Fools for Communism

Still apologists after all these years

Glenn Garvin from the April 2004 issue

(Page 4 of 4)

Glenn Garvin writes, "During World War II, when the Soviet Union and the United States were allied against Hitler, [Christopher] Trumbo's Communist father, Dalton, also named names, secretly pointing the FBI to Hollywood figures he believed were suspiciously anti-war. But there was no suggestion during the [2003] press conference [about Hollywood and the blacklist] that his screenwriting Oscar be revoked."

The assertion that Trumbo pointed "the FBI to Hollywood figures he believed were suspiciously anti-war" is a product of Garvin's fecund imagination. There is no evidence to support it. The only reference to Trumbo's speaking to the FBI that I know of can be found in his published letters, Additional Dialogue: Letters of Dalton Trumbo, 1942-61 (M. Evans & Co.). Anybody sufficiently interested in Garvin's garbled thesis can find enlightenment on page 26 of that volume.

Finally, at the press conference Garvin attended, there was no suggestion that anybody's Oscar "be revoked." Revoking Oscars originates with Garvin. And by the way, Dalton Trumbo was given two of them�for motion pictures he wrote using a pseudonym during the time he was blacklisted and unable to find work using his own name.

Christopher Trumbo
Beverly Hills, CA

Glenn Garvin replies: If anything, both the book In Denial and my review soft-pedal the�tone of Foner's essay, which appeared in the December 1990 issue of Harper's. The air of bitter disappointment was palpable as Foner described young Russians who admire Abraham Lincoln but "paint the history of the Soviet era in the blackest hues, reclassifying every top leader between Lenin and Gorbachev as either criminal or incompetent." Worse yet, he wrote, the Russians were turning away from distinctions between bourgeois and socialist ideologies in favor of something he referred to, contempt practically dripping from the quotation marks, as "universal human values." Foner sounded like nothing so much as a jilted paramour as he complained of "this love affair with America."

As for Christopher Trumbo, I am astonished to find myself in agreement with him: Everybody, including his father's leftist admirers, should read Dalton Trumbo's 1944 letter to the FBI reprinted in Additional Dialogue. In it, he boasts of having provided the FBI with letters from writers who are "1) anti-war, 2) anti-Semitic, 3) in the process of organizing politically, 4) distributing pamphlets to further their cause and corresponding with persons detained by the Federal government, and 5) of the opinion that the Commander in Chief of American forces is 'the greatest criminal incendiary in history.'" He adds, "I share with the men of your organization a sincere desire to see an end to all such seditious propaganda as criminal slander of the Commander in Chief, defeatism, pacifism, anti-Semitism and all similar deceits and stratagems designed to assist the German cause." He closes by noting that he's including more letters and begging the FBI not to tip off the writers about what he has done, presumably so he can keep ratting on them.

I will concede Christopher Trumbo one technical point. Although he continues to object to the decision to give Elia Kazan a lifetime achievement Oscar, he did not use the word revoke. The importance of the distinction eludes me, but I am inclined to be charitable to a man whose father was not only one of Stalin's loudest apologists but also one of J. Edgar Hoover's pet rats. Talk about a childhood of mixed signals.

Comments

Pingback| 10.23.09 @ 6:45PM

Instapundit » Blog Archive » MICHAEL MOYNIHAN: The Cold War Never Ended: Twenty years links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…;A well-known Democratic … October 23, 2009 MICHAEL MOYNIHAN: The Cold War Never Ended: Twenty years later, historians still can’t figure out why the West won. But some people are still making excuses for the losers. Posted at by Glenn Reynolds at 6:44 pm if (WIDGETBOX) WIDGETBOX.renderWidget('c6738f00-977c-48fd-98da-0afe24da2ee8'); Get the Pajamas TV - V2.0 widget and many other great free widgets at…

Pingback| 10.23.09 @ 7:49PM

Unless . . . « Oh, My! links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

Unless . . . « Oh, My! /* */ /* */ Oh, My! Hit Shappenings – Personal Rants « Now, Dude . . . Unless . . . By jbiii You are brain dead . . . The Soviet Union never disappeared. Just took a few years for re-organization, that is all. If you think not, go here–CBS, screaming libs, no less. Plain and simple. Bamm-Bamm is an amateur in the kiddie pool, and he…

|10.23.09 @ 8:32PM|#

"and a mere 2.5 million arrests"

"and a mere 2.5 million arrests"

I think the low ball number of arrests and the large difference in demographic data (millions more missing) has something to do with you and your family tending to be fired and loose your place to live and ration cards. One arrest can then lead to several deaths / the whole family...

saxon|10.23.09 @ 11:16PM|#

Why would they admit that communism was wrong; the SOBs are trying it again in the West. The red 'intellectuals' have morphed into 'greens' and 'progressives'.

Why go back that far to learn lessons from history; they are talking of Stimulus II and Community Reinvestment Act v2 ... and Barney Frank wants to lend more money to poor people ... it 'd be hilarious, if not actually sad

Andy Jones|10.24.09 @ 12:13AM|#

Communism lost?

Better go ask the ex - CEO of GM about that. Or the (mostly former now, strangely enough) executives that have had their contracts waived with a wave of the Leader's hand.

Somewhere down in Florida, three old guys sitting in a bar by the beach are talking about the old days before the fall of the Soviet Union marooned them in their KGB sleeper identities.

Barak Obama is speaking on the cabana bar TV, talking about why Utah can't drill for oil, or why secret ballots aren't fair for unions, or why America must accept the goals of Islamic terror as legitimate grievances.

They shake their heads.

"It took a while, but we WON!"

fin.

Pingback| 10.24.09 @ 10:12AM

Communism and its Apologists @ Helian Unbound links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…sages concerning the supposed “stability” of Communist regimes in the years immediately prior to the time that most of them collapsed, and their continuing attempts to revise history so as to present Stalin at his most charming. We at least have the consolation of knowing that the remaining representatives of the “New Left” of the 60’s who are still busily decorating…

|10.24.09 @ 10:29AM|#

What the sympathizers and apologists for communism cannot get over is that their analysis of the USSR was dead wrong while that of the Reader's Digest, with its focus on ordinary people and stories of escape from the slavery and oppression of communism, was correct. Being well-degreed does not equal being smart and insightful.

|10.24.09 @ 12:51PM|#

Back during the Cold War I developed the "Nazi" test. I would take a statement by a leftist and substitute Nazi for Communist and Jew for Capitalist and then ask whether he agreed or disagreed with the statement.

If you apply it to the revision on the Great Terror you get Holocaust denial. Perhaps that explains the rise of anti-Antisemitism among Progressives.