Draper, Theodore

Early years

Theodore Draper was born on September 11, 1912. At birth, received the name Theodore Dubinsky. The family had four children. ^[2] His younger brother was Hel Draper, who became a famous Marxist historian . Theodore's parents were ethnic Jews who immigrated to New York from Ukraine, which at that time was part of the Russian Empire ^[3] . His father, Samuel Dubinsky, was the manager of a shirt-making factory. He died in 1924 ^[2] . His mother, Annie Kornblatt Dubinsky, kept a candy store to make ends meet after her husband’s death.

Theodore grew up in Brooklyn, New York, USA, and graduated from high school for boys. When Ted was twenty years old, his mother insisted that the family change his name to “American” so that the children could avoid anti-Semitism and build a career. ^[2]

Political Activities

In 1930, Draper entered the City College of New York ( English City College of New York ). ^[4] It was there that he joined the National Student League (NSL), part of the US Communist Party , aimed at organizing and rallying college students. ^[4] This marks the beginning of a decade during which Draper "orbits" the US Communist Party.

Draper will later recall:

“My initiation took place in the National Student League, which I joined in 1930. Most of the leaders were members of the Komsomol , but I am not. I liked being the one who sympathizes with the ideologies of the Komsomol Organization without officially joining its ranks. I earnestly believed that only the Communist movement, with all its possible mistakes and shortcomings, was capable of making a revolution and should be close to it. Nevertheless, I did not want to lose my personal freedom, which I enjoyed without joining the party. ” ^[four]

Draper noted that his non-partisanship may have even helped him show that he did not need to be a communist in order to occupy a leading position in the National Student League . ^[5] However, participation in the movement began to cost him dearly when the leadership of the Communist Party decided to distribute members of the National Student Whitefish from City College to other campuses , where the organization did not yet have a presence. Draper was instructed to transfer to the Brooklyn branch of the college - a decision that he later recalled as one of the saddest days of his life ^[6] .

In 1933, Draper graduated from Brooklyn College with a bachelor of philosophy degree; by this time, the National Student League had become such a large and influential organization that it was able to actually disrupt studies on May Day ^[5] . Draper then enters graduate school at Columbia University , where he studies for two years without a scholarship.

In 1935, Draper met Harry Gannes, editor of the foreign section of the newspaper of the communist party The Daily Woker ^[6] . Harry Gunnes invites Draper to put aside his academic career and start working in the newspaper as his personal assistant. ^[6] After serious deliberation, Draper accepts the offer and settles in The Daily Worker, where he works for two years as an assistant editor of a foreign department ^[6] and writes publications under the pseudonym Theodore Repard ^[7] .

In the summer of 1936, Draper was invited to Moscow as a correspondent for The Daily Worker. Draper was already ready to go to Russia when he was suddenly told that he was not going, as the Soviet authorities could see him as a threat to his safety due to the fact that his brother Hel Draper was a Trotskyist . The post of The Daily Worker in Moscow was offered to another journalist.

In 1937, Draper moved to the literary and artistic weekly of the communist party “ The New Masses ”, where he took the post of editor of a foreign department and wrote publications under his real name ^[6] . In 1938, the magazine sent Draper to Europe to cover the tense geopolitical situation. Draper works in France , in Czechoslovakia , covering the crisis that led to the Munich Agreement between Adolf Hitler and Neville Chamberlain , and in Spain , covering the last days of the civil war . ^[6]

Upon returning from Europe in 1939, Draper turned to the publishing house “ Modern Age Publishers ” with a proposal to write a book on the political situation in Europe ^[6] . Draper used the book advance as an opportunity to leave the weekly, and he goes to Paris to conduct further research ^[8] . In November 1939, Draper returned to the United States, but a change in the political situation and, as a consequence, a change in the political line of the Communist Party, ultimately, Draper's book does not come out. ^{[ style ] [9]}

At the request of the publisher ^[9] during 1939-1940. Draper continued to write periodically for The New Masses on various topics. Since France fell under the onslaught of Nazi Germany in the summer of 1940, Draper was asked to urgently publish an article on the significance of this event ^[9] . An article entitled “A New Moment in France” was released and published in a July 9, 1940 issue. In it, Draper claimed that the French collapse changed the balance of power in Europe and hinted that the Soviet Union was likely to be the next target of the Nazis. ^[ten]

Draper recalled:

“The first article was published without much editorial discussion. Then everyone was stunned by the French defeat, and the party line was not immediately established. I was asked to write another article on the same topic and try to say the same thing in an even stronger form. But this time the party line caught up with me from Moscow. The Soviet press made it clear that nothing had changed, there were no new problems and new conditions, there was no “new moment in Europe.” ... My second article was never published. This was the first time my article was rejected. ” ^[eleven]

After that, Draper refused to write articles for The New Masses, limiting himself to a few book reviews in order to avoid a complete break in ties with the communist movement. ^[11] He also worked for six months as a TASS correspondent, before becoming a staff member of the French-language weekly in New York. ^[6] Despite the invitation to return after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, which confirmed his predictions, Draper found this impossible and instead worked in a number of temporary places to make ends meet. ^[eleven]

In 1943, Draper was drafted into the US Army and was thereby “saved from thinking about American Communism” for at least the next three years ^[12] . Draper was assigned to work in the historical section of the 84th Infantry Division, eventually writing the official version of the division during the Battle of the Ardennes . ^[13] In 1944, Draper’s book entitled The Six Week War ^[14] , published by The Viking Press, was released. Draper’s transition from a political journalist to a historian began.

Historian

After World War II, Draper worked as a freelance journalist and wrote a lot for the Commentary magazine ^[3] . In 1950, he began writing for the news journal The Reporter , founded by Max Ascoli . ^[15] Such written assignments were not a full-time job, but left Draper time for other literary pursuits. ^[3]

Draper began to think about writing the "traditional" history of the American Communist Party, based on documentary sources that met scientific standards. ^[16] In 1952, having received a grant , Draper begins work on his new project. Under the direction of political scientist Clinton Rossiter of the Cornell University Foundation of the Republic, he decided to publish the full-blown history of American Communism. David A. Shannon of the University of Wisconsin was approved to write the history of the US Communist Party in the post-war period, while Draper was chosen to create a monograph on the party's early years. In 1959, Robert W. Iverson wrote in his series The Communists and Schools . ^[17]

Clinton Rossiter gave Draper two years to complete the entire project - the history of American communism from its origins in 1919 to the dismissal of party leader Earl Browder at the end of World War II. Draper set to work collecting sources and conducting interviews with lively participants in the formation of the American Communist Party. Among those with whom he had extensive correspondence was James P. "Jim" Cannon , who was dismissed from the organization in 1928 for supporting Leo Trotsky . Draper noted that Cannon's letters were a kind of "pearl" ^[18] . In 1962, Jim Cannon's letters to Ted Draper were ultimately published in the form of The First Ten Years of American Communism. ^[nineteen]

Meanwhile, Draper completed his work for Rossiter and the Republic Fund. However, his book ended in 1923.

Draper handed over the manuscript to Clinton Rossiter, who was outraged by such a shortening of the narrative, but he was in great need of publication to show that the Republic Fund project was alive and functioning. Thus, in 1957, the manuscript went into print without revision as a work on the roots of American communism. And Rossiter returned Draper to work for another two years to complete the remainder of the agreed period of time. ^[20]

But to his horror, Draper again violates the agreement, ending the second volume in 1929 - the expulsion of party leader Jay Lovestone and his associates. ^[20] Clinton Rossiter again protested, but in 1960 published a second volume under the title Viking Press , American Communism and Soviet Russia, at Viking Press . ^[20]

A third volume was planned, for which Draper began collecting research material. But, unfortunately, at this time the Fund of the Republic ceases to exist, and work was stopped ^[21] . Draper transfers his research material to young scientist Harvey Klehr from Emory University ^[21] . Claire’s book, which used Draper’s research material, but which Draper himself didn’t participate in ^[21] , was published in 1984. ^[22]

After the fund ceased to fund the work of Draper, the topics of his research change. A series of articles, books and pamphlets devoted to the Castro revolution followed. In 1960, the publishing house Frederick A. Preger (Frederick A. Praeger) published "Myths and Reality."

Draper's work as a historian of the Cuban Revolution attracted the attention of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, an anti-communist think tank located at Stanford University . ^[2] Draper accepts the invitation from the Hoover Institute and remains there until 1968. He then leaves office due to the growing conservatism of the institution. ^[2] Draper moved across the country to take up a similar position at the Institute for Advance Study, located at Princeton University , where he dealt with the issue of racial relations. ^[2]

Draper has been collaborating with Commentary for a long time, and later with New York Book Reviewer ^[23]

Death and Heritage

On February 21, 2006, Theodore Draper died at his home in Princeton , New Jersey. He was 93 years old

Draper's papers are in two places. Materials relating to two of his published books on American Communism and the Cuban Revolution are stored in the archives of the Hoover Institute of Stanford University in Palo Alto , California, USA. An additional 63 boxes of materials collected for his unpublished third book on American Communism, plus more than 120 reels of microfilm and other research materials, can be found in the library of manuscripts, archives and rare books at Emory University in Atlanta , Georgia, USA.

• Spain in Revolt. As Theodore Repard, with Harry Gannes . New York: Alfred A. Knopf , 1936.
• The Six Weeks' War: France, May 10 - June 25, 1940. New York: Viking Press , 1944.
• The 84th Infantry Division in the Battle of the Ardennes, December 1944 - January 1945, Liege, Belgium: Historical Section, 84th Infantry Division , April 1945.
• The Roots of American Communism. New York: Viking Press, 1957.
• American Communism and Soviet Russia: The Formative Period. New York: Viking Press, 1960.
• Ordeal of the UN: Khrushchev, Hammarskjöld, and the Congo Crisis. New York, The New Leader , 1960.
• Castro's Cuba: A Revolution Betrayed? New York: The New Leader, 1961.
• Cuba and United States Policy. New York: The New Leader, 1961.
• Castro's Revolution: Myths and Realities. New York, Praeger , 1962.
• Castro's Communism. London, Encounter , 1962.
• Five Years of Castro's Cuba. New York: American Jewish Committee , 1964.
• The Roots of the Dominican Crisis. New York, League for Industrial Democracy , 1965.
• Castroism, Theory and Practice. New York, Praeger, 1965.
• Abuse of power. New York: Viking Press, 1967.
• Israel and World Politics: Roots of the Third Arab-Israeli War. New York, Viking Press, 1968.
• The Dominican Revolt: A Case Study in American Policy. New York, Commentary , 1968.
• The Rediscovery of Black Nationalism. New York: Viking Press, 1970.
• The Dominican Intervention Reconsidered. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill , 1971.
• The United States and Israel: Tilt in the Middle East? New York: American Jewish Committee, 1975.
• On Nuclear War: An Exchange with the Secretary of Defense: Caspar Weinberger vs. Theodore Draper. Boston: Council for a Livable World Education Fund.
• The Atlantic Alliance and Its Critics. With Robert W. Tucker and Linda Wrigley . New York: Praeger, 1983.
• Present History: On Nuclear War, Detente and Other Controversies. New York: Random House , 1983.
• A Present of Things Past: Selected Essays. New York: Hill and Wang , 1990.
• A Very Thin Line: The Iran-Contra Affairs. New York: Hill and Wang, 1991.
• A Struggle for Power: The American Revolution. New York: Times Books , 1996.

• Peter Daniels, "Obituary: Theodore Draper — American Historian and Social Critic," World Socialist Web Site, International Committee of the Fourth International, March 3, 2006.
• Xiuzhi Zhou, “Preliminary Inventory to the Theodore Draper Papers, 1912-1966,” Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, 1998.
• "Theodore Draper research files, 1919-1970," Emory University Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Atlanta, Georgia.
• Author Archive Theodore Draper