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remember direc tl y the period . His account is a t bes t perfunctory,
like tha t of a lawye r (whi ch he is by tra ining) conceding poss ible
objec tions in o rder subseque ntl y to igno re them. H e a t one point
simpl y reproduces verba tim severa l sente nces of my own from a
critical rev iew o f a no the r rece nt retrospec tive on M cC a rthyism ;
there I listed Stalin' acti ons in Europe of 1948 a nd 1949 as causes of
the ri sin g a nti-Communi st mood in the United Sta tes, which was
exploited by domes ti c Communi st hunters.
Navas ky's maj o r political purpose, to whi ch hi s moralizing
about the evil s of info rmin g is ultima tely subordina ted , is to use hi s
Holl ywood resea rch
to
mount a new campa ign aga in t the a nti–
Communi st libera ls, producing ye t a nother "1970s rerun of the
1950s." HUAC has long since been a bolished , the America n CP
reduced to a sma ll , declining political sec t, a nd in Holl ywood the
blacklist vi ctims have been ce lebra ted as heroes while "the
sti gma ti ze rs became the sti gma ti zed. " But the a nti -Communist
libera ls of the 1950s rema in today res pec ted a nd influenti al fi gures in
the cultura l a nd political worlds, qui ck to strike back vigorously and
una pologe ticall y whe n a ttacked by people like Lilli a n Hellma n , a
avas ky heroine who bridges the Hollywood a nd New York scenes.
Moreove r , mos t of them rema in liberals instead of showin g what
Navas ky regards as the ir true colo rs by j o ining the neo–
conse rva ti ves. His pa rticul a r ta rge ts a re
J
ames Wechsler , Arthur
Schl es inge r , Jr ., the
New York Times,
a nd vari ous liberal
organi zati ons, including ADA a nd the now-defunct Ameri can
Committee on Cultura l Freedom . H e blames them fo r fa iling to
defe nd Communi sts
qua
C ommuni sts, as opposed to those fa lsely
accused o f C ommuni st a ffili a ti ons or sympa thies. In the case of
Wechsler , once a member o f the Young C ommuni st League, he
blames them for hav ing "named names" to the M cC a rthy
subcommittee eve n though Wechsler made it pla in tha t hi s reason
for doin g so was to depri ve M cC a rthy o f the cha nce to di sc redit hi s
energe tic a nd eH'ec tive oppos ition to the Sena tor as a leading
newspa per editor.
Wi sely, Navasky egregates his a bso rbing Holl ywood ma te ri a l,
compri sing nearl y three-qua rters o f the book, between hi s opening
hi sto rical contex t cha pters a nd a clos ing secti on entitl ed "Lessons"
tha t pra ises the moralit y o f the sil ent witnesses a nd polemicizes
aga inst the a nti-Communi st libera ls. Unlike Lillia n Hellma n in
Scoundrel T ime,
Navasky a t lea t tries to confront the a rgume nts of
the a nti-Sta linists ra ther tha n merely sla ndering them . Observing
