REPORT FROM IRON MOUNTAIN

When this was first published in 1967, Kirkus's reviewer wrote, ``If it is a fraud, it is a clever one . . . if not, it is a chilling case for the necessity of war as policymakers see it . . . and will provide magnificent fodder for radicals et al.'' Well, this controversial volume did turn out to be a fraud (Lewin's fellow hoaxster Victor Navasky, in his introduction, prefers to call it a satire), and it did provide fodder for radicals—not radicals of the left, as expected, but radicals of the right. This supposedly censored government report, to the effect that the US economy is geared to war and thus peace would be disastrous, seems to feed the loony paranoia that infects the Liberty Lobby, the Michigan Militia, and their cohorts. So why is the Free Press reissuing it? Is it to keep the right-wingers from continuing their unlicensed reproduction of the text and earn royalties for those who deserve them? Is it an indulgent remembrance of youthful journalistic escapades past? (Navasky makes it clear he hasn't lost his puerile glee in putting one over on the New York Times). It's hard to know who will have the last laugh with this one.