[Dan History]

Dear Boris,

You may have considered thanking me for sharing the results of my research before launching into your attack, but that is your choice. What I strongly object to is the accusation of bad faith and ignorance that you have made. The charge of "historical revisionism" may have been considered appropriate in a meeting of an Eastern block Communist party, but such an attack only invites contempt in the civilised world.

You are entitled to strongly disagree with my conclusions, but you are not entitled to adopt the Soviet position, "I have not read it, but I condemn it". You may be aware that this was the reaction of members of the Union of Soviet Writers to the publication of Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago, a reaction which served only to underline the boorish ignorance of those members.

I invite you to read my study in order to see the evidence that Western air operations drew critically important Luftwaffe resources away from the Eastern front. This can be seen particularly clearly during both the battle of Moscow and the battle of Stalingrad. German flying units were withdrawn from the Eastern front and redeployed to the Mediterranean before both of these Soviet counter-offensives. I look forward to further comments from you after you have had a chance to read my study.

Kind regards,

Dan