The Nation's Pulse
Hanratty, Liam
The A l t e r n a t i v e November, 1971 19 The Most Liberated Women of All Speaks on Defense Liam Hanratty WASHINGTON --"A monstrous impertinence," said one ladylibber. "Treason," said...
...when the peroration.opens with the phrase "Let us pray...
...There is a desperate ~ need to remind the American people that the road to peace has never been through appeasement, unilateral disarmament, negotiation from weakness, or scaling down to parity to prove sincerity...
...when the U. S. military posture is described as being at a "dangerous level" and fast becoming "second-rate...
...The only way to overcome this difficulty is to get the facts to the American people and to bring home to them the clear consequences of second-rate military status...
...indeed, some of her greatest triumphs were brought off precisely because of her mastery of taciturnity...
...Can we aJford our elfluende...
...Thus, when phrases like "desperate need" occur half-a-dozen times in a tenminute speech...
...For there is joy along the banks of Chemquasabamticook, and, Ed Muskie to the contrary notwithstanding, it would appear that that good, oldfashioned, proud Down-East independence still thrives in the Senate...
...Peter Dominick...
...Even threeterm senators, most of whom can detect a political slider long before it's thrown, were caught with their bats on their shoulders...
...Jim Buckley...
...The speaker, of course, was none other than the redoubtable Margaret Chase Smith, the most truly liberated lady now - - perhaps ever - - in American public life...
...Let us pray that recognition and action on the frightful truth comes sufficiently in advance to bolster our national security to such strength as to save our Nation and people...
...and when you consider that the speaker is Senator Margaret Chase Smith, then, ladies and gentlemen, we do indeed have a national defense crisis...
...Call her hawk or dove if you will, she knows when the nest is in danger, and as ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee she knows whereof she speaks...
...Praise the Lord and Pass the Sewage, Please Eco-Frek, pollution and waste Do scums make man, or men make Recycle that garbage and serve to taste scum...
...But whether the American people will ever find out is quite another matter...
...Pass the questions troubling some: --TeeWee...
...Who is speaking...
...transvaluation of all values," remarked yet another of philsophical mien...
...And as seasoned Capitol Hill observers can tell you, she is one of the few members of the Senate who can wither an overly zealous and inquisitive reporter with a mere glance...
...Carl Curtis...
...No more phosphates, glass or tins Paper, autos,'leopa~:d skih's War, sin, crime are not the issue Stamp out colored toilet tissue Pesticides, aluminum, Come you green crusaders, COME ! Eco-Freko, sun and sky :odern world goodbye When the grass comes out to play The Eco-State will wither away...
...Well, Iql be damned," is about the best that one of them could manage...
...For one thing, she has never liked the ABM and has said so by voice and vote on a number of occasions...
...Listen to her: "In this time of disillusionment with internation responsibilities and in intense concern with pressing domestic needs...it is obviously difficult to achieve the desperately needed public understanding and consequent support of the American people for an adequate national defense and national security...
...Now, for those of you who know little about the Senate and even less about the lady from Maine, it must be pointed out that July 4th rhetorical overkill is hardly Mrs...
...Smith's style...
...Military weakness and national insecurity literally invite diplomatic blackmail and the strategy of terror from the Soviet Union...
...Let me first say that I consider that it has lowered our national defense and national security to a dangerous level...
...To spare you further suspense, I shall inform you that the occasion for all this wonderment was a speech made on the OOr of the Senate on 15 September...
...Smith's speech was ignored by the press...
...President, I am supporting the 1972 defense authorization bill, now before the Senate, with mixed feelings...
...Cock your Naders ! Can we make dollars and not make sense...
...Mount your Udalls...
...To no one's great surprise, Mrs...
...when the warning is issued that we shall soon have to face a "day of reckoning" and that the American people ought to be informed about the "frightful truth...
...Harry Byrd...
...If anything, she i s best known for her understatement...
...Don't say "goodbye" to sludge and slime Just say farewell till suppertime Eco-Freko, dreck and drvss Mankind's gain is housefly's loss Cesspools, dump~ and septic tanks All deserve a vote of thanks E co-Freko, crud and slush For the sake ol starving flush ! Belgians, What we think is flushed away Will be tomorrow's prime filet Come you Eco-Frek crusaders...
...Military weakness and national insecurity increase the chances of overconfidence and miscalculation by the enemy to trigger war...
...Strom Thurmond...
...It gan as follows: "Mr...
...There is a desperate need to remind the American people of the continuous external pressures exerted against our nation and people...
...And the silence of the American press will not go unremarked in the Soviet Union...
...Guess again...
...Treason," said another...
...Finally, an ominous closing note: "The day of reckoning is approaching...
...They, like most other residents of the Federal City (the rest of you don't know about it yet, because the press doesn't think such things newsworthy), could h a r d l y believe the news...
...It is the latest step in the steady, uninterrupted trend toward making the United States a second-rate power incapable of assuring the future security of its people...
...No warhawk she, by any means...
Vol. 5 • November 1971 • No. 2
