The People's Forum

THE PEOPLE'S FORUM 'Pleasant Surprise' Dear Sirs: People in my country identify the United States with adopting rigid postures because of its leadership of one of the two blocs. Maybe much of...

...We are in the longest recession since the great depression of the 1930s...
...Its goal is independence for Eritrea from Ethiopia...
...They are protesting the wholesale dropping of inhuman napalm fire bombs, fragmentation bombs, and similar ungodly creations of torture and death on native villages, on innocent men, women, and children...
...some are being used...
...With the advent of hundreds of thousands of American troops, millions of tons of American bombs, and billions of American dollars, surely no one can deny that it is now an American war against the people of Vietnam...
...I am very much involved with nonviolent civil disobedience myself...
...The fewer things we give the reactionaries to complain about, the better...
...Many simply aren't interested...
...In 1953 the rise was still further reduced to an almost unbelievable six-tenths per cent...
...Ralph Gould Fellowship of Reconciliation Nyack, New York Civil Disobedience Urged Dear Sirs: When will The Progressive start advocating nonviolent civil disobedience...
...Army (Ret...
...Anti-war members of Congress do little more than make speeches against the war...
...In 1954, this peaceful and prosperous land was annexed by Ethiopia...
...The author also documents the fact that the U.S...
...Maybe much of this picture is the result of cold war projections...
...We have nearly two years ahead of us in which to accomplish the radicalization of the young, before the next Presidential election...
...Why should not the principles and obligations of Nuremberg apply under conditions such as these...
...prisoners of war for President Nixon to send former astronaut Borman barnstorming around the world at public expense to get them released, or for the massive letter-writing program to the North Vietnamese government for their release, urged by much of the mass communications media...
...You have protested against the war for years...
...Why don't you advocate that people take direct action to change evil in this society...
...Charles C. Lockwood Detroit, Michigan Financing Atrocities Dear Sirs: Eritrea is the easternmost province of Ethiopia...
...In addition, what makes it so chillingly cowardly, criminal, and immoral is that the victims, the so-called opponents, are peasant people, and do not have similar weapons with which to retaliate...
...While the early actions of the ELF were mainly confined to sporadic raids, during the last six months its attacks have increased in intensity and effectiveness...
...It should be massively debated by the mass communications media and at every level of our society: community, state, and nation...
...As a result of this rapid jump the cost of living rose six per cent in 1951...
...The cost of living rise continues...
...How many more Vietnam-type wars may be forced upon us by Presidential usurpation of powers because today's Supreme Court was not courageous enough to face the issue...
...Asheville, North Carolina Nuremberg and Vietnam Dear Sirs: The relevant principle of the Nuremberg law is the obligation of an individual to refuse to commit an act which he knows is wrong, even if he is ordered to do so by his superior officer or his government...
...This book should be in every library in the United States...
...And millions of taxpayers have every right to say "No" to demands for funds to carry on this unprincipled and murderous conflict...
...What should be especially noted is that in each of these years production went up while unemployment declined...
...It took almost nine years and a bloody Civil War before the Dred Scott decision of the Supreme Court was reversed by the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment on December 18, 1865...
...mercenaries, such as: the South Koreans, to torture and kill...
...I have just finished reading a book, Atrocities in Vietnam: Myths and Realities by Professor Edward S. Herman, University of Pennsylvania, published by Pilgrim Press, Philadelphia...
...The author thoroughly documents the fact that the My Lai atrocity was not exceptional, but typical of many U.S...
...John C. Davis Consulting Economist New Port Richey, Florida Vietnam Now U.S...
...Today vast numbers of people here and abroad are protesting the inhumanity of the war now being waged in Vietnam...
...As a result of these programs the rise in the cost of living was slowed to eight-tenths of one per cent in 1952...
...And you have not yet quite escaped your traditional philistine proclivity to measure art by its sentimental literal message (nauseous electric chairs) and by the artist's colorful life story personality, and to ignore the expressionist exuberance of Warhol's silk-screened film beauties— certainly a more "refreshing" use of color than his pretty flowers...
...This ignores factual history...
...Although the ELF does not harm Americans who are traveling in Eritrea, it does blow up bridges and buildings and attacks detachments of the Ethiopian Army, sometimes inflicting heavy losses...
...These radical differences need not necessarily mean anarchical approaches, but free expression of views, however widely divergent...
...If the North Vietnamese followed a similar practice, there would be no U.S...
...There are two million more persons unemployed than when he took office...
...But the great majority have worked within the system...
...The views expressed in The Progressive, therefore, provide a pleasant surprise to those who are first introduced to the magazine...
...illegal elections held four years ago which produced only a onethird vote for the present government despite all forms of harassment...
...The new age will be upon us...
...It does nothing about MIRV...
...It stretches along the west coast of the Red Sea from the Sudan in the north to Somalia in the south...
...If we continue quiet explanations of why we wanted their attention, and continue to point out each stupid or destructive move to our peers, I believe we can accomplish our goal...
...Take your case to the courts, that's what the courts are for...
...The Progressive's readers are finally learning what happened five or ten years ago...
...Thomas Burton Charlotte, North Carolina...
...We foresee that many more youth will die in Southeast Asia, many more will be sent to prison for refusing to serve in an illegal and immoral war...
...If they do apply then untold thousands of draftees have every right to say "No...
...The American people should know about these atrocities because it is their tax dollars that buy the guns, bullets, and bayonets for the Ethiopian army...
...We've offended enough people now to have gotten our message into the open...
...Please don't think I'm asking you to do something I'm not doing...
...I take comfort from the figures until I remember that not all young people are radical, or even liberal...
...Many think the United States socially static and unresponsive, in spite of its being the leading technologically advanced nation...
...My use of the word radical is in the "progressive" sense, as the term is used here in India...
...None has urged people to take action that will stop the war institutions...
...According to American servicemen stationed in Eritrea and according to Eritrean students in this country who receive letters from home, the Ethiopian Army has slaughtered all males over the age of twelve in several villages near the site of the ambush...
...It should be read by the doves and hawks, the dissenting minority and the silent majority—that is, by everyone...
...By a six to three decision, it was announced late last year, the justices refused even to hear arguments of the constitutionality of the war as raised by the legislature of the state of Massachusetts...
...and then not in depth of degradation, only in magnitude...
...This is the government that has reiterated time and again they will never accept a coalition government representing all views of the Vietnamese people...
...Don't you think people have a duty to take action against evil themselves...
...If we continue to follow our present course of confrontation and disruption, my fear is that we will provoke a backlash, including many young people, that will defeat our very purpose...
...The impression, therefore, persists that the United States is insensitive to the urges and movements of underdeveloped and backward societies...
...This method of meeting war costs and stopping inflation was far less costly and much fairer than the Nixon program which shifted these burdens to the poor, the unemployed, and the aged...
...Even Hitler's gangsters had no such advantage...
...I think we've gone about as far as we can go with disruptive tactics...
...Robert Hansen Los Angeles, California Documents Viet Atrocities Dear Sirs: The right of every human being, free or slave, to know the truth carries with it the reciprocal responsibility to promulgate that truth...
...In 1951, the increase in war spending amounted to almost $20 billion...
...For if the facts are as reported and documented in Atrocities in Vietnam, the crimes being committed in our name in Indochina have not been exceeded since the days of Genghis Khan and Tamerlane...
...In time you may find a reporter who cares about what art looks like now...
...Even the Cooper-Church amendment does little to control the death machine...
...Nixon has shown he will not end the war until the people force him to...
...In addition, unlike the Nixon program, the measures that were taken during the Korean war worked...
...They either shoot them on the spot, or turn them over to the Saigon quislings Thieu and Ky, or U.S...
...increasing numbers will join the thousands who already have deserted from the armed forces...
...Perhaps I shouldn't quibble...
...That inflation can be controlled without creating unemployment is graphically shown by reference to the Korean war period...
...Now the Supreme Court of the United States has failed them...
...The monetary theorists responsible for Nixon's "economic game plan" have tried with considerable success to make the American people believe there is no way to restrain the rise in living costs without increasing the number of persons unemployed...
...Because the annexation has meant cultural as well as political subservience to the Ethiopian government in Addis Ababa, an insurgency movement, led by the ELF (Eritrean Liberation Front), has commenced...
...There is much more, I believe, than has met his eye...
...To stop this inflationary price rise, new taxes, including an excess profits tax, were levied...
...They are told smugly by many of their elders: "Work within the system...
...Today South Vietnam is ruled by a small, corrupt, military clique, mostly North Vietnamese who fought on the side of the French against their own people when they were struggling to shake off the yoke of western colonialism, which has been replaced by western imperialism...
...You have talked about unmet domestic needs...
...Use the elective process...
...The illegitimacy of their government becomes even clearer as we view their harsh and repressive measures...
...Mark W. Weber Madison, Wisconsin The Young and 1972 Dear Sirs: It is said that by 1972 Americans under thirty will have political control of the country...
...In one incident, on November 28, 1970, the guerrillas ambushed and killed the commanding general of the 2nd Division of the Ethiopian Army...
...To further restrain the rise in living costs a program to regulate consumer credit was put into effect...
...He names the places and gives the names of eye witnesses to these atrocities, given under oath...
...Walter A. MgCleneghan Scottsdale, Arizona Number One Dear Sirs: For the many years I have had access to The Progressive it has been far and away the number one political authority and guide for me...
...Keep looking...
...While I do not condone this act, the brutality of the retaliation of the Ethiopian Army has far overshadowed that of the ambush...
...Five or Ten Years Late Dear Sirs: I congratulate The Progressive on its progress from Alfred Werner, and Michelangelo and Degas, to Charles-Gene Mc-Daniel and Andy Warhol in a recent issue...
...So the fact that they can change things doesn't mean that they will...
...it's now time to explain, quietly, just what it is we've been up to, and why...
...S. N. Bhattacharyya New Delhi, India Nixon's Economic Crisis Dear Sirs: President Nixon is in serious political trouble because of the economic situation...
...While it may have been a civil war at one time, that was eight years ago when Diem was in power...
...Robert W. Leisinger Washington, D.C...
...For the first time in history we have a recession during a war period...
...widespread censorship of the press...
...In addition, they are committing various atrocities on a large scale—mutilation of women, bayoneting of children, and the decapitation of those who protest their actions...
...A mild form of wage and price control, without rationing, was made operative...
...The law as set forth at the Nuremberg trials was later unanimously ratified by the United Nations General Assembly...
...War Dear Sirs: At this late date how can one call the war in Vietnam a "civil war" as you did in your editorial, "CIA Warning on Vietnam" in the December issue...
...desertion from the Vietnamese army...
...it does nothing about the continuing use of chemical warfare...
...Some of the most liberal journals seem to sponsor the most conservative comment on the visual arts (besides The Progressive: Saturday Review, Christian Science Monitor, and, at times, The New York Times...
...McDaniel is a clear and clever writer, but I wonder if he has seen what is going on in Warhol's pictures...
...Hugh B. Hester Brigadier General U.S...
...Many will join the 35,000 who have emigrated to Canada...
...Can the young people be blamed if they decide that the judicial process is a dead end...
...Peter W. Williamson Ipswich, Massachusetts Court Fails Youth Dear Sirs: Many thousands of our youth believe the Vietnam War to be constitutionally illegal and grossly immoral...
...It is acknowledged by most seasoned observers that the Thieu-Ky regime remains in power only because of massive American military and economic involvement...
...The value of the magazine lies in the fact that its contents are accepted for their spontaneity and are proof of the free expression of views by those who differ radically from the established order...
...Fort Detrick keeps developing new chemical weapons...
...But these atrocities, as the author points out and documents, are minor when compared with the massive injuries imposed upon the civilians, old men, women, and children, by our Army, Air Force, and Navy...
...Congress keeps appropriating more and more money for weapons...
...And it is all too likely that some youth will join the comparatively small numbers who feel that resort to terror and violence is the only way left open...
...Glimpses of the affluent society from the Hollywood films are another contributing factor...
...they have worked at the elective process...
...And all to no avail so far as ending the war is concerned...
...The system is not working...
...military do not usually take prisoners in Indochina...
...military actions in Indochina...

Vol. 35 • March 1971 • No. 3


 
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