Foreign Policy in Journalese:
DAY, JOHN F.
Foreign Policy in Journalese A Nation of Sheep. By William Lederer. Norton. 194 pp. $3.75. Reviewed by John F. Day Executive vice president of the Pacifica Foundation and general manager of...
...The professional journalistic society, Sigma Delta Chi, protested this definition, and the word "journalistic" is now defined with more dignity...
...But it is too bad that Lederer, who revealed some penetrating insight and humor in some of his earlier books, didn't take the time or make the effort to write a more reasoned, balanced and polished book...
...The fact is that some experts believe quite differently and can cite reasons for their belief...
...His account of American activities in Korea parallels his report on Formosa...
...that the Chinese leader is a crook and a fourflusher...
...But there are other reasons: Although colloquially written, loosely organized, strident, oversimplified and ?verassertive, the book does send out revealing flares of light and brings to public attention situations about which there is all too little knowledge...
...Lederer not only has pushed the coloquialism and slang of journalese to the extreme...
...He never suggests that there are two sides to the Nationalist China problem...
...hence, of style, characterized by evidences of haste, superficiality of thought, inaccuracies of detail, colloquialisms, and sensationalism...
...Lederer makes many other indictments...
...In a chapter on the foreign student program, Lederer contends that the U.S...
...journalese...
...Many military men, for example, contend that the Nationalist Chinese Army, man for man and weapon for weapon, is among the best in the world...
...he has also fallen into simple bad English...
...He sets forth plans for a youth corps that in some ways anticipates the Kennedy Administration's Peace Corps, and in other ways goes even further...
...I say "unhappily" because one feels Lederer to be a man of good intentions as well as a writer and observer with considerable talent...
...Reviewed by John F. Day Executive vice president of the Pacifica Foundation and general manager of Station WBBAI, New York Until the 1957 edition, Webster's New International Dictionary defined "journalistic" as: "Characteristic of journalism or journalists...
...At the same time, it seems to tap certain masochistic elements in the American conscience and does it bluntly enough to appeal to large numbers of readers...
...He spanks the press and urges it to dig harder for facts beneath the surface of events and to print more foreign news...
...He states that "the legend of Chiang Kai-shek's military brilliance is a myth...
...The author also states that the Nationalists are getting "perilously close to the end of their rope" and that "probably the only thing which can save them is a World War III in which America opposes Communist China...
...At the same time, he latched on to the coattails and petticoats of the powerful and rich Soong family" (italics mine, J. F. D...
...and of ignorance, blundering and naivete on the part of American officials and the American press...
...that not only he but his family and many of his officers garnered great fortunes through corruption...
...Chiang Kai-shek is one of Lederer's principal betes noirs...
...Here again, the stupid Americans were taken in by tough and wily Koreans, especially by the toughest and wiliest of them all, Syngman Rhee...
...But he has written a slapdash book that is full of inaccuracies and unjust appraisals...
...There is no explanation of how Chiang and his men would survive World War III more successfully than the rest of us...
...American officials are scored for choosing incorrect strategies and the American mass media are told off for aiding and abetting...
...Dumping the Red associates, he became a respectable antiCommunist...
...In Chapter One, "The Laos Fraud," he speaks of false claims made by Laotian leaders in 1959 that they were being invaded (these particular claims were pretty well proved false by a United Nations investigating team...
...of graft, corruption and cynicism on the part of Laotians...
...For example: "But when conservative Shanghai bankers, in panic over Communism's growth, volunteered to finance Chiang—providing he ceased being a radical—Chiang grabbed the opportunity...
...Still, to his credit, Lederer spends nearly a third of his brief book discussing constructive proposals...
...Lederer seems to have produced another bestseller...
...He makes useful suggestions on how a foreign student program could be made to work efficiently...
...has neither chosen the right exchange students nor cared for them properly once they were here...
...Everywhere in this book the American people are groundlessly indicted: "Today," Lederer writes, "we are a nation of fair-weather citizens who serve their country only if they receive financial security and vast luxuries . . of people afraid to speak up on unpopular issues who clamor for leisure time without knowing how to use it...
...He recommends establishment of a permanent corps of international experts and makes suggestions on how this might be done...
...Lederer offers no documentation whatever for his sweeping accusations, but simply sets his assertions down as gospel...
...Everything in A Nation of Sheep is black or white—mostly black—with none of the shaded areas into which political, economic and social situations usually fall...
...One reason, of course, is that he made a "name" as co-author of The Ugly American...
...Unhappily, the old definition can he justly applied to William Lederer's A Nation of Sheep...
Vol. 44 • June 1961 • No. 24
