The controversy surrounding the awarding of an Oscar for lifetime achievement to Elia Kazan this spring has passed. Yet the political mindset that produced this preposterous and sometimes vicious controversy remains, it seems, a permanent feature of our mainstream liberal culture. It is a mindset that still looks upon lying about Communism as a permissible moral choice. By the same token, telling the truth about Communism remains for minds of this persuasion the one unforgivable sin, punishable by public defamation and professional ostracism. The headline for Geoffrey Wheatcroft’s article in The Wall Street Journal of March 19 gave us a perfect summary of this malign mindset: “He told the truth; They lied for Communism; And he’s the bad guy?”

It was to be expected, of course, that such remnants of the paleolithic Left as The Nation and The Village Voice would indulge in yet anothe ...

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