plnase of the race problem and onenthat will not be as aceessible to thentelevision cameras. These dissidentnNegroes, like their dead heroes,nMalcolm X and Dr. Fanon, rejectnthe white society lock, stock, andnbarrel although they make use of itsnopportunities, and by their violentnrejection of it they become annavant garde not only of Negroes butnof the radical white wing that hasnno revolutionary drama aboutnthem. They are in fact in the frontnline of the left-wing environmentalistsn[in the psychological sense]nwho believe we can change anythingnwe will to change, aptitudes,nintelligence, athletic ability—all wenhave to do is to expend enough energynand money and transform ourneconomic and political system, andnthe job will be done.nEugene Davidson displayed presciencenon the evils of affirmativenaction and multiculturalism that wouldnsweep through universities in the 70’snlike the plagues of Egypt; he also sawnthrough the false claims made at thenNuremberg Trials. Some of his best editorialsnwere devoted to Albert Speer (annessay also collected in George Panichas’snfine anthology oi Modern Age articles,npublished by Liberty Press) and to then”prisoner of Spandau”—Rudolph Hess,nthe last Nazi leader to remain in prison.nHess was already delusional when henflew to Britain on his famous peace mission,nand he soon lapsed into what appearsnto be genuine insanity with intermittentnperiods of remission. Althoughnconsiderations of both justice and mercyndictated Hess’s liberation, our gallant Sovietnallies insisted upon his continued incarceration.nThis was the same Sovietngovernment that had demanded the prosecutionnof the Germans for the murder ofnPolish officers in the Katyn Forest, knowingnfull well that the Poles had beennkilled by the Soviets, not the Nazis.nHess left Germany in 1941, beforenHitler invaded Russia and at a time whenncommunists and their leftist stooges werenstill openly collaborating with the Nazis.nHis crime was the novel Nurembergncharge of conspiracy to wage war, and thenevidence included a militar}’-conscriptionnbill he had signed in 1935. “How could itnbe criminal,” asks Davidson, “for anynmember of a government… to sign a billnestablishing compulsory military servicenwhen ever}’ countr)’ in Europe had conscription?”nThe hypocrisy should havenbeen particularly evident in the postwarnworld in which dozens of nations werenroutinely conducting aggressive wars andncommitting war crimes with scarcely anpeep from the “international communi-nty-“nDavidson drew the obvious conclusion:nThe Allies who put him in prisonnhave long since abandoned any notionnof bringing post-Nurembergnaggressors to trial. . . Only this extraordinarynprecedent of the case ofnRudolph Hess, who flew off to stopnthe war and so landed in prison fornthe rest of his life, remains, for antime at least, a living reminder ofnthe mental aberrations of those presumablynsane people in high placesnwho were building a world order ofnlaw and peace no wider than thenNuremberg courtroom.nThis was not his last or only word onnthe hypocrisy of Nuremberg. Davidson’snThe Trial of the Germans (1966, republishednin 1997 by Universit)’ of MissourinPress) is a masterpiece of balanced historicalnanalysis. After an introductor)’ chapternon the’trial itself, Davidson takes up,nchapter by chapter, the individuals andngroups (e.g., militarists, diplomats, andnbureaucrats) who were on trial; thenwhole book is written so well that it mightnserve as an introduction to the Nazinmovement. Davidson never mincesnwords on the sins of the defendants, butnhe is equally careful to stick to actual factsnand to the legal grounds of the prosecution.nIn a few pages, he deflates Goering’snvanit)’, delineates his crimes, and acknowledgesnthe validity of some of hisnlegal argumentation. Cautiously concludingnthat Nuremberg was better thanna lynching, he nonetheless challengesnthe grounds of the tribunal, pointing outnthat only losers may be indicted in such antrial and conceding a central point of thenGerman defense: that individuals cannotn”commit a crime against internationalnlaw, which is binding upon states.”nIn his 1969 editorial on Hess, Davidsonnhad more than indicated the hypocrisynof continuing to speak of thenNuremberg principle while toleratingnwar crimes committed in the MiddlenEast, Eastern Europe, and SoutheastnAsia. The Nuremberg Fallacy (first publishednin 1973 and republished by thennnUniversity of Missouri Press in 1998) followsnup on this hint and documents thenwar crimes being committed by the SovietnUnion and all parties to the MiddlenEast and Southeast Asian conflicts. Thisnbook may be the nearest thing to a balancednaccount of the conflicts of then1950’s and 60’s. He does not attempt tonminimize the wrongs done by his ownngovernment (though the evidence ofnAmerican complicity in the murder ofnthe Diems is fairly certain) and its Frenchnallies in Vietnam, but he is also the verynopposite of the tqDe that has come to benknown as “blame America first.” He isnmerciless on the Soviet Union’s crimes,nbut in narrating and analyzing those brutalnconflicts, he never loses sight of hisncentral purpose: to expose the Nurembergnfallacy.nThirt)’ years ago, even Davidson probablyndid not realize that a triumphalistnAmerica would resurrect Nuremberg innthe form of The Hague Tribunal and apply—nalmost exclusively to one side of anthree-way civil war—the principles thatnhad been used to convict and execute thenarchitects of the Third Reich. The Nazinleaders were, admittedly, a hard case tonignore; but, as the legal proverb goes,nhard cases make bad law, and the Americannpropaganda of the past ten yearsnseems to make it impossible to walk awaynfrom the evil precedent. Conservativesnand liberals who wish to understandnthese matters can spend their time onnnothing better than Eugene Davidson’snessays and histories, and we owe a profoundndebt of gratitude to the Universitynof Missouri Press for making them available.nnOther works b)- liiugene Davidsonn(.’Ml lilies ;ire published iw thenUiiivcrsily of MLssouri Press)nThe Deatl) &• L.ifc of Gcnnam:nAll .Account of tlie AiiicricannOccupationn456 pp.. $19.%nTiie Nuremberg Fallacyn3Mpp..S29.’)5nThe Trial of the Geniians:nAll Account of the ‘I vent-twonDefendants Before the lutemationalnMilitary rribuiial at Nurembergn’ 696pp.,S24.95nllie Making of Adolf Hitler:nThe Birth and Rise of Nazismn464 pp., S19.9SnThe [.himaking of .Adolf Hitlern5S6 pp., $29.95nJUNE 2001/29n