"Angels" in America.

I generally do not give political interviews to either left- or right-wing media. But a few weeks ago I agreed to speak to Byron York regarding my involvement in a new talk-radio network ("Liberal Radio and Its Dark Angel: Meet the Amazing Sheldon Drobny," Oct. 27). While I typically do not agree with NATIONAL REVIEW's positions, I recognize that it is a respected conservative publication. So I agreed to give York the interview.

York accurately described me as a venture capitalist and philanthropist, but I should add that I also enjoy researching "lost history." If you read my MakeThemAccountable.com articles objectively, you'll find that I have investigated under-covered points in 20th-century history. In so doing, I have criticized both Democratic and Republican presidents. I criticized Wilson for sending troops to attack the Soviet Union in 1918. I also criticized both the (first) Bush and Clinton administrations for missing an opportunity to positively change formerly Soviet countries after the USSR's collapse.

But despite my body of evenhanded historical analysis, York zeroed in on just one article he found objectionable. In "The Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy," I asserted that most Americans have been shielded, by the fascist censorship of our press, from the knowledge that President George W. Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush, funded Nazi rearmament. The article was meant to give a perspective on what "fascism" and "corporatism" mean in the context of modern economics and politics. The piece was posted on a website that surely has little influence on this country's political discourse: It was hardly intended to be an earth-shattering article.

What's more, its claims are valid. In fact, York asked me if I believed the Prescott Bush story, and I told him to Google "Bush Nazi" himself. My own attempt yielded over 400,000 hits, including recent articles by credible sources like the AP and the New Hampshire Gazette. Despite York's assertions to the contrary, I seek neither to smear, nor to be in the "limelight." I write as a hobby, with little concern for the size of my audience, and claim only what can be credibly supported. I did not accuse our president of being a Nazi, nor did I blame him for his grandfather's deeds. Fascism, as a political and economic force, is not Nazism. And my criticism of our president concerning pre-emptive war is very much in line with mainstream conservative thought.

The Nazi issue--and the question of American industrialists who traded with them--is too important to me to be taken lightly. Both of my parents were immigrants from Poland; my uncle, Chaim Lopata, was a documented hero of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943. So I feel obligated to point out that York's characterizations of me are wrong: The "Dark Angel" of his article is not me, but Prescott Bush and those like him. It is their shame, not mine, that is a horrible stain on our great country.

Sheldon Drobny

Chairman, Paradigm Group, LLC 

Northbrook, Ill.

BYRON YORK REPLIES: Mr. Drobny has been quite cordial, but some of his statements are over the top. For example, he casually refers to the fascist censorship of our press. I don't believe any reasonable look at coverage of the Bush presidency would reveal a fascist censorship. As for Prescott Bush, the accusation that he funded Nazi rearmament is plainly wrong. The AP story to which Drobny refers discussed a German industrialist who at first supported Hitler, broke with the Nazis in 1938, and was imprisoned by Hitler for the duration of the war. Prescott Bush had some (not very close) business ties to that industrialist, and some enemies of the current President Bush have tried to suggest that that somehow means his grandfather supported the Nazis. It's just not true. The other article to which Drobny refers, published in the fringe New Hampshire Gazette, was written by an equally fringe "journalist" who has become so carried away with his anti-Bush crusade that he is now running for president. This is not serious stuff.