Goodman Replies to Charge of 9 Students That He Is 'Small-Minded Publicity-Seeker'

To begin with, I did not betray, as you imply, five "students" by revealing their names. Of the five, one is a professional revolutionary, and the other four are fellow-travellers well enough known that they were recognized at sight by American correspondents. Their names are contained in AP, UP, and INS dispatches, August 5-August 19.

Your reference to me and "Frau X" is a gross distortion. As readers of the story know, "Frau X's" only crime was to defend Communism consistently in a conversation lasting several hours.

As for the two Russian soldiers, I cannot share your concern over their futures. You have ignored the point: that this "genuine warmth" was radiated only to Americans who were willing to denounce their own warmongering country.

The Innsbruck reference is, in its entirety, the opinion of one of the American delegates--and is clearly expressed as such. Nowhere do I endorse it as my own; your implication here is dishonest.

Equally so is your reference to the songs selected as representative by the American delegation. "So Long," as I specified, was not the popular song, but the Dust Bowl song, ending with "This dusty old dust is a-gettin' my home, I've got to be moving along." The other songs were "I'm Gonna Put My Name Down" (for the Stockholm appeal), We Shall Not Be Moved, Joe Hill (labor songs), Goodnight Irene (which was hummed), and the Negro National Anthem.

Pot Calling Kettle?

Nowhere did I label any of these as "subversive," though I still think they paint a blacker picture of America than the one I knew. I agree with the delegate who said they were "songs of an oppressed people," a statement you attribute erroneously to me.

In your charge that I spoke flippantly of "the American Way of Life," you have once more put words into my mouth. Actually I was quoting someone else, who used the term ironically. I did attempt to tell other delegates about the "American Way of Life;" my attempts brought about my hurried departure from East Berlin.

Your charge that I did not "risk my neck to help some of the delegates escape" is ridiculous. Anyone can "escape" from East Berlin simply by taking the subway to West Berlin. Once more you have obscured the point: that most of the delegates went freely to West Berlin, just to have a look around. They did not want to "escape," since they did not realize what they were supposed to escape from.

For a "study of motives," I refer you to my address at the Herald Tribune Forum, reprinted in the New York Herald Tribune of Sunday, October 28, section 9, page 30.

It surprises me that Mr. Fisher et al., should be so eager to re-enter the field of the personal smear, a field at which they were once so much at home. Mr. Fisher, it will be remembered, submitted a 300-page secret report on Communism in the NSA to the Committee on un-American Activities. Mr. Fisher's report was termed "100% wrong," "misleading," and "scurrilous" by the officers of his own organization. Subsequently he was expelled from both the Student Council and the NSA.

It surprises me also to see the charge of "sophomoric antics" coming from Mr. Gregg, who was expelled from the Young Republican Club for alleged vote-buying, and who was involved last year in a minor scandal in which a dictaphone was hidden under a pile of inconspicuous dirty laundry.

I may be a superficial slapdash thrill-seeking Capitalistic Spy, but I do not think you can prove it by documenting your name-calling with twisted quotas, misleading interpretations, and out-of-context references. Your eagerness to sling mud seems to belie the sincerity of your criticism.

Nowhere have you dealt with the main themes of the article. You take the Berlin Peace Rally as it was advertised, not as the propaganda circus I tried to show it. Your chief concern is not with the black eye America received, but with the black eye America received, but with the welfare of American fellow-travelers, with German and Russian Communists. Perhaps you have swallowed a bit too much of Mr. Stalin's now well-seasoned "propaganda stew."

I suggest respectfully that you attend the Fourth World Youth Festival next year and convince yourselves. I do not think you will like what you see.

Until next year, I suggest that you go back to reporting your classmates to the un-American Activities Committee, back to hiding dictaphones under piles of dirty laundry. If you practice your cloak-and-dagger tactics diligently, perhaps, when you grow up, you too can become Capitalistic Spies.