Recently, William Phillips, long time editor of Partisan Review, died. I wanted to say a word about that, and about the honorable tradition of anti- communist Leftism.
Partisan Review was founded with money from the John Reed Club of New York, a Communist organization, but soon went its own way because it refused to accept party discipline. It saw its mission as the promotion of democratic socialism in politics and modernism in the arts. It did not impose a litmus test. For example, TS Eliot, who was a conservative politically, regularly contributed. Although its circulation never exceeded 20,000, its influence was immense, as the "house organ" of the New York intellectuals. Many of the essays that Edmund Wilson published in "Axel's Castle" first appeared in Partisan Review; Clement Greenberg, the most influential art critic of the 50s and early 60s, started out publishing there; and many of the writers for "Commentary", "The New York Review of Books", "Dissent", and even non- New York publications like "The New Republic" were regular contributors to "Partisan Review".
One of the most interesting turn of events was the way in which the anti- Stalinism of these people made them early recruits to the Cold War. Many of them, having drifted into the Democratic Party with the New Deal, formed a strong opposition to the Henry Wallace wing of the party, for example, and helped to bolster Truman. They helped the labor unions and other leftist organizations fight against Communist domination. They lent intellectual weight to the support of NATO and the Truman Doctrine. Most of them supported the Korean War, and even aid to South Vietnam,initially.
It was the Vietnam War and the rise of the New Left that first caused major rifts among these people. Disillusionment with American policy in Vietnam was starting to cause strong controversy among intellectuals in the mid- 60s, as some held to the idea that we had to find an honorable resolution, while others called for immediate withdrawal, and started to drift into anti- anti- Communism. The New Left, knowing little of the battles of the 40s and 50s, did not seek to exclude Communists from power, took a romantic view of the Viet Cong, and embraced sex, drugs, rock and roll, and rioting. It was especially the willingness of the new radicals to attack the universities that caused divisions among the Partisan Review crowd, some of whom went with the students, most of whom thought they were disrespectful and irresponsible.
By the time the Henry Wallace wing of the Democratic Party had reemerged in the candidacy of George McGovern (an early Wallacite), some of the so called "Cold War liberals" had had it, and began to gravitate to the Nixon candidacy. The next few years saw some of these people determine to take back the Democratic Party (for example, some of them helped get the Democratic Leadership Council rolling), while others bailed after the Carter debacle and supported Ronald Reagan. Over time, some of these "neoconservatives" became actual conservatives, some became more politically moderate, but they have been an effective force in both parties....... |
