ' may be, the Russian Revolution is still her .number one love affair...
...Whatever extra glamor the label may give her in the lower depths of Rotary, Kiwanis and women's club circles, it hardly makes up for the loss of a firstrate force on the higher levels...
Vol. 32 • March 1949 • No. 10
