DISMISSING IMPERIALISM

If ever there was a biased, distorted and self-serving review of a book it is Phillips’ arrogant dismissal of Parenti’s “The Sword and the Dollar.” To paraphrase Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: “The mind of a Conservative is like the pupil of the eye. The more light shed, the greater the contraction.”

Phillips is offended by Parenti’s preoccupation with United States policies and failure to condemn those of the Soviet Union. I don’t believe that was Parenti’s objective. He probably thought that the condemnation of the Soviets was left in better hands, i.e., those of Pat Buchanan, George Will, Henry Kissinger, et al. I am certain that Phillips does not consider these writers biased when they excoriate the policies of the Soviets while exculpating us, the good guys.

Phillips also takes a sideswipe at Parenti’s Ph.D. One wonders why. To Phillips, the book is terra incognita. The only thing Phillips did not accuse Parenti of was Willie Horton’s furlough.

EDMUND MORRIS

SANTA MONICA