None So Blind

Herbert Feis’ new book, a minute chronology of Big Three diplomacy during World War II, is getting even gaudier notices than his last two1. Mr. Adolf Berle, Jr. commented typically in the New York Times, “No better history of the great coalition is likely to be written until the Russian records become available.” If good history is nothing more than faithful reportage, we can agree: Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin (Princeton, $6.95) is as extensive and accurate a compilation of the high level correspondence and conversations between the major allies from Hitler’s invasion of Russia to V-E Day as one would want.

But good history, as Mr. Berle hints he knows, is more than facts: “[Feis] permits himself,” he gently remonstrates later on in his review, “all too few verdicts.” He does, indeed—to which I would add Mr. Berle permits himself all too few suggestions as to what those verdicts might be. Is it not time now—since the relevant data concerning the Big Three’s conduct of the war are in—for Liberal critics like Mr.Berle, as well as Liberal historians like Mr. Feis, to start telling us what they mean?

LB

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L. Brent Bozell Jr.

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World War II

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Herbert Feis’ new book, a minute chronology of Big Three diplomacy during World War II, is getting even gaudier notices than his last two1. Mr. Adolf Berle, Jr. commented typically in the New York Times, “No better history of the great coalition is likely to be written until the Russian records become available.” If good history is nothing more than faithful reportage, we can agree: Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin (Princeton, $6.95) is as extensive and accurate a compilation of the high level correspondence and conversations between the major allies from Hitler’s invasion of Russia to V-E Day as one would want.

But good history, as Mr. Berle hints he knows, is more than facts: “[Feis] permits himself,” he gently remonstrates later on in his review, “all too few verdicts.” He does, indeed—to which I would add Mr. Berle permits himself all too few suggestions as to what those verdicts might be. Is it not time now—since the relevant data concerning the Big Three’s conduct of the war are in—for Liberal critics like Mr.Berle, as well as Liberal historians like Mr. Feis, to start telling us what they mean?