460
PARTISAN REVIEW
incl ined than the membership at la rge to m ini m ize M cCar thyism as
a menace to cultural freedom. I decl ined a n inv ita ti on to j o in for just
thi s reaso n , a nd res ignat ion ' a nd continuin g in te rna l conAi cts
ultima tely destroyed the organi za ti on.
In pra ising hi s sil ent v ict ims, Navas ky fo rgets tha t Wechsler ,
the ADA, a nd othe r li be ra l organi zati ons were not hacks turning ou t
the medi oc re goods o f the ente r ta inme n t business, nor, for that
ma tte r , schola rs workin g in the academi c v ineya rd, but major
political
actors commi tted to fron t- line ba ttl e with the M cCa rthyite
men of ill wi ll . R a ther la rge r issues were a t stake for them tha n
salving the ir ind ividua l consc iences.
If
M cCarthyism trul y was, as
Navas ky ev ide ntl y believes, a powe rful near- fasc ist challe nge to
Ame rican democ racy, then someone had to fi ght it politically. Its
liberal opponents who were free o f a ll illusions abou t Communi sm
made a maj or cont ributi on to its defeat a nd la te r , in cou r t ac ti ons
a nd poli cy rever als unde r the K ennedy admini strat ion , to the
abolition of its practices tha t had bee n instituti ona li zed in sta tutes
a nd gove rnment policies.
It
was not the J ohn H owa rd Lawsons a nd
Les te r Coles, nor even the A r thur Millers a nd Lillia n H ellma ns,
who fin ally slew the dragon.
Navas ky ac tua ll y seems to think that a nti -Communi st libera ls
shoul d have surrende red, or a t leas t shut up a bout , the ir a n ti–
Communi st convicti ons. H e wa nts to rev ise Volta ire's fa mous
liber tari a n stateme nt by denyin g
to
the defe nder of someone's legal
righ t to free speech hi s or he r mora l ri gh t to di sagree at the same
time with what is being said . Navas ky is a t leas t consistent. Since the
publication o f
Naming Names,
he has de fended the First Amendment
ri gh ts of a contempora ry group of name name rs, ex-C IA agents,
a rguing tha t the true civil libe r tari a n mu st suppress a ny di sapp roval
of the consequence tha t publishing the names a nd addresses of
agents still on duty may lead to their murde r by te rrori sts. No t all
informin g, it seems, requires moral condemna tion .
Navasky is full y aware tha t Ame ri can Communi sts we re no
upholde rs o f civil libe rties, noting that they favo red p rosecution
unde r the Smith Act of Trotskyists a nd na ti ve fasc ists eve n after
their own leade rs had bee n indi cted unde r tha t sta tute. H e also
knows tha t the CP was a n inte rna ll y repress ive organizati on ,
although he fa ils to see the often las tin g e ffec ts of thi s on its
members, including some among both the name rs a nd the named .
Wha teve r it may have owed to the "parano id style" of na tivi st a nd
ri ght-wing populism , M cCarthy ism borrowed much of its
