Mr. Hook answers the title question, as he answers every question, forthrightly: "Well, that depends upon what you mean by socialism. In one sense there was a great deal to fear from dogmatic socialism.... But on the whole, if one doesn't take a dogmatic position, I would say there never was anything to fear from socialism.... The... real issue that separates the Communist countries from the free Western democratic countries is not socialism or capitalism as economic systems, but the freedom to choose between them or among other economic forms of life. As a democratic socialist, I have been opposed to Communism because I believe in freedom." A rousing discussion of how best that freedom can actually be fostered.