On the Right

Mr. Tom Wicker, a columnist for the New York Times, has published a piece in which he defends the late Owen Lattimore against charges made against him in the early Fifties, charges reiterated in this space [see NR, July 14]. Mr. Wicker writes, “Mr. Buckley’s column was in every [significant] respect a performance worthy of its author’s mentor, Joe McCarthy, and a revived smear of a dead man more than thirty years after his name was, or should have been, cleared.”

Now, Joe McCarthy has been dead for 32 years, during which I have been very active. I cannot remember, during those 32 years, imputing pro-Communism to more than, oh, four? five? people, in each case only if evidence was overwhelming that they were—pro-Communist. I assume that a Communist is pro-Communist, though Mr. Wicker sometimes sounds as though it would be an act of McCarthyism to impute pro-Communism to Stalin, let alone Gorbachev.

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William F. Buckley Jr.

William F. Buckley Jr. founded National Review magazine in 1955.

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William F. Buckley Jr.

Mr. Tom Wicker, a columnist for the New York Times, has published a piece in which he defends the late Owen Lattimore against charges made against him in the early Fifties, charges reiterated in this space [see NR, July 14]. Mr. Wicker writes, “Mr. Buckley’s column was in every [significant] respect a performance worthy of its author’s mentor, Joe McCarthy, and a revived smear of a dead man more than thirty years after his name was, or should have been, cleared.”

Now, Joe McCarthy has been dead for 32 years, during which I have been very active. I cannot remember, during those 32 years, imputing pro-Communism to more than, oh, four? five? people, in each case only if evidence was overwhelming that they were—pro-Communist. I assume that a Communist is pro-Communist, though Mr. Wicker sometimes sounds as though it would be an act of McCarthyism to impute pro-Communism to Stalin, let alone Gorbachev.