Correspondence

...Anyone who does not attempt this process, or attempting it, doesn't show the attempt in his argument proves to the thinking world his unwor-thiness of being taken seriously, regardless of the possibility of his correctness...

...This is not only true of the chequered history of Soviet relations with the West, especially of the actions designed to curb the offensive power of the Soviet Union-always denounced as provocative by the Kremlin-but of North Korean propaganda (not so successful), and of North Vietnamese, Cuban, and Nicaraguan propaganda (highly successful...

...There is no need to assume that, as Colonel Summers suggests, Ambassador Harriman was concerned to appease the North Vietnamese...

...Leo Buscaglia ("The Love Doctor," TAS, April 1985...

...was altered to read-"Without impugning quotas, that are, in and of themselves, compelling, it is important...

...Regardless of how entertaining it is to those few of us who eavesdrop on you by paid subscription, aren't you really just talking to each other...

...If so, journalism has certainly reached a low ebb...

...Especially if I were included in the company of other "American charlatans," such as R.W...

...Ferguson seems to believe, he has only gained mastery in telling beautiful lies...

...Harry L. Moore, Jr...

...Redlands, California The American Spectator welcomes correspondence from its readers...

...Most Western minds either cannot or will not comprehend the mental gymnastics in use in the Far East for centuries...

...Perhaps it is the practice not only of politicians, but also of modern journalists to twist the words and misinterpret the actions of their chosen enemies...

...The effects of the revelations of what American prisoners of war were undergoing on the conduct and upshot of the war, are somewhat speculative...

...I just don't wholeheartedly embrace the conservative position on Dartmouth College...

...Gary was entertaining during the campaign, and he's probably as tired as his material...

...How anyone could be taken in by the stomach-turning maunderings of this man is absolutely beyond my (and my wife's) imagination...

...Buscaglia's credentials and techniques aside, let us thoughtfully consider his success...

...when is the last time you guys "took a walk through the plant...

...There are many other virtues in the Stockdale book, the most important of which are not related to the war but to the perennial issue of how men and women behave in extreme situations- when they must pit their values and very lives against the enemies of human freedom...

...Hook on the Stockdales In his review of Jim and Sybil Stockdale's In Love and War (TAS, April 1985), Colonel Harry Summers scants the significance of Averell Har-riman's ill-advised counsel to suppress the news, known to the American government early on, that the North Vietnamese were torturing American prisoners of war...

...As several readers immediately pointed out, $200 million per year divided among 40,000 homeless people is $5,000 a person, not $50,000...

...Thoreau, and excluded from association with respected editorial assistants, such as Andrew Ferguson...

...If so, what, exactly...

...When's the last time you got out among us, smelled some cutting oil or engine exhaust, kicked some dirt, skinned some shins on an open drawer where real people work, and talked face-to-face to the people who actually sent liberalism to the showers...

...They can read...

...But not at all speculative is what any person knowledgeable about how Communists think and behave could have predicted, viz., that the torture and mistreatment would stop just as soon as the revelations made the headlines...

...And they did it all by themselves...

...it is strength...

...And what will "Liberalism" have to do to regain their approval and rise again...

...That didn't figure in their thinking when they did what they did to "Liberalism...

...My point is that New York's THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JUNE 1985 rent-control policies, coupled with the family break-up encouraged by the welfare system, creates a situation where tax-payers must pay enormous amounts of money to accomplish very little...

...As a case in point, may I draw your attention to Andrew Ferguson's scathing look at the career and idiosyncrasies of Dr...

...They make the Stockdales' book much more than another book on Vietnam...

...They can also give more than a token effort toward understanding innocuous and seemingly illogical statements...

...Persons of above-adequate intellect and education (whether self-acquired or obtained osmotically in the rumor mills of "higher learning") do not need pseudo-intellectual attempts at humor to tell them if Dr...

...It is a pity that Colonel Summers missed their central significance...

...It seems to me that if you really want to find out the Condition of American Liberalism, you should ask those who put it into its present condition...

...Give us something other than self-serving speculation based on arcane reference to ancient gurus...

...CORRESPONDENCE Corrections I would like to apologize to all American Spectator readers for the foolish error that led me to represent New York City as paying $50,000 per person in taking care of the homeless ("Visits with the Homeless," TAS, May 1985...

...Possibly for that reason, had the nation been informed of the tortures and outrages against the American prisoners when they began, American public opinion would have been aroused to a pitch that would have permitted a more intelligent prosecution of the war once we were already involved-leaving aside for the moment the dubious wisdom of the original commitment by Kennedy...

...I think not...

...Most of them never heard of your conservative philosophers or philosophies...

...Did they reject something, or embrace something better...

...What Ambassador Harriman's judgment on this matter and other issues affecting our policy towards Communism truly reveals, despite his stubborn belief that he is an expert on Communism, is an abysmal and persistent ignorance of Communist theory, strategy, and political warfare...

...I had thought the conclusion of my review stressed the "central significance" of Stockdale's courage and determination, but evidently this message was not sufficiently clear...

...The correct figure is that New York is spending about $18,000 per housing unit for the homeless...

...Not true...

...The result was that I sounded as if I didn't wholeheartedly embrace the conservative position on affirmative action...

...Moral: The people who know most about a job are those who do the job...

...Hugs and Hisses Thank you for your recent article by Andrew Ferguson on Dr...

...They wouldn't know a Laffer curve from a Keynesian fastball...

...He honestly believed that if the news was revealed, it would worsen the condition of the American prisoners...

...But then seven editors, three professors, two authors, two columnists, and three politicians should be entertaining (well, two of three politicians isn't bad...

...Buscaglia's books are, or are not, worth the paper upon which they are printed...

...Broadcasting news of what was occurring to American prisoners of war would have made it difficult even for New Left zealots in our colleges and press to sing the praises of Ho Chi Minh while his minions were torturing Americans...

...The figure of 40,000 homeless people is highly inflated...

...It includes what city officials are calling "the hidden homeless"-recently described by the New York Times as including "newcomers to the city who have not yet found their own home...

...It's nice to know (continued on page 49)CORRESPONDENCE (continued from page 7) that there are others who feel that he is an egregious ass...

...He must be doing something right, even if, as Mr...

...My point is not to denigrate the homeless for "living high...

...It would have indicated, despite the calming assurances of the Tom Wickers and Anthony Lewises, what to expect if unconditional withdrawal, without guarantees against Communist mini-holocausts, took place...

...William Tucker Brooklyn, New York In my review of Ben Hart's Poisoned Ivy (TAS, May 1985), a small yet critical error distorted the meaning of my reference to affirmative action...

...As anyone who has read Poisoned Ivy will tell you, there's a difference...

...It is neither managerial nor journalistic weakness to listen to those people...

...But, to use a phrase everyone outside of "The City" and "The Belt" will recognize (how many of the above seventeen contributors is that, anyway...

...Leo Buscaglia...

...Another one thousand or so are sheltered voluntarily by churches and synagogues in cold weather...

...Malcolm Gladwell Washington, D.C...

...And I do sit in awe and envy of how you suckers can turn a phrase-and Buchanan and Buckley and Sobran and Will too...

...While the $50,000-a-year picture is only a figment of my misplaced decimal point, the $5,000 figure isn't accurate either...

...For them, as for all Communists engaged in a war against a democratic power like the United States, one of the most important fronts is the home front, here in our open society...

...I am most apologetic, though, to those readers (and editors) who didn't catch the error, and may have repeated it...

...The $18,000 a year could easily cover the mortgage and taxes on a $100,000 home...

...If so, I would not mind being called a charlatan...

...Jewels of great worth are oft found in unlikely places...

...Like one of his calamitous predecessors as Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Joseph Davies, he seems to believe that knowledge of the operational code of the Politburo can be acquired by diplomatic osmosis...

...Once things appear in print, it is hard to dispel the impression that they are true, and I hate to see misinformation abounding...

...This figure is almost certainly accurate, since the people I talked with at the Martinique Hotel were being given $21,000 to pay for two-room suites...

...The Vietnamese Communists reacted as expected...

...If, by whatever peaceful method, one can help others to feel more complete in themselves and less helpless in the face of the great adversity of existence in this changing society, what harm has he done that he deserves such callous treatment...

...McCarley III Dike, Texas Vox Populi "On the Condition of American Liberalism" (TAS, April 1985) was indeed entertaining...

...Thus, with $200 million budgeted, the city is spending $18,000 per year for each housing unit provided to the homeless...

...how many votes do you guys have...

...Colonel Summers is right that, because we are an essentially civilian country, American public opinion can never be indifferent to the fate of its fighting men and women, the sons and daughters of our townsmen and neighbors, if not our immediate families...

...The conditions in which they live are squalid at best...

...Please limit your comments to 200 words, and include full name, address, and telephone number...

...I mean, they must have...

...W.H...

...The median family income in New York City is only $14,000...

...Clifford Abrams Evanston, Illinois Even the confirmed empiricist will admit that an effort should be made to study the constituent parts of a thing and to understand them on their respective levels in their own context before commencing with the wholesale degradation of the subject in question...

...In addition, it provides permanent shelter for about 7,500 homeless individuals...

...Emerson and H.D...

...Unfortunately, in the process of transcription the key sentence-'Without impugning the traditional arguments against quotas that are, in and of themselves, compelling, it is important...

...According to the latest figures from the Coalition for the Homeless, New York is now providing housing for 3,500 "homeless families"-about 11,000 people, almost all welfare mothers and their children...

...To be sure, that approach would be more expensive and time-consuming than sixteen phone calls, but wouldn't you get closer to the causes and cures...

...Because Harriman sat in the same room with Stalin and has had negotiations with Soviet officials over commercial concessions (in which, although wined, dined, and grossly flattered, he was always out-foxed), he is under the pathetic illusion that he has "inside knowledge" of how Communists think...

...Does this mean these techniques are useless and deserving of ridicule...

...Professor Hook's emphasis, then, is well taken...

...And this in a struggle in which not only are they unsure to win, but when the odds are against them...

...I had meant only to make a limited criticism of Hart's opposition to quotas at Dartmouth College: The point was, why be concerned about blacks not measuring up at Dartmouth, if whites don't either...

...What IS "Liberalism"-by their definition, not yours...

...How many voters, really, pulled Republican levers with your fine phrases ringing in their ears...

...Sidney Hook Hoover Institution Stanford, California Colonel Harry G. Summers replies: I am more than happy to defer to Professor Hook's far greater insights into the motives behind Ambassador Harriman's actions, and agree with him completely that the news of prisoner torture ought to have been broadcast...