The Urge to Purge: Strange Events Inspired by Diana West Controversy

Posted on | September 6, 2013 | 73 Comments

Diana West, interviewed by The Blaze, July 17

In case you missed it, we have been intermittently following the controversy surrounding Diana West’s new book, American Betrayal: The Secret Assault on Our Nation’s Character:

June 6: ‘A Conspiracy So Immense’ — Was FDR Aide Harry Hopkins a Soviet Agent?
Aug. 8: Diana West Dissed by David Horowitz?
Aug. 16: Major Jordan, Carroll Reece, Birchers, Buckley and the Attack on Diana West
Aug. 19: Conrad Black’s FDR Idolatry

This is good publicity in the sense that there is no such thing as bad publicity. When you’re trying to attract crowds for a book signing, “controversial author” is excellent advertising, and I hope Diana is holding up amid the firestorm. However, it is beginning to appear that Ronald Radosh and David Horowitz have decided that it is not sufficient to attack Diana’s book. Now, conservative organizations must purge those who do not share their implacable hostility:

Clare M. Lopez, the excellent Middle East analyst and my Team B II colleague, has been fired for favorably mentioning my book in an essay.

Diana links to Baron Bodissey at Gates of Vienna quoting an e-mail describing how Lopez was informed this week of her termination:

The real shock came the following morning, though, on September 4, when Ms. Lopez received an email from Nina Rosenwald notifying her that her relationship with the Gatestone Institute had been terminated at the request of the Gatestone Board of Directors. On September 5, Ms. Rosenwald confirmed in an email sent to Ms. Lopez and others what some had already suspected, that her firing was due to her “choice of books to promote…,” a clear reference to Ms. Lopez’ citation of historical events from Ms. West’s book. Although Ms. Lopez also had cited about the same 1933 events to a second book, The Great Terror: A Reassessment, by Robert Conquest, for some reason, that reference did not seem to pose any issues for the Board. Only Ms. West’s book about the very same events seemed to irritate the Board, whose recently-appointed Chairman is former UN Ambassador John Bolton.

This is the “urge to purge,” a phrase Allen Sullivant often used to describe the battles within the Sons of Confederate Veterans that began during the mid-1990s, when SCV members angry over liberal attacks on Southern history became politically active.

Activists complained about what they called “eat, meet and retreat” leadership that refused to fight back against the re-location of monuments and re-naming of streets and schools, et cetera, that characterized the Culture Wars waged by the forces of Political Correctness in the South. The clash between activists (“hard-cores,” as they were frequently called) and more moderate leaders devolved into a series of purges and counter-purges, with some of the ousted leaders whining that their activist antagonists were dangerous racists, accusations that only served to further incite the SCV’s liberal enemies. In fact, to those familiar with the inner workings of the SCV, motives of personal ambition were far more relevant to these conflicts than any outsider could understand. Some people were so selfishly obsessed with their own status and prestige — including their authority as arbiters of what constituted “true” Confederate heritage — that they lost any sense of perspective and engaged in unnecessarily harmful tactics that damaged themselves as well as the organization.

Diana West’s critics seem to be engaged in quite a similar crusade against her. There is an “Us and Them” attitude, where neutrality can only be obtained through silence, where anyone who offers an opinion on the controversy is forced to choose sides, and where the basic tactical rule is, “War to the knife, knife to the hilt.”

My long friendship with Diana West obligates me to her defense, despite the fact that I also regard her antagonists as friends.

Since I first became aware of this unfortunate conflict, I’ve urged a truce, or at least a de-escalation of hostilities; instead it has turned into a relentless intellectual civil war with no end in sight.

Your big clue that something unexplained is happening here should be obvious from a glance at Clare Lopez’s biography:

Clare M. Lopez is a strategic policy and intelligence expert with a focus on national defense, Islam, Iran, and counterterrorism issues. Currently a senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute, the Center for Security Policy and the Clarion Fund and vice president of the Intelligence Summit, she formerly was a career operations officer with the Central Intelligence Agency, a professor at the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies, Executive Director of the Iran Policy Committee from 2005-2006, and has served as a consultant, intelligence analyst, and researcher for a variety of defense firms. She was named a Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute in 2011.

Whoa! Lopez’s neocon credentials were hitherto impeccable. Neither a Norquist-friendly libertarian nor a Buchananite paleocon could obtain a Lincoln Fellowship from the Strauss/Jaffa hive at Claremont. Ergo, this can only be explained as an internecine fight for supremacy between competing neocon cliques.

Grant the seriousness of the specific historical dispute — and I am certain of David Horowitz’s sincerity in this regard — what kind of backstage machinations were involved in the ouster of a Jaffa-certified neocon from the Gatestone Institute? Is this dispute so serious that these kinds of scorched-earth tactics are justified?

Gatestone Institute President Nina Rosenwald is on Twitter, and perhaps she should be required to explain how this happened.

It is important, I think, to see the crusade against Diana West in proper context. In 2007, National Review permitted Radosh to savage Blacklisted by History, M. Stanton Evans’s definitive defense of Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Ann Coulter was obligated to defend Evans, one of her earliest mentors, whom she praised as having written “the greatest book since the Bible.” And Evans himself replied at length to Radosh, quoting Radosh’s review and observing:

This is going pretty heavy on the quotations, but they are offered to suggest what degree of trust may be placed in the assertions and paraphrases of Radosh as to the contents of my book. As these instances suggest, that degree of trust is roughly speaking zero. All of which is very bad, but from my standpoint by no means the worst of it. Far more disturbing is a recurring ad hominem element in Radosh’s comments — revealing a nasty penchant for turning a debate about substantive issues into a species of personal slander.

That is to say, Radosh has a demonstrable habit of harsh rhetoric against conservatives whose writings about Cold War history he disagrees with and, while I’ve never been nominated for any honors in the “Plays Well With Others” sweepstakes, I’m unaware that I’ve ever gotten anyone terminated from a think-tank gig, either.

As I see it — and I admit this may be unfair, but it is my honest impression of this lamentable affair — Radosh is turf-guarding.

Study his biography and it’s hard to avoid this impression. Radosh is a Ph.D. historian and CUNY professor emeritus and you get the idea that he resents these amateur interlopers encroaching on his professional turf. Given his background as a “Red Diaper baby” who subsequently co-authored a book about the Rosenberg espionage case that was extraordinarily controversial when it was published in 1983, you have to see Radosh as a sort of Coriolanus who, having earned his scars in Rome’s service, resents being compelled to condescend to the plebian mob. In other words, it is about respect.

OK, so if you are a conservative who wants to write a book about Cold War history — and especially about Communist subversion — your first move, before even beginning to outline your proposal, must be to consult Radosh, describe your thesis, and ask his permission: “If I write this book, can I expect you to praise it?”

Otherwise, you could become a Controversial Author, which might help sell books, but makes life quite risky for your friends.

American Betrayal: The Secret Assault on Our Nation’s Character — buy it now, before Ron Radosh can burn every copy in existence.

Category: Books, History, Intellectuals

Comments

73 Responses to “The Urge to Purge: Strange Events Inspired by Diana West Controversy”

MrEvilMatt
September 6th, 2013 @ 10:07 am

The Urge to Purge: Strange Events Inspired by Diana West Controversy: Diana West, interviewed by The Blaze, Ju… http://t.co/TIlxc37IYh
jwbrown1969
September 6th, 2013 @ 10:07 am

The Urge to Purge: Strange Events Inspired by Diana West Controversy: Diana West, interviewed by The Blaze, Ju… http://t.co/4luRKB2LaB
Lockestep1776
September 6th, 2013 @ 10:07 am

The Urge to Purge: Strange Events Inspired by Diana West Controversy: Diana West, interviewed by The Blaze, Ju… http://t.co/oOuQfM8O0c
CHideout
September 6th, 2013 @ 10:07 am

The Urge to Purge: Strange Events Inspired by Diana West Controversy: Diana West, interviewed by The Blaze, Ju… http://t.co/thfj6Js8Cp
Citzcom
September 6th, 2013 @ 10:07 am

The Urge to Purge: Strange Events Inspired by Diana West Controversy: Diana West, interviewed by The Blaze, Ju… http://t.co/NxM8cc1uPZ
rsmccain
September 6th, 2013 @ 10:37 am

The Urge to Purge: Strange Events Inspired by Diana West Controversy http://t.co/8LMEweR3LH | @AnnCoulter @diana_west_ @davereaboi
La Pucelle
September 6th, 2013 @ 10:40 am

A tweet from Ms. Rosenwald the day before: https://twitter.com/ninarosenwald/status/374914774548897792

I imagine there’s a lot of internal personal politics involved and perhaps Ms. Rosenwald is not at liberty to disclose anything, but eventually someone else is going to notice (if not already) and ask why someone she’s quoting here was dismissed.

Or perhaps she was a dissenting voice and this a subtle protest?
MarkSKrikorian
September 6th, 2013 @ 11:01 am

Why the jihad against @diana_west_ book on Soviet influence ops? http://t.co/3sSBcRfdnx If you disagree w/ it, argue your case, don’t purge
Neo
September 6th, 2013 @ 11:02 am

After recently watching the SciFi movie, Serenity, I keep having this one quote characterizing discussion after discussion on a large range of topics.

Shepherd Book:
I don’t care what you believe in, just believe in it.
ConnieHair
September 6th, 2013 @ 11:03 am

RT @MarkSKrikorian: Why the jihad against @diana_west_ book on Soviet influence ops? http://t.co/3sSBcRfdnx If you disagree w/ it, argue yo…
FoxNewsMom
September 6th, 2013 @ 11:06 am

RT @MarkSKrikorian: Why the jihad against @diana_west_ book on Soviet influence ops? http://t.co/3sSBcRfdnx If you disagree w/ it, argue yo…
davereaboi
September 6th, 2013 @ 11:19 am

RT @rsmccain: The Urge to Purge: Strange Events Inspired by Diana West Controversy http://t.co/8LMEweR3LH | @AnnCoulter @diana_west_ @daver…
OwainPenllyn
September 6th, 2013 @ 11:20 am

Urge to Purge: Strange Events Inspired by #Diana West Controversy http://t.co/X0XjvJD3pm via @rsmccain #tcot #ColdWar
rsmccain
September 6th, 2013 @ 11:21 am

RT @OwainPenllyn: Urge to Purge: Strange Events Inspired by #Diana West Controversy http://t.co/X0XjvJD3pm via @rsmccain #tcot #ColdWar
SteveBayrd
September 6th, 2013 @ 11:32 am

RT @MarkSKrikorian: Why the jihad against @diana_west_ book on Soviet influence ops? http://t.co/3sSBcRfdnx If you disagree w/ it, argue yo…
SteveBayrd
September 6th, 2013 @ 11:40 am

RSM,
You continue to impress. It seems that certain brilliant, but more importantly, BRAVE, conservative women (Palin, West, etc.) must be pounded back into their “proper” places by the offended (read THREATENED) class. I’m not as calm a fighter as you so I appreciate your larger view of these issues. I see nothing in Diana West’s books but an honest attempt to explain history and current outcomes based upon reason and logic. Good on you AND Ms. West!
Fjordman1
September 6th, 2013 @ 11:53 am

RT @MarkSKrikorian: Why the jihad against @diana_west_ book on Soviet influence ops? http://t.co/3sSBcRfdnx If you disagree w/ it, argue yo…
KEGS59
September 6th, 2013 @ 11:59 am

RT @MarkSKrikorian: Why the jihad against @diana_west_ book on Soviet influence ops? http://t.co/3sSBcRfdnx If you disagree w/ it, argue yo…
joethefatman1
September 6th, 2013 @ 12:00 pm

The Urge to Purge: Strange Events Inspired by Diana West Controversy http://t.co/pDgzZ2HINT
Mr_Holtzworth
September 6th, 2013 @ 12:15 pm

The Urge to Purge: Strange Events Inspired by Diana West Controversy http://t.co/HhZ93YuaRs
Quartermaster
September 6th, 2013 @ 12:45 pm

I think some friendships need to be ended because rubbish like Horowitz and Radosh are perpetrating. Evans owned Radosh, and he’s still feeling the butt hurt over it. He needs to feel more as he is a contemptible animal.
I’ve deleted Frontpagemag from my list of bookmarks and will not go back. Horowitz has become a vile little man in recent years, enabling Dershowitz in his campaign against Finkelstein, for outing Dershie as a liar and plagiarist, for his treatment of Lawrence Auster over the Color of Crime, and now Diana West. Frankly, from all indications, Horowitz and Radosh are merely liars and are unworthy of friendship from decent people.
They are animals. Treat them as the wolves they are.
Lina Inverse
September 6th, 2013 @ 1:08 pm

This is really strange. You don’t have to know very much WWII military history to recognize the big arguments are bunk (terrain made Italy and much of the Med tactically anything but a “soft underbelly”, major efforts in the Pacific required building up the fleet, and in the meanwhile supplying the Philippines in the face of Japanese command of the sea and air was a non-started, etc. etc.) and the whole work is highly suspect. Even if like me you’re pretty sure FDR’s government was just about totally penetrated with Soviet agents and agents of influence, which was made pretty clear in the late ’40s thanks to HUAC and Whittaker Chambers.

So where comes this need to utterly crush the work and all its supporters? Maybe the worry that this book will discredit the important facts we know about the pervasive penetration?
RS
September 6th, 2013 @ 2:13 pm

I’m reserving judgment on the book –not Ms. West, whom I respect for her prior work–until I read it. I write only to note, that some of the most vicious, ad hominem, no-quarter fights take place among academics who feel that proper deference has not been granted to their work or personages. Most of it’s out of the public eye, but it is there and it’s ugly in the extreme. Consequently, the reaction of Radosh is not surprising. Indeed, it is typical. The fact that it is so over the top given the thesis of Ms. West’s book is Exhibit “A.”
ICLibertiesA
September 6th, 2013 @ 2:17 pm

RT @MarkSKrikorian: Why the jihad against @diana_west_ book on Soviet influence ops? http://t.co/3sSBcRfdnx If you disagree w/ it, argue yo…
Why Aren’t All Lesbians Hot, Like in the Movies? | Regular Right Guy
September 6th, 2013 @ 2:35 pm

[…] The Urge to Purge: Strange Events Inspired by Diana West Controversy […]
richard mcenroe
September 6th, 2013 @ 2:56 pm

If Bolton had any part in this, he’s a disgrace to the ‘stache.

And now I pretty much HAVE to buy the damn book…
richard mcenroe
September 6th, 2013 @ 2:58 pm

Churchill had a major jones for the “soft underbelly” strategy. It led to Gallipoli when he was the First Sea Lord in WWI and the Greece disaster and the Italian meatgrinder in WWII…
GatesofVienna
September 6th, 2013 @ 4:09 pm

RT @MarkSKrikorian: Why the jihad against @diana_west_ book on Soviet influence ops? http://t.co/3sSBcRfdnx If you disagree w/ it, argue yo…
G Joubert
September 6th, 2013 @ 6:04 pm

Radosh and Horowitz have both long taken pride in and cited their bona fides as red diaper doper babies. They are both about the same age, both born and raised in NYC, and both Jewish. Both their families were supporters of Stalin, and both were active in defending the Rosenbergs. They both now believe the Rosenbergs were complicit in espionage. I have no reason to doubt the sincerity of their present conservatism, but there’s something hinky about this whole thing. I believe West in her research came across something regarding Hopkins, the Rosenbergs, and the giving of the A-bomb to the Stalinist Soviets that they’d both prefer to leave buried. What else could it be? If it was just a mere difference of opinion, why would they care so much?
Professor_Why
September 6th, 2013 @ 6:15 pm

The Urge to Purge: Strange Events Inspired by Diana West Controversy http://t.co/Y5fmx8UVDy
andrewbostom
September 6th, 2013 @ 6:45 pm

@rsmccain kudos re: “American Betrayal- buy it now, before Ron Radosh can burn every copy in existence.” http://t.co/pVBaadylLn
Jeanette Victoria
September 6th, 2013 @ 6:50 pm

Diana tribute to a brilliant and great man as he was dying. Larry Auster also was also subjected ostracization for telling the truth.

http://www.dianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/EntryId/2411/In-Appreciation-of-Larry-Auster-and-in-Hopes-of-Another-Miraculous-Recovery.aspx
rsmccain
September 6th, 2013 @ 7:00 pm

RT @andrewbostom: @rsmccain kudos re: “American Betrayal- buy it now, before Ron Radosh can burn every copy in existence.” http://t.co/pVBa…
vermontaigne
September 6th, 2013 @ 7:03 pm

RT @andrewbostom: @rsmccain kudos re: “American Betrayal- buy it now, before Ron Radosh can burn every copy in existence.” http://t.co/pVBa…
SteveBayrd
September 6th, 2013 @ 7:03 pm

RT @andrewbostom: @rsmccain kudos re: “American Betrayal- buy it now, before Ron Radosh can burn every copy in existence.” http://t.co/pVBa…
Harry_Bergeron
September 6th, 2013 @ 7:50 pm

#UGLY Less like a soap opera, and more Less like a soap opera, more like a civil war–screwing with peoples’ careers. http://t.co/kBXyP3m1lF
Paratisi
September 6th, 2013 @ 8:27 pm

Stepping on the Master’s Toes: The Urge to Purge: Strange Events Inspired by Diana West Controversy http://t.co/LqrMsGLqrT
Quartermaster
September 6th, 2013 @ 8:49 pm

Alas, Larry died not too long after that. Horowitz treated Larry in a very cowardly fashion. Seems Horowitz’s kids couldn’t stand the truth and asked Horowitz why he was publishing a racist. Standard libtards.

I hold Horowitz in a richly deserved contempt. The man is still a libtard and a coward.
DaveO
September 6th, 2013 @ 8:51 pm

Having read Radosh and Horowitz before, but not West, are ad hominem attacks the only Radosh and Horowitz know how to have a discussion?
All politics is personal, and the Evans School presents a political challenge within the Conservative Academy. While I am not excusing Radosh and Horowitz, are their behaviors and attacks because they know no other way of dealing with rivals?
BobBelvedere
September 6th, 2013 @ 8:54 pm

The Urge to Purge: Strange Events Inspired by @Diana_West_ Controversy http://t.co/GeRVAJzP2g by @rsmccain
Quartermaster
September 6th, 2013 @ 9:05 pm

Yep! Serious butt hurt. The column is an attempt to justify smearing West now that they’ve been caught and outed for it. Conservatives are harder to stampede in the fashion Radosh and Horowitz want. They really would like to be able to do what Dershowitz did to Finkelstein and they are having a very hard time of it.

It is significant that Radosh is avoiding dealing with what happened to him at the hands of M. Stanton Evans. Evans owned him and he seems to be trying to get some back by slandering West.

I’m not saying there aren’t some things wrong in the book. I’ve pointed out here that Italy was an offensive nightmare and a defender’s dream. Churchill showed his military ignorance by insisting on the “soft underbelly” approach. The closes we came to his approach was the landing of Patch’s 7th Army in Southern France, but that was after the Germans were fully engaged in the north from the Normandy Landings. Radosh’s military knowledge however is not extensive enough to be able to answer such things, so he has to be underhanded and go after her on her “methodology” which is a crock and smear.
rsmccain
September 6th, 2013 @ 9:05 pm

RT @BobBelvedere: The Urge to Purge: Strange Events Inspired by @Diana_West_ Controversy http://t.co/GeRVAJzP2g by @rsmccain
Jeanette Victoria
September 6th, 2013 @ 9:13 pm

I still miss Larry (Yes I knew him) It has taken me a few months to realize he isn’t around anymore FYI IPicked up a copy of Dian West’s book tonight.
diana_west_
September 6th, 2013 @ 9:26 pm

@rsmccain, you are the best! Many, many thanks! Stay tuned for Pts. 2 & 3 @BreitbartNews http://t.co/jEixOFPnSB
Bob Belvedere
September 6th, 2013 @ 9:28 pm

It breaks my heart to state this, having long admired Mr. Horowitz’s courage, but this situation is the straw that has broken the camel’s back. I believe it imperative for conservatives to never trust former Committed Radicals because, it seems, they are incapable of shedding fully the thug thinking and tactics they learned while they were on the Left, the side of Stalin, Hitler, Mao, and Trotsky.

Trust no former Leftists.
diana_west_
September 6th, 2013 @ 9:28 pm

RT @MarkSKrikorian: Why the jihad against @diana_west_ book on Soviet influence ops? http://t.co/3sSBcRfdnx If you disagree w/ it, argue yo…
diana_west_
September 6th, 2013 @ 9:28 pm

RT @rsmccain: The Urge to Purge: Strange Events Inspired by Diana West Controversy http://t.co/8LMEweR3LH | @AnnCoulter @diana_west_ @daver…
Bob Belvedere
September 6th, 2013 @ 9:30 pm

Damn well said.
joe_nuzz
September 6th, 2013 @ 9:31 pm

RT @MarkSKrikorian: Why the jihad against @diana_west_ book on Soviet influence ops? http://t.co/3sSBcRfdnx If you disagree w/ it, argue yo…
joe_nuzz
September 6th, 2013 @ 9:31 pm

RT @rsmccain: The Urge to Purge: Strange Events Inspired by Diana West Controversy http://t.co/8LMEweR3LH | @AnnCoulter @diana_west_ @daver…