Dear Editor
Dear Editor Kitman I find it outrageous that Marvin Kitman is irresponsible enough to suggest that the Nixon Administration is no better than a bunch of Nazis ("News on Command," NL, February 19)....
...Moscow's formidable "red eminence," and the role he is likely to play in the Kremlin's next power struggle...
...Must the conclusion of four years of research necessarily substantiate prejudices...
...Gporge BaRBIer...
...His approach—assessing the contestants' chances on the basis of their ages and present standing in the Soviet hierarchy—is much too academic to penetrate the mysteries surrounding a change at the top of the Politburo...
...In each case, infatuation with cherished myths overwhelms the ability to tolerate contrary thoughts...
...enshrining notions about the weakness and incompetence of Eisenhower as President vindicates liberals whose own Cold War record was frequently an appeasement of ignorant hysteria and whose domestic congressional opposition during the 1950s under the Johnson leadership was hardly a crusade to eradicate poverty, urban decay and racism...
...Perhaps this level of thinking is the highest a so-called humorist can attain...
...NL, February 5...
...Lexington, Ken...
...Murray Kempton pointed out some years ago that Ike was far from a naive idiot...
...Vindicating his own apostasy, he accuses me of treating Eisenhower with respect because of a "penchant for myth-making" and asks that Ike be described "in terms of the needs of his own times, not ours...
...I'd nominate him for best movie critic in the U.S.A...
...What does she mean by "established wisdom...
...Though the political strength of the Mighty Marshal is quite limited, he knows, of course, in whose hands real power rests...
...Brzezinski passed over Mikhail A. Suslov...
...New York City Laszlo T. Kiss Kudos After reading John Simon's review of Up the Sandbox ("On Screen...
...It is not age (let alone presentability) that will determine the outcome, but ruthless cunning and energy...
...I am forced to react with some amusement to both a review ("Ike from a Distance...
...February 19) and a correspondent's comment ("Dear Editor," NL, March 19) about my book...
...Europe (especially its Eastern half) would certainly welcome the renewal of de-Stalinization and a return to liberalization...
...Garry Wills in Nixon Agonistes calls him a potential genius...
...Illick is not even willing to accept the necessity of Eisenhower's election in 1952...
...The Maoists are constantly and calculatingly proclaiming their loyalty to Stalin's odious legacy, and this discredited extremism is full of inviting propaganda potentialities the new Soviet leader(s) could decide to exploit—possibly by starting an ideological campaign against the "Stalinist adventurers of Peking...
...After all...
...Cleveland Rachel Block Eisenhower Having frequently defended liberalism against charges of self-delusion and of planting both feet firmly in midair...
...Had he been willing to accept what the book demonstrates with clarity, he would have seen that it does precisely that...
...Neither is a historian bent on revisionism, nor can either be accused of conservatism...
...Dallas Martin R. Rollins Italian Comedy We well know that when history repeats itself it becomes farce...
...Should this austere, modern Robespierre outlast Brezhnev, he could very well emerge from his covert but paramount position, take the helm openly, and shake up the entire hierarchy...
...In any case, Kitman should stick to analyzing Mission Impossible and leave politics to more mature minds...
...Illick obviously fears that opening his eyes may admit some light...
...Joseph Illick's review begins with the revelation that Ike caused him to desert his Republican heritage...
...Interestingly, a British reviewer, with none of the hangups of American liberals, noted in the Times Literary Supplement that my book is critical of Ike...
...As a result of his rigid method...
...Very interesting...
...Eisenhower and the American Crusades...
...After reading Silvio F. Senigallia on that apparently never ending quest, "Italy in Search of Stability" (NL...
...March 19) was stimulating because of the enormous interest the subject automatically commands, not because of any enlightening conjecture contained in the piece...
...paid special tribute to Brezhnev's and Suslov's contributions in the last war...
...February 19), I ;un left with only a single question: What does farce become when it is repeated...
...Such a campaign would also uplift the morale of the Russian people, who would face the colossal and exhaustive Maoist challenge with much more enthusiasm if it were officially identified with the lingering memories of Stalin's reign of terror...
...New York City Herbert S. Parmei Sovietology Zbigniew Brzezinski's speculation on the next Soviet Party chief ("Who Will Succeed Brezhnev...
...Nor has Brzezinski touched upon Stalinism and Sino-Soviet relations in the post-Brezhnev era, two explosive factors subtly related to one another...
...an argument that Richard Rovere made convincingly more than a decade ago and one accepted by no less an authority than Adlai Stevenson...
...Barbara Plunkitt's letter suggests my interest was to make a reputation by contradicting the "established wisdom...
...Defense Minister Grechko, whose memoirs appeared in English translation three years ago...
Vol. 56 • April 1973 • No. 8
