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erals, "including scholars , writers and trade unionists ." If Mr. Podhoretz
knows something that we do not know, he has an obligation to tell us. If
persons in our public life were indeed covertly directed and subsidized by
the CIA, the CIA was and is a threat to a democratic society.
It is difficult to avoid the impression of a large degree of naivete and
unreality in Mr. Podhoretz 's defense of the CIA. Its campaign against
"Communism" abroad has often subverted the purposes of anti-Commu–
nism, the defense of a free and pluralistic polity . When Mr. Podhoretz ad–
duces as evidence for the monolithic evil of Communism in his essay the fact
that even the Greek dictatorship was overthrown, he neglects to tell us who
installed it in the first place . Is our public life really improved by the back–
ground presence of a government agency ready to fund any intellectual or
journalist corrupt enough to take its money?
Does
Mr. Podhoretz suppose
that the groups backed by the CIA abroad are useful allies in the struggle
against tyranny?
Consider the record : Mr . Podhoretz refers to a few million dollars given
to anti-Communist Italian politicians . He has not done his homework . In
Italy, the CIA (and its corporate ally, Lockheed , which apparently acted in
concert with it there and inJapan, and possibly Germany as well) subsidized
a gang of thieves who looted the Italian state and economy . It also backed a
clique of fascist plotters who instigated a campaign of terror and who
planned the overthrow of the Italian Republic. Our embassy's protege in
Italy, Signor Fanfani, was a fascist ideologue, the author of anti-Semitic
drivel. With friends of this sort, we hardly require Italian enemies. The
situation is not much different elsewhere . The CIA's clients in Germany in–
clude the group around Strauss, which used the German intelligence service
to engineer the departure of Willy Brandt from office .
Some
of these per–
sons are, literally, Nazis. Simple self-respect would demand that a Jewish
magazine refrain from endorsing the policies which made allies of these
swine . Should the CIA join with the French right to instigate civil war in
France to stop the Socialist-Communist coalition from entering government,
we cannot suppose that its French agents will be other than the Vichyites
and their spiritual heirs. In a better world, Mr . Podhoretz would not wish to
be seen in this company. Why does he suppose that he needs these allies In
this world?
Mr. Podhoretz is worried lest our commitment to Israel prove tenuous .
Is Israel well served by those who would urge it to make alliances with the
Voersters of this world? Recall Israel's disappointment with the French.
France was Israel 's ally until it decided
to
cultivate the Arabs . Since Israel 's
strength is moral , its appeal can be effective only if that is remembered .
Making of Israel an advance post in a struggle against the rest of the world is
