Cheese On a Round Table

THE CATOCTIN CONVERSATION (283 pp.) --Jay Franklin--Scribner ($3).

Even a Shakespeare--or a Norman Corwin--might shrink from the task of putting Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Bernard Baruch and Harry Hopkins into a room together and making them converse on Plato, Thomas Jefferson, tariffs and Joseph Stalin. But Columnist ("We, the People") Jay Franklin has done precisely that.

He has also written in parts for himself and Dr. Ernst ("Putzi") Hanfstaengl, onetime Hitler aide, who speaks in defense of the Germans. The scene of this symposium (which Author Franklin unnecessarily assures the reader is "entirely imaginary") is a Virginia hunting lodge; the time is 1943, on the eve of the invasion of Italy.

Chumminess is Catoctin's keynote. "Of course," chuckles Roosevelt to Baruch, "you won't be interested in [sandwiches] made with that ham from Georgia, but there are some . . . made of sanitary Wisconsin cheese, just for you." Mr. Churchill often bounds off into sonorous oratory, uses words like "bloody" and "jolly." Mr. Baruch is a wise elder statesman who can feel things "in his bones." Mr. Hopkins, who represents the frustrated New Dealer, is sincere but tart, and has to be reprimanded by Roosevelt for using the word "stink" in front of Mr. Churchill. Author Franklin, who once worked for the State Department as an economist and was active in psychological warfare during World War II, plays the none-too-modest role of moderator between the Chiefs of State.

The Word According to Welles. As a political statement, The Catoctin Conversation is warmly sponsored in an introduction by onetime Assistant State Secretary Sumner Welles. Stripped of its high jinks, the Conversation hinges on postwar Anglo-American-Soviet relations. To Churchill, rigorous Anglo-American unity is the best answer to Uncle Joe; to Roosevelt, such unity must never be carried to a point where it excludes Soviet-American harmony, nor must the U.S. take sides in Anglo-Soviet rivalry. "In his talks with me," says Sumner Welles, "Roosevelt never wavered in [this] conviction."

When Roosevelt talks big about liberty and global harmony, Author Franklin ( & friends) confront him mercilessly with the harsh realities of economic security and power politics. On the other hand, Churchill, whose hardheadedness Moderator Franklin clearly favors, gets away with oratorical murder on the subject of the divinely-created British Empire.

When the conversation concludes, in the small hours, the resulting "Catoctin Declaration" proclaims agreement on eight major points. One of them: "Soviet and other totalitarian powers [will be] resisted by the creation of a world order based on freedom and abundance." Readers are likely to feel that with so many big fish in his net, perky Author Franklin has cooked a pretty small fry.

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