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O-19 (Rev. 10-79-57) ( = ee When the Sacred Cow Spegks Heroes rise and fall in our land. Republican gazettes Tolson which once treated Ike as if he were above criticism now talix. Boardman as if he were Harry Truman. There are also moments when. Belmont — Mickey Mantle is booed. But while most men find Mohr their hides vulnerable, FBI Director J. Edga? Hoover remains Noose the sacred cow of press and politics. Ro TO His unique eminence has heen dramatized anew since Tomm - the publication of “Masters of Deceit,” Hoover's version of Trotter “The Story of Communism in America and How to Fight It.” | Clayton Any lesser author might have been gravely damaged by the WA Tele. Room —_.. timing of the book’s appearance. # was released af a moment fj Holloman when the U.S. Communist Party had sunk to its lowest level Gandy in three decades, when, for the first thme since 1924, {tt no longer published a daily newspaper, and when the ranks of even the hard-core Muscbvite fanatics were chunbling. A ; Clearly this was an insuspidious moment to laumch a " 2 yolume depicting the hattered Jocal Communists as a clear and present danger to the republle, and rehashing in primer form the ancient history of Communist intrigtie in the U.S.A. which has been told so many times and in so much gprightiier form. (It is, for example, difficult to be awed by Hoover's descriptions of the propaganda prowess of the defunct Dally Worker, which perished while his words were on the presses.) | Yet that is what Hoover hag done, and the volume is being | treated in most plates as if it were the latest edition of the Book of Revelations. From the front page of The Herald Tribune bok section to the columns of The Saturday Review and the editorial page of The Daily News, there has been a chorus of wide- eyed acclamation reminiscent of the Russian book-pages in the days when Josef Stalin was a compulsory best-seller. All this would not matter too muuch except for a paralle] effort to defame any commentator who fails te give the ap- propriate salute to this tedious exercise. ~ Thus, while scholars Uke Walter Winchell award patri- otic prizes to the H-T reviewer, George Sokoisky has devoted. a full-scale essay to a critical assault on John Oakes of The Times. Mr, Oakes was uncharitable enough to polat out ont .that the Communist house had fallen in on auther.Hoover Wash. Posf —_— while he was at his typewriter; with quiet understatement Times Hgrald Oakes remarked that there was “a slightly deted quality” Wash. Ne about the book. (The only other daring review pa have seen Wash. Star _— came from Leslie Hanscom in the World-Telegriva and up N. Y. Herald whe confessed with gay irreverence that reading | so much Tribune . * * ; ” American. No doubt there is a certain virtue in playing for smal N. ¥. Mirror ~ children the old record of the duplicities of U.S, communism; - N.Y. Dally News — but this book is not being advertied on the children’s list, N.Y. Times - Certainly there ig dubious merit in reviving o}d nightmares ' Daily Worke for adults at a moment when the grset Communist offensives - y morkes of our time are taking place on the political and eronomie + The Worker _ battlefields of Europe and Asia. ‘ ew Leder = ——— Certainly, too, it is disquieting that the man deemed. — Amariania Freerernt meee ee hw aecrice 8 sOreigose BAPYCIL UR CURsEIIIGu “se hes is ue ° - Wes ri of 3. ar P a ; a)