Thoughts on My 75th Birthday
Today is my 75th birthday, and I thought instead of a regular column, I would write about my thoughts and feelings about reaching this milestone. To use the Yiddish vernacular, I’m now officially an alta cocker, which when younger we used as a term for those old Jews who sat on benches in the non-hip Miami Beach of yesteryear. Pretty soon I’ll be able to join — if only I could be funny — my brethren who post entries on “Old Jews Telling Jokes.”
In a slightly more serious vein, as I face the reality that I’m entering my twilight years, my thoughts turn to that which has seen me through both good times and bad. I’m fortunate to have had a wonderful marriage for some thirty-seven years to my wife Allis, with whom I now write books, and to have marvelous children and grandchildren. My son Daniel in Brooklyn and his wife Gina have three fantastic kids (Milo, Margalit and Seraphina), and my daughter Laura in Berlin and her partner Silke have two beautiful girls (Malka and Noemie). And our son Mike and his wife Jen, who live nearby us in Maryland, have an always-on-the-go, energetic one year old named Evan. As everyone knows, this is what life is all about, and it affords me great pleasure.
I still have friends not only from high school, but from elementary school as well. About two years ago, I went to New York City where at one of the clubs, a group of old friends from P.S.173 in Washington Heights, where I grew up, met for a wonderful dinner of talk and reminiscences. All four of us, I’m happy to report, were successful in life and have made great contributions in our chosen careers. One of them is a now retired top editor and writer, another a player in Democratic Party circles and a lawyer of renown, and the third a highly regarded New York character actor, whom you have undoubtedly seen on the stage or in various television programs. We all remembered vividly, as if it were yesterday, events from the days in our old neighborhood. Memories do stay with us.
Last week, while on a research trip to West Branch, Iowa, for the book Allis and I are writing on the presidency of Warren Harding, I was able to meet one of my best friends from high school, who works as an artist and is now retired from Cornell College in that state. Seeing old friends and remaining in touch with them is yet another blessing to be counted.
The passing of the years has also led me to reflect on what keeps me going with columns, articles, and books — instead of supposedly enjoying going to the golf course every day (a problem anyway — since I don’t play golf) or constantly traveling to exotic locales. One is supposed to slow down as time goes on, take it easy, enjoy simple reading, watch movies, and just enjoy oneself.
Instead, I find myself angry and as motivated as I ever was to try and tell what I consider to be the truth, and to take up and challenge all the charlatans that surround us. The past few days I have worked hard on an article to appear in the next issue of The Weekly Standard, a review-essay on the new TV documentary series and book by Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick titled Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States. Watching the episodes literally made my blood pressure rise. I was quite simply infuriated at what I watched and heard Stone come up with.
I knew that others would not have the expertise and background to take up the misinformation he offers Americans who listen to him and think they are learning the truth about our past. My anger and disdain for a culture that allows Stone’s celebrity as a Hollywood filmmaker — to present himself as a historian who has anything to contribute to comprehending the American story — led me to realize that I had to deal with him, because in most likelihood no one else would.
That desire to answer the likes of Stone has a lot to do with my leftist childhood and adolescence. As readers of my memoir Commies know, my decision to become a historian in the first place came from the inspiration I had from a Marxist-Leninist history teacher at my high school, who told me that “Marx said history is the queen of the sciences.” I don’t know if indeed Marx said that, but I remember the teacher whom I regarded highly telling me that. (One can be influenced by high school mentors a great deal, which is why I think Paul Kengor is correct to call attention in his book to the influence on Barack Obama of the president’s mentor in Hawaii, Frank Marshall Davis. I reviewed it here.)






Happy birthday, and please continue writing.
Absolutely! And a huge “thank you!” for what you’ve done so far!
Ron,
I learn the most from your columns, so keep on churning them out.
Happy birthday, Mr. Radosh! Fighting is exhausting, but I’m glad you’ve chosen to keep at it. I hope I have your courage of conviction when I’m seventy-five.
More joy in heaven over one sinner and all that. Happy birthday. Would that more had trod the path that you and David Horowitz did.
Happy birthday Mr. Radosh.
Ron, you raise an interesting question. Can the truth be anything other than the truth?
“Instead, I find myself angry and as motivated as I ever was to try and tell what I consider to be the truth, and to take up and challenge all the charlatans that surround us.”
Your perception of the truth — what you consider to be the truth — is not the truth. You either know the truth or you don’t.
And Happy Birthday!!!
Ron, as I recall it, your troubles began with your first trip to Cuba and your discovery that it was not a worker’s paradise after all. You took a lot of flack for that! The Rosenbergs came later.
You’ve demonstrated that it is better to be an honest man than one who enjoys a certain popularity as the result of following a prescribed line.
Congratulations!
Alonzo Hamby
” another a player in Democratic Party circles and a lawyer of renown”
Well, three out of four ain’t bad.
Happy birthday Mr. Radosh and may you enjoy many more.
Mr.Radosh:
Happy Birthday and many many more. I hope this reaches your eyes. I first stumbled across you via a Mona Charen Column where she cited your “New” book Commies and referenced the line uttered during your Cuba trip when somebody declared the difference between a Capitalist and Socialist lobotomy. I thought it so funny I decided to get your book as I thought it would be full of anecdotes in similar vein. When ordering it at B&N they printed out a list of your books and I saw “The Rosenberg File” and ordered it as well. They came in together but I decided to read Rosenberg first. It was captivating and my new found respect for J. Edgar Hoover came from realizing through your research how thorough he was. Not the slip shod power grabbing person we’ve been led to believe. Upon reading Commies afterward I had no idea that at the time you wrote Rosenberg File that you were not only a member of the “New Left” but one of its founders. This gives you high marks for your integrity as a historian over your ideology at the time. I further stumbled across you here at PJ while following a link to a Victor Davis Hanson Column. I’ve read every column you’ve posted here since and am grateful for my discovery. My Father was a domestic Cold Warrior. I grew up surrounded by the Dan Smoot report, Dr. Schwarts books, and many many lecturers about communism to which it is some miracle that I never did join the communist party after high school graduation in 72. Through yours and a few others work I was able to tell my Dad that he was correct many years before he passed away. Roy Brewer attended my dad funeral and my stepmother has said she fielded calls from David Horowitz, just to give my dad some cred. Thank you for your work, I hope you opened many eyes with solid research and analysis and that there is more to come.
Sincerely, RNF II
Ron, Happy Birthday and as others have stated, please continue to write.
My father and I had a wonderful time reading “Commies…”, he being a fan of Dylan and Guthrie and me being a fan of political history. The book allowed us to bond on a semi-intellectual level, an occurrence very rare for us and for that I thank you kindly.
Congrats on your birthday! I am grateful for your writings exposing the facts about such things as the Rosenbergs and the communist activities that Boomer students and policy makers were so quick to dismiss.
What a beautiful cake! Enjoy, and Happy Birthday.
Happy 75th, Ron.
You are a gem in the crown of American patriotism. May you have another quarter century to gift us with your wisdom and defense of our ideals.
I hope you and your family have a wonderful time celebrating your milestone birthday.
Best wishes from the bottom of my heart…and thank you…for being you.
Happy Birthday Ron and thanks for a fantastic article. I completely agree; there are just too many people out there overzealous to take a stance they know little about. Ignorance is never bliss. Just dangerous.
Happy Birthday!
Congratulations on having got this far. I hope to do the same. If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to work well towards my nineties as did my mother’s father.
I’m a bit surprised that you found it important enough to reflect upon and recall past years’ activities rather than anticipated ones, though your journey has certainly been interesting. I expect it will remain so.
I wish you continued enjoyment of your chosen work, as well as the pleasure of your family and acquaintances, which, as you say, is most gratifying.
Regards,
Gary
Happy Birthday.
WRT your blood pressure rising when exposed to charlatanry, I respectfully suggest that this condition might perhaps be mitigated by (a) a low carb diet and (b) assuming a superior attitude: getting into the habit of smirking at charlatans and the dupes who listen to them.
WRT your high school experience, you might be interested to know that in an Italian high school, my teachers included fascists, Christian democrats, and communists. (And they all got along btw.) But of course, Mussolini got to power by championing the class interests of white-collar public sector workers: see The Road to Serfdom, last few pages of chapter 8. The commies championed blue-collar private-sector workers.
… and btw I look forward to reading your article in the Weekly Standard, especially since I have no idea what kind of history Oliver Stone is peddling.
Happy Birthday, and many more. May you be healthy and contented as the years accumulate, and may you have the opportunities to pursue your work and enjoy seeing the younger members of your family live joyfully. Thank you for your fine work, and we appreciate reading your contributions here at PJM
Happy birthday Mr. Radosh. And God bless you for valuing truth over dogma.
Happy Birthday. Please keep up your important work. I am about half-way through your SPAIN BETRAYED. Your unmasking of NKVD and GRU documents during the Spanish Civil War is quite an eye- opener. Please continue tearing away the masks of those who would steal our freedom.
Happy Birthday.
The Truth is like gold. It is precious only because it is so rare.
Happy birthday Mr. Radosh, and Mazel Tov. You are fortunate to still have old friends, as very few denizens of the left tolerate apostasy. A friend who sticks with you despite personal political disagreements is a rare treasure.
Incidentally I just two days ago finished reading Spain Betrayed. I had long wanted to study the Spanish Civil War but refrained, for I knew how thoroughly it had been mythologized by the progressives. Your book not only verified much what I had already suspected (because as a veteran of the Cold War I knew that the Soviet Union was absolutely not altruistic and therefore they must have expected something other than gratitude from the Spanish Republicans) but pointed me towards historians to follow up on for a more balanced view of that war than I could find from the likes of The Nation editorial staff. I would never cheer on the likes of Franco, but it seems that if nothing else he was, if not the best, the least worst outcome for Spain.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY RON. After this weekend I will post my song to you – to the tune of “Tam Pierce” an old Burl Ives folksong. Reading the other posts here has been very inspiring. A lot of folks really get what you are saying, what you are exposing – how important it is to learn from history – learn the right lessons not the left-wing reading back into history and creating black and white cartoons. All your books have been illuminations on the past and therefore the present. And now catching up with Theodore Draper and his volumes on American Communism, its hard to understand that some still keep up the romantic-false vision of commies. I guess foolishness is always with us – but you have gone beyond the call of duty to wake us up from these distortions and lies. God Bless, Shalom, Cantor Bob Cohen
Happy Birthday Mr. Radosh. We are all beholden to you for your unyielding pursuit of truth. May you enjoy many many more years in the fight.
Sincerely,
Woodsman
HERE’S TO YOU PAT: A LIFE WELL LIVED…MAY IN LONG ENDURE IN HAPPINESS
“WE SALUTE YOU—FRIENDS OF FREEDOM!”
We sing your praise, our unseen friends,
Who labor with us in these days.
And though, at times, our path seems bleak,
We now perceive God’s better way!
Our message brims with faith and hope
A voice of love that is God’s own!
And if chill fears should shade our hearts,
We seem to hear, “You’re not alone–
“Be still and know that I AM GOD,
“With sacred blessings held, reserved,
“For those who love COLUMBIA*,
“A nation I raised up to serve
“This world to which I gave MY LIGHT
“That Freedom’s Power be preserved!”
Then let us strive toward what-should-be,
With all who share our troubled days.
That by God’s grace, throughout all time,
With you, we’ll sing COLUMBIA’S praise!
* Columbia = United States; new Latin from Christopher Columbus; first used 1775.
SO MANY UNSEEN FRIENDS LABOR TOGETHER…AND WE WILL WIN…NEXT TUESDAY!
Happy birthday, Ron, and many more ad mea v’esrim. Thank you so much for sharing your insight with all of us!
Well Ron, at least YOU figured out the sick murderous joke that is communism – though it took you a while.
By about 1950 or so, it was very clear that Stalin had murdered about 20 to 30 million souls (vs. about 12 million that Hitler had exterminated), and it was an historical fact that Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler and it was also a fact that Stalin invaded/took over Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and of course, as part of the Hitler Stalin Pact, he invaded eastern Poland about 10 days after Hitler had invaded from the west.
It was also true that by about 1965 or so it was very very clear that E.German border guards would shoot IN THE BACK anyone trying to flee into W.German and FREEDOM, and leave those shot in the back left to die atop the barbed wire barriers.
Apparently NONE OF THIS MATTERED TO YOU !!!!
Did you not ever stop and think , “why is there a wall preventing people from leaving a country if that country is a workers paradise.”
Did you ever stop and think “if the USSR is utopia, then why are people not free to leave and return as they are in that imperialistic, capitalistic, dog-eat-dog, hell on earth, USA?”
I just cite a few very obvious examples.
And now you write about a friend who is a major force in NY democratic circles. Let’s see, is this not the party that IN EVERY SINGLE INSTANCE HAS BLOCKED SCHOOL CHOICE AND CHARTER SCHOOLS for those trapped in the inner city schools???
Let me guess, your democratic party friend had HIS KIDS GO TO GOOD SCHOOLS. Why does this not surprise me?
Ron, I read your book COMMIE many years ago and it came as a shock to me to see how disgusting, how reprehensible, how arrogant, how elitist, how UNCARING, how cold, how NARCISSISTIC , leftist ideologues are. They are no different today. Frankly, they are literally worse than NAZIS.
It is simply beyond comprehension that to this day, in Manhattan, exists the headquarters of the CPUSA; espousing an ideology that has resulted in more intentional deaths than any other ideology in world history. (Imagine the KKK or Nazi Party wanted to establish a NYC headquarters; it would never get off the ground due to protests, etc.).
It appears that because your “friends” tried to stop you from writing the truth about the Rosenberg case, that was the impetus you needed to break from the lefty-Nazi-commie crowd into which you were born and raised.
So, please tell us, why did the intentional deaths of millions and millions of souls under communist tyrannies not convince you MANY YEARS EARLIER of the evil that is communism??
Why didn’t the MURDER of civilians, shot in the BACK, and left to die on the barbed wire along the E.Berlin border – and shown in magazine pictures ALL OVER THE WORLD – not convince you that communism and Nazism were one and the same.
Why was it that something that happened to YOU, that affected YOU, was the impetus that convinced you to re-think your ideological leanings?
Perhaps you can enlighten all of your readers and provide a response.
You should be the one writing The Untold History of the United States.
Happy Birthday!
Happy birthday, Ron. I was shocked you’re 75, then thought of-course Dylan is 71, so it makes sense. I guess 70 must be the new 40, so good luck with middle-age. And keep up your superb and important work.
Happy Birthday! Happy, happy, happy birthday!
Happy Birthday Ron. But one issue in your journey from Communism to the present I think needs to be clarified. While it is apparent that your desire to remain truthful to the evidence in your excellent book about the Rosenbergs damned you in the eyes of your fellow leftists, it was the active and purposeful campaign against you in the historical profession by such former close friends of yours led by Eric Foner of Columbia University that was the source of many of your trials and your subsequent political conversion.I wonder if Foner and others on the left had been less active in trying to undermine your career by seeking to block your appointment to various history faculties whether your ideological journey would have taken the path it did. This is not to doubt the sincerity of your conversion — a conversion, by the way, I applaud — but simply to indicate that I often find that in many people’s lives the personal strongly shapes the political.
Perhaps this is one answer to the question of a previous commentator: why, given all the evidence of Stalin’s crimes that was available to you and others did it take you so long for the scales to fall from your eyes?
Actually, you have your timeline all wrong. If you read my memoir, you will see, as Lon Hamby accurately noted, that I began to shift after my trip to Cuba. The attacks on me from people like Foner only helped me realize their true colors, and was more evidence that truth was not something they respected. The attacks angered me, of course, but were not responsible for my change of views. Awareness of the reality of the world was.
Also, when I was on the Left, mainstream schools blocked me from hiring because then they didn’t want leftists. It worked both ways. Things changed when the Left took over the faculties, as part of their long march through existing institutions.;
As for the evidence of Stalin’s crimes, I knew of them through reading Isaac Deutscher, who for STalinists, was a bridge away from communism. That was a step I took long ago, in my brief sojourn as a communist. Then I learned the entire world-view was wrong, andgave up socialism as well. So I never was a denier of Stalin’s crimes, as previous generations of Communists had been. As David Horowitz acknowledges in his writings, the New Left thought it knew the truth about Stalinism but whlle standing against it, justified the crimes of the new Third World Communist regimes like Cuba, hoping that they werre something different. I hope that answers your question.
“Also, when I was on the Left, mainstream schools blocked me from hiring because then they didn’t want leftists.”
This simply does not ring true.
Academics have always been in the fore in supporting left wing causes and colleges/universities have long had on campus radical organizations – mostly leftist.
It simply appears that when you were warned not to write the truth about the Rosenbergs, it just got you so pissed off that you told your fellow radical, elitist, arrogant, Stalin-wannabes to F off.
What do you think your reaction would have been if you were encouraged and supported by your fellow lefty travelers to write the truth?
Do you think you would have “broken” with the left crowd?
Yea, maybe the horrendous crimes that about which EVERYONE KNEW (committed by Stalin, Castro, Eric Honecker, etc) disturbed you slightly, but clearly, not enough for you to even question your basic ideological beliefs.
I am convinced that those folks who wish to rule, control, command, attain power, etc., are folks who truly believe that they are entitled, by virtue of their intellect, or social standing or birthrite, to rule over what they perceive as the ignorant, stupid, undeserving, unwashed masses.
We see this today when, typically liberal progressives in Congress, desire for all of us to drive electric cars, use less resources, etc, but they themselves either drive (or are driven) in massive SUVs, have multiple vacation homes, take private planes, purchase large boats, etc., and have their assets protected in trust funds and other tax-free/deferred vehicles.
They – the ruling elites – simply believe that ONLY THEY are entitled to the better things in life, because they are simply smarter, more knowledgeable, more sophisticated, while the average Jane/Joe simply does not deserve any of these things.
As for leftist leaders/dicatators, well, look at all the luxuries they allow t themselves – material or freedom of choice-wise – while they prohibit their citizenry from having the same choices and freedom.
Leftism is based totally and completely on contempt and hatred of the average person and those that support this ideology simply wish to be recognized as “special” or “smarter” or “more intelligent” than the average person.
Like a spoiled rotten child who screams bloody murder over being denied that cookie, leftists are spoiled brat children disguised in adult bodies screaming bloody murder to be recognized as SUPERIOR, and they manifest this lack of recognition by seeking to control, to dominate and yes, to murder all those who stand in their way.
You were once part of that sicko crowd. At least you finally woke up.
Thanks for the reply. As Alonzo Hamby noted, and as you indicated in your memoir and your reply, you began to reconsider your “world view” after visiting Cuba. And I may be wrong, but it appeared to me that you were still in thrall to the left until the Rosenberg book came out in the Eighties and Foner and others began to attack you personally and tried to undermine you professionally. This is not to say that you never questioned your previous positions or were ever an apologist for Stalinism before your ideological conversion but, as far as I can tell, you weren’t outspoken in expressing your doubts about the “world view” you later strongly rejected. On the contrary, I remember attending a lecture at Columbia in, I think, the 1980s by a Penn State historian who wrote a book highly critical of how William Appleman Williams and other historians on the left misused and distorted evidence and documents to support their arguments. You and Foner shouted him down, accusing him of all kinds of historical crimes and misdemeanors. It was not until some time afterwards when you became the victim of similar behavior that I began to notice a decided shift in your ideological position. Again, I do not doubt in the slightest your sincerity but I only wanted to point out that oftentimes a persons political views can be shaped and reshaped by personal experiences. As you have written, growing up and being educated in an environment dominated by Communists and leftists affected you ideologically. Similarly, being rejected and denounced as a traitor to “the cause” because of your commitment to historical truth and being embraced for that very reason and others by those you previously disdained might have and probably did shape your later ideological journey — something I applaud you for.
A heartfelt happy birthday from Italy, and a big thank you for your books: too bad they are not translated in my language, leftist history still dominates here with all its distortions. Nevertheless I’ve read most of them in English with great interest.
My dearest wishes to you and your family, I hope your descendants may inherit your honesty.
I too grew up with Communist parents (they always refered to themselves, however, as progressives) and did not fully reject their philosophy until I was in my 40s and was, as some say, “mugged by reality.” People need to understand that leftism is just like a religion in its demand for conformity to its established rituals. And like the Amish, leftists use shunning to keep adherents in line.
So cut Ron a break. I know plenty of leftists who still cling to the utopian dreams and never question them.
2+2=4 was a popular T-shirt in Poland in the 1980′s and the commies thought it was subversive but couldn’t figure out why. It’s elegant in it’s simplicity, an undeniable truth just like everything you have written. Excellent column and I always enjoy yours and David Horowitz’s. Now go eat cake, Happy birthday to a patriotic American.
Happy birthday, Ron!
I’m 54, so I’m a full generation younger than you. I was also a leftist in my youth. I don’t remember exactly what triggered it, but I began to question things in my late 30s, and I started reading Ayn Rand when I was nearly 40. I like to say that “she systematically dismantled my most cherished beliefs and assumptions, and then proceeded to rebuild them on a stronger foundation”.
The funny thing is, I don’t feel any different. It was actually kind of painless.
That should have read “demolished”, not “dismantled”. She took a wrecking ball to them, no question about it.
“I don’t feel any different”
You’re not. Still an ideological crank – I can’t imagine that it doesn’t feel essentially the same, being a true-believing nut of the Left or an Ayn Rand kook on the Right. Apparently there’s no better feeling than being part of a “special” “intellectually advanced” minority that “gets it” while everyone else is walking around with blinders on. Luckily for the country, most folks aren’t that crazy and/or narcissistic.
Happy birthday, Ron. I just had my 57th, which was unexpectedly hard; this reassures me.
Did I hear you once mention attendance at camp at Lake Geneva Wisconsin where you met Pete Seegar? I was there too, but it must have been 10 years later. I also met Pete S. there. My memeories are dim. Please reply if convenient.