4pQonT

EZRA POUND 207
terminology of the Chinese and Greek philosophy and comparing
that to the terminology of mediaeval Catholic theology.
". . . Every English friend I have got in the world has done his
damdest to keep England from making such a golthunderer and
abysmal ass of herself. As to my American friends, Senator Borah
is dead, not that I knew him much save by letter, but I can still
feel his hand on my shoulder just before he was getting into an
elevator in the Senate building and I can still hear him saying a
couple days before: saying to me, Borah saying to me, 'Well I am
sure I don't know what a man like you would find to do here.'
". . . I don't think it is the citizen's duty to whitewash who
blundered. I think the United States and even her British allies
might do well to keep more in touch with continental European
opinion. I don't think anybody is going to whitewash who blundered
into the alliance with Russia. I think they will have some
crimes that nothing can whitewash. [This was long before the
Katyn Forest scandal.] I think an alliance with Stalin's Russia is
rotten. I don't think the claim of even going through the motions of
inviting [invading, according to transcriber] Russia to slaughter
and kill all Eastern Europe is a necessary part of the program.
Program of dissent. . . . I don't think that this was necessary. I
don't think it is the function, even of the Commander-in-Chief of
the United States Army, to dictate the citizen's politics. Not to the
point of inviting [invading, according to the transcriber] Soviet
Russia, Bolshevik Russia, to kill off the whole east half of Europe
and ordering the citizens to approve of it. I don't think it is a lucky
move. Even if Mr. Eden hopes to doublecross Russia, which
nothing indicates [inducts, according to transcriber] that he does
hope . . . If you can stop this Muscovite order, we will let bygones
be bygones. We will at least try to see half your argument.
Instead of which, Hank Wallace comes up saying—No peace till
the world accepts the gold standard. . . . Does look like there
was a weakness of mind in some quarters. Whom God will destroy,
he first sends to the bughouse."
February 3, 1942:
"Ezra Pound speaking, and the prospect of a thirty years' war
is not one to arouse mirth and hilarity, even in . . . irresponsible