Dear Editor
Dear Editor Chinese Communism In reading carefully Henry M. Jackson's thoughts on "Developing Sino-American Relations" (NL, June 25), I get the unmistakable impression that the Senator, in his...
...They will do better when they stop seeing masculinity as some kind of optional variable, and get over the fantasy that by weakening family ties one can diminish male aggressiveness...
...For the record, I would simply express once again the caveats in my article: that contemporary Chinese society embodies values antithetical to our own...
...World conquest is the Communists' sole aim and it is unrealistic and naive to believe otherwise...
...Recently, a number of well-known political leaders in Washington have enthusiastically advanced the idea of diplomatic relations with Red China...
...Surely, he must realize that this would be a complete sell-out of one of our few remaining allies, the loyal and legal Chinese Government on Taiwan...
...Gilder clings to his view of the traditional nuclear family as if it were an eternal verity-when in fact it is a relatively recent phenomenon in the history of mankind...
...The success of the republican form of government of Taiwan is evidenced by the island's growing economy...
...Bacon's assertion that he has some genuine insight into Chinese motivations un-perceived by the rest of us-an insight allowing him to dismiss the views of others as "unrealistic" and "naive"-Is an example of the frame of mind that has too long inhibited Sino-American contacts...
...If one wants concrete evidence that Maoism has never taken root in the minds of the Chinese people, one need only consider the continuing and ever-increasing flight of refugees from the People's Republic...
...Otherwise, he would better understand the true nature of the Red terrorists...
...A social breakdown will probably hurt women more than men, for then males will compensate for their sexual inferiority by aggressiveness rather than by a role as familial provider...
...In the end, however, Gilder's argument amounts to a very sad commentary on the male ego...
...Modern society, in fact, requires "sacrifices" less by women than by men...
...and that formalized relations with the Chinese could be achieved without sacrificing fundamental U.S...
...Though I would disagree with his analysis at several crucial points, at least he directs our attention to the profound psychological forces behind popular attitudes toward such matters as abortion, divorce, day-care, welfare, etc...
...I don't know what female "sacrifices" Miss Allison thinks 1 ask in behalf of males...
...In apparently advocating the latter...
...As far as a "new structure of institutions" is concerned, all I can say is "lots of luck...
...In my opinion, it was as important as Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham City Jail," and as sensitive as Gus Tyler's pieces on the last Presidential election...
...Sex and Society George F. Gilder's "Sex and the Social Order" (NL, September 3) was one of the best articles ever to appear in your magazine...
...This, of course, does not take into account the thousands who attempted to flee but failed...
...The latest official report published by Hong Kong authorities shows that from 1961-70 a total of 178,324 persons fled mainland China to Hong Kong, or an average of 18,000 a year...
...One final point: Those who advocate improving relations with Peking, believing, like Jackson, that "today the People's Republic of China sees the Soviet Union as a dangerous enemy," fail to consider the always existent possibility that the two powers may again come together—upon Mao's death, for instance, or his overthrow by a pro-Soviet clique within the Party...
...The flight to freedom of thousands of young people who were born or brought up under Communism is clear proof of the failure of Communist indoctrination...
...One of their main arguments is the apparent rift between Moscow and Peking, and the belief that extending a welcome to the People's Republic will strengthen the bond of friendship between it and America, so that if trouble should occur between the USSR and the U.S...
...Such overtures toward the United States are no guarantee that Red China has had a change of heart or mind in its plan to expand Communist domination...
...Foreign trade for 1972 totalled $5,581 million, an increase of 42.9 per cent over 1971...
...Those who are seeking to develop new forms of "family," whether in communal living arrangements or simply in a freer kind of relationship between husband and wife, may be on a better track toward relieving the male ego of its debilitating dependencies...
...Moreover, he seems to believe that my case for more normal relations with Peking stems from ignorance both of Chinese history and the nature of Chinese Communism...
...Serious students of Communism, moreover, have held for years that the so-called Sino-Soviet split is merely a pose, as indeed it may be...
...manner of help, including declining to win a war against their allies...
...Chief among these is the constant desire of the People's Republic for a Communist world government: In dealing with the U.S., it has only one aim in mind-to take whatever it can get without conceding anything in return...
...Unfortunately, reports of increasing hostility between the USSR and the People's Republic create an unwarranted illusion that Peking could be used as an ally by our country to counterpoise Moscow's growing military power...
...Isn't he aware that Peking does not dare to let the Chinese people communicate freely with the American people and thus learn of the freedom and happiness possible to them under a truly republican form of government...
...Seattle William Dudson Bacon, M.D...
...There is absolutely nothing that warrants relying on Peking to restore peace and security in Southeast Asia, or to play a positive role for this purpose, such as Senator Jackson imagines...
...So far all the feminists have proposed is a lot of old precivilized patterns and a lot of woefully familiar brave new worlds...
...Whatever the case, if it came to a choice between siding with the United States or with one another, there can be no doubt that the Communists would resolve any differences for the sake of their commonly avowed goal-that Communism shall rule the world...
...The only guarantee for long-term peace and stability is a strong America-militarily, morally and otherwise-capable, for a change, of saying "No" to the Communists instead of supinely placating them and giving them al...
...Senator Jackson replies: Dr...
...the actual figure, including those who did not report to the Immigration Office, would be probably three or four times higher...
...As I show at some length in my forthcoming book, Sexual Suicide, the decline of marriage brings not groovy communalism but social disintegration...
...Exports exceeded imports by $353.4 million...
...Paul Kessler The provocative George F. Gilder makes a valuable contribution to the current debate about what has come to be called "the social issue...
...Collingswood, N.J...
...Senator Jackson declares, "The question was-and should continue to be-what sort of American posture toward China will best further our national purposes, particularly our concern for long-term peace and stability...
...When the strains of social change threaten to topple the old order, we have to choose between creating a new structure of institutions to carry us into the future and attempting to revive the patterns of the past {or our idealized memory of them...
...Men accept these constraints chiefly when women, sexually dominant as they are, socialize men as titular "heads of households...
...If Jackson is willing to concede that Peking is the capital of all China, including Taiwan, how could our country possibly go to the aid of the National Republic of China if it were attacked by Red China...
...Furthermore, the statement that "recognizing Peking as the government of all China sometime in the future would not obligate us to acquiesce to the forceable incorporation of Taiwan in the People's Republic" is self-contradictory on its face...
...Evidently he hasn't had an opportunity to talk to the many who have fled Red China to escape from its despotic rulers...
...that the tack of Chinese foreign policy has shifted in the past and could do so again...
...It is to be hoped that the American people will not be hoodwinked into believing there has been any change in the motives of the Communists, regardless of what aspiring politicians may say to the contrary...
...in the first half of this year, it was $4,131.4 million, up 41.5 per cent over the corresponding period of 1972...
...Industrial production was up 36.6 per cent...
...Dear Editor Chinese Communism In reading carefully Henry M. Jackson's thoughts on "Developing Sino-American Relations" (NL, June 25), I get the unmistakable impression that the Senator, in his desire to promote friendship between Communist China and the U.S., is overlooking some of the very grave problems involved in any relationship with Peking because of its fundamental policies and objectives...
...Its gross national product last year reached an all-time high of $7.18 billion, registering a real growth of 11 per cent over 1971...
...The Free World should realize that Peking's recent smiling campaign was designed to help the Red Chinese overcome their internal difficulties...
...The whole system of credentials and educational requirements represents discrimination against male aggressiveness...
...Bacon has chosen to read into my suggestions for concrete improvements in Sino-American relations some attitudes about China that aren't mine...
...We are all in this together...
...While prospering under a free-enterprise system, the Chinese on Taiwan have not sacrificed their traditions, culture, family life, and moral standards...
...Per capita income rose to $372, up 8.6 per cent over 1971...
...A freer kind of relationship between husband and wife" is desirable only to the extent that it does not free the man to leave the woman alone with her children...
...I sincerely hope that you will not allow the intellectual community to ignore the challenge to its ideas that Gilder offers...
...Tourists who have visited both Chinas are quick to remark about the significant differences between the two systems in living standards, in countenance, and in human relations...
...What the Senator suggests would most certainly mean the demise of the National Republic of China...
...To believe this, however, is utterly not to understand the Communists' objective, i.e., destruction of the Free World and the establishment of Communism on a world-wide basis...
...San Francisco Sarah Allison George F. Gilder replies: Like civilized modern society, the nuclear family is indeed "a relatively recent phenomenon in the history of mankind...
...The most prevalent alternative to the nuclear family, after all, is the mother-child unit, with the males away on the hunt...
...Another example of wishful thinking on the part of the Senator is his hope for "reciprocal exchanges . . . even something as simple as a formal end to the Chinese jamming of radio broadcasts," and for "the broadest possible access to the Chinese peo-ple...
...For men, however, marriage is anything but a "debilitating dependency...
...we could rely on Peking to come to our aid...
...It is, in fact, the enabling dependency of civilized life...
...And the report refers only to those "illegal" immigrants who applied for residence certificates at the Hong Kong Immigration Office...
...How much must women sacrifice to prop up these pitifully vulnerable creatures...
...interests and commitments...
Vol. 56 • October 1973 • No. 19
