The Press: Domesticated Communist

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"Look," said a U.N. correspondent, pointing from the window of a press train in Korea one day last week, "here comes our domesticated Communist." Out of a jeep, wearing a trim Eisenhower jacket, climbed burly Jakov Levi, 30, foreign editor of Belgrade's Borba, and first Red newsman accredited to the U.N. forces.

Levi, who formerly covered U.N. sessions at Lake Success, will spend a month with U.N. troops in Korea, a month in Japan and a third month touring southeast Asia. He is mailing his copy home because Borba can't spare dollars for cables.

At Panmunjom, U.N. correspondents flocked eagerly around to watch Titoist Levi meet the Red reporters covering the truce talks. The Reds eyed Levi coldly. Said Chu Chi Ping, a Chinese reporter, to Americans: "I enjoy talking to you. I know who you are and where you stand. But this man is neither fish nor fowl."

When Hungarian Correspondent Tibor Merai spoke contemptuously to Levi about Tito, the Yugoslav retorted: "Where was [Hungarian Deputy Premier] Rakosi when our peoples were fighting for their liberation? In a hotel in Russia eating caviar, while Tito was fighting in the mountains." Sputtered Merai: "You call yourself a Communist . . ."

Later, a correspondent remarked to Levi: "They called you a fascist. That's almost as bad as being a capitalist, isn't it?" Replied Levi: "Yes, almost."