In the first edition of Looking for the Enemy (Kassel, 1993, 50 offset copies), I included one entire letter from Noam Chomsky, and some quotes from others of his letters, along with some of my replies. Chomsky, upon receiving the copy of the book that I sent him, objected strenuously to this, so I expunged this material from further editions of of the book I put on my website at Geocities ( http://www.geocities.com/mdmorrissey/chomweb.htm), which disappeared in 2009. It is preserved here, here and here, however, as well as in the book.
On the other hand, Chomsky is widely considered one of the most important intellectual figures of our time, and our discussion was about matters of public interest. I consider it my duty, therefore, as well as my right to share this conversation with the public, to the extent that copyright law allows me to do so.
It is my every intention to report what Chomsky said clearly and accurately. I would far prefer to include his letters here verbatim, but since that is not legally possible I will just have to do my best. I will be happy to show the original letters to anyone who wishes to see them.
There was no one I respected and admired more than Noam Chomsky when I started writing to him in 1989. Being a linguist and a rather leftist veteran of the antiwar movement in the 60s, I had read a number of his books and articles in both politics and linguistics and felt a strong affinity with him.
My (retrospective) comments are in italics -- also in boldface, just to make the distinction clear.
The letters are arranged chronologically, oldest first (year.month.day).