Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR TRILLING Diana Trilling has written perceptively and to the point (NL, November 25) about the unreality -which prevails in American thinking, both liberal and conservative, on the...
...Paris Sal Tas...
...ALGERIA In his letter of November 4, Benjamin Protter says that I completely misconstrued the actions and motives of Jacques Soustelle in my article, "Another Fall in France" (NL, October 14...
...And I am certain that Chamberlin will agree that Djilas is somewhat less than profound when he propounds the theory that the Communist Revolution was essential to the industrial development of the backward countries...
...Trotsky was wrong in disregarding the theory and practice of the Leninist party as an important factor in the degeneration, but he did not attribute it to one man...
...On at least one point, though, we seem to agree...
...Had Chamberlin been in « position to follow the discussions in the Trotskyist movement about the nature of the Soviet Union, he would know that Djilas did not come out with something startlingly new in presenting the concept that there is a new class in Russia...
...Trilling had at some points expounded more precisely...
...I do not mean to question the moral and intellectual courage of Djilas even when he was Stalinist...
...The non-Moslems still reject the single electoral college, still demonstrate against admitting Moslems into the French administration, and still fight every other reform that would actually benefit non-Moslems...
...Chicago Albert Goldman Mr...
...and "even as we" all "approach the final reckoning," they still try to comfort themselves—and us— "with the same old fantasies.'7 Washington, D. C. Stanley K. Hornbeck Congratulations to Diana Trilling for putting the finger on what is wrong with most American reaction to the world situation: "On whatever side of the political fence and after all these years of incontrovertible proof, we cannot accept the idea that the Soviet Union is an evil with which there can be no compounding but only ceaseless battle on every conceivable front— including, when necessary, the military front...
...But neither the true ideas of Djilas, which are old, nor the new ones, which are false, detract from the tremendous value and significance of his book The New Class...
...until we accept it and act accordingly, we shall continue to flounder and lose...
...If Protter sees a change for the better, he is more fortunate than I am...
...That is why I believe he is morally and intellectually more courageous and far-sighted than Trotsky, who carried his doctrinaire illusions with him to the grave...
...He went to great lengths to explain the degeneration as a result of the backwardness of Russia and the failure of the European revolution, especially the German revolution...
...So, in fairness to all and with confusion for none, would it not be better to say in the conclusion: Now we all pay the price for their—not "our"—"delusions...
...This in my judgment is just not so...
...I would fully agree with these two sentences in his letter: "Trotsky was wrong in disregarding the theory and practice of the Leninist party as an important factor in the degeneration, but he did not attribute it to one man...
...Obviously he docs not want to hear of them since he actually hopes—save the mark!—that I lie U. S. will preserve a relative "equality'' in the nuclear arms race "lest the temptation of the superior side become too great...
...Trotsky was a prisoner of his theory that nationalized property in Russia made it a workers' state, although a degenerated one, under Stalin...
...Protter goes on to say: "The extraordinary truth of the matter is that in the course of one brief year Soustelle succeeded in gaining the immense majority of the non-Moslem population to his way of thinking, and not the other way around, as Tas would have us believe...
...It has rightly been said: You cannot indict a whole nation...
...Chamberlin bases his judgment on the premise that Trotsky failed to recognize that the bureaucratic degeneration in the Soviet Union was not the fault of one man but of the whole Communist theory and method...
...Scarborough, N. Y. Eunice B. Armstrong TROTSKY Since I agree with most of what William Henry Chamberlin writes in his excellent columns, I was amazed by his superficial statement that Milovan Djilas "stands out morally and intellectually as a more courageous and far-sighted man" than Trotsky ("Where the News Ends," NL, November 18...
...It is not true that Trotsky placed the blame for the bureaucratic degeneration on Stalin alone...
...I accept Goldman's correction that Trotsky did not attribute this degeneration exclusively to Stalin, although his polemics against Stalin in the last years of his life were so understandably bitter that he sometimes conveyed this impression...
...We cannot finally accept the idea that Russia recognizes no power except « might superior to her own...
...In her use of "we"—there and before and after—in the sense of he or they or many or most of us, she indicts all, including herself...
...This reader, concurring completely, cannot but wish that Mrs...
...If this means that the reactionary attitude of these Frenchmen blocks any sensible policy, I could not agree more...
...This can only be determined by looking at the attitude of the overwhelming majority of non-Moslems now that they have undergone a year of the Soustelle treatment...
...This is the basic fact...
...What she means, surely, is not that "we cannot" but that he or they (the liberals and the conservatives of whom she speaks) will not—because they do not want to—perceive...
...Nor do they make him more or less morally and intellectually courageous than Trotsky...
...Washington, D. C. Edgar Ansel Mowrer In spite of Diana Trilling's conviction that the first requirement for the U. S. is "military supremacy this is the moral crisis of our times . this is the political reality we must now face the one task without which anything else we do has no meaning,'' she is wrong, dangerously wrong...
...Chamberlin replies: There are so many reservations in Albert Goldman's letter that I don't feel our viewpoints are as far apart as he seems to think...
...Has Niebuhr never heard of the anti-missile missile or the plan for shelters...
...At any rate, Goldman agrees with me that Trotsky never got out of the mental "prison" that led him and his followers to the absurd conclusion that it was the duty of the workers of the world to defend a state that was a most abominable tyranny...
...We must not rely on arms if we are to survive...
...He was then a prisoner of his Stalinist theories...
...Assuring the survival of the human race is "the one task without which anything else we do has no meaning...
...Military supremacy has ceased to have meaning...
...Trotsky was a prisoner of his theory that nationalized property in Russia made it a workers' state, although a degenerated one, under Stalin...
...DEAR EDITOR TRILLING Diana Trilling has written perceptively and to the point (NL, November 25) about the unreality -which prevails in American thinking, both liberal and conservative, on the subject of the Soviet Union and the problem of peace...
...I would admit, however, that the non-Moslems now have a common policy with Soustelle...
...This seems to me defeatism at its worst, so more power to Mrs...
...Soustelle told me that 'some of the worst enemies of France in Algiers' were Frenchmen," Protter writes...
...Moral courage, and the correctness of theory independently arrived at and honestly held in spite of virulent opposition, are not to be confused...
...What does one find...
...Does that make him intellectually and morally the inferior of Djilas, who was a Stalinist for many years during the worst days of Stalinism...
...The pervading fault—and, therefrom, the fatal error—is the failure to realize what the Soviet Union is...
...Unfortunately, in the same issue Reinhold Niebuhr ("The Conquest of Space") makes a point for which there is no evidence when he say that once the U. S. has an ICBM equal to Russia's "all defensive strategies will become impossible and the idea of victory and survival after victory will be irrelevant...
...In i context of "Senator Ellender's view," she says "we cannot accept the idea that the Soviet Union is an evil" and "we cannot . accept the idea that Russia recognizes no power except a might superior to her own...
...Djilas did get out of his mental prison—at the price of enduring an indefinite term of physical imprisonment...
Vol. 40 • December 1957 • No. 50
