Isidor Feinstein Stone (December 24, 1907 – June 18, 1989) was an American
investigative journalist, writer, and author.
Known for his
politically progressive views, Stone is best remembered for ''I. F. Stone's Weekly'' (1953–1971), a newsletter which the
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
journalism department in 1999 ranked 16th among the top hundred works of journalism in the U.S. in the twentieth century and second place among print journalism publications.
Early life
I. F. Stone was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to
Jewish Russian immigrants who owned a shop in
Haddonfield, New Jersey
Haddonfield is a borough (New Jersey), borough located in Camden County, New Jersey, Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 12,550, an increase of 957 (+8.3%) from the ...
; the journalist and film critic
Judy Stone was his sister.
Stone attended
Haddonfield High School. He was ranked 49th in his graduating class of 52 students. His career as a journalist began in his second year of high school, when he founded ''The Progress'' newspaper. He later worked for the ''Haddonfield Press'' and for the ''
Camden Courier-Post
The ''Courier-Post'' is a morning daily newspaper that serves South Jersey in the Delaware Valley. It is based in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and serves most of Burlington, Camden, and Gloucester counties. The paper has 30,313 daily paid subscri ...
''. After dropping out of the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
, where he had studied philosophy, Stone joined ''
The Philadelphia Inquirer
''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', often referred to simply as ''The Inquirer'', is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded on June 1, 1829, ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is the third-longest continuously operating da ...
'', then known as the "Republican Bible of Pennsylvania".
[
After advice from a newspaper editor in 1937, Stone changed his professional journalistic byline from "Isidore Feinstein Stone" to I. F. Stone; the editor had told him that his political reportage would be better received if he minimized his Jewish identity. Years later, Stone acknowledged being remorseful about having changed his professional name, thereby yielding to the systemic ]antisemitism
Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
then prevalent in American society. Personally, Stone spoke of himself as "Izzy" throughout his life and career.
Politics in the 1930s
Influenced by the social work of Jack London
John Griffith London (; January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors t ...
, Stone became a politically radical journalist and joined the '' Philadelphia Record'' (the morning edition rival of ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'') owned by J. David Stern
Julius David Stern (April 1, 1886 – October 10, 1971) was an American newspaper publisher, best known as the liberal Democratic publisher of ''The Philadelphia Record'' from 1928 to 1947. He published other newspapers including the ''New York P ...
, a Democrat. Stone later worked for the ''New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative
daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates three online sites: NYPost. ...
'' newspaper after Stern bought it during 1929. In late adolescence, Stone joined the Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of America ...
, a political decision influenced by his reading of the works of Karl Marx
Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
, Jack London
John Griffith London (; January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors t ...
, Peter Kropotkin
Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (9 December 1842 – 8 February 1921) was a Russian anarchist and geographer known as a proponent of anarchist communism.
Born into an aristocratic land-owning family, Kropotkin attended the Page Corps and later s ...
and Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English polymath active as a philosopher, psychologist, biologist, sociologist, and anthropologist. Spencer originated the expression "survival of the fittest", which he coined in '' ...
. Later, he quit the Socialist Party due to the intractable sectarian divisions, ideological and political, that existed among the organizations that constituted the American Left
The American Left refers to the groups or ideas on the left of the political spectrum in the United States. It is occasionally used as a shorthand for groups aligned with the Democratic Party. At other times, it refers to groups that have soug ...
.
During the 1930s, Stone was an active member of the communist-dominated Popular Front, which opposed Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
and National Socialism
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was frequ ...
. On May 1, 1935, Stone joined the League of American Writers (1935–1943), whose members included Lillian Hellman
Lillian Florence Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was an American playwright, Prose, prose writer, Memoir, memoirist, and screenwriter known for her success on Broadway as well as her communist views and political activism. She was black ...
, Dashiell Hammett
Samuel Dashiell Hammett ( ; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the characters he created are Sam Spade ('' The Ma ...
, Frank Folsom, Alexander Trachtenberg, Louis Untermeyer, Myra Page, Millen Brand and Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are '' All My Sons'' (1947), '' Death of a Salesman'' (1 ...
. (Members were largely either Communist Party members or fellow travelers.)[
]
During the 1930s, as a left-wing
Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...
journalist, Stone criticized Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
's consolidation of power in the Soviet Union in an editorial for the ''New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative
daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates three online sites: NYPost. ...
'' (December 7, 1934) that denounced and likened Stalin's purge
In history, religion and political science, a purge is a position removal or execution of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group undertaking such an ...
and execution of Soviet citizens to the political purges and executions occurring in Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
(1933–1945) and stated that Stalin's régime in Russia had adopted the tactics of "Fascist thugs and racketeers." As the Moscow Trials (1936–1938) proceeded, Stone attacked Stalin's actions as heralding a new ''Thermidor
Thermidor () was the eleventh month in the French Republican calendar. The month was named after the French word ''thermal'', derived from the Greek word ''thermos'' 'heat'.
Thermidor was the second month of the summer quarter (''mois d'été ...
'', which was the time of counterrevolution and reaction
Reaction may refer to a process or to a response to an action, event, or exposure.
Physics and chemistry
*Chemical reaction
*Nuclear reaction
*Reaction (physics), as defined by Newton's third law
* Chain reaction (disambiguation)
Biology and ...
against the French Revolution (1789–1799). Additionally, Stone criticized Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...
and Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky,; ; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky'' was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure ...
for their "cruel and bloody ruthlessness" in executing the Romanov family
The House of Romanov (also transliterated as Romanoff; , ) was the reigning imperial house of Russia from 1613 to 1917. They achieved prominence after Anastasia Romanovna married Ivan the Terrible, the first crowned tsar of all Russia. Ni ...
. He scolded the US Socialist Workers Party, then followers of Trotsky, for believing he would have been less repressive than Stalin.
However, in 1939, following the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, officially the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and also known as the Hitler–Stalin Pact and the Nazi–Soviet Pact, was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Ge ...
, he wrote to a friend that he would do "no more fellow traveling" for the USSR
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, and used his opinion column in ''The Nation
''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...
'' magazine to denounce Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
as "the Moscow Machiavelli who suddenly found peace as divisible as the Polish plains and marshes". Stone bitterly denounced the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in public and in private as a betrayal of leftist political principles.
Affiliations
A former editor of ''The Nation'', Victor Navasky, said that plain, solid work characterized Stone's investigative journalism. He was an old-school reporter who did his homework and perused public-domain records (official government and private-industry documents) for the facts and figures, the data, and quotations that would substantiate his reportage about the matters of the day.
As a liberal, politically outspoken reporter from the American left wing, Stone often had to work in ideologically hostile environments (military, diplomatic, business) where information was controlled, making verifiability the essence of his journalism, corroborated by facts in the public domain, which the reader could verify. About his style of work as an investigative journalist, Stone said:
I made no claims to 'inside stuff'. I tried to give information which could be documented, so hat
A hat is a Headgear, head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorpor ...
the reader could check it for himself ... Reporters tend to be absorbed by the bureaucracies they cover; they take on the habits, attitudes, and even accents of the military or the diplomatic corps. Should a reporter resist the pressure, there are many ways to get rid of him. ... But a reporter covering the whole capital on his own – particularly if he is his own employer – is immune from these oliticalpressures.
The journalistic professionalism and integrity of I. F. Stone derived from his intellectual
An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and Human self-reflection, reflection about the nature of reality, especially the nature of society and proposed solutions for its normative problems. Coming from the wor ...
willingness to scour and devour public documents, to bury himself in '' The Congressional Record'', to study the transcripts of obscure congressional committee hearings, debates and reports. He prospected for news nuggets – published as boxed paragraphs in his weekly newsletter – such as contradictions in the line of official policy, examples of bureaucratic mendacity and political obscurantism
In philosophy, obscurantism or obscurationism is the Anti-intellectualism, anti-intellectual practice of deliberately presenting information in an wikt:abstruse, abstruse and imprecise manner that limits further inquiry and understanding of a subj ...
. Stone especially sought evidence of the U.S. government's legalistic incursions against the civil liberties
Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties of ...
and the civil and political rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...
of American citizens.
The ''New York Post''
In 1933, Stone worked as a reporter for the ''New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative
daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates three online sites: NYPost. ...
'' newspaper. He supported the politics of U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
(1933–1945), especially the progressive reforms of the New Deal
The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...
(1935–1938) programs FDR was instituting to rescue the U.S. economy from the poverty imposed by the Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
which started in 1929. In his first book, ''The Court Disposes'' (1937), Stone criticized what he described as the politically reactionary
In politics, a reactionary is a person who favors a return to a previous state of society which they believe possessed positive characteristics absent from contemporary.''The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought'' Third Edition, (1999) p. 729. ...
role of the U.S. Supreme Court in blocking the realization of the socio-economic reform programs of the New Deal.
In the course of working as publisher and reporter, Stern and Stone quarreled about journalism, its practice and its practices, especially about the content and tone of Stone's ''New York Post'' editorials critical of a business plan to refinance the public transit system of New York City. After an acrimonious quarrelling, Stern's concern about Stone's juvenile attitude prompted an inter-office note to Izzy and the managing editor, informing them that, henceforth, the reporter I. F. Stone was part of the news-department staff.
In response to his publisher's management decision – subordinating a reporter to the newsroom managing editor – Stone complained to the Newspaper Guild, presenting his case against the managers of the newspaper for unfair labor practices
An unfair labor practice (ULP) in United States labor law refers to certain actions taken by employers or unions that violate the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (49 Stat. 449) (also known as the NLRA and the Wagner Act after NY Senator ...
. The ''Post'' contested the case, which proceeded to an arbitration
Arbitration is a formal method of dispute resolution involving a third party neutral who makes a binding decision. The third party neutral (the 'arbitrator', 'arbiter' or 'arbitral tribunal') renders the decision in the form of an 'arbitrati ...
hearing that ruled against the reporter Stone, who consequently quit his job at the ''New York Post''.
''The Nation''
In 1939, after leaving the ''New York Post'', Stone worked for ''The Nation
''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...
'', first as associate editor and then as its Washington, D.C., editor.[ Two years later, in the book ''Business as Usual: The First Year of Defense'' (1941), Stone reported on perceived flaws of the early stages of America's WW2 preparation. He alleged inefficient planning and execution, and the business-as-usual attitude, of the industrial and business monopolies — and its tolerance by the U.S. military — that resulted in the tardy production of matériel for the ]Arsenal of Democracy
"Arsenal of Democracy" was the central phrase used by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a Fireside chats, radio broadcast on the threat to national security, delivered on December 29, 1940—nearly a year before the United States entered t ...
with which President F. D. Roosevelt said the U.S. would help Europeans and Asians combat the totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a political system and a form of government that prohibits opposition from political parties, disregards and outlaws the political claims of individual and group opposition to the state, and completely controls the public s ...
of National Socialist German Workers Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor, the German Worker ...
, fascist Italy
Fascist Italy () is a term which is used in historiography to describe the Kingdom of Italy between 1922 and 1943, when Benito Mussolini and the National Fascist Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictatorship. Th ...
and Imperial Japan
The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was the Japanese nation state that existed from the Meiji Restoration on January 3, 1868, until the Constitution of Japan took effect on May 3, 1947. From Japan–Kor ...
.
On August 4, 1939, Stone along with 400 other writers and intellectuals signed a letter condemning anti-Soviet
Anti-Sovietism or anti-Soviet sentiment are activities that were actually or allegedly aimed against the Soviet Union or government power within the Soviet Union.
Three common uses of the term include the following:
* Anti-Sovietism in inter ...
attitudes in the United States, called for better relations between the two countries, described the USSR as a supporter of world peace, and said "The Soviet Union considers political dictatorship a transitional form and has shown a steadily expanding democracy". The letter was published in September 1939 shortly after the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, officially the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and also known as the Hitler–Stalin Pact and the Nazi–Soviet Pact, was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Ge ...
was known in the United States and during the same month that the Soviet invasion of Poland
The Soviet invasion of Poland was a military conflict by the Soviet Union without a formal declaration of war. On 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Second Polish Republic, Poland from the east, 16 days after Nazi Germany invaded Polan ...
began. Upon hearing of the Pact, Stone repudiated the letter and denounced the actions of the Soviet Union and would criticize it and the CPUSA, which repeated the views of the USSR about the war. In return the CPUSA denounced him as one of the leading "Imperialist war-mongers" until Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along ...
which caused a change in communist views of the war."
In the matter of war-production employment, Stone's exposé of alleged institutional racism
Institutional racism, also known as systemic racism, is a form of institutional discrimination based on Race (human categorization), race or ethnic group and can include policies and practices that exist throughout a whole society or organizati ...
and anti–Semitism of the FBI's process for vetting job applicants is evident in the semantics
Semantics is the study of linguistic Meaning (philosophy), meaning. It examines what meaning is, how words get their meaning, and how the meaning of a complex expression depends on its parts. Part of this process involves the distinction betwee ...
of questions meant to discover, identify and exclude political subversives from civil service in the U.S. government. He characterized questions the FBI asked about job applicants as ideological and bigoted, such as, "Does he mix with Negroes?", "Does he ... have too many Jewish friends?", "Does he think the colored races are as good as the white?", "Why do you suppose he has hired so many Jews?" and "Is he always criticizing Vichy France?" All which Stone believed were poor questions to ask during a war in which collaborationist Vichy France
Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the Battle of France, ...
(1940–44) actively participated in the military occupation as the puppet régime of France. To the mainstream American reader concerned with the affairs of daily life, Stone reported that, "Questions like these are being used as a sieve to strain anti-fascist
Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were op ...
s and liberals out of the government. They serve no other purpose.". Readers thanked ''The Nation'' for Stone's informing the public of the FBI's racist, fascistic and anti-Semitic un–American activities. Concomitantly, some on the American political right wing criticized Stone for maintaining the anonymity of his FBI sources.
In 1946 Freda Kirchwey, the editor (1933–55) of ''The Nation'', fired Stone from the magazine for accepting employment with the newspaper '' PM'' (picture magazine) as a foreign correspondent covering the anti–British Jewish Resistance Movement in Mandatory Palestine
Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine.
After ...
(1920–48), where the Jews awaited the foundation of the State of Israel.
''PM'' (newspaper)
Stone was the Washington, D.C., correspondent for ''PM'', and published a series of feature articles about the Jewish European refugees who ran the British blockade
A blockade is the act of actively preventing a country or region from receiving or sending out food, supplies, weapons, or communications, and sometimes people, by military force.
A blockade differs from an embargo or sanction, which are ...
to reach Palestine
Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...
. He later further developed that reportage from the summer of 1946 and wrote the book ''Underground to Palestine''.[Roger Starr]
PM: New York's Highbrow Tabloid
, ''City Journal'', Summer 1993. Accessed online March 5, 2007.[Nel, Philip]
. The Crockett Johnson Homepage. Retrieved June 21, 2005. In 1948 '' Picture Magazine'' closed, and was replaced in Stone's career first by the '' New York Star (1948-1949)'' and then by '' The Daily Compass'', published until 1952.
''I. F. Stone's Weekly''
Although Stone had been a mainstream journalist in the 1930s, appearing on shows like ''Meet the Press
''Meet the Press'' is a weekly American television Sunday morning talk show broadcast on NBC. It is the List of longest-running television shows by category, longest-running program on American television, though its format has changed since th ...
'' (then a radio show), in 1950 he found himself blacklisted and unable to get work, possibly because Stone publicly admitted to his "fellow traveler
A fellow traveller (also fellow traveler) is a person who is intellectually sympathetic to the ideology of a political organization, and who co-operates in the organization's politics, without being a formal member. In the early history of the Sov ...
" tendencies. In 1953, inspired by the example of the muckraking
The muckrakers were reform-minded journalists, writers, and photographers in the Progressive Era in the United States (1890s–1920s) who claimed to expose corruption and wrongdoing in established institutions, often through sensationalist publ ...
journalist George Seldes
Henry George Seldes ( ; November 16, 1890 – July 2, 1995) was an American investigative journalist, foreign correspondent, editor, author, and media critic best known for the publication of the newsletter ''In Fact'' from 1940 to 1950. He was a ...
and his political weekly, ''In Fact'', Stone started his own independent newsletter, ''I. F. Stone's Weekly''. Over the next few years, Stone's newsletter campaigned against McCarthyism
McCarthyism is a political practice defined by the political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals and a Fear mongering, campaign spreading fear of communist and Soviet influence on American institutions and of Soviet espionage i ...
and racial discrimination
Racial discrimination is any discrimination against any individual on the basis of their Race (human categorization), race, ancestry, ethnicity, ethnic or national origin, and/or Human skin color, skin color and Hair, hair texture. Individuals ...
in the United States.
During this period he supported the Fair Play for Cuba Committee.
In 1964, using evidence drawn from a close reading and analysis of published accounts, Stone was the only American journalist to challenge President Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, under whom he had served a ...
's account of the Gulf of Tonkin incident. During the 1960s, Stone continued to criticize the Vietnam War. At its peak in the 1960s, the ''Weekly'' only had a circulation of 70,000, but it was regarded as very influential.
Articles originally published in ''I. F. Stone's Weekly'' later were compiled and published in ''The I. F. Stone's Weekly Reader'' (1973), in three of six volumes of ''A Nonconformist History of Our Times'' (1989), a compendium of Stone's writing, and ''The Best of I.F. Stone'' (2006).
Views
Zionism and the State of Israel
In 1945, at war's end, Stone went to Mandatory Palestine (1920–1948) to report on the mass emigration of Eastern European Jews to Mandatory Palestine—peoples whom the Nazis had displaced from the countries of Eastern Europe. In '' Underground to Palestine'' (1948), Stone reported that the political, financial and personal interests of those displaced Jews would have been, in his opinion, better served by emigrating to the U.S. rather than to the Zionist Homeland for the Jewish people promised in the Balfour Declaration
The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British Government in 1917 during the First World War announcing its support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, then an Ottoman regio ...
. Nonetheless, they preferred the promise of Israel in Stone's estimation because:
They have been kicked around as Jews, and now they want to live as Jews. Over and over I heard it said: 'We want to build a Jewish country ... We are tired of putting our sweat and blood into places where we are not welcome. ... ' These Jews want the right to live as a people, to build as a people, to make their contribution to the world as a people. Are their national aspirations any less worthy of respect than those of any other oppressed people?
As a secular Jew, Stone agreed with the nationalist aspirations of Zionism
Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...
and publicly supported the State of Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
(1948), before the U.S. government granted official recognition. As a politically moderate Zionist, and like the politician Abba Eban
Abba Solomon Meir Eban (; ; born Aubrey Solomon Meir Eban; 2 February 1915 – 17 November 2002) was a History of the Jews in South Africa, South African-born Israeli diplomat and politician, and a scholar of the Arabic and Hebrew languages.
D ...
, Stone supported the one-state solution
The one-state solution is a proposed approach to the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. It stipulates the establishment of a single state within the boundaries of what was Mandatory Palestine between 1920 and 1948, today consisting of the co ...
of Israel as a bi-national state that Jews and Arabs would inhabit as equal citizens. Yet, in observing the military conflict that established the Jewish state in Mandatory Palestine, Stone became sympathetic to the Arab resistance to their physical dispossession (jobs, homes, land) and the political disenfranchisement (voided civil and political rights).
Stone's reportage of the conflict in the Middle East irritated Minister Eban, both for embarrassing him (a politically moderate Zionist) and his government and for dimming the international public image of the State of Israel as a refuge for oppressed peoples.[
]
The Arab–Israeli conflict
The practical and professional consequences of being an openly left-wing journalist in the U. S. continued for I. F. Stone, when the U.S. State Department refused to issue a passport for him to travel overseas as a journalist. Stone filed a lawsuit against the State Department. In court, his brother-in-law, the attorney Leonard Boudin
Leonard B. Boudin (July 20, 1912 – November 24, 1989) was an American civil liberties attorney and left-wing activist who represented Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame and Benjamin Spock, the author of '' Baby and Child Care'', who advoca ...
, established the right of a journalist to freely travel in the course of practicing his profession, and so thwarted the federal government's political interference with a journalist; afterwards, Stone travelled to Israel in 1956—before the Suez War (October 29 – November 7, 1956)—and reported that:
Consequent to the establishment of British, French, and Russian imperial spheres of influence
In the field of international relations, a sphere of influence (SOI) is a spatial region or concept division over which a state or organization has a level of cultural, economic, military, or political exclusivity.
While there may be a formal a ...
in Asia Minor, by way of the Sykes–Picot Agreement
The Sykes–Picot Agreement () was a 1916 secret treaty between the United Kingdom and France, with assent from Russia and Italy, to define their mutually agreed spheres of influence and control in an eventual partition of the Ottoman Empire.
T ...
(1916), the internal politics of the State of Israel became the Arab–Israeli conflict
The Arab–Israeli conflict is a geopolitical phenomenon involving military conflicts and a variety of disputes between Israel and many Arab world, Arab countries. It is largely rooted in the historically supportive stance of the Arab League ...
(1948 to date), which the West conflated to the geopolitics
Geopolitics () is the study of the effects of Earth's geography on politics and international relations. Geopolitics usually refers to countries and relations between them, it may also focus on two other kinds of State (polity), states: ''de fac ...
of the Cold War (1945–90) with each belligerent party, the U.S. and the USSR, claiming hegemony
Hegemony (, , ) is the political, economic, and military predominance of one State (polity), state over other states, either regional or global.
In Ancient Greece (ca. 8th BC – AD 6th c.), hegemony denoted the politico-military dominance of ...
over the Middle East.
In the book review article "Holy War" (''Les Temps Modernes'', June 1967), Stone said that superpower geopolitics are of secondary importance to the discontent of the Arabs and the Jews in the Levant
The Levant ( ) is the subregion that borders the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean sea to the west, and forms the core of West Asia and the political term, Middle East, ''Middle East''. In its narrowest sense, which is in use toda ...
.
The Korean War
Stone was critical of the Cold War, and its consequent reductions of the civil liberties
Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties of ...
and the civil and political rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...
of American citizens – what he saw as totalitarianism effected with the moral panic
A moral panic is a widespread feeling of fear that some evil person or thing threatens the values, interests, or well-being of a community or society. It is "the process of arousing social concern over an issue", usually perpetuated by moral e ...
of loyalty oath
Loyalty is a Fixation (psychology), devotion to a country, philosophy, group, or person. Philosophers disagree on what can be an object of loyalty, as some argue that loyalty is strictly interpersonal and only another human being can be the obj ...
s and the Second Red Scare
McCarthyism is a political practice defined by the political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals and a campaign spreading fear of communist and Soviet influence on American institutions and of Soviet espionage in the United S ...
(1947–57) of the McCarthy Era
McCarthyism is a political practice defined by the political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals and a campaign spreading fear of communist and Soviet influence on American institutions and of Soviet espionage in the United S ...
— Stone wrote a book on the origin of the Korean War
The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...
(1950–52). According to Stone, in an effort to convince the American people to support and fight in a war between two undemocratic Asian countries, U.S. government propaganda misrepresented the Korean War as necessary to the rollback
In political science, rollback is the strategy of forcing a change in the major policies of a state, usually by replacing its ruling regime. It contrasts with containment, which means preventing the expansion of that state; and with détente, ...
fight against the international communist conspiracy for world domination, with Joseph Stalin controlling the conspiracy from Moscow.
In ''The Hidden History of the Korean War, 1950–51'', Stone said that South Korea had provoked North Korea to war, by way of continual guerrilla attacks across the border (38th parallel) into the north of Korea, and that, thus goaded, the North Koreans eventually counterattacked, and invaded the South, providing the official ''casus belli'' (June 25, 1950) required for Korean reunification. Stone asserted that such cross-border attacks, authorized by the South Korean government, were shaped by U.S. foreign policy for the worldwide containment of communism, which was advocated by John Foster Dulles
John Foster Dulles (February 25, 1888 – May 24, 1959) was an American politician, lawyer, and diplomat who served as United States secretary of state under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 until his resignation in 1959. A member of the ...
, realized in the field by General Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American general who served as a top commander during World War II and the Korean War, achieving the rank of General of the Army (United States), General of the Army. He served with dis ...
, U.S. commander in the Pacific Ocean military theater, and countenanced by Syngman Rhee
Syngman Rhee (; 26 March 1875 – 19 July 1965), also known by his art name Unam (), was a South Korean politician who served as the first president of South Korea from 1948 to 1960. Rhee was also the first and last president of the Provisiona ...
, the strongman
Strongman is a competitive strength sport which tests athletes' physical strength and endurance through a variety of heavy lifts and events. Strongman competitions are known for their intensity, pushing athletes to their physical and mental limit ...
President of South Korea
The president of the Republic of Korea (), also known as the president of South Korea (), is the head of state and head of government of South Korea. The president directs the executive branch of the Government of South Korea, government and is ...
.
Allegations of espionage
Oleg Kalugin's comments
In ''The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' newspaper in 1992, British journalist Andrew Brown reported that the Soviet Embassy attaché, KGB
The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...
Major General Oleg Kalugin
Oleg Danilovich Kalugin (; born 6 September 1934) is a former KGB general (stripped of his rank and awards by a Russian Court decision in 2002). He was during a time, head of KGB political operations in the United States and later a critic of ...
, said that, "We had an agent—a well-known American journalist—with a good reputation, who severed his ties with us after 1956. I, myself, convinced him to resume them. But, in 1968, after the invasion of Czechoslovakia ... he said he would never again take any money from us."
In "How Many I. F. Stones Were There?", Herbert Romerstein, formerly of USIA and of the HUAC
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty an ...
, and Ray Kerrison reported that Kalugin had identified I. F. Stone as the secret agent of whom he aluginhad spoken with the journalist Andrew Brown. Eight years later, in ''The Venona Secrets'' (2000), Romerstein and Eric Breindel
Eric Marc Breindel was an American neoconservative writer and former editorial page editor of the ''New York Post''.
Early life
Breindel grew up in an upper-middle class Jewish family in New York. His parents were refugees of Hitler's Europe, ...
(editorial page editor of the ''New York Post'') developed Kalugin's allegations about I. F. Stone being a secret agent for the Soviet Union.
In "The Attack on I.F. Stone", Andrew Brown said that when he "used the phrase ''an agent'', to describe someone who turned out to be I. F. Stone", he understood the term metaphorically, meaning someone who was a "useful contact", and that the expression "take any money" referred to the fact that the journalist I.F. Stone would not permit a Soviet embassy employee to pay for a luncheon meal, neither then nor in the future, despite earlier lunches in the 1930s and 1940s. That, in September 1992, at the Moscow Journalists' Club, Kalugin had explained to the lawyer Martin Garbus that, "I have no proof that Stone was an agent. I have no proof that Stone ever received any money from the KGB, or the Russian government, I never gave Stone any money and was never involved with him as an agent."
In "Who's Out to Lunch Here?: I. F. Stone and the KGB", Cassandra Tate said that the alleged evidence of Stone's secret agent involvement with the KGB is based upon a few lines of text at the end of a speech by a KGB officer. She concluded that Stone was neither a Soviet agent, nor a collaborator of the KGB in the U.S.
In ''American Radical:The Life and Times of I. F. Stone'', 2009), D. D. Guttenplan cited Kalugin's denials in ''The Nation'' and in the ''New York Post'', although an earlier article had pointed to the possible ambiguity of the KGB's definition of the term "agent of influence." In multiple interviews, Kalugin contradicted Romerstein's allegation that Stone was a Soviet secret agent; two Stone biographers reported Kalugin's third-party denials that Stone was a Soviet secret agent. Myra MacPherson (''All Governments Lie! The Life and Times of Rebel Journalist I. F. Stone'', 2006) reported that Kalugin said: "We had no clandestine relationship. We had no secret arrangement. I was the press officer f the Soviet embassy in Washington, D.C.... I never paid him anything. I sometimes bought lunch."
In his KGB memoirs, ''The First Directorate: My 32 Years in Intelligence and Espionage Against the West'' (1994), about working as a press attaché in the Soviet Embassy in Washington, D.C., Kalugin said that, besides I. F. Stone, he often met with journalists such as Walter Lippmann
Walter Lippmann (September 23, 1889 – December 14, 1974) was an American writer, reporter, and political commentator. With a career spanning 60 years, he is famous for being among the first to introduce the concept of the Cold War, coining t ...
, Joseph Kraft
Joseph Kraft (September 4, 1924 – January 10, 1986) was an American journalist.
Career
Kraft began his career in journalism at the age of 14 where he worked as a stringer covering high school sports for the New York World-Telegram. Kraft wo ...
, Drew Pearson, Chalmers Johnson
Chalmers Ashby Johnson (August 6, 1931 – November 20, 2010) was an American political scientist specializing in comparative politics, and professor emeritus of the University of California, San Diego. He served in the Korean War, was a consult ...
, and Murray Marder. That Stone occasionally had a working-lunch with the Soviet press-attaché on shift, but ended that luncheon relationship after his first visit to the Soviet Union in 1956, and after hearing '' On the Personality Cult and its Consequences'' (February 26, 1956), the secret speech with which Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...
denounced the tyranny of Josef Stalin. When he returned from the Soviet Union, in his weekly newsletter, Stone wrote:
Whatever the consequences, I have to say what I really feel, after seeing the Soviet Union, and carefully studying the statements of its leading officials. ''This is not a good society and it is not led by honest men'' ... Nothing has happened in Russia to justify cooperation abroad, between the independent Left and the Communists.[Cottrell, Robert C. ''IZZY: A Biography of I.F. Stone''. 1993 pp. 189–190.]
Stone's published statements, about the Soviet Union, its regimented society, and its totalitarian government, by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...
(CPSU), provoked hundreds of subscribers to cancel their subscriptions to ''I.F. Stone's Weekly'' newsletter. Kalugin said that he persuaded Stone to continue having working-luncheons with him, but that, after the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia
On 20–21 August 1968, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four fellow Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Republic of Bulgaria, and the Hungarian People's Republic. The ...
in August 1968, Stone refused to let Kalugin pay for the lunch, and consequently ceased meeting with him.
Venona Project
In 1995, the National Security Agency
The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...
(NSA) published documents from the Venona Project
The Venona project was a United States counterintelligence program initiated during World War II by the United States Army's Signal Intelligence Service and later absorbed by the National Security Agency (NSA), that ran from February 1, 1943, u ...
(1943–80), a counter-intelligence program for the collection and decryption of KGB
The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...
and GRU
Gru is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the ''Despicable Me'' film series.
Gru or GRU may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Gru (rapper), Serbian rapper
* Gru, an antagonist in '' The Kine Saga''
Organizations Georgia (c ...
telegraph messages, collected from 1943 to 1980. On September 13, 1944, the KGB station in New York City transmitted a message to Moscow that Vladimir Pravdin, an NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...
officer working undercover as a reporter for TASS (the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union
The Russian News Agency TASS, or simply TASS, is a Russian state-owned news agency founded in 1904. It is the largest Russian news agency and one of the largest news agencies worldwide.
TASS is registered as a Federal State Unitary Enterpri ...
), had sought to communicate with a Soviet agent code-named BLIN, in Washington, DC, but that BLIN had been avoiding a meeting with Pravdin, claiming that his work schedule did not permit the requested meeting. He reported that Samuel Krafsur, an American NKVD agent codenamed IDE, who worked for TASS in the building that housed Stone's office, had tried to "sound him out, but BLIN did not react."
The Venona project transcript No. 1506 (October 23, 1944), indicated that Pravdin had succeeded in meeting with secret agent BLIN, and that he was "not refusing his aid" but explained that had "three children, and did not want to attract the attention of the FBI" and that BLIN's reluctance to meet Pravdin derived from "his unwillingness to spoil his career" because he "earned $1,500.00 per month but ... would not be averse to having a supplemental income."
In the article "Cables Coming in From the Cold" on the Venona Project transcripts, Walter Schneir and Miriam Schneir said that interpreting the transcriptions is difficult, because of the hearsay
Hearsay, in a legal forum, is an out-of-court statement which is being offered in court for the truth of what was asserted. In most courts, hearsay evidence is Inadmissible evidence, inadmissible (the "hearsay evidence rule") unless an exception ...
nature of the messages; the many steps between a conversation and the sending of a cable; language-translation difficulties; the possibility of an imperfect decryption; and concluded that "the Venona messages are not like the old TV show '' You Are There'' 953–57 in which history was re‑enacted before our eyes. They are history seen through a glass, darkly."
In their Cold War history, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (2000), John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr
Harvey Elliott Klehr (born December 25, 1945) is a professor of politics and history at Emory University. Klehr is known for his books on the subject of the American Communist movement, and on Soviet espionage in America (many written jointly with ...
said that Stone was the Soviet secret agent BLIN. They cited four Venona cables that mentioned Stone and that two of the cables contained evidence of Stone's pro–Soviet espionage. As well, the files of the KGB, from 1936 to 1939, indicate that Stone was a Soviet secret agent, who worked as a talent spotter, as a courier to other secret agents, and that he provided private and journalistic information to KGB, and Stone collaborated with the Communist Victor Perlo
Victor Perlo (May 15, 1912December 1, 1999) was an American Marxist economist, government functionary, and a longtime member of the governing National Committee of the Communist Party USA.
Biography
Early years
Victor Perlo was born May 15, 19 ...
group, who gave him materials for use in journalistic exposés.
Moreover, in ''The Venona Secrets: The Definitive Exposé of Soviet Espionage in America'' (2000), Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel
Eric Marc Breindel was an American neoconservative writer and former editorial page editor of the ''New York Post''.
Early life
Breindel grew up in an upper-middle class Jewish family in New York. His parents were refugees of Hitler's Europe, ...
re-published the allegation that Stone was the Soviet secret agent BLIN. As evidence, they cited Stone's statement, in a column (November 11, 1951) that responded to ''New York Herald Tribune'' reportage about his left wing sympathies, and that he would be unsurprised to read in that newspaper, "that I was smuggled in from Pinsk
Pinsk (; , ; ; ; ) is a city in Brest Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Pinsk District, though it is administratively separated from the district. It is located in the historical region of Polesia, at the confluence of t ...
, in a carton of blintzes". That Stone's use of the word ''blintzes'' (pancakes) betrayed his knowledge of the word BLIN, his code name as a Soviet secret agent.
In the event, Stone's biographer Myra MacPherson said that the FBI never identified BLIN as being Stone and instead suspected Ernest K. Lindley, who also was father to three children. The FBI claimed that secret agent BLIN must have been someone "whose true, pro–Soviet sympathies were not known to the public", hence, could not have been the journalist Stone, who, on the contrary, far from being "fearful", did not hide his left wing beliefs. Rather than wishing to avoid FBI attention, as BLIN reportedly did, Stone made a point of suggesting to the Soviet press attaché Oleg Kalugin that they have lunch at Harvey's, a favorite haunt of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover
John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American attorney and law enforcement administrator who served as the fifth and final director of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) and the first director of the Federal Bureau o ...
, to "tweak his nose".
Alexander Vassiliev's allegations of espionage
In ''Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America'' (2009), Klehr, Haynes, and Alexander Vassiliev
Alexander Yuryevich Vassiliev (; born 1962) is a Russians, Russian-British people, British journalist, writer and espionage historian living in London who is a Subject-matter expert, subject matter expert in the Soviet KGB and Russian Foreign In ...
, formerly of KGB, cite a KGB file hich Vassiliev saw in the Soviet Unionthat named "Isidor Feinstein, a commentator for the ''New York Post''" in the 1930s, as being secret agent BLIN, who "entered the channel of normal operational work" in 1936. That a note listed BLIN as an agent of the KGB station in New York City, in 1938. Klehr, Haynes, and Vassiliev said that Stone "assisted Soviet intelligence on a number of tasks, ranging from doing some talent spotting, acting as a courier, by relaying information to other agents, and providing private journalist tidbits and data hat
A hat is a Headgear, head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorpor ...
the KGB found interesting".
That BLIN was to help recruit and support the German resistance to Nazism
The German resistance to Nazism () included unarmed and armed opposition and disobedience to the Nazi Germany, Nazi regime by various movements, groups and individuals by various means, from assassination attempts on Adolf Hitler, attempts to ass ...
in Berlin, from 1936 to 1938. Yet the authors admitted that Stone broke with the KGB after the Nazi–Soviet Pact of 1939, and speculate that later Soviet communications with Stone were meant to reactivate their previous relationship. As such, Klehr, Haynes, and Vassiliev conclude that: "The documentary record shows that I. F. Stone consciously cooperated with Soviet intelligence, from 1936 through 1938, Popular Front period">tone's Popular Front period An effort was made, by Soviet intelligence, to reestablish that relationship in 1944–45; we do not know whether that effort succeeded. To put it plainly, from 1936 to 1939 I. F. Stone was a Soviet spy".
In the article "Commentary's Trumped-up Case Against I. F. Stone", Jim Naureckas counters that the allegations of Klehr, Haynes, and Vassiliev, if true, merely indicate that I. F. Stone was "just gossiping", and criticizes them their "nefarious" and "tendentious" magnification of "relatively innocuous behavior" on the basis of one anti–Nazi activity. As for Stone being listed as an "agent" of the KGB, Naureckas said that Walter Lippmann
Walter Lippmann (September 23, 1889 – December 14, 1974) was an American writer, reporter, and political commentator. With a career spanning 60 years, he is famous for being among the first to introduce the concept of the Cold War, coining t ...
also is listed as a Soviet secret agent.
In the article "I.F. Stone: Encounters with Soviet Intelligence", Max Holland said there is no question that I. F. Stone was a "fully recruited and witting agent" for the Soviet Union from 1936 to 1938; yet, admits that Stone "was not a 'spy' in that he did not engage in espionage, and had no access to classified material".
In the book review of ''Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America'' (May 25, 2009), D. D. Guttenplan said that "''Spies'' never explains why we should believe KGB officers, pushed to justify their existence (and expense accounts), when they claim information comes from an elaborately recruited 'agent' rather than merely a source or contact". That the authors of ''Spies'' distort the report in Venona transcript No. 1506 (October 1944) and never prove that, in 1936, Soviet secret agent BLIN was I. F. Stone. That their allegations merely demonstrate that Stone "was a good reporter", and notes that Walter Lippmann is quoted in ''Spies'' as having professional contacts with "a Soviet journalist with whom he traded insights and information." This is the same man ravdinwhom Stone is said to have avoided. Nonetheless, the Vassilev notebook shows that Lippman was meeting Pravdin, not to pass the intelligence to him, but rather to find out what the true intentions of the Soviet government were. One of the KGB reports said, "He ippmannis attempting to use his acquaintance with him ravdinto determine our viewpoint on various issues of international politics. He is doing this, of course, very subtly, with the utmost tact. It should be recognized that by attempting to draw 'Sergei' into making candid comments, Imperialist ippmannis sharing his own information with him".
In the book review of ''Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America'' (2010), Myra MacPherson said that the American co-author of the book, the journalist Max Holland, had persistently repeated discredited allegations that the American journalist I. F. Stone had accepted money from the Soviet Union, despite Holland's having acknowledged the unreliability of his source, KGB Gen. Oleg Kalugin:
As for the conflicting tales, woven by former KGB agent Kalugin, about his relationship with Stone, from 1966 to 1968, Holland correctly notes that 'Kalugin seemed incapable of telling the same story more than once'. Still, this did not keep Holland from repeating the damaging and long-refuted lie that Herbert Romerstein, former HUAC sleuth, developed after talking with Kalugin, that Moscow Gold subsidized Stone's weekly. Nowhere is there any evidence that Stone took money for anything, except a possible lunch or two. Nor is there any evidence, as Holland points out, that Kalugin was able to plant ewsstories with Stone.
Retirement and classical scholarship
In 1971, angina pectoris
Angina, also known as angina pectoris, is chest pain or pressure, usually caused by insufficient blood flow to the heart muscle (myocardium). It is most commonly a symptom of coronary artery disease.
Angina is typically the result of part ...
forced Stone to cease publication of the ''Weekly''. After his retirement, he returned to the University of Pennsylvania, where he had dropped out years before. He earned a bachelor's degree in classical languages. Stone successfully learned Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...
and wrote a book about the prosecution and death of Socrates
Socrates (; ; – 399 BC) was a Ancient Greek philosophy, Greek philosopher from Classical Athens, Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and as among the first moral philosophers of the Ethics, ethical tradition ...
, ''The Trial of Socrates'', in which he argued that Socrates wanted to be sentenced to death to shame Athenian democracy
Athenian democracy developed around the 6th century BC in the Ancient Greece, Greek city-state (known as a polis) of Classical Athens, Athens, comprising the city of Athens and the surrounding territory of Attica, and focusing on supporting lib ...
, which he despised. '' The Trial of Socrates'' was a ''New York Times'' bestseller and was translated into 11 languages.
In 1970, Stone received the George Polk Award
The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the awar ...
, and in 1976 he received the Conscience-in-Media Award
The Conscience-in-Media Award is presented by the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) to journalists that the society deems worthy of recognition for their distinctive contributions. The award is not given out often, and is awarde ...
from the American Society of Journalists and Authors
The American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) was founded in 1948 as the Society of Magazine Writers, and is the professional association of independent nonfiction writers in the United States.
History
The organization was established in ...
.
Personal life and death
In 1929, Stone married Esther Roisman, who later worked as his assistant at ''I. F. Stone's Weekly''. Their marriage produced three children, Celia, Jeremy, and Christopher
Christopher is the English language, English version of a Europe-wide name derived from the Greek language, Greek name Χριστόφορος (''Christophoros'' or ''Christoforos''). The constituent parts are Χριστός (''Christós''), "Jesus ...
. Esther's sister Jean, a poet, was the wife of radical lawyer Leonard Boudin
Leonard B. Boudin (July 20, 1912 – November 24, 1989) was an American civil liberties attorney and left-wing activist who represented Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame and Benjamin Spock, the author of '' Baby and Child Care'', who advoca ...
. (Stone was thus the uncle of Weather Underground
The Weather Underground was a far-left Marxist militant organization first active in 1969, founded on the Ann Arbor campus of the University of Michigan. Originally known as the Weathermen, or simply Weatherman, the group was organized as a f ...
co-founder Kathy Boudin and conservative U.S. judge Michael Boudin.) The Stones' marriage lasted for sixty years. In 1989, Stone died of a heart attack in Boston at the age of 81.[
]
Legacy
Memorial awards
On March 5, 2008, Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
's Nieman Foundation for Journalism
The Nieman Foundation for Journalism is the primary journalism institution at Harvard University.
History
It was founded in February 1938 as the result of a $1.4 million bequest by Agnes Wahl Nieman, the widow of Lucius W. Nieman, founder of ...
announced plans to award an annual I. F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence and an associated I. F. Stone Workshop on Strengthening Journalistic Independence.
In 2008, the Park Center for Independent Media at the Roy H. Park School of Communications created the Izzy Award. The award goes to "an independent outlet, journalist, or producer for contributions to our culture, politics, or journalism created outside traditional corporate structures" for "special achievement in independent media".
Documentaries
On May 6, 2015, the non-profit peace organization, Catalytic Diplomacy, released ''The Legacy of I.F. Stone, Part One'' and ''Part Two'', a pair of documentary videos exploring the legacy and influence of I. F. Stone and ''I.F. Stone's Weekly''.
In 2016, the film ''ALL GOVERNMENTS LIE: Truth, Deception, and the Spirit of I.F. Stone'' was released; a documentary on independent journalism in which the work and principles of I.F. Stone as an outcast journalist articulate the narrative.
Archive
The entire run of ''I.F. Stone's Weekly'' from January 17, 1953, through December 1, 1971, can be accessed through the ifstone.org website, along with many of Stone's speeches and other writings, and the documentary videos ''The Legacy of I.F. Stone, Part One'' and ''The Legacy of I.F. Stone, Part Two''.
Music
Composer Scott Johnson makes extensive use of Stone's voice taken from a recorded 1981 lecture in his large-scale musical work, ''How It Happens'', completed in 1991 on commission for the Kronos Quartet
The Kronos Quartet is an American string quartet based in San Francisco. It has been in existence with a rotating membership of musicians for 50 years. The quartet covers a very broad range of musical genres, including contemporary classical musi ...
.
Nobel Prize
He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...
in 1967
Events January
* January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair.
* January 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and Army of ...
and for the Nobel Prize in Literature
The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...
in 1974
Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...
.
Influences
The 2008 Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards
Johnny Reid Edwards (born June 10, 1953) is an American lawyer and former politician who represented North Carolina in the United States Senate from 1999 to 2005. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the vice presidential nominee under ...
listed Stone's ''The Trial of Socrates'' as one of his three favorite books.
Honors
* Honorary Degree from Amherst College
* Newspaper Guild of New York Honors Page One Must for " Underground to Palestine" awarded in 1947
* The Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt ( ; October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the longest-serving First Lady of the United States, first lady of the United States, during her husband Franklin D ...
Award
* The George Polk Award of Long Island University
Long Island University (LIU) is a private university in Brooklyn and Brookville, New York, United States. The university enrolls over 16,000 students and offers over 500 academic programs at its main campuses, LIU Brooklyn and LIU Post on Long I ...
* American Library Association
The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world.
History 19th century ...
Intellectual Freedom Award
* Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies Award
* Lifetime Achievement Award from Haddonfield High School (I. F. Stone's high school)
* A. J. Liebling Award for Journalistic Distinction
* Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
Journalism Award
* National Press Club Journalists' Journalist Award
* The American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million.
T ...
Award
* The First Amendment Defender Award of the Catholic University
Catholic higher education includes universities, colleges, and other institutions of higher education privately run by the Catholic Church, typically by religious institutes. Those tied to the Holy See are specifically called pontifical univers ...
's Columbus School of Law
The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law is the law school of the Catholic University of America, a private Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C., United States.
More than 370 Juris Doctor students attend the ...
* The Florina Lasker Civil Liberties Award from the New York Civil Liberties Union
The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) is a civil rights organization in the United States. Founded in November 1951 as the New York affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, it is a not-for-profit, nonpartisan organization with nearly ...
* The Grand Prix Charles-Leopold Mayer of the French Academy of Sciences
The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...
, November 1977
* The Sidney Hillman Foundation Award
* The Professional Freedom and Responsibility Award of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications
Publications
Books
* ''The Court Disposes'' (1937)
* ''Business as Usual'' (1941)
* '' Underground to Palestine'' (1946)
* ''This is Israel'' (1948)
* ''The Killings at Kent State'' (1971) LCCN 73148389
* ''The I. F. Stone's Weekly Reader'' (1973)
* ''The Trial of Socrates
The Trial of Socrates (399 BCE) was held to determine the philosopher's guilt of two charges: ''asebeia'' ( impiety) against the pantheon of Athens, and corruption of the youth of the city-state; the accusers cited two impious acts by Socrat ...
'' (Anchor Books
Vintage Books is a trade paperback publishing imprint of Penguin Random House originally established by Alfred A. Knopf in 1954. The company was acquired by Random House in April 1960, and a British division was set up in 1990. After Random Ho ...
, 1988)
* ''A Nonconformist History of Our Times'' (Little, Brown and Company, 1989)
** ''The War Years, 1939–1945''.
** ''The Hidden History of the Korean War, 1950–1951''.
** ''The Truman Era, 1945–1952''.
** ''The Haunted Fifties, 1953–1963''.
** ''In a Time of Torment, 1961–1967''.
** ''Polemics and Prophecies, 1967–1970''.
*
Periodicals
* ''I.F. Stone's Weekly'', January 17, 1953, through December 1, 1971
*
I. F. Stone (1971–1989) – ''New York Review of Books''
References
Further reading
Documentaries
*
*
*
*
Biographies
* Robert C. Cottrell. (1992). ''Izzy: A Biography of I. F. Stone'', New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press. . 388 pages. 18 chapters. Notes. Selected Bibliography. Index.
* D. D. Guttenplan. 2009. ''American Radical: The Life and Times of I. F. Stone''. Farrar, Straus and Giroux
:
The Secret History of Izzy
by D. D. Guttenplan, ''The Nation'', May 13, 2009
:
"Armed With Words: D. D. Guttenplan's ''The Life and Times of I. F. Stone''." Review by Tom Robbins in ''The Village Voice'', June 2, 2009.
* Myra MacPherson. (2006). ''All Governments Lie!: The Life and Times of Rebel Journalist I. F. Stone'', Scribner.
:*
:* (response to Paul Berman's review)
:*
:* (response to Paul Berman's review)
* Andrew Patner. (1988). ''I. F. Stone: A Portrait'', Pantheon.
Related
* Frank J. Donner. (1980). ''The Age of Surveillance: The Aims and Methods of America's Political Intelligence System''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
* Victor S. Navasky. (1980). ''Naming Names: '' New York: The Viking Press. .
* Ellen Schrecker. 1994. ''The Age Of McCarthyism: A Brief History With Documents''. Boston: St. Martin's Press,
* Oleg Kalugin
Oleg Danilovich Kalugin (; born 6 September 1934) is a former KGB general (stripped of his rank and awards by a Russian Court decision in 2002). He was during a time, head of KGB political operations in the United States and later a critic of ...
and Fen Montaigne. (1994). ''The First Directorate: My 32 Years in Intelligence and Espionage Against the West'' New York, NY: St. Martin's Press.
*
*
* Ellen Schrecker. 1998. ''Many are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America.'' Boston: Little Brown,
* Stanley Sandler. 1999. ''The Korean War: No Victors, No Vanquished'', University Press of Kentucky, 0813109671
*
* Alexander Vassiliev
Alexander Yuryevich Vassiliev (; born 1962) is a Russians, Russian-British people, British journalist, writer and espionage historian living in London who is a Subject-matter expert, subject matter expert in the Soviet KGB and Russian Foreign In ...
, John Earl Haynes, and Harvey Klehr
Harvey Elliott Klehr (born December 25, 1945) is a professor of politics and history at Emory University. Klehr is known for his books on the subject of the American Communist movement, and on Soviet espionage in America (many written jointly with ...
''Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America''. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) () "I. F. Stone: The Icon" pp. 146–52.
*
External links
*
*
*
* Video:
:*
:
I. F. Stone Interview at UC Berkeley, 1970
* Audio:
:
"I. F. Stone Remembered," Radio Open Source, September 22, 2006
:
which includes:
::* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20150527000910/http://www.kpfahistory.info/pa/i_f_stone_vietnam.mp3 I. F. Stone Lecture 1963 Vietnam Day Teach-in at U.C. Berkeley
::
I. F. Stone conversation, Part one
1988 The New School
The New School is a Private university, private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for p ...
, The Nation
''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...
, WBAI
WBAI (99.5 FM) is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station licensed to New York, New York. Its programming is a mixture of political news, talk and opinion from a left-leaning, liberal or progressive viewpoint, and eclectic musi ...
::
I. F. Stone conversation, Part two
1988 The New School
The New School is a Private university, private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for p ...
, The Nation
''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...
, WBAI
WBAI (99.5 FM) is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station licensed to New York, New York. Its programming is a mixture of political news, talk and opinion from a left-leaning, liberal or progressive viewpoint, and eclectic musi ...
::
Chris Koch's 1993 recount of Stone’s about-face over the 1962 exposé by former FBI Special Agent Jack Levine
:::
Report of special agent Jack Levine
:::
former FBI Special Agent Jack Levine 1962 Raw recording
by Richard Elman and Chris Koch of WBAI
WBAI (99.5 FM) is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station licensed to New York, New York. Its programming is a mixture of political news, talk and opinion from a left-leaning, liberal or progressive viewpoint, and eclectic musi ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stone, I. F.
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