8
PARTISAN REVIEW
the Black Panthers, whom he worshipped and for whom he raised
funds, "in reality were a criminal gang that killed and preyed on the
black ghetto itself": he never denounced them, however, because the
left that "had made the Panthers a law unto themselves" would have
attacked him as a racist. To Robert Leiken, "the movement [had
been] a charmed circle, magical for those within because of the de–
pravity of those without. ... [until he filed] a critical report on the
Sandinistas." His brother Sam began to "sour on leftism" when the
workers in his plant were unwilling to support Solidarity "for fear
that criticism of the Soviet Union would stir up red-baiting." Ronald
Radosh had had his comeuppance when he felt compelled to
acknowledge publicly that the FBI files proved Julius Rosenberg's
guilt rather than his innocence. Bruce Cameron reported why, as a
lobbyist, he originally had supported the
contras
but then had aban–
doned them as "an army without a vision of a future society" that
could not win. And Doan Van Toai, an antiwar activist who left Viet–
nam in 1978, recalled how the "Communist imperialists" whom he
had helped come to power ended up by imprisoning and torturing
him for insubordination.
Saturday evening was set aside for the so-called panel of elders.
All of them were editors, and except for William Phillips, had had
their
second thoughts after Andre Gide, Stephen Spender, and
Ar–
thur Koestler. Irving Kristol recalled that he had enjoyed himself
during his leftist phase. Nathan Glazer was his customary temperate
self. Hilton Kramer scolded the Second Thoughters for ignoring the
negative influence they had had on the culture at large. Norman
Podhoretz felt that most of them still were insufficiently aware of the
dangers of communism. William Phillips said that he had thought,
erroneously, that such political naivete had ended by the time of the
Nazi-Soviet pact: instead it has returned, but in another form, as a
sort of
gauchisme
permeating the culture. And Martin Peretz, who
also acted as master of ceremonies, pointed out that he and William
Phillips were the only non-neoconservatives on this panel, and he
kidded Kristol, Kramer, and Podhoretz, and made cracks against
the leftist press. They attended every meal and session but, with the
exception of Todd Gitlin, never said a word. On balance, the elders,
some of whom were not so much older than the "youngsters," kept
their distance, and held to the range of opinions expressed in their
respective magazines.
The reminiscences by "ex-radicals" clearly pointed to the diver–
sity of their experiences as well as their wish to work towards viable
