ABSTRACT
Russell’s forthright views and public utterances on America ensured that his Richmond address in London was kept well plied with letters from American admirers as well as opponents. The year 1952, following as it did on his final lecture tour, was a bumper year for such correspondence, but despite his numerous commitments, Russell was at pains to reply. Harold Kastner from Indiana continued to keep Russell informed about the state of civil liberties in America. On February 6 he wrote to Russell complaining about Louis Fisher, the writer with whom he had had a rather bitter correspondence. Russell replied on February 20:
Thank you for the various things you have sent me. I am interested by your correspondence with Louis Fisher. I only once had contact with him and that was of a somewhat unfortunate kind. Just after the failure of the Cripps Mission to India, he and I had a broadcast discussion about India. At that time Gandhi (who is his God) thought the Japanese would win the war—the only case I know of in which his political acumen was at fault. Louis Fisher, who pretends to you that he is always charitable, told a pack of lies about the British which caused me to lose my temper. After the discussion was over he said to me “Lord Russell, I don’t understand how you can think…” I interrupted and said, “No, I don’t suppose you can.” I was feeling at the time very sore because England was in grave danger and Americans who told lies against England increased the danger. Nevertheless, it is obvious that my behavior was indefensible and injudicious and not calculated to bring Louis Fisher around to my point of view. Those of us who feel that we belong to minorities which are more or less impotent almost inevitably become bitter and quarrelsome and querulous. So I have found it in my own case and so I expect you are finding it. I always find it difficult in situations of that sort to remember that it is more important to be persuasive than to say the things that give pleasure to oneself. I have the profoundest sympathy with you in your fight but I sometimes feel that you are in danger of falling into controversial errors of which I myself am constantly guilty. If I give you advice, it is like that of a man who urges total abstinence because he has a hangover. But the advice may be none the less sound. I do not want to see you getting into more trouble than public duty demands. And I should like you to remember that you have the sympathy of very many people who have not the courage to say what they feel.
