The author now admits he was seduced.
How dumb do you have to be in 1959 not to see 40 years of the great destruction of Marxism around the world?
At the time no one could see yet Communism was a failure.
This was before the Berlin Wall and all the rest, still in the future.
A lot of people cut Communist leaders slack - given a little more time, a utopia of peace, justice, freedom, plenty and human brotherhood would be established on earth.
Ah, the passing fancies of youth. Time does a lot to cure one of it.