John Fund: Why is Yale allowing the former spokesman for the Taliban to take classes like any ordinary student?
Three weeks after the New York Times revealed that former Taliban official Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi is attending classes at Yale, many at the university still have little to say about the controversy. Meredith Startz, president of the Yale Political Union, told me "there's more discussion of military recruiting among people at Yale than about the Taliban student."...
The case of Vladimir Sokolov presents an interesting contrast with how Yale is reacting to its Talib student today. After his activities during World War II were exposed in 1976, he was run off campus and later deported.
Sokolov, a native Russian, taught at Yale for nearly 20 years, rising to the rank of senior lecturer. He was beloved by his students, and the New York Times reported that his department's chairman considered him the school's best language instructor. He had not been known to harbor any anti-Semitic views, and indeed he lent his name to appeals that Jews be allowed to emigrate from the Soviet Union.
He also frequently wrote anticommunist articles for Russian-language papers in New York. Those apparently raised the hackles of the KGB, which in 1976 released files that showed he had been a willing tool of the Nazis during their occupation of much of Russia. In Orel, a city of 115,000 south of Moscow, Nazi propagandists hired Sokolov as a columnist and deputy editor for Rech (Speech), a Russian-language newspaper they controlled. Between 1942 and 1944, Sokolov, under a pen name, wrote articles that, according to the U.S. Justice Department, "advocated the persecution of the Jews" and attacked America. Among his more memorable phrases were "Let us salute our glorious Liberator, the Fuehrer" and "Never again will [Jewish] feet tread upon our soil."
After the Nazis were driven out of Russia, Sokolov moved to Berlin, where he worked for another Russian-language Nazi paper. After the war Sokolov was able to enter the U.S. as a displaced person by claiming he had been only a "proofreader" in the Soviet Union and hadn't been involved in persecution.
In the 1970s, when Sokolov was confronted with the evidence of his wartime propaganda, he offered the excuse that he'd been young. He was in his late 20s during the war, like Mr. Rahmatullah today. He also claimed that Nazi censors must have inserted the most anti-Semitic statements into his stories.
An uproar occurred on the Yale campus. "There was a great deal of anger, many letters in the paper and much complaint," recalls Hanna Holborn Gray, who was Yale provost at the time and later acting president. Robert Jackson, a professor of international relations, described Sokolov's writings as "Goebbels-like." The noted historian Peter Gay vowed he would not "serve on the same payroll" with the "despicable" Sokolov and demanded he be fired. (Mr. Gay did not respond to phone calls.) Two Yale alumni recall the case being debated at the Yale Political Union, although because many YPU records from that time are missing they can't locate the specifics.
Mr. Sokolov had a few defenders. Alexander Schenker, a Slavic professor of Russian Jewish background, wrote that "people have a right to change. [Sokolov] is not anti-Semetic now. In fact, he is probably the most pro-Semetic professor in the Russian department." After several Yale faculty members bullied Sokolov into resigning, the Yale Daily News editorialized that his "due process" rights had been violated and that he "deserved forgiveness."
That wasn't forthcoming. The Reagan Justice Department, with the tangential involvement of an up-and-coming lawyer named John Roberts, moved to have him deported for lying on his citizenship application. Before a final hearing could be held, Sokolov fled to Canada, where he died in 1992. ...
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The case of Vladimir Sokolov presents an interesting contrast with how Yale is reacting to its Talib student today. After his activities during World War II were exposed in 1976, he was run off campus and later deported.
Sokolov, a native Russian, taught at Yale for nearly 20 years, rising to the rank of senior lecturer. He was beloved by his students, and the New York Times reported that his department's chairman considered him the school's best language instructor. He had not been known to harbor any anti-Semitic views, and indeed he lent his name to appeals that Jews be allowed to emigrate from the Soviet Union.
He also frequently wrote anticommunist articles for Russian-language papers in New York. Those apparently raised the hackles of the KGB, which in 1976 released files that showed he had been a willing tool of the Nazis during their occupation of much of Russia. In Orel, a city of 115,000 south of Moscow, Nazi propagandists hired Sokolov as a columnist and deputy editor for Rech (Speech), a Russian-language newspaper they controlled. Between 1942 and 1944, Sokolov, under a pen name, wrote articles that, according to the U.S. Justice Department, "advocated the persecution of the Jews" and attacked America. Among his more memorable phrases were "Let us salute our glorious Liberator, the Fuehrer" and "Never again will [Jewish] feet tread upon our soil."
After the Nazis were driven out of Russia, Sokolov moved to Berlin, where he worked for another Russian-language Nazi paper. After the war Sokolov was able to enter the U.S. as a displaced person by claiming he had been only a "proofreader" in the Soviet Union and hadn't been involved in persecution.
In the 1970s, when Sokolov was confronted with the evidence of his wartime propaganda, he offered the excuse that he'd been young. He was in his late 20s during the war, like Mr. Rahmatullah today. He also claimed that Nazi censors must have inserted the most anti-Semitic statements into his stories.
An uproar occurred on the Yale campus. "There was a great deal of anger, many letters in the paper and much complaint," recalls Hanna Holborn Gray, who was Yale provost at the time and later acting president. Robert Jackson, a professor of international relations, described Sokolov's writings as "Goebbels-like." The noted historian Peter Gay vowed he would not "serve on the same payroll" with the "despicable" Sokolov and demanded he be fired. (Mr. Gay did not respond to phone calls.) Two Yale alumni recall the case being debated at the Yale Political Union, although because many YPU records from that time are missing they can't locate the specifics.
Mr. Sokolov had a few defenders. Alexander Schenker, a Slavic professor of Russian Jewish background, wrote that "people have a right to change. [Sokolov] is not anti-Semetic now. In fact, he is probably the most pro-Semetic professor in the Russian department." After several Yale faculty members bullied Sokolov into resigning, the Yale Daily News editorialized that his "due process" rights had been violated and that he "deserved forgiveness."
That wasn't forthcoming. The Reagan Justice Department, with the tangential involvement of an up-and-coming lawyer named John Roberts, moved to have him deported for lying on his citizenship application. Before a final hearing could be held, Sokolov fled to Canada, where he died in 1992. ...