Nixon. According to this account,nRichard Helms and other leaders of thenintelligence service, had actually plannednthe failure of the Plumbers’ operations.nSupposedly Howard Hunt, JamesnMcCord, and several of their Cubannaccomplices were taking orders from thenCIA at the very time they were committingnthe Watergate break-in. Haldemanncontrasts the conspicuous record ofnbotched operations left by the Plumbersnfrom their organization in...

cessful war against the federal civilnservice. Surrounded by surly and mischievousngovernment workers who resentednhis intrusion into their affairs,nthis Republican president looked for waysnto run his administration without them.nHe assigned responsibilities to such confidentialnadvisors as Kissinger and Haldeman;nat other times, as in slowing downnschool desegregation plans, Nixon appealedndirectly to the people to gainnleverage against the HEW....

The Facts of Guilt and Myths of InnocencenAllen Weinstein: Perjury: The Hiss-nChambers Case; Alfred A. Knopf;nNew York.nby Harold C. GordonnXhe Hiss-Chambers case hasnnagged the American conscience fornthirty years. Who lied? Was it WhittakernChambers, when he accused Alger Hissnof transmitting secret documentsnthrough him to the Soviets? Or was itnHiss, when he denied Chambers’ accusations?nA federal jury...

in turn led to his being “eased out” of thenState Department the following year.nWeinstein cites recently declassifiednmemoranda indicating that by the springnof 1946, nearly all of the Department’snsecurity people suspected Hiss of involvementnin some sort of Communist undercovernwork.nOne of Weinstein’s biggest finds, however,ncame from his interview with Czechnhistorian Karel Kaplan. Kaplan had beenna member of...

wisdom, follies, triviality and grandeur—na universal phenomenon of prime magnitudenand overwhelming attractiveness.nMr. Fecher renders justice to such anconception of Mencken’s presence in thenAmerican culture. DnDevine’s WarningnDonald J. Devine: Does FreedomnWark? Liberty & Justice in America;nGreen Hill Publishers, Inc; Ottawa, Illinois,nRallying from Irving Kristol’s admonitionnthat the intellectual battle overncapitalism’s moral legitimacy will decidenits fate, Donald Devine...

“By then Carter had no choice. Like hisrnpredecessors, he had become poHticallyrncommitted to a course over which he nornlonger had control . . . the specifics ofrnthe program . . . went out of his handsrnand into those of the HEW professionals.”rnThese professionals, in turn, are thernsame bureaucrats who served up thernradical welfare plans of...

his need to tell a very personal story. Butnthat the sage and measured tones of thentalk-show moguls and evening newsnmagnates arbitrarily elevate Woods to anheroic rating while relegating the rest ofnthe truth—about 997° of the story—tonthe cutting-room floor, really enhancesnthe agony involved in the African dilemma:nWoods, a white opponent of thenwhite regime, receives a welcoming...

StagenA Ballet Ensemble on a CouchnA Chorus Line; conceived, choreographednand directed by MichaelnBennett; written by James Kirkwoodnand Nicholas Dante; music by MarvinnHamlisch.nAnalyzing individuals—one of thenmagic ablutions of our pseudo-rationalnage—is old hat by now. The same Voodoonritual, allegedly scientific, but onlynupdated, when applied to a collectivenseems something new, thus interestingnor exciting by the standards of modernntheatrical...

way. Childishly inane and mimickednlasciviousness looks different through thentreacherous intermediary of the camera,nand finds its way to immature impulsesnand aspirations. Couched in the stunningnartistry of photographer Sven Nykvist—anvisual fiesta of lushness and depth, thenNew Orleans background flora renderednin the images of a latter-day DouaniernRousseau—it will have no difficulty innfinding aping followers who later in lifenwill...

more Erica becomes unmarried, ttie morencluclsish she looks to us.nWith each reel we flounder morendeeply in the jelly-like reality of poses—nNew York, contemporary, metropolitan,nEast Side—also called lifestyles thesendays. The movie brings no news aboutnthem, except, perhaps, it makes theirnoverwhelming shallowness more perceptible.nOnce again it’s Blondie, this timenputting the blame for an everyday flopnon menstruation or...

journalism in which precision is neverndivorced from knowledge. This traditionnran into an existential trap with the arrivalnof Joseph Goebbels on the German publishingnscene: as we remember, severalnyears of welding the sense of precisionnto the most vicious mythomania ensued—andnthe rest is history.nPeriodicals like Criticon contributenimmensely to erasing these sorrowfulnLiberal CulturenPublishersnE.P. Button Co., a New York publishingnhouse...

CommentnI believe that a substantial, but nondescript, part of ournworldview comes from a few books of fiction read on thenthreshold of adolescence. These, most often, are entertainmentnnovels. Usually they are hardly what parents, teachers, ornadult well-wishers, would be inclined to put into our hands atnthat time in our lives. The literary value of these books...

JL he basic narrative device which distinguished betweenntrash writing and Hterature is found in the motivating force ofnthe characters. In the past, entertainment’s Hterary figuresnwere moved through pages by sentimentaHty or the survivalninstinct; these two ingredients fused nicely into melodrama.nToday, satiation seems the only reason for survival, which, ofncourse, eliminates melodrama. The drive for satiation...

opinions & ViewsnThe Soul of a Fast WriternHoward Fast: The Immigrants;nHoughton Mifflin Company; Boston.nby Otto J. ScottnH oward Fast is back on the bestnseller lists. The jacket blurb of ThenImmigrants describes it as “the story ofnthree California families in the course ofnthe twentieth century.” Another namenfrom the pro-Communist Thirties—nLouis Untermeyer—adds his blessing tonthe offering. “More...

Hollywood. In The Immigrants, that soulnis bared for the world to see.nXhe novel opens with the arrivalnin America of an Italian couple, who, inna few opening pages, are cheated, subjectednto brutal conditions and movednthrough a number of years to SannFrancisco. The husband eventually becomesna fisherman and wants his son tonfollow his trade. His wife objects....

An Australian Saga about a Girl’snSpecial SomethingnColleen McCuUough: The ThornnBirds; Harper & Row; New York.nby Whit StillmanntUoUeen McCullough’s The ThornnBirds is probably the biggest novel aboutnfarming since So Big by Edna Ferber. It’snpossibly even bigger.nTo gauge this achievement accuratelynit must be mentioned that in 1924 MissnFerber was considered, in the words ofnone major literary review,...

Justine O’Neill, Meggie’s legitimatenchild, breaks the unhappy tradition ofnthe Drogheda Women. She falls in lovenwith a man whose intentions are honorable,neven tedious. He waits years beforenventuring a kiss, but then: “Thoughtsnand senses merged at last, but her crynwas smothered soundless, an unutterednwail of gladness which shook her sondeeply she lost awareness of everythingnbeyond impulse, the...

ever again register above lukewarm.” Hasnshe learned anything except “that mynsensation thermostat has been thrownnout of whack”? Not that I can see.nMcNeill’s inability to see the implicationsnof her affair, her complicity, is the mostnhorrifying aspect of her story.nIhe Irish novelist Edna O’Briennfails badly with I Hardly Knew You,nwhich probably never would have seennthe light of...

becomes Gareth’s employee and accountantnin the sex-magazine empire.nMoney is another element in the mystiquenof control and dominance thatnpervades the world of the pornographer.nThe gushing blurb-writer of Robbins’nnovel tells us that Gareth lives in “a worldnof total pleasure and hedonism, in whichnmoney and sex are almost indistinguishable;na world that includes drugs, far-outnsex and violence; a world...

The title “Bloodline” refers to thenfamily-owned nature of the businessnfounded by a Jewish chemist fromnPoland. Intrigue centers around thenefforts to influence Elizabeth Roffe, thenheiress, to make the company stock publicnso various relatives can convert theirnstock into more liquid assets. Most ofnthe book is taken up with flashbacksnwhich reveal why many of the familynmembers on the...

Church and the anti-communist massesnseem to crystallize under the totalitariannpressures. Thus, Malachi Martin’s premonition,nthough often simplisticallynformulated, that the acute danger of ancompromise between the Kremlin andnVatican is to be looked for in the West,nnot the East, makes sense. There arenmore perils in the pseudo-socio-ideologynof a Graham Greene, the antic “Christiannidealism” of the Berrigans, the supraemotionalismnof...

Why does a movie such as “LookingnFor Mr. Goodbar” feature a scene innwhich each measured thrust of a studnpickup’s wand evokes the ecstatic cryn”Oh God!” from star Diane Keatonn(whose lower middle class, Catholic backgroundnhas carefully—excuse the expression—beennlaid out)? Did the condomnreference in “Saturday Night Fever” elicitna great, knee-slapping guffaw when younsaw it? Did you expect...

Dukes. So pitifully and pathetically farnin the direction of the open-raincoatnroutines. The sadness, for me, is thatnthis meretricious assault on personalnprivacy—especially when it assumesnsexual or anti-sexual forms—attacksnsomething sacred and profanes whilenexploiting.nWe are firehosed by mass media withnspiritless flesh (even the pimps, whores,naddicts and sadists of network TV’s seriesnlook like heartless, featureless mannequins)nand cozzened into pursuits...

ScreennAn Upright Farce and a Cheerful FibnHouse Calls; directed by HowardnZieff; written by Schulman &nEpstein; Universal Studios.nAmerican Hot Wax; directed bynFloyd Mutrux; written by John Kaye;nParamount Picturesnby Eric ShapearonA . trifle of a movie about a widowednsurgeon (Walter Matthau) whonfinds happiness with a divorcee (GlendanJackson) loaded with human and femininenvirtues. It doesn’t fare too well...

Chicago Tribune’snOfficiatingnJ ane Fonda, a talented movie actressnand an attractive woman, is a self-avowednpro-communist who is more effective atnengineering pro-communist sympathiesnat large than any Marxist book, proletariannmovie or revolutionary lecture.nShe once served the communist authoritiesnin Vietnam by giving credibility andnrespectability to Hanoi’s most atrociousnlies. No one knows what motivated her;ndoltishness or anti-American venom. Shenherself would...

smarmy TV soap). Rolling Stone’s reviewernpointed out the myopia and sentimentalismnof Davidson’s view of thensixties, as well as her plain inaccuracynin a review more severe even than thatnof the Chronicles. In the same way, thenNew York Review of Books which seemsna regular whipping boy for the Chroniclesn(is it only something in me that bringsnmetaphors of...

ON THE ROCKFORD COLLEGE INSTITUTE’S PUBLICATIONSnIf you would like to read an opinion that is different from that of thenManhattan publishers, Los Angeles producers and San Francisconhedonists on:n— moral and existential responsibilitiesn— Vladimir Nabokov and William Faulknern—the quandaries of honest thinkingn— TV’s assault on human valuesn— the Liberal Culture’s trampling of American pluralismn—Madison Avenue’s sex...

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CommentnI see the Liberal Culture as resting on many mighty pillars,none of the most powerful of which is the cult of deficientnthinking.nThe symptoms of the latter are everywhere. Its effect is thenerosion of the American ethos, that is of the set of principlesnand values by which this nation wishes to live. Even if America’snefforts have...

man to be achieved through equating every possible wickednessnand derangement with the common-sensical desire for normalcynand order. The result of their domination of culture is thatnvice and sin are among us to a degree unknown to previousngenerations. Many of them now have second thoughts, butnthey will still crucify anyone who would say that evil andndecency...

opinions & ViewsnThose Dying GenerationsnMichael Herr: Dispatches; Alfred A.nKnopf Co.; New York, 1977.nby Stephen R. MaloneynThe Scottish poet and critic EdwinnMuir observed that one could almost saynthat Troy fell so that a poem—the Iliad—nmight be written. On the evidence ofnMichael Herr’s Dispatches and othernworks dealing with the recent debacle innSoutheast Asia, one almost imagines thatnSaigon...

community, Herr asks, “Who could youndiscuss politics with, except a colleague?”nThese (self-) chosen ones even sharednthe sacraments of the time, “grass,nwhiskey, girls . . . sources, information,nhunches, tips, prestige.”nThe image of the young sharing ansecret knowledge is reinforced by a statementnTim Page makes to Sean Flynn, “Inask you, would William C. Westmorelandndig the Mothers [of...

A Very Special Every MannWilliam Sloane Coffin, Jr.: Once tonEvery Man: A Memoir; Atheneum;nNew York, 1977.nby Duncan WilliamsnXo anyone who lived and taught innthe United States as I did during thentrauma of the sixties and early seventies,nWilliam Coffin’s book, Once to EverynMan, resembles a looking-glass reflectingnthe anxieties, horrors and waking nightmaresnwhich characterised that epoch,nthe scars...

way that was understandable if not excusablenthey (the younger veterans of then”movement”) were taking on the worstnfeatures of the very people we were opposing.”nIt would be grossly unfair and misleadingnto dismiss this book as a mish-mashnof hypocrisy and sentimentality. Therenare in it passages and chapters of interest,nhonesty, wit and insight. Most revealingnis his chapter, “On...

(who were clearly privy to highly classifiedninformation and all of whom eitherninstigated or supported the U.S. involvementnin Vietnam) dictated to them whatnthey should teach, preach, paint andncompose? Once again, civilization hasnat its root a sense of order, of decorumnand an awareness of the demarcationsnand limitations of institutions and thenindividuals who both serve, and arenprotected by,...

Demolishing TaboosnMaurice Clavel: Ce que je crois;nAndre Glucksmann: Les mattres—npenseurs; Bernard-Henri Levy: Lanbarbarie a visage humain.nby Thomas MolnarnrVs everybody knows by now, thennouveaux philosophes in Paris may benthe factor blocking communist/socialistnvictory at the polls, come March. Theirncase is the latest in the series of intellectualnconversions away from Marxismnto… one-does-not-quite-yet-know-what,nbut at any rate a more decent...

put “Paris’s last ism” into focus. Therenare discouraging as well as hopefulnresults. Let us distinguish three.n1) The new philosophers are incisiventhinkers, sharp stylists, inventors of hardnhitting phrases. At times, in a flash, theynplunge down to the Mindanao deep ofnwisdom and surface with a pearl. Butnthe pearl may be surrounded with barnaclesnand debris. For example: in...

and-film-world, so eager to secure thenwidest publicity to leftist manifestations—althoughnmuch less alert to recognizenthe richest literature of the day, thenRussian and Iron Curtain novels. True,nunlike in Italy and France, communists,nsocialists and moderate center are notnlocked in deadly conflict on these shores.nWe enjoy (.’) a lukewarm leftism whichndoes not spell out its identity, but isnnevertheless more...

that the American people supported thenemasculation of the CIA conducted bynSenator Church before the TV cameras.nOn the contrary, repeated polls havenshown support for a strong nationalndefense, which presumably includes anneffective intelligence capability, whichnfurther presumes the need for a measurenof secrecy. As far as the “surge of sentiment”nwas concerned, the journalists whonappeared at Schorr’s hearing were...

for hours, ignoring his mother’s cries.nHe described the sophisticated appealsnto TV of politicians, special interestngroups, and terrorists, who have developednthe ability to count the networksnamong their hostages: “By giving thenextremists exposure, we helped to gainnthem support.” A nation—mesmerizednby the tube—increasingly confuses fantasynwith reality, until, Schorr explains,nreality fades and disappears.nIt is stunning and powerful, the astutencriticism...

discussions in which the women perenniallynanalyze men and their lives withnmen. They are angry and hostile. Frenchnwrites of their common attitudes:n”By this time, all of us had a word. It wasnTHEM, and we all meant the same thingnby it: men. Each of us felt done in by onenof them, but that wasn’t it. Because eachnof...

a man is he who screws and kills. Butneverything I see around me in life tells mena man is he who makes money. Maybenthese two are related . . .”n”I’m willing to dispense with them (men)nforever and have children only throughnparthenogenesis, which would mean I’dnhave only female children, which wouldnsuit me fine . . .”n”…...

for George Kennan, the “Riga school”ndid not oppose the Yalta agreements ornother attempts to come to terms withnthe Soviets; they merely doubted thatnthey would work. Yergin’s use of thenvague term “sphere of influence,” admittedlyna widespread fault among diplomaticnhistorians, incidentally obscures the factnthat even strongly anti-Soviet officialsndid not oppose Soviet exercise of a loosenhegemony comparable to...

local wars, but the necessity for a largenAmerican defense establishment. Thisnseems to be the expression of an odd setnof values, as is the idea that Stalinnsuddenly became a reasonable fellownwhen operating beyond the Soviet frontier.nThe truth of the matter is that thenSecond World War began with the NazinGames of a Precocious MindnMitchell Ross: Literary Politicians;nDoubleday...

traditional Christianity, and free marketneconomics: as an alleged hodge-podge ofnmetaphysical assumptions unrelated tonthe real world. No matter what thenconservatives do, they are seen as eitherndumb, cruel, or intellectually inconsistent.nWhen they defend capitalism, theyncallously disregard the poor. WhennNational Review expresses concern aboutnthe low rate of mobility found amongnAmerican Blacks, its editors are made tonappear unfaithful to...

In Defense of MoralnSensitivitiesnDavid Holbrook: Education, Nihilism,nand Survival;nDarton, Longman and Todd; London, 1977.nContemporary culture tends to corruptnhuman sensibility rather than refine it.nThis destructive trend has taken itsnparticular toll in the field of education.nWhen the humanities can be perceivednas nothing more than a political meansnto “rock the boat,” when a student cannget a degree in philosophy...

Kramnick’s BurkenIsaac Kramnick: The Rage ofnEdmund Burke: Portrait of annAmbivalent Conservative;nBasic Books; New York, 1977.nProf. Kramnick seems to be anotherncasualty of the epidemic raging amongnliberal scholars—the dementia sexualis.nIts symptoms are easily discernible: annacademic person, mostly in the field ofnhumanities, feverishly begins to trace thenconception of ideas, art, social movements,nhistorical facts, as well as thenbehavior of...

American Communism (see page 23 ofnthis issue), of a Vivian Gornick, a formernand not-too-repentant communist:n”For 25 years I’ve been waiting for thisnbook . . . What a splendid, moving booknhas resulted. A book of such quality thatnit alone would justify a lifetime of writingn.. . Americans saw the CommunistnParty as a monolith composed of verminousnsub-humans:...

creeds remote from Western ones,nhowever, to make things even worse,nAmerican liberals supposed freedom andndemocracy to be synonymous, and proclaimed,nquite arbitrarily, that freedomncould not survive without democracy innAsia—a rather naive supposition. It didnnot work, and in the process of losingnthe war, freedom, a concept basicallyndivorced from democracy in most of Asia,nwent down the drain.nNowhere was the...

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