ABSTRACT
John Reed never quite lived down his early reputation as a playboy. Even after he had become a thorough radical and willingly suffered ostracism, imprisonment, hunger, and death as a consequence, he continued to be regarded as “the playboy of the Social Revolution.” Reed perceived in the coarse and audacious Mexican a modern Robin Hood, the friend of the peons, who was devoting his military talents to the destruction of their centuries-old oppressors. The outbreak of World War I in 1914 made it inevitable for Reed to go to Europe as a correspondent. He had no stomach for the assignment. In January 1917, The Metropolitan announced that Reed was about to leave for China to “hold up the mirror to this mysterious and romantic country.” Reed was elated when the Bolsheviki, activated by their determined and dominating leader Lenin, struck for political power.
