Friday, January 27, 2006

"Somewhat Further"

A Google search for "McCarthyism" yields "about 1,970,000" hits.

A Google search for "Soviet gulag" yields "about 550,000" hits -- roughly one fourth as many, and including, of course, many references to accusations that Americans run "Soviet-style gulags" in Guantanamo or Romania, or you-name-it.

One wonders if there's not a balance problem here. The British historian Gregor Dallas, not particularly pro-American in any sense, might wonder, too:

America enshrined in its history books the years of 'McCarthyism,' during which two major Soviet spies suffered rather unpleasant deaths and a few university professors and film directors temporarily lost their jobs, then returned to write their books. Post-war hysteria went somewhat further with America's ally, the Soviet Union. The victims can be counted in millions. ["1945," p.585]

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