SOURCE: Rubin, Merle. “Forthright Essays Reveal the World according to Podhoretz.” Christian Science Monitor 78, no. 125 (23 May 1986): 24.

In the following review, Rubin argues that, although Podhoretz is often wrong in his assumptions and at times too retractable in his beliefs, The Bloody Crossroads: Where Literature and Politics Meet is both a stimulating and engaging collection of essays.

Controversy has always been Norman Podhoretz's element. As editor of the magazine Commentary, he reminds us, he was among the first to publish substantive criticism of American involvement in Southeast Asia, back in the early 1960s. Yet, by 1982, he was arguing in his book Why We Were in Vietnam that our cause had essentially been a noble one.

These days, he castigates Ronald Reagan and his administration for being too “soft.” Although Podhoretz's steady march rightward has occasioned much comment, it is, I think, particularly telling that the event that caused the...