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PARTISAN REVIEW
China, Cuba, Vietnam, Nicaragua) and others of similar back–
ground did not; why for some, such attractions were passing political
infatuations and for others lifelong commitments. What particular
constellation of personal, social, and political factors accounts for the
differences among such individuals?
After Long Silence
certainly helps us to better understand why the
rich, or the second and third generation rich, become "socially con–
scious" and subsequently attracted to radical causes and movements.
Michael Straight has been a charter member of the American upper
classes. His was a life of endless privilege; he had the best of all
possible connections leading all the way to the White House.
It
ap–
pears that whenever he needed a job, a phone call to high places
(either by him or some of his friends or relatives) was standard pro–
cedure. Thus, for example,
I needed to find a job in America. I began my search by calling
my father's old friends - businessmen and bankers, diplomats
and retired generals.
Later in life the scenario repeated itself:
1 had finished my two novels in 1962. Good causes were hard to
find . The American Civil Liberties Union was well established;
trade unionists and blacks no longer felt the need to lean on
white liberals; I had done my bit for planned parenthood and
women's rights, the preservation of our national parks and the
control of handguns; the protection of whales, dolphins and
baby seals.
My mother-in-law, a wonderful woman, was convinced
that I needed some job to keep me occupied. She enlisted the
help of her close friend Senator Paul Douglas . Unknown to me,
he set out to secure my appointment to the one area of govern–
ment that he knew would appeal to me-the arts.
And so Straight was nominated to be the chairman of the Fine
Arts Commission, which required an FBI check, which in turn led to
his going to the FBI and telling them his full story.
It
also led to his
exposing Anthony Blunt, the far more important British "mole,"
undetected for decades, who had recruited him to work for the
Soviet intelligence while he was an undergraduate at Cambridge,
England.
