Correspondence
• correspondence • To the Editor: Neither the various articles nor editorial comments in The Alternative on foreign policy offer any creative alternative to the sterility of liberalism's postwar...
...Soares expressed his current views on the essence of Communism and cooperation with it in an August 25 interview for the Paris L'Express...
...Beyond the claims that he is a democrat and sworn enemy of totalitarianism—epithets derived entirely from the fantasy world of Western journalists—relatively little is known directly of Soares' convictions...
...Stephen Karganovk Bloomington, Indiana 38 The Alternative: An American Spectator January 1976...
...Obviously a policy of liberating the Communist slaves would be risky, but so is containment with its built-in tendency toward neoisolationism and inevitable defeat...
...Were these views only the result of youthful idealism, overcome by mature experience...
...One of the most infamous and dishonorable roles in this operation is being played by Mario Soares...
...Those two gentlemen were turned out at the next election...
...That, anyway, is my theory...
...The American people supported the war in Vietnam until long after it became obvious that neither Johnson nor Nixon nor Ford, all influenced by liberal advisors, intended to win...
...The essence of Soares' dialectical objections to the Communists is not that they are Communists, but that their tactical mistakes were making the uprising of the anti-Communist majority of the Portuguese people easier...
...This kind of criticism Communism does not dread at all because it always comes at the right moment to rejuvenate and save it...
...Who urges that Ford undercut Nationalist China in his kow-tows to the Chinese Communists...
...We could still embrace a common political platform...
...Not at all...
...One of the most enigmatic and sinister figures in the Portuguese tragedy is the leader of the Socialist Party, Dr...
...at best the United States reacts with a holding policy...
...Geltman correctly analyzed the essence of the conflict and delineated the intricate and well-coordinated Communist maneuvering which political imbeciles in the West have misinterpreted as their defeat...
...4) Soares' first worry and fundamental criticism of the Communists is not that they are threatening freedom and democracy, but that their reckless conduct is endangering that which both they and the Socialists have in common—and which is the very opposite of freedom...
...Wellington J. Griffith III Sun City, Arizona To the Editor: Recently I saw a photograph of you speaking while the Secretary of the Treasury was either laughing or sneezing...
...It should be remembered that the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution passed both houses of Congress with only two dissenting votes...
...Who demanded that Ford offer to revitalize the Egyptian army which repeatedly seeks to decimate Israel and underwrites guerrilla wars against Western friends within the Arab bloc...
...Thus, in his virulently propagandistic book, Le Portugal Baillona, published in Paris in 1972 when faint hopes of actually gaining political power made few demands for democratic moderation, Soares recalled his studentdays on p. 77: "In choosing sides between the U.S...
...It was containment that compelled American GIs to hold fire until fired upon, to provide the Communists with innumerable sanctuaries to which they could retreat when threatened with tactical defeats...
...In other words, by arrogating to himself the exclusive right to speak for the Portuguese "opposition," Soares is only following the old Communist principle that Communism may be criticized only by Communists or their useful dupes...
...A few things, however, can be pieced together from various sources...
...Mario Soares...
...He has been represented as everything other than what he really is, a Communist Trojan Horse since the outbreak of the present turmoil...
...And he went on: "It would be a national tragedy if Communists did not play the democratic game...
...2) though by their undemocratic methods the Communists have caused the crisis, Soares sees no reason why they couldn't change and begin to play what he calls the democratic game...
...3) in spite of Communist violence and openly expressed contempt for democracy, Soares offers them not merely agreement, but a common platform...
...will, perhaps, move the Communist Party to reflection and to the realization that it is opening the door to the reaction, the counter-revolution...
...Hanoi did not win in Southeast Asia...
...I've studied the photograph carefully and I now believe Mr...
...On the contrary, The Alternative honors containment by repeatedly featuring liberals such as Eugene Rostow and Ben Wattenherg who have nothing better to offer than endless American involvement in foreign wars, hoping, as Lyndon Baines Johnson did, that the Communists will tire out before conquering still another piece of territory...
...Certainly the American public does none of these things, which are the outgrowth of the defeatism of containment...
...The present difficulties...
...If it does that, an agreement will still be possible...
...To pick up Stillman's theme, the truth is that Kissinger and Ford are attempting to lead, not follow, American will in their general global retreat...
...As few other commentators have, Mr...
...The Communists can—and do—carefully pick and choose the most vulnerable Western targets to assault...
...It is simply to go on the offensive, to encourage and support wars of national liberation behind the Iron Curtain, to support the pleas of dissidents who beg the United States not to strengthen the totalitarian grip of the Communists on their own peoples...
...What public clamor was there for Ford to sign the Helsinki agreement legitimizing the Soviet rape of Eastern Europe...
...By offering the unique "moderate left alternative" during the Goncalves crisis and keeping his huge following practically immobile and without political direction when the psychological moment for decisive action to save the country was best, Soares defused the situation for the Communists and gave them the present breather to consolidate their strength...
...Who demands that the White House give away the Panama Canal to a banana-republic Marxist dictator...
...You seem to be forming a "Ggg" sound, which I interpret as the beginning of a "God bless you...
...Thus, (1) Soares clearly counts Communists among the "democratic forces" with whom he is seeking "agreement...
...Geltman has made a heroic effort to dispel—is as much invaluable to the liberals, in order to preserve their policies from discreditation, as it is to the Communists who have no illusions that they could ever seize power without deceit and force...
...and the USSR in case of war, given my Marxist formation, I would have sided with the latter...
...Whoever wins, Tito or Stalin, Brezhnev or Mao, Dubcek or Husak, Soares or Cunhal, one things is certain—Communism cannot lose...
...If the Communists have to spend all of their time putting out brush fires within their sphere, they will have little time and energy left to subvert the West...
...Liberal containment ensures Western defeat primarily because it allows all of the initiative to the enemy...
...Who applauded when Ford, at Kissinger's urging, rudely snubbed the greatest living author and courageous dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn...
...I hope you're very happy together...
...Who calls for the State Department, under Kissinger's orders, to cover up the Soviet brutalization of American diplomats in Moscow...
...Washington simply gave up after it was obvious that containment offered no prospect for peace with honor, i.e...
...The deciding factor was the shape of your mouth...
...It was containment which led to the policy of trying to buy peace through the subsidization of Communist aggression with American military technology...
...Lawrence J. SisIdnd Cambridge, Massachusetts To the Editor: From you excellent November issue, I would single out Max Geltman's "What's Left in Portugal" for special praise...
...What is a constructive alternative to the straw of containment to which The Alternative clings...
...This will perhaps convince the Communist Party to renounce undemocratic methods...
...Simon was sneezing...
...Speaking at the height of the Goncalves crisis, he said that for the situation to stabilize two things were necessary: (1) an agreement of "all the democratic forces" and (2) "resolution of the crisis caused by the Communist Party...
...To suggest, as does Stanley Stillman, that it is a failure of American will that binds the hands of President Ford and his Rockefeller satrap Henry Kissinger is nonsense...
...for assured national independence for Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos...
...correspondence • To the Editor: Neither the various articles nor editorial comments in The Alternative on foreign policy offer any creative alternative to the sterility of liberalism's postwar containment which has brought us disasters in Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, Eastern Europe, and China, and increasing threats to Israel and Portugal...
...The confusion which reigns about Portugal —which Mr...
...A promising start, indeed, for the future savior of Portuguese democracy...
...At least liberation offers the prospect of victory for Western Civilization...
Vol. 9 • January 1976 • No. 4
