back to this war of father and son, and both Cockburn's Sco tland and the o ne n om the center of Glasgow, from a mountain). I think also of Henry to the hills. His tyrant·father Weir was that shaped h is own and his parents' high window- as they were to the Moore, whose reclining female figures firmly based on Lord Braxfield, friend lives. He too has troubled thoughts people of Palestine. Phrases famtbar echo the points, declivities, and ridges of Cockburn's father, a man "like a about his father (though hen: .we have from the Bible- the hills stand about of a range like the Pentlands; and of formidable blacksmith" whose conduct to guess, as much by what he leaves Jerusalem, the mountain of Zion-can all those unknown people the world as a criminal judge Cockburn could not out as by what he tells; it seems that be embodied in his own landscape. over who have seen mountains as condemn "too gravely, or too severe· he grew up away fro m his parents, and (Mr. Miller is very good on the shaping maidens and mothers, and called them Jy." he calls himself an orphan). In a of Cockburn's sensibility by the Bible so, from the Jungfrau of the Alps to Karl Miller is here for likeness and moving passage about a visit to his and by Scotland's other Bible, Paradise Arran's Cioch na O ighe, the Matden's unlikeness. He too grew up in and near mother in a hospital lookin& out on Lost.) The Pentlands were CQCkburn's Breast, from the Grand Tetons of Edinburgh, went to the Royal High the hills, he considers the limitations sure stronghold, where he could fmd Wyoming to the Paps of Jura. School, and found comfort in the of those Whig refonns, and thinks of maternal comfort; they were "feminity Cockburn's Edinburgh was a conviv· Pentlands; but he was born on, so to all those throughout industrial Scot· and fecundity." ial city. This is a convivial book, which speak, their shady side, in the Jess· land for who m there was no Millen· I too Jove the Pentlands. My parents invites the reader to join the conversa· favored terrain of the Lothian coal· nium. " There has been no bright track lived their last years at Balerno and tion, as .I have just done, and ponder

fields east o f the hills, whose workers of happiness for my mother." could lift up their eyes to these on the tissue of work, place, country 1 in Cockburn's day and ours have little tranquil and comfortable shapes. And family, nature, imaginatio n, affections, to do with classical or romantic Edin· Finally, the Pentlands are here be· though I'm not ready to follow Mr. and the past that goes to shape a burgh, Enlightenment or Festival: it is cause they are the solid hills- Caerket· Miller on all his Freudian excursions human hfe. This IS not a tidy book, it the country of a bleak and powerful ton, Came thy, Scald Law, the Kips­ (much too much is made of that tong can be confustng (a better index would ftlm by Bill Douglas, My Ain Fo lk. that Cocky traversed with his lo ng pole), I know that on the femininity have helped), it is fearfully expensive­ Like Cockburn when he started his pole, and picnicked among in glee; and of such hills be js on sure ground. He but it is bursting with life, original, Memorials, " in which his father's Scot· because they are metaphors for areas quotes Auden-"By landscape re· and invigorating as a walk across the land is commemo rated and his quarrel of feeling in Cockburn, as they have minded once of his mother's figure" Penttands on a frosty day with curlews with that Scotland rehearsed," Karl been for many another. Hills are in a (and Auden also wrote a play about a crying and, suddenly, Edinburgh spread Miller is in his forties as he surveys Scot's life-you can see them even man ftnding his mother on top of a out below. 0

The Central Committee of the Communist aitlcism of the book In your pages [NYR , man was or was not a nyfuhennan, u cept Party of Uthuania, Vllnius, USSR; 3) The February 19 J. Having written seven books that either way he should not lie to Who's FATE. OF A POET Union of Writers, Uthuanla, Vilnius, USSR; on World War II in Europe, including three Who. Nor am I as an American reader of the US Army's official historiea, I particularly interested In the campaign ap­ To the Editors: 4) Mr. Charles Runyon, legal Advisor for Humanitarian Affairs, 11te Department of consider that I have sufficient qualifications parently underway in SO)n!YBritish inteJJj. Here Is one more Jetter for You to n:ad on State, Washinston, DC, 20520; and S) your to warrant my assessment of the historical gence drcles to denigrate retroactively lhe behalf of a man whose Ufe is Uueatened by congressmen. value of the book: 'This #CtCt historY of accompUshments of Sk Stewart Menzies, for a familiar abbreviation: KGB, Unlike gods, Unfortunately, a human being is able to D·Day Is the most important ~ork on World I have been assured by responsible former evil likes to be abbreviated, for in this way comprehend only that amount of evil which War II in a quarter of a centurY, a triumph American officials that Sir Stewart's contri· it acquires a certain domesth:ated air, he is able to commit himself. This Is of revelation and presentation." I stand by butions were of the nrst importance. Do I something Uke one's initials, and thus gets precisely what puts all those abbreviated those words. not detect also a trace of that time-worn :m almost lcptimate right to exist. In a agendes in a superior positiOn and makes It Professor Trevor·Roper em at the start in academic contention that the only true peculiar way, abbreviations of evil reduce dtfncult for us to llght them. The Soviet cai1Jng the book "a general historY of historY has to be dull historY? our willlng)\ess to fight it, and we even can Union is a countrY where the problem of Angio·American intelligence" durin1 World mistake It for an airline or TV company. aime has been solved by the stale- it Is War II. Any n:ader should be able to discern Charles B. MacDonald Anyway, it simpUfies -our notion of the performed by government employees, and that it is Instead a historY of strategy and Arlington, Virginia phenomenon. they are professionals. Therefore I would stratagem lelldlng up to D·Day, albeit KGB means In Russian a committee of Uke to take this opportunity to suggest to strategy and stratagem in which intelligence To the Editors: State Security, and, because the English all people in this countrY who are concerned played a major role. If that complex subject Profeuor H. R. Trevor-Roper's review of letters In any case do not coincide with the with dril liberties In the East to create, was to be adequately handled, the book had Bodyguard of Ues [NYR, FebruarY 19J Is, Russian ones, I suggest that you interpret under the auspices of the Congress or the to be of Q)nsiderable size, which even if it as might be expected, accurate, fair and these Initials merely liS firing squad, labor Department of State, a separate body which troubles your reviewer, seems to have been scholarly. Furthermore it Is necessary, to camp, or mental hospital, and one of those woud concern Itself with problems of this of no concern to the American book-buying correct a Jot of journalistic nonsense. things is In store for Tomas Venclova, In kind. In addition, all information on arrests, pubUc. I should Hke, however, to set the record whose behalf this letter is written. tortures. and munlers should be fed into Nor did I as a n:ader have any difficulty straight on one detaU. Trevor-Roper says, Tomas Venclova Is a llthuanian, which computers and matched with the names of as the reviewer says he did- In discerning "Sir John Masterman, undeterred by the makes things worse, because verY few persons and organizations which could take from my COpY Of the book "the real bumble of bureaucracy, published his ae· Americans have any idea where lithuania is. action or pubUcize such matters. The need structure of British intelligence" or, for that count of the Double-Ooss Syttem. " This Sparing you 11 geography and historY lesson, for centralization of our efforts in this area matter, the German Abwehr. My copy also Implies, fust, that Sir John aUowed his book let me state that Mr. Venclova is the but is due to the fact that we are dealing with gave no Impression that the author thinks to be published in defmnce of orridal poet living on the territorY of that empire of professionals sponsored by the state, and we Ml~ controUed all British Intelligence. prohibition. He was sorely tempted to take which Uthuanb is a small province. I dare cannot afford to be scattered and amateur· From personal knowledF, l can assure this course over a period of years; but .iD to state this evaluation of his work because I ish. Amnesty International, for all Its good the reviewer that Mr. Cave Brown did not point of fact the book was llot pubUshed am acquainted with It perhaps more than works, IS not enough- It Is too late to obtain hh materials "lndirecUy." Much of until official "permission had been obtained anyone else In this hemisphere, since I have defend from the outside a person aln:ady the material came from the US National from Her Majesty's Government. Second, translated his poetrY into RlWian. In inside a prison. We need to act efffdenUy Archives, released after considerable effort what might appear to hove been bureaucratic addition to RlUSfan, his works have been and at much earlier stages. Any defense by the author under the F.teedom of bumble turned out to be no more, and no translated into Polish, German, and French. takes much longer than the prosecution, and Information Act, and much from personal Jess, than a sedes of srn1111 points, la.rgely He Is also verY well known among European time is not a good thing any more when It is interviews, including detailed Interviews with concerned with strengthening the "cover" of llngWsJs for his semiotic studies, and last at the disposal of the state. F. W. Wlnterbotham, author of The Ultm agents still llvin1; identification of agents year he was invited to teach a course at Secret. Indeed, lr was Mr. Cave Brown who Joseph Brodsky may result In danger either from them or to Berkeley for a year, but was refused an exit peuuaded Mr. Wlnterbotham to write his them. visa. Poet in Residence memoirs, helped him to do so, provided The few verbal changes in the text were Mr. Venclova is himself the first peuon to University of Michigan some. of the material, and arranged for a agreed without difficulty within the spnce of translate Into Uthuanlan the works of T. S. • An underground appeal to Western Euro­ pubUsher. Although the head of Ml~. Sir ten days. The case may perhaps remain as :m EUot, W. H. Auden, Robert Frost, W. B. pean intellectuals was pubUshed In a recent Stewart Menzies, did Indeed talk openly and example of the advantage of consultation Yeats, Ezra Pound, and others. He has also Issue (No. 20) of 1tle mmizdat journal, The candidly with the author on several occa• OYer confrontation. translated the EngUsh metaphysical poets. Olronlcle of the Lithuanian Oztholic sions, the true circumstances of those Ronald Mansbridge The wide range of these Jlllmes shouldn't Orurch. It states that three Uthuanian interviews bear no resemblance to the embarrass you, for In the literatures of small reviewer's misguided attempt to reconstruct dissident Intellectuals, MindaUgaS Tamonls, Hawkhurst, Kent nations it Is a common thing for one man to them. Anmas Tarabilda, and J. Kazlauskas, have England do an the jobs. Besides, transbtion has been died within the past several years under As to Professor Trevor·Roper's doubt that Venclova's main source of income for years. OCERO, the spy in Ankara, was under mysterious circumstances, and blames the H. R. Trevor·Roper repl/t!:s: On May 11, 1975, Venclova applied to KGB. for the deaths. The C/uon(cle's editors British control, Mr. Cave Brown rencc:ted his the Central Committee of the Uthuanlan fear that a simUar fate may be In store for caution on that subject on the last page of I am quite content that Mr. MacDonald Q)mmunist Party for permls!km to leave the Tomas Venclova, who has asked to be the CICERO chapter. Since publication, should stand by his worda, and that n:aders countrY. Since then nothing has been heard allowed to emigrate. however, he has uncovered documentation in should judge between us. He offers no about him, and In the light of events the National Archive$ that leaves no doubt concrete evidence but thinks that he knows descn"bed In available documents one fears UE-FISHING as to the validity of his thesis. Sir Stewart Menzies and his wort better at for his future. • I urge all of you who read To the Editon: To go on at length about-the other~ third hand than I did at fust hand. Well, Jet this letter to do everYthing In your power to Jy trivial matters which Professor T r· him think so. But when he twists my words help Mr. Vendova obtain permission to leave As the historian who lent his name to a Ropet nmes would be to credit a lo r~~ • . • in order to accuse a friend of mine of the USSR. Your letters and cables should be laudatorY dust..jacket evaluation of Anthony ited ~er'$ method of faulting an • por· ''lying," I must reply to that detail. sent to: I) Anatoly DobrYnln, Ambassador, Cave Brown's Bodypmd of Ues, I take tant ~ by quibbling over details. It is br no "It Is of no real consequence,'' he says, Embassy of the USSR, Washington, DC; 2) exception to Professor H. R. Trevor·Roper's real 09nscquence, for example, whether a "whether a man was or was not a

~prJil, 1976 • ' " 39