A Letter From The Publisher, Jun. 5, 1950

• Share

Like most publications, TIME receives some letters strongly disagreeing with the editors' presentation of the news. There aren't too many of them, but we take great pains to answer them to the best of our ability. Lately, I have found an interesting change in tone in these letters.

From the end of the war until last year, the largest part of the mail in this angry category belabored the editors for being too antiCommunist. "TiME, in its ultra-Rightist position, seems to be carrying on the tradition of [getting] everybody mad at Soviet Russia," was the way one irate letter writer put it. Other typical comments: "Your article is the all-time high so far in your anti-Soviet hate-mongering campaign, and puts the vituperative anti-Communist propaganda of Goebbels to shame." "Shame on your incessant and hysterical saber-rattling against Communism."

Well, times have changed. We still get letters from this fringe of our readers denouncing our anti-Communist attitude, but the balance of criticism has shifted. Now more of these people seem to think that TIME'S viewpoint on the news tends to the Communistic side. Wrote one: "You have definitely listed yourselves with the Left Wingers, et al., who are set upon changing our form of government." Said another: "If you prefer to be a traitor and love Russian Communism, come out in the open with it." And a third: "You whitewash the Communist news."

In the past few years there has been a perceptible move to the right in the U.S. Today few citizens fail to see the menace of Communism. Some, however, both moved and confused by the charges of Senator McCarthy and others, have compounded the hysteria which says that any man is right who cries antiCommunist.

Of course, getting letters on both sides of this controversial issue doesn't prove that TIME is right, either. But it indicates that TIME has maintained a consistent point of view while the scenery changed. From its beginning in 1923, TIME has been consistently critical of any totalitarian form of government, whether it was Nazi, Fascist or Communist. In particular, TIME has long been an outspoken foe of Communism. Even during the early postwar period, when pro-Russian feeling ran high, TIME'S editors were warning of the dangers of Communist expansion abroad and infiltration at home.

Two corollaries of this editorial attitude have been our advocacy of a strong military establishment for the defense of the U.S. and a more alert, aggressive and realistic foreign policy. In particular, TIME gave due warning of the disastrous failure of U.S. policy in Asia. In 1945, in 1946 and in 1947 the U.S.

Government did not understand that Communism had to be fought in Asia.

Four years ago this Letter quoted Max Ways, Senior Editor for International and

Foreign News, on TIME'S policy regarding Soviet Russia: