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1 6/15/06 2:34 PM Page i The Best of I . F. S t o n e 6/15/06 2:34 PM Page ii A l s o B y I . F. S t o n e The Court Disposes (1937). Business as Usual (1941). Underground to Palestine (1946). This is Israel (1948). The Hidden History of the Korean War, 1950 1951 (1952, 1988). The Truman Era, 1945 1952 (1953, 1988). In a Time of Torment, 1961 1967 (1967). The Haunted Fifties (1969). Polemics and Prophecies, 1967 1970 (1970). The Killings at Kent State (1971). The Stone's Weekly Reader (1973). The Trial of Socrates (1988). The War Years, 1939 1945 (1988). 6/15/06 2:34 PM Page iii The Best of I.

2 F. S t o n e I . F. S t o n e Edited by Karl Weber Introduction by Peter Osnos PublicAffairs New York 9/27/06 12:32 PM Page iv Copyright 2006 by the Estate of I. F. Stone. Copyright 2006 Introduction by Peter Osnos. Published in the United States by PublicAffairs , a member of the Perseus Books Group. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission ex- cept in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, ad- dress PublicAffairs, 250 West 57th Street, Suite 1321, New York, NY 10107.

3 PublicAffairs books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142, call (617) 252 5298, or email Book Design by Jeff Williams Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Stone, I. F. (Isidor Feinstein), 1907 1989. The best of Stone / edited by Karl Weber ; introduction by Peter Osnos. 1st ed. p. cm. Previously published essays apprearing primarily in Stone's weekly reader; additional es- says published in the Nation and The New York review of books.

4 Includes index. ISBN 13: 978 1 58648 463 7. ISBN 10: 1 58648 463-X. 1. United States Politics and government 1945 1989. 2. United States Foreign rela- tions 1945 1989. 3. World politics 1945 1989. 4. United States Race relations. I. Weber, Karl. II. Stone, (Isidor F.), 1907- Stone's weekly reader. III. Title. 2006. '5 dc22. 2006050398. First Edition 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2. 6/15/06 2:34 PM Page v Contents Introduction by Peter Osnos ix Editor's Note xv Prologue: A Word About Myself 1. 1. Worth the Risk Free Speech Is Worth the Risk 11. Quis Custodiet Custodem? 14. Einstein, Oxnam, and the Inquisition 17.

5 The First Welts on Joe McCarthy 23. The Cost of Anticommunism 28. Incommensurate Equation: Justice and Security 30. Freedom of the Press: A Minority Opinion 35. The Court Turns Back the Clock 38. Boris Pasternak 42. In Defense of the Campus Rebels 45. The Crisis Coming for a Free Press 49. 2. A Good War But For What? War Comes to Washington 59. The Shake-up We Need 63. 6/15/06 2:34 PM Page vi VI Contents Washington's Forbidden Topic 67. One Year After Pearl Harbor 71. Relaxing Too Soon 75. How Washington Took the News 79. The Same Old Codgers 83. Brass Hats Undaunted 87. The End of the War 93.

6 Organization for Peace .. Or Against the Soviet Union? 96. 3. Twilight Struggle Unnoticed News Bulletin 103. Mr. Smith Pleads for Peace 106. Shall We Take the Gamble Hitler Lost? 108. A Chill Falls on Washington 112. First Call for a Test Ban 115. National Suicide as a Form of Defense 118. Natasha's Ready Answers 123. The Legacy of Stalin 130. Almost as Safe as Ivory Soap Is Pure? 138. The Mythology of the Anti-Missile Missile 142. Fresh Light on the Mystery of the Missiles 147. The Rapid Deterioration in Our National Leadership 156. 4. The Wall Between Black and White The Voice of America Falters 163.

7 May 17, 1954 166. The Murder of Emmett Till 168. Eisenhower Goes Neutralist On Civil Rights 171. 6/15/06 2:34 PM Page vii Contents VII. The Beginnings of a Revolution 174. The Wall Between 177. When the Bourbon Flowed 179. The March on Washington 188. The Fire Has Only Just Begun 191. The Mason-Dixon Line Moves to New York 195. 5. A Promised Land? For the Jews Life or Death? 205. Jewry in a Blind Alley 209. Palestine Pilgrimage 213. The Racist Challenge in Israel 219. Holy War 225. 6. A War Made of Lies What Few Know About the Tonkin Bay Incidents 247. Lyndon Johnson Lets the Office Boy Declare War 256.

8 Time to Tell the Truth for a Change 260. What It's Like to Be in Saigon 266. Why We Fail as Revolutionaries 276. While Others Dodge the Draft, Bobby Dodges the War 281. The Mindless Momentum of a Runaway Military Machine 284. Same Old Formulas, Same Tired Rhetoric 288. Only the Bums Can Save the Country Now 292. 7. Heroes and Others Thomas E. Dewey 303. Farewell to 309. 6/15/06 2:34 PM Page viii VIII Contents LaGuardia and UNRRA 313. Albert Einstein 317. Goldwater and His Tribe 319. Curtis LeMay: Cave Man in a Jet Bomber 326. Epilogue: For a Universal Day of Atonement 339. Index 341.

9 6/15/06 2:34 PM Page ix Introduction by Peter Osnos I n late summer 1965, as I. F. Stone scrambled to find a replacement for an assistant who had landed a job at The New Republic, he took me to lunch at a restaurant in Washington, 's small Chinatown. We had, as I recall, fish with ginger, wrapped in paper and dipped in boiling water. I was twenty-one and working for the Providence Journal in one of their local bu- reaus. Stone offered me $100 per week and said I would earn every penny. I. stayed until the following summer, got a raise to $110 and an education in journalism (or what Izzy would have called being a newspaperman ) worth millions.

10 This was a particularly good period, personally and professionally, for Stone and his four-page I. F. Stone's Weekly. After years of being so hard-of- hearing that he had to wear an elaborate headset with antenna, making him look like a bespectacled Martian, Izzy's ears had been repaired by a doctor (Cohen was his name) who had performed the same operation on Chairman Mao. Many people would still talk to him as though he was deaf, especially on the phone, so speaking and listening habits of years duration were being relearned. Even news gathering was different. Izzy was especially well known for poring through transcripts and finding nuggets other reporters would miss.