Old Fellow-Travelers Never Die
HERMAN, LOUIS JAY
Old Fellow-Travelers Never Die By Louis Jay Herman An encounter with the latest subspecies of a hardy breed THE OTHER EVENING, I met an anti-Communist fellow-traveler. I had been a little out of...
...Sometimes I feel like going down to Uruguay and sitting the whole thing out...
...I maintain," said the ACFT, "that we've gone most of the way down the road to fascism...
...Ye Gods...
...If most Russians were happy and contented, I now inquired, then why??I paused for effect--had the Kremlin found it necessary to throw some 15 to 20 million of them into slave-labor camps...
...Certainly, I replied...
...Well, it wouldn't be easy, but the main thing to remember was that Communism wasn't the enemy...
...It all started with my remarking that the Nation magazine managed to stick pretty close to the Communist line most of the time...
...Up until about 1948, you could go to a party almost anywhere and, before you could say "Henry Wallace," there'd be someone solemnly assuring you that the Moscow Trials were on the up-and-up, that all Stalin wanted was a big helping of "coexistence" seasoned with a little "security," and that the American Communists weren't really subversive, on account of Thomas Jefferson once said that...
...But then things started getting pretty rugged for the pro-Communist fellow-traveler, and the non-Communist fellow-traveler stepped in to take his place...
...I had been a little out of touch with the latest combinations and permutations of the pro-Soviet mind, and I found the experience refreshing...
...expostulated the ACFT, rudely shattering my last feeble hopes...
...How about del Vayo...
...I wondered to myself whether it might not be shrewd to make our deal with the Indian Mao right now, before things got worse, and whether he'd ask for 20 billion or just 15...
...Hmph...
...ACFT, in a superior tone...
...That's ridiculous...
...The Chinese, like the Russians, "weren't ready" for democracy, and Communism suited them right down to the ground...
...On closer study, of course, it would always turn out that he had no such qualms about calling himself an anti-fascist...
...said the ACFT...
...ACFT caught my arm...
...It so happens I'm just about the biggest anti-Communist you ever met...
...This fellow always wanted you to know right at the start that he wasn't pro-Communist...
...India, said the ACFT, waggling a prophetic finger, was going Communist and nothing could stop it...
...I did remark, though, that we would be alienating millions of potential allies inside the Soviet Union if we wrote off all Russians as imperialists...
...How could we get out of this fix...
...Where did you hear that...
...Time was, of course, when you had real 100-proof pro-Communist fellow-travelers all over the place...
...You just weren't listening to my husband...
...Surely you don't call what we've got in this country democracy...
...I asked...
...That's only a minority...
...And I added: "Would you like the Nation to take one of Gerald L. K. Smith's boys on its staff--just to be impartial, that is...
...I must have looked a bit dismayed, for he added: "Not that I want to see it happen...
...Yes, conceded the ACFT, Mao's manners could stand a little mending, but that was all the fault of you-know-who...
...It was then that my friend the anti-Communist fellow-traveler was born...
...2) the problem was not Communism but "Russian imperialism," because the Russians always had been a bunch of imperialists, still were, and, by Gad, always would be...
...Then why, I asked, had so many resisted repatriation after the war...
...Well, he wasn't familiar with the name, but wasn't I in favor of giving a hearing to The Widest Possible Range of Political Opinions...
...I sank back in my chair...
...he didn't keep up with the Nation too regularly, he admitted, but how could I say that it...
...I didn't think points (1) and (2) jibed very snugly, but I let it pass...
...Eventually, though, history caught up with the non-Communist fellow-traveler--it happened just about the time the North Korean Communists started shooting at American GIs--and the word "non-Communist" acquired a somewhat sour taste in the mouth...
...But surely you don't think we can jam our American notions of democracy down the throats of a people that has never known what democracy is...
...Sure," said the ACFT...
...Would you mind telling me where all that anti-Communism of yours comes in...
...You didn't even try to understand what he was saying...
...To tell you the truth," the ACFT replied, "there isn't much to choose between in this cold war...
...It was Russian imperialism...
...It turned out he was full of ideas on the subject, and they boiled down to two: (1) the whole current unpleasantness could have been avoided if we hadn't given the Bolsheviks a persecution complex back in 1918...
...India...
...said the ACFT...
...I was all in favor of having avowed Communists publish their opinions in avowedly Communist periodicals...
...I'm one of the biggest anti-Communists around these parts...
...I spent the next two hours doing field work on my new specimen...
...I prefer to call myself a non-Communist...
...That's right," said the ACFT...
...Would you expect them to send the majority to Siberia...
...And there, revealed in all his glory, stood a genuine, true-blue, honest-to-Malenkov anti-Communist fellow-traveler...
...Discouraged, I tried a new tack...
...Just ask any of my friends...
...As I was leaving later on, Mrs...
...For instance, I don't think Communism is at all suited for the United States, or England, or France...
...Well, I thought, that was very reassuring...
...It turned out that the situation here was the same as in Russia, only more so...
...I asked, and cited a little chapter and verse...
...Seems as how Mao could easily have been won over in 1945 with a little kindness and a few billion dollars???°Communists are just practical businessmen at heart, you know...
...but, after all, that was different...
...Whaddya mean...
...put in Mrs...
...I almost shrieked...
...If things were as bad as all that, I wanted to know, why was he willing to let the Russian imperialists and the untutored Asiatics have Communism all to themselves...
...Something in the way I delivered this last sally must have made my friend suspicious, for he looked at me sharply and said: "Now listen, don't get the idea that I'm pro-Communist or anything like that...
...Democracy...
...But neither was he an anti-Communist: "That's a negative approach...
...It's nice to know," I said, "that you're willing to give democracy a whirl here in the States...
...By this time, I was gazing at my ACFT with a kind of horrified fascination, but I had also been doing a little fast figuring...
...What did he call it...
...X didn't go for that at all...
...Not a bit of it...
...It's obvious they like their government, or it couldn't last...
...Next we visited China...
...what they're really after is a profitable deal"--but we missed the boat...
...Don't be ridiculous...
...retorted the ACFT...
...she cried indignantly...
...Listen," I said, "you've already handed approximately one billion people over to the Communists in the last hour, and you aren't even breathing hard...
...What did the ACFT think about Russia...
Vol. 37 • March 1954 • No. 9
