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Saturday, July 12, 2003

Eugene Volokh points to this thoughtful blog entry by David Bernstein concerning the recently unearthed anti-semitic Truman comments. From the Washington Post story:

But the most surprising comments were Truman's remarks on Jews, written on July 21, 1947, after the president had a conversation with Henry Morgenthau, the Jewish former treasury secretary. Morgenthau called to talk about a Jewish ship in Palestine -- possibly the Exodus, the legendary ship carrying 4,500 Jewish refugees who were refused entry into Palestine by the British, then rulers of that land.

"He'd no business, whatever to call me," Truman wrote. "The Jews have no sense of proportion nor do they have any judgement [sic] on world affairs. Henry brought a thousand Jews to New York on a supposedly temporary basis and they stayed."

Truman then went into a rant about Jews: "The Jews, I find, are very, very selfish. They care not how many Estonians, Latvians, Finns, Poles, Yugoslavs or Greeks get murdered or mistreated as D[isplaced] P[ersons] as long as the Jews get special treatment. Yet when they have power, physical, financial or political neither Hitler nor Stalin has anything on them for cruelty or mistreatment to the under dog. Put an underdog on top and it makes no difference whether his name is Russian, Jewish, Negro, Management, Labor, Mormon, Baptist he goes haywire. I've found very, very few who remember their past condition when prosperity comes."

Bernstein:

Comment: Truman was clearly venting some anger at the time, and Jewish "selfishness" certainly relates to anti-Semitic stereotypes of Jewish clannishness, etc. However, Truman's record (like Mencken's, who had many Jewish friends and advocated allowing German Jews into the U.S. in the 1930s) is far from anti-Semitic. He had a Jewish business partner, was sympathetic to Jewish refugees in Europe after the Holocaust, and was instrumental in the founding of the State of Israel.[...]

I haven't quoted all of Mr. Bernstein's comment, but it's worth reading.

I'm reminded of one of my favorite scenes from Herman Wouke's excellent novel, The Caine Mutiny.

Greenwald, Lieutenant Maryk's defence council, brings up the crew's nickname for Captain Queeg - "Old Yellowstain" - and is ordered to justify the line of questioning. He does so, and:

The president of the court worked his eyebrows while Greenwald spoke. "The court will be cleared," he said.

In the corridor, Greenwald lounged against the wall and remarked to Maryk, "Captain Blakely doesn't like Jews. Intonations on the name 'Greenwald.' I have absolute pitch for those harmonies."

"Jesus," said Maryk miserably.

"It won't make any difference. You're not supposed to love Jews necessarily, just to give them a fair shake. I've always had a fair shake in the Navy, and I'll get it from Blakely, too, despite the eyebrows."

I'm fairly certain that Harry Truman gave the Jews a "fair shake." There's no reason to let a little venting in a private diary sully that image.

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