The House that Cherne Built

...Cherne accuses me of not having dissociated myself from a statement made by Isaac Deutscher during the teach-in in Washington in May 1965, claiming "that everything that was wrong in Vietnam was entirely and exclusively the fault of the United States...

...I have criticized a succession of American Presidents but I have never called them names...

...Second, I saw here the beginnings of an American version of the legend of the "stab in the back," which contributed greatly to undermining German democracy in the inter-war period...

...I shall not enter upon the refutation of Cherne's utter distortions of the views I expressed in the New Republic of November 28, 1966, under the heading of "Truth and Power...

...Considering how decent and fair-minded a man Wendell Willkie was, nothing more needs to be said...

...If it is irresponsible and extremist to hold these views, it follows that any criticism of a fundamental character is irresponsible and extremist and virtually treasonable since, in the view of Freedom House, it gives aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States...

...Is it really necessary to argue against so incredible an accusation...

...I wrote in that article: "I know of no proposition of this kind put forward in connection with the war in Vietnam, and I can therefore only guess what the document is aiming at...

...The fourth weapon Mr...

...Since nowhere in his response to the Freedom House statement," Cherne writes, "does Morgenthau find the slightest flaw in the racist posturings of Stokely Carmichael, the party-oriented purposes of Bettina Aptheker, or the 'war crimes' trial in which Bertrand Russell sits as prosecutor, judge, jury, bailiff and broadcaster, we can only conclude that our shaft, more narrowly aimed, quite properly found a wider mark...

...My misgivings and forebodings about the Freedom House statement have been fully justified by Leo Cher-ne's reply ("Responsibility and the Critic," NL, January 16...

...McCarthy's guilt by association was a perversion of reason and morality...

...Cherne pretends to believe that my views are similar to the views of the persons mentioned...

...Can anyone in his senses conclude from this position, which is shared by many intelligent and responsible citizens, that I identify "every virtue, all the heroic and sublime attributes" with the Vietnamese Communists...

...In a similar vein, Mr...

...Was I supposed to use my strictly allotted time to debate Deutscher in order to prove that I was not a Trotskyite rather than argue with the spokesmen of the Administration, which, after all, was the purpose of my being there...

...For literate people, the spoken and written record ought to make clear the difference between one kind of criticism and another...

...The document tries to shift responsibility for the continuation of the war and its consequences from the Administration to the critics of the Administration...

...faithful to the ethos and the traditions of America and more likely to promote its interests...

...He begins by identifying what he regards to be illicit criticism of our Vietnam policy with pro-Communist sympathies...

...Another example of the same inventive technique is Mr...

...Cherne employs is hypocrisy...

...The letter ends with this sentence: "I do not believe that Wendell Willkie, in whose memory Freedom House was established, would if living approve of their statements...

...I prefer to let the record speak for itself...

...This document enumerates five propositions with regard to the Vietnam war, characterizes them as extremist and irresponsible, and declares that those who hold these views "could encourage our Communist adversaries to postpone serious negotiations, raising the cost in lives and delaying the peace we earnestly seek...

...for it means that whenever someone agrees with you in some respect and disagrees with you in another, you have to rush into print to make clear the difference...

...If it is aiming at the draft card burners and those who refuse to be inducted into the armed services without claiming the status of conscientious objectors, it is dealing with individuals who are breaking the law but not with criticism, 'responsible' or 'irresponsible.' " This means, according to Cherne, that Morgenthau "wraps his academic authority around the shoulders of the draft card burners...

...Cherne uses is what might be called, in contradistinction to guilt by association, guilt by lack of disassociation...

...Cherne employs is pure invention...

...In the article Cherne refers to the President of the United States is mentioned only once and in a perfectly factual fashion...

...Cherne speaking for it to sit in judgment over their fellow citizens and hand out certificates of political health...

...in fact, I disagreed with almost everything Mr...

...What is one to say of Cherne's guilt by lack of disasso-ciation, which goes McCarthy one better...

...He compares my attitude unfavorably with the resignations of the heads of four African governments from the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation...

...As a general proposition, the argument is of course absurd...

...It is preposterous to assume that a participant in a debate who does not explicitly dissociate himself from every statement he finds objectionable thereby becomes positively identified with it...

...I set out to show that we have nothing to be ashamed of, and that it is at least an open question as to whether the critics or the Administration and its supporters are more Hans J. Morgenthau, a frequent contributor, is Albert A. Michelson Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and Modern History, University of Chicago...

...One of the most illustrious public servants of our time sent me a congratulatory letter on my New Leader article...

...There is an obvious difference between resignation from an organization with whose policies one disagrees????i resigned for that reason from the committee which organized the Washington teach-in????and dis-association from every statement with which one disagrees during a debate...

...The propositions which the Freedom House statement labels as illicit criticism have, according to Cherne, "one thing in common: They convey the assurance that every fault and failure, every evil purpose is the exclusive burden of Washington...

...First, I saw here the beginnings of a new McCarthyism, the attempt to stigmatize dissent as morally indefensible, unpatriotic, or worse...

...The second argument Mr...

...every virtue, all the heroic and sublime attributes properly describe Vietnamese Communist actions and aspirations...

...Let me say right away that his reply is a thoroughly disreputable document...

...Since he propounds more untruths than I can possibly contradict, given my time and nervous constitution, I must limit myself to the discussion of a few typical examples of Mr...

...The third type of argument Mr...

...Cherne's argumentation...

...After tarring me with the brush of Communism and radicalism, after identifying me with the draft card burners, after accusing me of having vilified the President of the United States, after imputing to me views which anyone with the slightest knowledge of my writings cannot believe I hold, he bows and says, evidently in the name of Freedom House: "Not for one moment do we doubt Professor Morgenthau's democratic convictions...

...Cheme continues: "And what finally can be said of the scholar who invokes 'truth' not only to make the same kind of low-level attacks on the man in the White House and his policies, but also to shield himself from any answering disapprobation...

...This is exactly what Morgenthau has done in his New Leader article...

...Since the Freedom House statement mentioned none of these persons, and since I have dissociated myself from their positions before, why should I have mentioned them again...

...We know him to be as determinedly anti-Communist and anti-Fascist as any of the Freedom House Board...

...hence another formal disclaimer of mine would hardly have persuaded him...

...Deutscher had to say, and so, I suppose, did almost every listener...

...Frankly, I resent the condescension of this statement...

...It tells the critics: If the cost in lives is raised and peace is delayed, you are responsible...

...Nobody has appointed Freedom House or Mr...

...THINKING ALOUD The House that Cherne Built By Hans J. Morgenthau In my recent article ("Freedom, Freedom House, and Vietnam," NL, January 2), I examined critically a Freedom House advertisement entitled "Leaders Warn that Extremists Could Delay Vietnam Negotiations...

...Cherne is the chairman of the Executive Committee of Freedom House and obviously speaks in the name of that organization...

...I pointed in my New Leader article to my inability to understand the third criticism which the Freedom House document considers illicit: "That military service in this country's Armed Forces is an option exercised solely at the discretion of the individual...

...If these allegations were true, the thousands of Americans who have gone on record as opposing this war, and the millions who have supported them would have to hang their heads in shame and keep their peace forever after...

...I have for instance said many times that the United States is trying to play the role of a "world policeman" and has embarked upon a "holy war" against Communism...

...I was moved to address myself to this document for two reasons...

...I tried to show that four of these five propositions?the third one being unintelligible to me as criticism?cover virtually all the fundamental criticisms which can and have been directed against our Vietnam policy...

...Anyone interested in my views can read that article and my rejoinder to some critics in the New Republic of January 7. Nor shall I descend to the lower depths of sophistry and untruth from which Cherne deals with my statements concerning the inevitability of indiscriminate killing in a guerrilla war, and the moral heroism of those members of our Armed Forces who have refused to kill civilians...

...The statement mentioned by Cherne was not the only one with which I disagreed on that day and from which I did not dissociate myself...

...Cherne's quotation of the names Lincoln was called in his time, such as "a simple Susan," "a baboon," and "the head ghoul of Washington...