Despite
reviewing more than a hundred articles written by Clifford D. May on this
website over the years, a mystery was never solved. It was this:
When
and how did it happen that Clifford May came to conflate America and Israel so
intimately, he spoke of America's interests and security but meant Israel's
interests and security even when that could only be achieved at the expense of
America's interests and security?
Well,
we have an answer to that question now. It was given by Clifford May himself,
perhaps because it is true what they say about people mellowing when they get
older. In fact, the man has even admitted to stances he adopted when he was
younger, but now considers them to have been foolish stances.
He
decided to fess up to a past he kept hidden for several decades, but no more.
You get a sense of his transformation when you read the article he wrote under
the title: “Socialist eras and errors,” published on April 16, 2019 in The Washington
Times.
To
make sure that no one will damn him for the stances he adopted as a young man,
or the zeal with which he promoted his views at the time, Clifford May began
the article by laying out the excuses for his going astray. He said this:
“Socialism has been cool before, notably during the Great Depression, and the
Sixties: era of the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, the hippies and the
(old) New Left.” In other words, he says blame his foolishness not on him but
on society.
He
got caught in that draft, he says, thus as a high school student, interviewed
for the school's newspaper, the man who once headed the American Communist
Party. When he finished with high school, and was ready for college, he was
astute enough to know he would not make it into a prestigious college had he
said he admired William Buckley on his application. So, he named Norman Thomas
of the Socialist Party of America as the person he most admired. And Clifford
May expects you to believe that.
His
foolishness was not limited to writing things about a system of governance he
later grew to despise; he went on to say. What he did next with his life was
this: “I went to the Soviet Union on a study program … I decided to major in
Russian and, a couple of years later, won a place on the exchange program
between the United States (US) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
(USSR) … I then comprehended that Communism was toxic to freedom and
prosperity”.
What
Clifford May omitted from this narrative was that the era of the Sixties was
more than that of the Vietnam war, the civil rights movement, the hippies and
the Left. It was also the era of the Israeli kibbutzim, of the Jewish love
affair with Uncle Joe Stalin, and of the Jewish drive to send young Americans
to Israel where they learned all about the charm and beauty of communal life.
Time
moved on, and the era was approaching the end of the 1960s. It was a moment
right after Israel had scored a propaganda coup, having mounted a sneak attack
on its neighbors; one that so impressed the Americans, they acceded to the idea
of lavishing Israel with unlimited amounts of money and weapons.
Look
at it anyway you want, you cannot escape the conclusion that this was the event
which motivated Clifford May and many like him, to “comprehend” that Uncle Joe
Stalin may not be as good as Uncle Sam, after all. And so, he and they decided
that the time had come to join the crowd of Israel-worshipers, and shift their
allegiance from the USSR to the good old USA.
To
harmonize his mental processes with the moves that Israel was making, Clifford
May changed his tune. He began to attack the Soviet system, and praise the
American system … warts and all. Here, in condensed form, is how he described
what went on:
“Soviet Communism was a failure, as were the various forms of
utopian socialism. In the 1980s I moved to Africa. Virtually every African
government in the post-colonial era chose the socialist path to development and
failed. In Latin America, too, socialism has led to dismal outcomes. China's
socialist market economy creates wealth, though without liberty or basic human
rights. But at least there's income equality, right? No.
And what about Scandinavia? Well, Denmark is a market economy. It
is an expanded welfare state which provides a high level of security for its
citizens, but it is also a successful market economy. Back to me: Disenchanted
with both communism and socialism, I began reading up on capitalism”.