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allow Pound to remain in such inhuman captivity. His reply shocked 

me even more. He wrote back that "your friend can well stay where 

he is." It was some years before I was able to understand that, for 
this investment banker and his colleagues, Ezra Pound would always 
be "the enemy".

 

Introduction

Here are the simple facts of the great betrayal. Wilson and House 
knew that they were doing something momentous. One cannot 
fathom men’s motives and this pair probably believed in what they 

were up to. What they did not believe in was representative 

government. They believed in government by an uncontrolled 
oligarchy whose acts would only become apparent after an 
interval so long that the electorate would be forever incapable of 

doing anything efficient to remedy depredations.

 

 

(AUTHOR’S NOTE: Dr. Pound wrote this introduction for the earliest 
version of this book, published by Kasper and Horton, New York, 
1952. Because he was being held as a political prisoner without trial 

by the Federal Government, he could not afford to allow his name 
to appear on the book because of additional reprisals against him. 
Neither could he allow the book to be dedicated to him, although 

he had commissioned its writing. The author is gratified to be able to 
remedy these necessary omissions, thirty-three years after the 

events.)