On the Right

New York, Dec. 16—It was 1959, and Khrushchev was in town for the first visit of a Soviet leader to America. In those days that sort of thing struck some of us as profanation, so a rally was organized at Carnegie Hall, all the payments made in advance, according to schedule. Then, on the eve of the affair, a representative of a labor union called on the organizer and said he would require $500. “What for?” “To make sure the lights don’t go out in the middle of the rally—it all goes to the union.” I wrote about it at the time, but indignation, if anyone experienced it, was exercised in great stoical silence by many of the same voices that all of a sudden have rallied to despise American Business Corruption Abroad.

Only a week or so back, a broadcaster in Chicago brought up the subject of Lockheed’s paying bribes to foreign officials. “We are on NBC, aren’t we?” I asked, which fact he confirmed. I pointed out to him the recent disclosure that the networks routinely pay off foreign officials to facilitate the delivery of their precious cargo. Under a strict interpretation of the law in many countries, you are required to take the cans of video tape into a dark room to probe the contents and establish that there is no dope hidden in the interstices. A couple of weeks of that kind of thing and NBC would be out of the news business—so everybody does it. In Mexico City in the early Fifties you were required to check in your car at customs if leaving the country by plane. The customs clerk—I came to know him well after a dozen visits —received a salary of ten dollars per week. He expected—and, I have personal reason to believe, got—five to ten dollars per car handled by him. I suppose I was breaking the law. I do not doubt I was helping the Mexican economy.

New York, Dec. 16—It was 1959, and Khrushchev was in town for the first visit of a Soviet leader to America. In those days that sort of thing struck some of us as profanation, so a rally was organized at Carnegie Hall, all the payments made in advance, according to schedule. Then, on the eve of the affair, a representative of a labor union called on the organizer and said he would require $500. “What for?” “To make sure the lights don’t go out in the middle of the rally—it all goes to the union.” I wrote about it at the time, but indignation, if anyone experienced it, was exercised in great stoical silence by many of the same voices that all of a sudden have rallied to despise American Business Corruption Abroad.

Only a week or so back, a broadcaster in Chicago brought up the subject of Lockheed’s paying bribes to foreign officials. “We are on NBC, aren’t we?” I asked, which fact he confirmed. I pointed out to him the recent disclosure that the networks routinely pay off foreign officials to facilitate the delivery of their precious cargo. Under a strict interpretation of the law in many countries, you are required to take the cans of video tape into a dark room to probe the contents and establish that there is no dope hidden in the interstices. A couple of weeks of that kind of thing and NBC would be out of the news business—so everybody does it. In Mexico City in the early Fifties you were required to check in your car at customs if leaving the country by plane. The customs clerk—I came to know him well after a dozen visits —received a salary of ten dollars per week. He expected—and, I have personal reason to believe, got—five to ten dollars per car handled by him. I suppose I was breaking the law. I do not doubt I was helping the Mexican economy.