Navasky’s Lullaby

A Matter of Opinion, by Victor S. Navasky (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 464 pp., $27)

IN this absorbing account of his long stewardship of The Nation, Victor Navasky provides unimpeachable testimony that in matters of national consequence he and his magazine have been-what’s the word we’re looking for here?-wrong. Yes, that’s it: Wrong on the Stalinists. Wrong on terrorism. Wrong on the nuclear freeze. Wrong on socialism. Wrong on welfare reform. Wrong on educational choice. Wrong on tax incentives. Wrong on the culture of life. And of course wrong on people, from Reagan to Vidal to Castro to Thatcher to Hiss. (Navasky carried the torch for Alger Hiss even after the last flame had flickered dead from oxygen deprivation. One can almost hear Hiss crying from some dark smoke-hole, “I love you, Vic, but let it go, man, let it go.”) For his misperceptions and misprescriptions we didn’t really need a book-length recitation. A handwritten note of apology, terse and abject, might have struck the right tone.

About the Author

Neal B. Freeman

Neal B. Freeman, businessman and journalist, was a director of National Review Inc. for 38 years.

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William F. Buckley Jr.

Conservatism

A Matter of Opinion, by Victor S. Navasky (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 464 pp., $27)

IN this absorbing account of his long stewardship of The Nation, Victor Navasky provides unimpeachable testimony that in matters of national consequence he and his magazine have been-what’s the word we’re looking for here?-wrong. Yes, that’s it: Wrong on the Stalinists. Wrong on terrorism. Wrong on the nuclear freeze. Wrong on socialism. Wrong on welfare reform. Wrong on educational choice. Wrong on tax incentives. Wrong on the culture of life. And of course wrong on people, from Reagan to Vidal to Castro to Thatcher to Hiss. (Navasky carried the torch for Alger Hiss even after the last flame had flickered dead from oxygen deprivation. One can almost hear Hiss crying from some dark smoke-hole, “I love you, Vic, but let it go, man, let it go.”) For his misperceptions and misprescriptions we didn’t really need a book-length recitation. A handwritten note of apology, terse and abject, might have struck the right tone.