At First Glance

When Voltaire was asked why he kept a Bible on his night table, he replied: “You have to know your enemies.” I subscribe to Commentary on this Voltairean principle. As a result I got onto the mailing list of Midge Decter’s Committee for the Free World. I must confess looking forward to receiving their periodic appeals; they provide comic relief in otherwise often drab and depressing times.

Their latest release, dated April 1, is a honey. “According to the pollsters,” they say, “there is large and growing public support for a nuclear freeze. Politicians, who must be sensitive to popular feeling, have joined in the call for cuts in the defense budget.” Things, it appears, f...