against the king in his own rcabn; adhering to the king’s enemiesrnby giving them aid and comfort in the realm or elsewhere.rnEven from this brief survey it ought to be clear that a citizenrnwho gives aid and comfort to an cnemv has been generallyrnregarded as a traitor. The mo.st extreme cases are traitor.srnwho work actively to subjugate their country to a foreignrnpower during a time of open war. British or American citizensrnwho committed acts of sabotage during Worid War II arernan ol)vious example, but one would have to include thosernwho, as foreign agents, manufactured or distributed pro-Germanrnpropaganda during the course of the war.rnA small step down on the ladder of treason are those whornin time of war have surrendered fortresses or positions to anrnenemy. Trading yyith the enemy in time of war is a milderrnversion of this crime, although when the goods involved arernstrategic materiel, there is hardly a difference. In Romanrnlaw, strategic materials included weapons, iron, and food.rnIn 14th-century France, merchants were charged with treasonrnfor selling food to the English and the Flemings.rnMv father was a merchant engineer in the late 1930’s, andrnhe used to tell me of the British tankers he had seen filling uprnGerman submarines, and New England’s trade with thernBritish in the War of 1812 is notorious. In my youth, I believedrnsuch activities were typical of the English as well as evidencernof what Clyde Wilson calls “the degraded ‘ankeerncharacter.” But in Worid War II President Roosevelt, whornwas as much a friend to big business as he was an enemy tornfree enterprise, reserved the right to exempt certain companiesrnfrom the law on trading with the circmy, and ITT wasrnable to deal with Nazi Germany throughout the course ofrnthe war and Ghasc National Bank could keep its Paris branchrnopen even under the German occupation. A more curiousrncase that never came to trial or public attention is that ofrnOtto Kahn, a British subject living in New York who loanedrnmoney to the Germans during World War I, but the sublimestrnexamples could be drawn from the history of the Rothschildsrnwho financed all sides of the Napoleonic wars, completelyrnignoring the accidents of nationality or residence.rnOf course, not all forms of espionage are treason in Americanrnor British law. Serious acts of espionage can he committed,rneven when two nations are not at war, and spies arerngeneralK considered traitors, regardless of the specific chargesrnbrought against them. Again, the worst cases arc those ofrncitizens who conspire at the subjugation of their own country.rnNothing less was the objective of English and Americanrncitizens who spied for the Soviet Union. Whatever faithrnthev had in Marxism, their goal was tlie overthrow of theirrnown governments and the triumph of international communismrnunder the aegis of the Soviet Ihiion. Kim Philbv escapedrnto Moscow, where in his declining years he entertainedrnGraham Greene and other visiting friends, but the Rosenbergsrnwere executed for peace-time espionage in support of arnrecent ally. In ancient history, one thinks of Gatilinc, whornnot only plotted a bloody coup d’etat but compounded hisrncrime by inviting the collaboration of the Allobrogan Gauls.rnTrading with the enemy can be a criminal offense,rnwhether treason or something else, in times of peacernas well as of war. The Romans prohibited the sale ofrnweapons, ships, and gold to barbarians, for the obvious reasonrnthat such materiel could some day be used in an invasionrnof the Empire. In France, a merchant was charged with sellingrnarms to the Turks yvho used them to good advantage inrndefeating Christians, and in the same period Frenchrnlandowners had to forfeit land on the charge that they hadrnlived in territory under control of Eirgland or Navarre in timernof peace. Throughout the Cold War, American businessesrnwere forbidden to sell the Russians weapons, ammunition,rnmilitary technology, and a wide variety of products and instrumentsrnthat might be diverted to military purposes.rnAfter World War I, in the general revulsion from the carnagernthat attended the death of our civilization, the “merchantsrnof death” who had enriched themselves bv sellingrnarms to all sides came in for especial condemnation. Kruppsrnand Vickers had not only supplied their nation’s enemiesrnwith weapons of war, but they had done their best to stir uprnanimosities and create incidents. To gain influence withrngovernments, the arms merchants put hundreds of politiciansrnand military officers on their payrolls. Ihev were thernfirst of the modern multinationals, and Greek-born Basil Zaharoff,rnprofiled by John T. Flynn in Men of Wealth, was arnFrench citizen and yet a partner in the British Vickers, whichrnsold Maxim’s pom-pom guns to the Boers who used them tornmow down whole rows of Tommies in the Boer War.rnWhether they called it treason, subversion, or espionage,rntrading with the enemy, or giving aid and comfort, the governmentsrnof Europe and America for over two millenniarnhave punished politicians and merchants who put the interestsrnof foreign powers above their own. Jonathan Pollard wasrnno less a spy because he spied for Israel, a friendly country.rnWhat, then, can be said of American politicians, in or out ofrnoffice, who receive large sums of money as a reward for advocatingrnthe interests of Israel or Japan, inevitably at the expensernof our own? But, the story goes, we are not at warrnwith Japan. True enough, but I do not recall any declarationrnof war against the Soviet Union or any open militaryrnconflict between our armies. The Soviet Union was (andrnis) like Japan, a competitor for power in the world, and if itsrndrive to worid conquest was fueled in part bv Marxist ideology,rnthe Japanese are driven by their conviction of racial superiority,rna motive which the American political class pretendsrnto regard as the ultimate evil.rnDeclarations of war are a thing of the past. I’br the foreseeablernfuture, the great strategic conflicts will be over marketsrnand influence instead of territory. As America declinesrnas an economic power, unfortunately, our Presidents arernmore and more inclined to use military muscle as a not-socovertrnhint to our economic rivals. We condemn the hystericalrnpronouncements of certain Russian nationalists who tellrnthe Japanese to remember Hiroshima, but what else is thernmessage of the Gulf Massacre?rnBefore turning to militarv solutions, the United Statesrnmight consider defending its economic interests by the legalrnand political means they have at their disposal. In the currentrnatmosphere of wholesale bribery, however, it is impossiblernto put American interests ahead of the foreign businessesrnand governments that are bu ing up our land, our businesses,rnour institutions, and our leaders.rnIn deference to the pious fraud of “free speech,” I am willingrnto ignore, for the moment, the mercenary lobbyists andrnp.r. men who would whitewash Dr. Mengeic if he could meetrntheir price. The real scandal is the congressmen and Cabinetrnofficials who go round and round in the revolving door ofrn12/CHRONICLESrnrnrn