To be encouraged
Sir: Christian Caryl objects to David Pryce- Jones's masterly The War that Never Was because he dislikes its tone — that of an 'avenging angel' (Books, 6 May). Well, some triumphalism about the collapse of the Secret Empire is not just desirable but obli- gatory for those who fought and won the Cold War — if only 'pour encourager les autres'.
When an overbearing ideology like com- munism bites the dust and its 'scientific' pretensions are exposed as fraudulent, we have a duty to observe one of history's greatest failures without inhibitions or regrets.
The fact that in some East European countries ex-communists were voted back into power merely illustrates the horrific extent to which the Party succeeded, in stu- pefying and brain-washing opinion during the four decades of its reign.
When this oppression ended, many East Europeans expected an instant capitalist paradise. As the impossible failed to mate- rialise they optqd for another utopian illu- sion, i.e., a combination of socialist pater- nalism and a free-market economy run by a reformed nomenklatura To interpret this pathetic aberration as a retrospective endorsement of the old police state is to misunderstand completely what goes on in the old Soviet satellites.
Lionel Bloch
Garrick Club, London WC2
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