Books, Arts & Manners

The Soviet Viewpoint By Georgi A. Arbatov and Willem Oltmans Dodd, Mead, 240 pp., $13.95 While pro-Soviet types have taken over the State Department, the FBI has thoroughly infiltrated the Communist Party. It follows that if we are ever going to get our country back, we’ll need a Communist revolution.

That is a joke about impersonation, one of the eerier forms of comedy. Under the delight of recognition—when, say, a mimic performs—is, I suppose, a certain anxiety about possession. The eerie thing about The Soviet Viewpoint, written in the form of several long interviews with the Soviet Union’s chief American specialist, conducted by Dutch journalist Willem Oltmans, is that Georgi Arbatov seems to be impersonating Cyrus Vance.

JS

About the Author

Joseph Sobran

Featured Tags

The Soviet Viewpoint By Georgi A. Arbatov and Willem Oltmans Dodd, Mead, 240 pp., $13.95 While pro-Soviet types have taken over the State Department, the FBI has thoroughly infiltrated the Communist Party. It follows that if we are ever going to get our country back, we’ll need a Communist revolution.

That is a joke about impersonation, one of the eerier forms of comedy. Under the delight of recognition—when, say, a mimic performs—is, I suppose, a certain anxiety about possession. The eerie thing about The Soviet Viewpoint, written in the form of several long interviews with the Soviet Union’s chief American specialist, conducted by Dutch journalist Willem Oltmans, is that Georgi Arbatov seems to be impersonating Cyrus Vance.