Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR Charges Mayo with Defending Communist Dupes and Traitors Dr. Charles W. Mayo's article, "The Super-patriot: Menace to American Freedom'' [THE NEW LEADER, May 24], does your magazine...
...The present proposal is modest and conventional...
...This can only intensify the harmful kind of anti-Communism, irrational, negative and isolationist, which has already put this country in so dangerous a predicament...
...2. In discussing the death of Harry Dexter White, Mr...
...Evans quotes from his book is in reference to a passage in which he lists people "whom it would have been more agreeable not to name," including Robert Oppen-heimer, Senator McMahon and David Lilienthal...
...But in both cases the authors have mixed what is sound with melodramatic speculation and emotionally charged attacks on intellectuals...
...Charles W. Mayo's article, "The Super-patriot: Menace to American Freedom'' [THE NEW LEADER, May 24], does your magazine no credit...
...He ends his discussion dramatically with the statement: "It is an old saying of the Soviet secret police: 'Any hack can kill a man...
...3. Davis says Burnham's "book contains, moreover, enthusiastic endorsement of Medford Evans's The Secret War for the A-Bomb...
...5. Mr...
...Were it not so massive, well chosen and thoroughly applied, the startling thesis of the author might well strike the average reader as incredible...
...That it can be avoided by resolute United Nations action, especially if this is urged by the United Slates and Great Britain, cannot be doubted...
...ROBERT GORHAM DAVIS Says Arab Neutralism Is Not Pro-Communism I believe the following points should be made regarding Mark Alexander's article on the Middle East in the May 17 NEW LEADER...
...In the case of White, he mentions three possibilities: (1) that the strain of the committee hearing in August 194& brought on heart attack, (2) that White committed suicide, (3) that he was ingeniously murdered by Soviet agents...
...And Burnham's assumption that the deaths of Duggan, Krivitsky and White might have been murders was certainly not made "for the very reason that they do not seem to be...
...Evans cilcs in his book is a vague remark by an unidentified "Ouk Ridge AEC man" that this theory is "a speculative thing that is interesting...
...It is not legitimate or reasonable for Davis to distort them and charge Burnham with the distortion...
...Evidently, Eckardt is unaware that Herr von Lilienfeld, whom he criticizes, was one of the most vigorous opponents of that project...
...Alexander mentions the spring riots in Beirut...
...implying that the present Arab governments are either Communist or Communist-inclined...
...These two books by James Burnham and Medford Evans are by serious men rightfully disturbed by the Communist danger and the failure to deal with it realistically...
...Davis's attention to my explicit statement in The Secret War for the A-Bomb (page 239) that "persons whose historically important judgments have, in my opinion, been mistaken" not only "are not Communists and are not criminals,'' but also "perhaps were not even mistaken, though it seems to me that they were...
...It seems paradoxical that my old friend "W...
...Nearly every other government, including most of the small countries, has such an information office connected with its embassy, with a branch office in New York...
...Burnham devotes two lines to the , possibility of natural death by heart attack, which was the reported cause of his death, eleven lines to the possibility that he committed suicide, and twenty-four lines to the possibility that he, along with Larry Duggan and Walter Krivitsky, was murdered by the Soviet secret police...
...V. Eckardt, who did such fine work in giving the Germans reliable information about America as former director of the Amerika Dienst, should find something sinister in Bonn's tentative plan for setting up some sort of German information office in this country ["Reviving German Propaganda," THE NEW LEADER, May 17...
...THE NEW LEADER welcomes readers' comment, regardless of point of view...
...perhaps I was and am mistaken...
...It is hard enough to construe Arab refusal of free arms from the West as pro-Communist activity, but I cannot see how the purge of Mohieddin and other allegedly pro-Communist officers by the military junta in Egypt further illustrates the author's thesis...
...The appointment of one of these former party members, Dr...
...Granting, however, that the Arab countries are steering a neutral course, no valid reason is given for the statement that the Arabs are unwilling to defend themselves...
...Whether the number of Communist leaders who have graduated from the university compares favorably or unfavorably with any similar institution, say in the United States, I do not know...
...For a long time, the State Department's elaborate German facilities partly filled this need, hut this is no longer the case under the present budget...
...If such identification succeeds, it will make quite impossible the kind of free discussion for which Burnham spoke earlier so eloquently...
...A good many of them, moreover, have rejected religious supernaturalism to say, instead, "Thou, Nature, art my goddess...
...Alexander's explanation of the Arab countries' neutralism during World War II, even if correct, must surely be examined in the light of revolutions and changes in government that have taken place since...
...2. Davis says: "Burnham assumes that the deaths of Laurence Duggan, Walter Krivitsky and Harry Dexter White were murders by Soviet agents for the very reason that they do not seem to be.'' This is, again, inaccurate reporting...
...4. Mr...
...Mayo's solicitude for these dupes and traitors is nowhere balanced by sympathy for the victims of Red tyranny...
...New York City CHRISTOPHER EMMET Attacks Davis's Review Of James Burnham's Book May I correct certain errors in Robert Gorham Davis's review of James Burnham's The Web of Subversion [THE NEW LEADER, May 10...
...These are reasonable and legitimate speculations...
...The capital-the accumulated wealth-of the West, and its culture, and many of its inhabitants, are threatened not by the East and not by the atomic bomb, but by the ideological instability of the designers of the atomic bomb.'' These are contentions which are to be tested in the Oppenheimer hearings, and they are contentions, as I properly pointed out in my review, whose political implications have been developed in Buckley and Bozell's book on McCarthy...
...Alexander's real fear about arming the Arabs seem to be the danger of war with Israel...
...1. Davis asserts that Burnham "accepts, with no evidence, Medford Evans's inference that Communist agents stole parts of atomic bombs and assembled them in various American cities, ready to be set off when the right moment comes.'' (Italics supplied...
...Unless they disavow that, Medford Evans declares, "you and I are in for a very rough time...
...Davis may put a different valuation on the evidence, but he cannot, between commas, annihilate it...
...He points out that they might have been murders...
...What issues have the Communists and pro-Communists capitalized on to foster anti-American feeling...
...But he does charge that, as a result of Communist influence, false ideology and a devotion to internationalism rather than Americanism, they were objectively disloyal to the interests of the United States...
...Abilene, Texan MEDFORD EVANS 1. I had already carefully read Mr...
...Great Neck, N. Y. CHARLES C. GREENE Sees a Need for German Information Center in U.S...
...For space reasons, however, we prefer letters under 300 words...
...I attribute it rather to a great dearth among them of facts and arguments...
...Nor does he mention the incredibly abusive language used against our legislators by people who refuse to assist our Government in its fight against those who plot world slavery...
...Seattle EDWARD FEI...
...Mayo tell of the carefully conducted private hearings where the "frustrated and bewildered" citizens are first given every opportunity to clear themselves and thus avoid open hearings...
...Eckardt may not realize the handicaps which American writers and researchers face in seeking reliable information about that country...
...2. Mr...
...Burnham clearly favors the last assumption: that these were murders, and for the very reason that they did not seem to be...
...This he has to prove...
...Davis may judge me guilty of objective libel...
...Certain of Evans's criticism of the handling of the atomic-energy problem needs to be taken into account, and so does much that Burnham says of the handling of security...
...This assumes that the present governments are unwilling to help themselves, and that the people are less pro-Communist, less anti-American, less neutralist and more willing to defend themselves...
...Alexander's comments about the American University of Beirut are uncalled for...
...And the statement that one of the internal dangers to the country lies in "an overzealous approach" to the problem of Communism in Government and education is followed by the usual sop which consists in pointing to the grave external danger of Soviet aggression...
...3. Mr...
...The two are by no means the same...
...Of course, Mr...
...Alexander asks in his title: "Is Washington Arming Arab Communists...
...I can only call Mr...
...But I believe a roster of eminent Arab men and women in education, Government, business, medicine and other professions would probably include more alumni from the American University than any other educational institution in any other part of the world...
...In any event, there should be information facilities in New York as well as Washington...
...Nowhere does Dr...
...I have gone over it again in the light of his letter and still find no objective evidence whatsoever that Communist agents stole parts of atomic bombs and assembled them in this country ready to be set off when the right moment comes...
...Their books contain material which is valuable and alarming...
...Burnham actually had a good deal of evidence, for he had read The Secret War for the A-Bomb...
...Northampton, Mass...
...Their false training as scientists, Evans believes, made the leaders of the project easy prey to a foolish rhetoric directed against national sovereignty, and gave them no tradition of responsible command...
...F. W. Foster Gleason writes in Ordnance (A pril 1954) : "The keynote to Evans's book is his impressive documentation...
...We cannot in fairness treat the young German Government any differently, or judge it by different standards from those applied to other friendly govermnents...
...As he concedes, they represent a minority-most of them former nominal Nazis, as established by the Bundestag investigation...
...Yet, in a country which was so long under totalitarian rule, it is impossible to altogether dispense with technicians who served under that regime...
...With his wide knowledge of Germany, Mr...
...He forgets to mention the energetic steps taken to stop these riots, and the similar action by Lebanese, Egyptian, Syrian and Iraqi governments in the past...
...He adds one more voice to those who are spreading the calumny that decent American citizens are in a state of panic because vigorous efforts are being made to eliminate from strategic places individuals who favor a form of government which uses murder as an instrument of policy...
...Alexander tends to confuse these governments' neutralism with pro-Communism...
...it takes an artist to arrange a natural death.'" 3. The sentence about Communists and criminals which Mr...
...Even so, I can hardly attribute the comparative lack of free discussion of my book to any ability on my part to terrorize from Abilene, Texas, the intellectuals of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts...
...Indeed, it is a. poor example of "liberal" writing...
...Evans does not, indeed, charge the atomic scientists as a body with being Communists or criminals, though he does say that there was an influential minority of Communists toward whom they were excessively indulgent...
...It has nothing to do with a more ambitious proposal mentioned by Eckardt, which was long ago rejected in Bonn...
...The statement by F. W. Foster Clcason refers to the documentation of the thesis of the book as l whole, the thesis that the atomie escientists have served the interests of this country very hadly...
...His venom is directed against those who expose traitors- never against the traitors themselves...
...Does he think the U. S. would be unwilling to use force in the event of Arab or Israel aggression...
...Such danger is a real one...
...It cannot refer to documculation of the "speculative thing.'' for no such documentation is presented...
...The only independent support Mr...
...1. Mr...
...Of course, we should not forget the sins of the Nazi regime or the possible danger of a nationalistic revival, but we must give the new government an equal chance...
...Eckardt's concern about former Nazi party members in the German Foreign Office is, I believe, exaggerated...
...So grave are Evans's charges against those who, CONTINUED ON NEXT PACE he feels, have mismanaged the atomic-bomb project that the quoted sentence is a necessary disclaimer...
...He assumes that they might have been murders because it was physically possible, because it was consistent with known Soviet methods, and because there was adequate motivation...
...It is in no way inconsistent, however, with what I said in my review...
...Alexander claims there is little chance of change in the Arab countries unless the present regimes are replaced by popular, stable governments...
...This is the whole burden of the book, as anyone knows who has read it...
...Is your correspondent afraid the Arabs will not abide by any agreement, or that Israel will not...
...He gives no place in his explanation to the recent role of the European powers in this area, or that of the United States since World War [I...
...Peter Pfeiffer, as observer at the UN has now wisely been withdrawn...
...Burnham does not assume that these deaths were murders...
...Mayo's statements that Americans are fearful, frustrated arid helpless are not amusing...
...I spent two years in that area and did not find this to be the case...
...Evans's The Secret War for the A-Bomb when I reviewed James Burnham's book...
...Despite some qualifications, The Web of Subversion brings James Burnham very close to those who are increasingly, in public controversy, identifying wrong hypotheses with objective disloyalty...
Vol. 37 • June 1954 • No. 23
