LOWENSTEIN BIOGRAPHER CLAIMS ACTIVIST' S CULT DISCREDITED BOOK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000403820001-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: August 30, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000403820001-5
ARTICLE
ON P
WASHINGTON TIMES
30 August 1985
Lowenstein biographer claims
activist's- `cult' discredited book
By Charles Wheeler
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
ichard Cummings set out
five years ago to write a
favorable book about a man
e greatly admired - lib-
eral activist Allard K. Lowenstein.
When the book was published, how-
ever, Lowenstein admirers were out-
raged and worked to discredit it,
which, Mr. Cummings says, resulted
in a media conspiracy against his
work.
Mr. Lowenstein, a one-term con-
gressman known for his leadership
in civil rights work and in the
Vietnam-era "Dump Johnson"
movement, was murdered in 1980 by
a former protege who had become
psychotic.
While researchin his book "The
Pied Pi r - Allard K. Lowenstein
and the Liberal Dream:' Mr. Cum-
mings became convinced that Mr.
Lowenstein once had worked for the
Central Intelligence Agency That
became a central theme in his book.
The CIA allegation so outraged
Lowenstein admirers that they tried
to get Mr. Cummings to change his
book. When he refused, they organ-
ized aneffort to discredit the work.
"I have never seen anything like it
in my 25 years in publishing:' said
Martin Garbus, attorney for Grove
Press, publishers of "Pied Piper,"
which was released in early March.
"They contacted the media directly
and called reviewers everywhere -
Richard had a relentless operation
working against him."
It depends on whom you ask
whether the campaign was success-
ful. Mr. Cummings claims it effec-
tively demolished his book, but
journalists from The Boston Globe,
TheWall Street Journal, The Wash-
ington Post and various media out-
lets say the campaign had no effect
on the way they treated the book.
Washington Post writer Myra
MacPherson wrote the most
scathing of all the articles, but says
she entered the project with an open
mind. "I went into this with abso-
lutely good faith that this was going
to be a fascinating book that was
going to tell us something really
new," she said. "I have absolutely no
connection with Lowenstein and
have no quarrel with the concept [of propagate the myth of Allard Lowen-
the book]. Believe me, if there had stein, he said, as an example of what
been something there, we would the next generation of liberal activ-
have been happy to use it." ists ought to be.
Mr. Cummings, who led a McGov- "The irony is that Franklin Roose-
ern delegation to the 1972 Demo- velt invented liberalism as an
cratic Convention, was not prepared anti-doctrinaire philosophy. He
for what he says was an unfair bias introduced it in the Depression as a
toward his book, way of experimenting as opposed to
"I used to laugh when anyone the Marxism that a lot of people
claimed a liberal bias in the media;" were clamoring for. After Roosevelt,
he said. "I still don't buy all of Accu- these people found in his philosophy
racy in Media's ideas, but they have a rigid orthodoxy. And they have Can-
a point:' onized saints that cannot be
Before the campaign, a February criticized: They are Eleanor Roose-
review in Publishers Weekly called welt, John and Robert Kennedy and,
"Pied Piper" a "brilliant, coolly to a very strong extent among the
impartial biography" of Mr. Lowen- cognicenti of the group, Allard
stein. Lowenstein."
Later book reviews in The New Mr. Cummings said that as a lib-
York Times and The Wall Street eral Democrat he too was an
Journal, however, attacked Mr. Cum- admirer of Allard Lowenstein and
mings' research and ridiculed his still thinks he was "an attractive fig-
claims. urea'
The Washington Post "Style" sec- "The Lowenstein people refuse to
tion article by Myra MacPherson believe that I was not hostile to
brutalized both Mr. Cummings and Lowenstein and that I was not out to
his book. "This guy Cummings is get him:' Mr. Cummings said. "I
really a garbage man ... he has can't make them understand that I'm
learned that dead men bring no defa- not on anylbdy's side when I start
mation suits:' the article quotes Con- writing."
gressman Barney Frank, D-Mass., "I was an organizer for George
as saying. McGovern, but afterwards I felt that
Mr. Lowenstein's family and everyone needed to rethink what
friends denounced as ludicrous Mr. happened:' he said. "This book was
Cummings' a elation that Mr. supposed to be a liberating exper-
Lowenstein had once worked for the ience - I thought that people would
CIA. They compiled and circulated a want that. But I discovered they
stack of affidavits several inches don't:'
thick, which portrays the book as "They're all ready to go march for
"hopelessly inaccurate" and filled ISenator I Ted Kennedy and to try to
with "baseless charges." resurrect everything from the past
Mr. Cummins, shocked at the - and I think that's a big mistake:'
vehemence of his detractors, main- Mr. Cummings said. "You should
tans that his evidence a outfit a CIA learn from the past, and you have to
link is convincing and that his por- face honestly what did go on in the
tra a o r. owenstein is realistic, past; and that's what I tried to do
not at all unt attering. with this book."
YOU look at ail the evidence, it Mr. Cummings said he had
is very reasonable that wenstein numerous television and radio
did what did for the e sal . appearances lined up to promote his
"I stand by my position that the book book, but that after the critical news-
is highly favorable of him." paper articles and after one appear-
Mr. Cummings theorizes that the ance on a New York City television
outrage over Mr. Lowenstein's program, these appearances were
alleged CIA connection is a red her- canceled.
ri-g. What really has jolted Lowen- The one television appearance
stein admirers, he said, is that they was not even to promote "Pied Piper,"
would have him portrayed not with
human frailties and personal ambi-
tions, as "Pied Piper" does, but as a
selfless saint. They would like to
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000403820001-5