European Document/Charter Victims of Communism

...The Russians are thus near starving...

...Fair enough, provided we define what we mean by " t h e R u s s i a n s . " For the Russians themselves have been living under a terrible form of martial law for some 65 years...

...History suggests that it is not so much despair as hope which breeds unrest...

...In Kazan it is normal to queue for an hour or more for b u t t e r and milk...

...CHARTER VICTIMS OF COMMUNISM We weep for the poor Poles, living and partly living under martial law...

...It is not a p r e t t y sight, nor made prettier by the nauseating spectacle of the West making good in part the resultant hideous deficiencies...

...The oppressors are mostly Russians by birth, granted (though one or two of the very worst were, alas, of Polish origin--Dzerzhinski, Vishinski...

...What we must rather work and pray for is the collapse of the whole vast Russian prison house, with R.ussia, Poland, and so many other precious nations languishing in its dark cells...

...This view was shared by John Walcott of Newsweek, who wrote in February that '~Haig is clearly in c h a r g e - - a t least for the moment...

...What Reagan had done, according to White House aides, was give " c o n c e p t u a l a p p r o v a l " to a scheme for transferring federal programs back to the states and raising taxes to give the states more money to finance the programs...

...Please send infornmtlon on Young America's Foundation's C)ricntation Conference and an application to: Name: Street: City: _ _ State _ _ Zip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mail to: James B. Taylor, Young America's Foundation, Suite 812, I 1800 Sunrise Valley Drive, Rc.~ttm, VA 22091 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR APRIL i982 31...

...Subjects offered this year: Economics: A Free Market Perspective Conservative Political Thought American History: Conflict or Consensus Foreign Policy: A Non-revisionist View For Information, Please Return This Coupon...

...News & World Report, disagrees...

...They looked on Bush as light and L e f t , " he wrote in J a n u a r y . "Instead, he is turning out heavy and R i g h t . . . an agreeable alternative should the President decide to serve only one t e r m . " John W. Mashek, the respected political editor of U.S...

...Ever wonder how the press could have been so wrong about President Reagan and a tax increase...

...For instance, there was the Associated Press story in early January that reported: "President Reagan tentatively agreed yesterday to inctude in his 1983 budget proposals a doubling of major federal excise taxes and a shift of major highway, welfare and education responsibilities to the states, administration sources said...

...But who cares a damn what he thinks or feels...

...It said: "Administration officials reported tonight that President Reagan, wrapping up the final decisions on his proposed 1983 budget, has decided to ask Congress for temporary increases in federal excise taxes on gasoline, cigar e t t e s , whiskey and wine, but not beer...

...Reagan had indeed discussed all this with his legislative s t r a t e g y group for two hours...

...To say t h a t the oppressors care absolutely nothing for the welfare, h a p p i n e s s , and prosperity of the Russian, Polish, and other sad peoples subject to them is--well-debatable...

...So was the story in the New York Times two days later...

...It is thus absurd to say that the Russians are oppressing the Poles...

...But he never signed off on the excise tax boost...

...and I bet he would not begrudge the Poles their freedom if his own came with it...

...fruit and most vegetables are virtually unobtainable...

...That same day, R. Gerald Livingstone of Georgetown University's school of foreign service wrote on the op-ed page of the New York Times.that Haig, "teetering on the brink of resignation or dismissal seven months a g o . . , today is in a position to dominate foreign policy making...

...By now t h e r e must be people nearer home whom he fears and mistrusts more than any Poles...

...Often the ordinary Russian is likened to a man shouting and screaming in a soundproof room...

...100 million?--in driving many of the very best into exile, in depriving those who survive and remain of all save inner freedom and dignity, in the extinction of whole historic nations, in ferocious attacks on religion, the arts, and thought...

...Obviously not enough, though...

...Some political analysts argue that the vice president, who pledged from the outset to keep a low profile, is growing so inconspicuous that he is nearly dropping out of sight," Mashek wrote in December...

...Well, the stories that said Reagan was ready to jack up excise taxes turned out to be incorrect, but they actually had some basis in fact...

...It is aimed at preparing such students to meet the attacks on our system and our way o f lift" that they will face in college...

...Look again at the tragedy of Russia's once relatively bountiful agriculture...

...No one hears or heeds him: The blank walls mockingly echo back his futile pleas and laments...

...With Clark, his former State Department deputy, in control of machinery in the White House and non-political professionals installed at the top of his State Department, Haig's dominance is said to be complete," they wrote...

...It may otherwise be true 30 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR APRIL 1982 that they, are the slaves of their need to retain and maximize t h e i r own power, of their conviction that only chaos and old night could follow their overthrow...

...In Moscow itself, a privileged city, the shortages and queues for meat and vegetables are worse than ever...

...Outside Moscow the situation is grimmer by far...

...As Peter Simple put it: " ' G r e a t is the truth and shall prevail.' Even the Soviet Union, the greatest organized Lie in human history, must surely collapse under the weight of its own multiple fraudulence...

...Now, to p e r p e t u a t e i t s e l f in Poland, it surreptitiously filches food from the hungry Russians and gives it to the hungry Poles, robbing the more cowed to subjugate the more turbulent...

...And the next day, January 21, xhe whole tax proposal fell apart a f t e r Reagan was lobbied over rolls at the White House mess by leaders of the U.S...

...The jury on Haig is even more widely divided...

...Thus it helps to p e r p e t u a t e the system which causes these deficiencies and which hates not only its own people but the West as well...

...I t is senseless to charge the oppressed with oppressing the oppressed...

...He pared $40 billion off a package of "revenue enhancers" that was initially pegged at $100 billion, cutting out such items as an oil import fee, aides said...

...What a day of glory that will b e ! " [] Announcing...

...On a more mundane plane, he is said to want more consumer goods, more food, somewhere decent to live...

...The President, one aide said, had "reconciled himself to the concept," but not to the specifics...

...by Colin Welch than most such armies...

...Broder detected in December " a seeming resurgence of influence for a man who has more than once been dismissed as a fringe player in the a d m i n i s t r a t i o n . " McLaughlin went further, insisting that conservatives are warming to Bush...

...Again, of his r u l e r s , who cares a damn...

...It was forced on them by ruthless terror and by such terror it is still maintained...

...But even the Russian oppressors have become aliens, as foreign as any army of occupation and infinitely more unfeeling, callous, and cruel Colin Welch is Editor-in-Chief of Chief Executive and former deputy editor of t/oe London Daily Telegraph from which this article is reprinted...

...That, of course, was wrong...

...Chamber of Commerce...

...According to the Economist, the meat ration in many parts of south Russia and Siberia is, if honored, one kilogram per mouth per month...

...They may think hungry people dangerous to them, or they may not...

...It may be true that the oppressors themselves are slaves of an ideology which has, or once had or purported to have, the happiness of Russians and all mankind as one of its purposes...

...No more than the Poles did they choose their present form of government...

...The oppressors' record is strongly against them...

...STUDENT CONFERENCE In the Nation's Capital Summer ~ 1982 The Foundation's Orientation Conference is designed fi~r responsible students who believe in America and its traditional values...

...This, too, leaked, but the press got the story right that Reagan was tilting against a tax hike...

...Some GOP conservatives continue to distrust him as a centrist...

...By the same token General Jaruzelski must have become an alien, a foreigner to the Poles...

...According to the offieia.l yearbook, Russians in 1980 ate less meat, milk, butter, cheese, and even potatoes than in 1979, itselfa year of want...

...How dreadful it must be, whether you are Russian, Polish, or of any other nationality subjugated to the Communists, to be governed by people who, if not utterly indifferent to your well-being, behave as if they actually hated you...

...The Foundation does this by rigorously preparing'the student for the study o f particular academic subjects that bear on public policy so that he or she will not bc a passive receiver o f what passes for current academic wisdom...

...By now the Poles, once more f o r t u n a t e , are perhaps as near or n e a r e r . The same wicked system engenders both g r e a t d e s e r t s of want...

...Some may be slaves of fear, fearful of losing their privileges, fearful of terrible retribution should they ever relax...

...Far truer to say that those who oppress the Russians also oppress the Poles...

...except on the black market, the meat is largely gristle and bone...

...How can such a man " o p p r e s s " the Poles...

...In mid-January the New York Times reported: "President Reagan has decided to go ahead with a proposal that would raise some taxes and give some of the revenue to the states, administration officials and congressional sources said yesterday...

...But perhaps not for long, added Rowland Evans and Robert Novak...

...Conservative Orientation Seminars: An Alternative to the Liberal Academic Establishment YOUNG AMERICA'S FOUNDATION'S FOURTH ANNUAL WASHINGTON, D.C...

...Dislike them he may...

...The contrary is closer to the truth: Clark's insistence that policy will now follow the instincts and ideological convictions of his old California friend may weaken, not strengthen, Al Haig...

...That was not made out of wholecloth...

...We should weep for all their victims...

...Whichever it is, t h e i r slavery renders them blind to suffering, deaf to the cries of misery, strangers to pity and benevolence...

...Last January 29, Karen Elliott House of the Wall Street Journal wrote that " r a t h e r than dominating the formulation of foreign policy, he [Haig] often finds himself alone, lashing out at Reagan aides he feels are unwisely denying him preeminence...

...The Polish scenes in Moussorgsky's Boris Godunov express his traditional fear and mistrust of seductive Polish princesses, wily Jesuits, and the like...

...There followed similar stories with different sourcing...

...It would be a strange love and solicitude indeed which expressed i t s e l f in the murder or starvation of millions--50...

...We blame " t h e Russians" for imposing it on them...

...In the s i n i s t e r "closed" areas, which cover most of t h e c o u n t r y , t h e r e seems n e a r famine...