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Andrew HeiskellAndrew Heiskell
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Session:         Page of 824

publisher of Life. I would chat with him as an old friend. I think it was a very unhappy experience. He finally quit and went off to his plantation.

Q:

What about, staying with Life, with the early days of Life, how was Luce's influence felt in terms of his political beliefs, i.e support of Chiang Kai-shek, or his growing view that Russia, after World War II was over, was growing to be a threat, and things like that?

Heiskell:

You mean, how did that affect Billings?

Q:

No, how did that affect how strong his influence was felt at Life?

Heiskell:

Well, in the early days, I'm talking about the pre-war days when John was still managing editor, the big division occurred over internationalism versus isolationism. The staff was very seriously split over that issue. Harry was an internationalist, and sort of lead the, if you want, the international faction. Joe Thorndike, who later became a managing editor, was, as I recall, the leader of the isolationist faction. The feelings were very strong on that issue. China was not yet the bone of contention for all sorts of historical reasons. Then, of course, during the war, the argument did come up continuously about, “Should we be putting more in to the Pacific?” which was a code word really for saying China, “or should we continue to make all our efforts in the direction of finishing the war off in





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