Macmillan's role
Sir: I will not attempt to match Alistair Home's increasingly shrill tone of invective regarding Macmillan's role in the post-war atrocities in Austria (Letters, 19 Novem- ber). Your readers may judge for them- selves whether I was entitled to reflect on his attempt to justify the crime by means of a blanket smear at the expense of the victims.
To take one example: Home identifies 'Ukrainian units' as possessing a 'track record . . . of beastliness often paralleling or even exceeding that of the worst SS units'. The only Ukrainian unit held by V Corps was the Galicia Division, whose record in this respect has recently been subjected to minute scrutiny. We may be sure that Home has examined the matter carefully, since he would not wish to advance such a savage accusation lightly.
LETTERS
May one enquire, then, on what evidence he bases his rejection of the extant find- ings?
Home has expressed at great length his conviction that I am less than 'familiar with historical exactitude', and that my reconstruction of events is so shot through with palpable lies, errors and distortions that its deficiencies must be apparent to any educated reader. It seems a little odd in that case that he declined an ideal opportunity to expose my failings before. the public at large. Invited by LBC to debate with me in an hour-long phone-in programme on 6 October, he declined, claiming that his contract with his publisher forbids him to debate with me in public.
If Home has problems in explaining his own version of events, it is scarcely surpris- ing that he cannot understand mine. Moreover, as my letter to which he refers (in which I supposedly confess all) covers five closely-typed foolscap pages detailing errors of fact cluttering chapter ten of his biography, 1 imagine your journal is un-. likely to obey his injunction to print it. I can only state, therefore, that what I wrote does not bear the connotation Horne places upon it, and that I will happily send a full copy to any interested reader (s.a.e., please).
Nikolai Tolstoy
Court Close, Southmoor, Abingdon, Berkshire
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