Ralph de Toledano

Ralph de Toledano (August 17, 1916 – February 3, 2007) was an American writer in the conservative movement in the United States throughout the second half of the 20th century. A friend of Richard Nixon, he was a journalist and editor of Newsweek and the National Review, and the author of 26 books, including two novels and a book of poetry. Besides his political contributions, he also wrote about music, particularly jazz.

Toledano was born in Tangier, Morocco, the son of Simy (Nahon), a former news correspondent, and Haim Toledano, a businessman and journalist. His parents were both Sephardic Jews and American citizens. Toledano was brought to New York at the age of four or five.

A proficient violinist from childhood, Toledano attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School and the Juilliard School.

Later, at Columbia University, Toledano studied literature and philosophy; he also became President of the Philolexian Society, member of the Boar's Head Society, and a contributor to Jester of Columbia. In addition, he joined the Socialist Party of America, becoming youth leader of the avowedly anticommunist "Old Guard" faction led by Louis Waldman. The Old Guard left the Socialist Party in 1936. He graduated from Columbia University in 1938.

In 1940, Toledano became editor of the Socialist Party of America's magazine, The New Leader, succeeding James Oneal.

During World War II, Toledano was drafted and became an anti-aircraft gunner before being transferred to the Office of Strategic Services and trained for covert work in Italy. However, he was ultimately not sent to Italy, as the OSS felt he was "too anti-Communist to work with Italian leftists." After the war, he became a publicist for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU).

In 1946, Toledano helped found Plain Talk with fellow journalist Isaac Don Levine and China Lobby funder Alfred Kohlberg. By 1946, the magazine focused on exposing Soviet "spy rings," "secret armies," and other communist subversion in the USA. Toledano served as managing editor or assistant editor. (In 1950, the US Senate reported that Emmanuel S. Larsen, investigated as part of the Amerasia spy case, had stated that Kohlberg, Levine, and Toledano had changed an article he had written for Plain Talk, specifically that "Levine completely rewrote the article," and later had asked Larsen to "go easy on the Plain Talk article" when testifying.)

Pursuing a career in journalism, after several journalistic jobs Toledano joined Newsweek in 1948. Toledano covered the 1950 perjury trial of Alger Hiss (Hiss being accused of being a Soviet spy), and in what the New York Times later described as "his political turning point," Toledano sided against Hiss and for accuser, Whittaker Chambers. Toledano cowrote an "intensely partisan" book about the trial, Seeds of Treason (with Victor Lasky), in 1950 and became a Republican. Toledano met Nixon during the case, and during Toledano's coverage of Nixon's 1950 Senate campaign, Nixon would have him address crowds, introducing him as the author of Seeds of Treason. Around the same time (October 1950–April 1951) Toledano cohosted the television series Our Secret Weapon: The Truth.