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PARTISAN REVIEW
My libel expert had not predicted that the case would be tried in a
Dublin court, though, as the plaintiff later remarked, it seemed a natural
enough consequence, since he was Irish; and since the fact that he was
Irish was well known, it should surely not have been difficult for the de–
fendants to foresee the choice of venue. There was, it appeared, no de–
fense of qualified privilege in Irish law, so in effect, I had no defense to
offer. The expert was reasonably cheerful about this development,
pointing out than since
Encounter
had no property in Ireland, it didn't
matter what damages the Irish court awarded, since they couldn't be
collected anyway.
However, by the time the case came to trial, the whole matter had
begun to look different.
In
March 1967 two American journals pub–
lished credible articles about the activities of the CIA in financing, via
the front foundations and the congress, such magazines as
Encounter.
Funds had also been used to infiltrate left-wing organizations. I was now
sure that the sponsorship of Cecil King was perfectly licit; my reasons for
resentment were that I had been told many lies about the past and that
Encounter
was still in rather devious ways under the control (however
delicately channeled) of the CIA. For these reasons I felt I could no
longer contemplate a continuing relationship with my co-editor and his
associates. I had the memorably solemn word of Josselson: lunching at
the Garrick, his London club, he had said in reply to my direct questions
that there was no truth whatever in O'Brien's accusations, adding im–
pressively, "I am old enough to be your father, and I would no more lie
to you than I would to my son." I disliked finding out for sure that I
was, as I had suspected, a dupe. And I was naIve enough, when I found
it out, to be shocked by this particular lie.
I now wrote to Melvin Lasky, setting out in detail my complaints
and explaining that in the absence of very persuasive explanations I
couldn't go on working with him. He didn't answer the letter but came
out to Gloucestershire to talk it over. As we walked, hour after hour,
round the garden and paddock, he gave me the fullest account that
could have been expected of his relation to the congress and of the his–
tory of
Encounter.
I was never able to dislike this man, so vivid, so New
York, so convinced, so clever; and I knew that when it came to a con–
test which didn't matter much to me whether I won or lost, but which
was, for him, only a skirmish, though quite a serious one, in a war for
survival, I was not a considerable opponent. But I was past the point
where I could agree that certain compromises, certain changes in
Encounter,
would enable us to carry on together; and I was also sure
that it was less a desire that I should stay on than that I shouldn' t, at just
