In his third lecture on Rabbi Joseph Elijah Henkin (the leading posek in America during the 1940s and 1950s) for Torah in Motion, Rabbi Marc B. Shapiro says:
How significant are private comments? They’re interesting. If you have a table talk versus published comments, the published comments are more significant.
What about private letters? Some argue, such as professor Isadore Twerski, hold that the published word is more significant.
I disagree. I think the published word is often written in a politically correct fashion to appeal to certain people and the private correspondence is more eye-opening and more significant.
This became a great dispute in my dissertation defense [at Harvard University on R. Jehiel Jacob Weinberg]. Jay Harris kept out of it. Professor Twerski insisted that I could not put so much emphasis on private correspondence.
I tend to think that in a private letter to a good friend you say what you really think, while something published publicly, the edges are smoothed out. Politicians say one thing privately and one thing publicly. Which will we take more seriously?
…Rav Henkin was one of those rabbis didn’t want to rock the boat. The Jews have to be quiet… Rav Henkin would’ve been outraged seeing what happened in trying to get this execution [of Martin Grossman] halted. To protest in front of people’s houses, he was very opposed to that.
…I didn’t give money to the OU last year because one of their rabbis came out and attacked Rabbi Moshe Soloveichik as an unreliable mashgiach. Without any knowledge or any evidence. The OU never retracted… Signing up with Chabad. Enough of a reason for me not to give a second year. They can make more money by selling hashgachas on toilet bowl cleaner.
…Chabad were among the most fervent anti-Zionists before the state of Israel was established in 1948 and among its strongest supporters since the state of Israel was established.
…He permits singing songs in the vernacular. Only fools think this is a problem. Try in our shul singing songs. They’ll think it is a gospel church.
