 "Surprisingly," according to John Y. Cole, the ASE series was free from official government censorship.But the Army and Navy chief librarians, Trautman and DuBois, made sure that all books were acceptable to both services, and rejected works with "statements or attitudes offensive to our Allies, any religious or racial group, or (...) not in accord 'with the spirit of American democracy'".The publication of Louis Adamic's "Native's Return" as an ASE title caused controversy because the novel's first edition had contained passages that were considered pro-Communist.