Review: Vanier, Only to Serve Selections
| Author | J.R. Mallory |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207202700222 |
| Date | 01 June 1972 |
| Published date | 01 June 1972 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
REVIEWS
325
Mr.
Aronson's
tone,
however,
impairs
his
credibility;
his
purpose
makes
him
suspect:
he
has
collected
his
facts
not
only
to
prove
that
United
States
journalists
are
not
impartial
as
they claim,
but
also
to
prove
that
he
himself
was
an
accurate
and impartial journalist,
despite
persecution
by
the various Joe
McCarthys of
the
Washington
scene.
Mr
Aronson
is
a
left-wing
journalist,
co-founder
of
the much
harassed
and
investigated
National
Guardian.
He remembers
each
indignity
with
unflagging
indignation and
self-righteousness.
Indignation
and
self-
righteousness
may
be
justified
in
Mr
Aronson's
case,
but
they make
him
difficult
to
stomach
or
believe.
He
is,
of
course,
guilty
of
the
straight
black-and-white
distinctions
which
he
deplores
in
his
colleagues:
United
States
reporting
from Korea
was
bad,
Aronson
says,
while
Alan
Win-
nington
and
Wilfred
Burchett,
two
western
correspondents
covering
the
war
from
the
communist
side,
were
the
fount
of
truth.
Neither
pro-
position
is
true:
Winnington
and
Burchett
often
transmitted
pure
com-
munist
propaganda;
United
States
correspondents
often
exposed
the
propaganda
of
their
own side.
Still,
Mr
Aronson
demonstrates
that
journalists
-even
those
of
the
New
York
Times,
who
so
pride
themselves
on
being
objective
-
are
as
influenced
by
their
national
attitudes and patriotism
as
the
most
strident
editorialists
in
emergent
countries.
It
is
an
important
point
to
make.
Philip
Deane/University
of
Lethbridge
VANIER
Soldier,
Diplomat
and
Governor
General
Robert
Speaight
Toronto:
Collins,
1970,
488
pp,
$10.95
ONLY
TO
SERVE
Selections
from
Addresses of
Governor-General
Georges
P.
Vanier
Edited
by
George
Cowley
and
Michel
Vanier
Toronto:
University
of
Toronto
Press,
197o,
xx,
II5pp,
$6.5o
A
fellow
officer
who served
with
Georges
Vanier
in
the
22nd
battalion
on the
western
front
remembers
him
as
"a
very
brave
soldier,
and
a
strict
and
efficient
officer."
These
qualities
were
visible
throughout
his
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