Really? He was a member of the SWP then, I think, which was opposed to the war. In fact if you read over his memoirs he seems to have carried on speaking at SWP meetings for some time after he moved to America, on his visits home, and there is an indication in the memoirs that he back-dates his breach with them.
‘I do remember him enjoying Colonel Gaddafi's largesse in 1976, complete in neo-colonial white linen suit and suffering severely from the ban on alcohol in Tripoli.’
I remember the white linen suit, though I am surprised it found its way to Tripoli.