Coming Home

Regardless of whether their actions abroad were wholesome or repugnant, many seekers and partisans upon returning to America faced difficulties. Members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade were pestered by counterespionage agencies concerned that they were virtual Stalinists. Chinese communist apologist Agnes Smedley was similarly persecuted. Radio Rome broadcaster Ezra Pound was committed to a psychiatric hospital. The FBI kept tabs on Nazi sympathizer Philip Johnson. At one time or another, Helen Keller, W. E. B. Du Bois, Josephine Baker, and Varian Fry fell under suspicion of Red taint and were monitored by the FBI. The State Department withheld Du Bois’s passport. Understandably, several seekers and partisans chose self-imposed exile to finish their days. Eulogized by local personages, John Robinson died in Ethiopia, Pound in Italy, Du Bois in Ghana, Baker in France, Strong in China. Fatal illness in Oxford thwarted Smedley from reaching Beijing. Only half of this book’s characters retired permanently to the United States. Their feelings for it extended from affection and respect to stoical resignation.