Arnold Beichman

Arnold Beichman (May 17, 1913Template:SndFebruary 17, 2010<ref name=Podhoretz>Podhoretz, John. "Arnold Beichman, 1913–2010." Commentary, February 18, 2010. Archived from the original.</ref>) was an author, scholar, and a critic of communism.<ref>Hevesi, Dennis. "Arnold Beichman, Political Analyst, Dies at 96"(obituary). The New York Times, March 3, 2010. Archived from the original.</ref><ref>Obituary. The Washington Post, March 9, 2010.</ref> At the time of his death, he was a Hoover Institution research fellow and a columnist for The Washington Times.

Life and career

Beichman was born on New York City's Lower East Side, in Manhattan, in a family of Jewish immigrants from Ukraine. He received a B.A. from Columbia University in 1934, after which he succeeded his friend, Arthur Lelyveld, as editor-in-chief of the Columbia Daily Spectator.<ref>Gram, Margaret Hunt. "Arnold Beichman '34: Anti-Communist Warrior." Columbia College Today, January 2004. Full issue available. Archived from the original.</ref>

Beichman spent many years in journalism, working for the New York Herald Tribune, PM, Newsweek, and others.<ref name=Podhoretz/> He returned to Columbia in his 50s to receive his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science, in 1967 and 1973, respectively.

He gave his name to "Beichman's Law," which states: "With the single exception of the American Revolution, the aftermath of all revolutions from 1789 on only worsened the human condition."<ref>Beichman, Arnold. "The Lesser Evil."The Washington Times, November 4, 2004. Archived from the original.</ref> His Jewish father Solomon Beichman was unhappy, because he wanted Arnold to be a rabbi. <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The Cold War International History Project at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars was in part funded by Beichman's donations.<ref>Ostermann, Christian F. (ed.) Back cover. Cold War International History Project Bulletin, No. 16, Fall 2007/Winter 2008.</ref>

Publications

Books

• The "Other" State Department: The United States Mission to the United Nations — Its Role in the Making of Foreign Policy (1968)
• Nine Lies About America (1972)

Foreword by Tom Wolfe.

• Andropov: New Challenge to the West (1983)

Introduction by Robert Conquest.

• Herman Wouk: The Novelist as Social Historian (1984)
• The Long Pretense: Soviet Treaty Diplomacy from Lenin to Gorbachev (1991)<ref>Campbell, John C. Review of The Long Pretense: Soviet Treaty Diplomacy from Lenin to Gorbachev.Foreign Affairs, Vol. 70, No. 3, Summer 1991, p. 174. {{#invoke:doi|main}}. Template:JSTOR. Archived from the original.</ref>

Foreword by William F. Buckley, Jr.

• Anti-American Myths: Their Causes and Consequences (1992)

Foreword by Tom Wolfe.

Books edited

• CNN's Cold War Documentary: Issues and Controversy (2000)

With Robert Conquest, John Lewis Gaddis and Richard Pipes.

Articles

• "Socialism: Dead or Alive? A Roundtable." The American Enterprise, July 1995, pp. 28–35.

With David Horowitz, John O'Sullivan, Eric Breindel and Mark Falcoff.

• "The Lesser Evil." The Washington Post, November 4, 2004.

Further reading

• Bethell, Tom. "Arnold Beichman, 1913-2010: an oral history and remembrance of a great adventurer and friend" (obituary). The American Spectator, Vol. 43, No. 4, May 2010. Archived from the original.
• Beichman, Charles. "Memorial Service for Arnold Beichman"(eulogy). August 2, 2010. Archived from the original.Template:Webarchive

External links

• Reading From Left to Right: Writings by Beichman (official website)
• Biographical profile at Hoover Institution