Correspondence
CORRESPONDENCE Never Too Late I want to add my congratulations to those you've already received on the 20th anniversary of The American Spectator. It's well worth recalling that two decades ago,...
...The fatal consequence is that conservatives "have never quite succeeded in creating a political community comparable to the Liberals' community, and they have no idea of a cultural community...
...However, as Mr...
...Nor was Cheshire for that matter...
...It so happened Ambassador Han had just been talking to Seoul by phone and I think I would have been derelict had I not relayed to the editorial writer concerned—not Shiflett, but Mike Bonafield—the information obtained...
...By circumventing the established legal system—those precise myths, rules, and regulations which allow us to live as equitably and peaceably as possible as a society (albeit only semi-free)Andrews & Co...
...Not that Gold's memory is completely off...
...Only when Flag and General Officers are given the local control needed coupled with realistic rules of engagement and military objectives can military forces pursue, support, and achieve foreign policy...
...The shallow legal and moral assumptions presented in this piece could not possibly have been made by any reasonable or intelligent person...
...In predicting conservatism's crack-up Mr...
...It included numerous references to the role of the Soviet authorities and of the KGB not only in the Toshiba case but many other similar cases as well...
...The July 21 article referred to by Mr...
...Presently the United States has the assets needed to carry out near term goals with the capability needed to supplement these assets for long term foreign policy and strategic needs...
...Arnaud de Borchgrave Editor-in-Chief Washington Times Washington, D.C...
...It's well worth recalling that two decades ago, when you began The Alternative: An American Spectator, conservatism wasn't the force it is today...
...Richardson, Texas 48 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JANUARY 1988...
...Ronald Reagan Washington, D.C...
...And Tom Bethell is absolutely correct when he states, in his reply to Shiflett, that in order to prove to my staff there was no suggestion from the owners for an editorial or for the contents of an editorial, let alone a directive, I told Bill Cheshire, the former editor of the editorial page, "Go ahead and write the editorial however you (continued on page 48) THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JANUARY 1988 9 CORRESPONDENCE (continued from page 9) want...
...Greetings from the Persian Gulf While I found Elie Kedourie's article "Cruising for a Bruising: The U.S...
...An article referring to the Toshiba case alleges that "we cannot get the full story from the American press" ("Distortions, Omissions, Lies," by Michael Ledeen...
...As I have said on several occasions at the time of Cheshire's resignation, it was the biggest non-event of my forty-year career in journalism...
...Specifically, it says that two "quite long and detailed" articles on the subject in the Christian Science Monitor and the Wall Street Journal do not mention the role of the Soviet KGB in the affair...
...I have been in sole charge of the Washington Times's editorial policy since I assumed the responsibility March 19, 1985...
...The KGB's efforts are aided by the companies' fierce desire for business, and by the Japanese government's failure to effectively control strategic exports to communist countries...
...I got the story wrong, for the worst of all reasons: I didn't double-check...
...No such events took place...
...probably all nearing or well over 50 years of age...
...The article reproduced in the Congressional Record turns out to have been the second in the series (printed July 22), and I didn't look to see if there had been another one, as I should have (if anyone should have learned about the sloppiness of Congressional investigators, I should...
...The journalists represent the three elite East Coast conservative media...
...Shiflett was misinformed by Cheshire as to what had allegedly happened in my conversation with Ambassador Han...
...Navy USS Howes Miami, Florida Monitoring Toshiba and the KGB My attention has been drawn to The American Spectator of November 1987...
...Grace E. Goodell El Pasa Texas String Her Up Each month I await delivery of The American Spectator with breathless anticipation...
...You and your colleagues have exercised wide influence as you've livened up current journalism by puncturing liberalism's balloons and by offering fresh, funny, and telling conservative insights...
...The Buck Stops Here When Dave Shiflett writes (Correspondence, TAS, December 1987) that he "witnessed events which left no doubt that the Unification Church was influencing the [Washington Times's] editorial policy," he is lying...
...On July 21 the Monitor carried just such a long and detailed article, entitled "High-tech spying, Toshiba sale only the tip of espionage iceberg...
...Anable—and written by Daniel Sneider—not only includes numerous references to the role of the KGB, but indeed the second and third paragraphs are so good they deserve to be reprinted here: According to Japanese police and government officials, as well as a former employee of a corporation involved in the Toshiba scandal, the Soviet intelligence force (KGB) actively encourages and helps arrange such transfers...
...You might say that both he and Pierce won...
...Earl Hilton Marquette, Michigan Victor Gold replies: I stand corrected...
...You've done all this with a style that surely would have pleased one of your inspirations, Mencken, who appreciated writing in which he found "verbal delicacies" and "the constant joy of sudden discovery...
...He might "look within himself...
...Physician, heal thyself...
...The Monitor article was commented upon, and used by, American government officials and legislators...
...To repeat to a member of my editorial staff what Ambassador Sang Kook Han, the representative of the owners, had heard about what was happening in South Korea was not an editorial directive...
...God bless you and your readers...
...It was a whimper...
...Shiflett was not even present during this exchange when no editorial matters were discussed...
...Basing his dark prognostication of the movement's demise on conservatives' "parochialism," Mr...
...I hope you will correct the false impression given your readers and publish this letter...
...Hmm...
...However, I must write to take impassioned exception to the advertisement contained on page 4 (TAS, October 1987) soliciting funds for the "Free Joan Andrews Committee...
...TAS at its maximum "reaching out...
...President Reagan and Senator Goldwater, the movement's political torch-bearers, have their roots far west of the Hudson and Potomac...
...So full marks to Daniel Sneider and the Christian Science Monitor for a job well done, my apologies for having gotten this one absolutely wrong, and my thanks to David Anable for calling it to my attention...
...Consul at Liverpool, a position that paid very well...
...I doubt that the Washington-New York establishment accounted for even five percent of Oliver North's telegrams, or that one percent came from the combined action of millionaire, professor, and journalist...
...Russell Kirk, its cultural mentor, comes from tiny Mecosta in rural Michigan...
...Pierce rewarded him with appointment as U.S...
...To illuminate this parochialism Mr...
...I'm not alone in suspecting a link between your 20 years of publication and the rise of American conservatism...
...he just has the wrong candidate and the wrong year...
...Mark M. Jilka Aviation Anti-submarine Warfare Technician 2nd Class US...
...In any event, I do believe that a collection should still be taken—but not to free her, but to ensure that the violence and terrorism the pro-lifers (and to a much lesser extent the pro-choicers) employ so freely are brought to light and prosecuted to the full extent of the law...
...Some Crack-Up Your September issue discussion about the future of American conservatism rests on an irony ("The Coming Conservative Crack-Up," TAS, September 1987...
...and, amazingly enough, are bothered by it...
...More information about Korea came across the transom from other sources as the editorial cycle progressed which was similarly relayed...
...Community" or clique...
...Shiflett says that as the sole breadwinner for two young sons and a wife, he did not jump into the void on a whim...
...The panel's convener closes his criticism of conservatives' self-imposed isolation and aloofness by saying that "there is something decidedly shaky . . . about their magazines...
...The KGB uses blackmail and intimidation in attempting to divert these high-tech wares into Soviet hands, these officials say...
...I simply asked Ambassador Han, at the end of a forty-minute conversation about business matters, what he had heard about events in South Korea...
...Just like the effective use of the military produces success in foreign policy, the improper or mismanaged use produces disasters...
...Tyrrell selects seven conservative spokesmen—all, just like him, from that most unparochial corner of our nation, the New York-Washington corridor: one a professor, one a millionaire, and six journalists...
...John Novocilsky, Jr...
...Again, congratulations and best wishes for many more anniversaries...
...Every issue provides for me a refreshing and introspective experience of varied opinions and events which would otherwise surely have become lost in the fakery of chic and traditional editorial efforts...
...The product speaks for itself...
...in the Gulf" (TAS, October 1987) very interesting and enlightening in some aspects, the idea that the United States has insufficient military forces in the Gulf region flies in the face of reality...
...I would not have wished to leave such an error on the record...
...Pierce, Not Buchanan Just in the interest of accuracy, Nathaniel Hawthorne did not write a campaign biography of James Buchanan, as Victor Gold tells us in his review of George Bush's Looking Forward, in your November issue...
...This comes under the protection of free speech...
...Recent events in the Persian Gulf in addition to the successful military actions against Libya in 1986 show that this administration has learned from the mistakes made in Lebanon and can in fact provide the necessary management, rules of engagement, and objectives needed for the effective use of military forces in carrying out foreign policy...
...Along with your many other readers, I am truly grateful—and proud to say so...
...I doubt if even Hawthorne scholars read The Life of Franklin Pierre these days, but Hawthorne saved enough from his Liverpool appointment to be financially secure for the rest of his life, which is probably what he was after...
...One of the reasons the U.S...
...David Anable is quite right to be angry...
...Hawthorne wrote the campaign biography of his Bowdoin classmate, Franklin Pierce, in 1852...
...Quite right...
...Tyrrell laments, "Conservatives, alas, are narrow...
...I have been among them for years...
...The situation was micro-managed, which hampered themilitary even more...
...failed Lebanon in 1982 is that the military was given a poor framework in which to work in...
...I would recommend that you and your correspondent actually read the Christian Science Monitor before offering such comments to your readers...
...There is no church-related interference on this newspaper...
...lowered themselves to the status of every other common criminal and found themselves justly punished...
...The story was based on extensive interviews with the central figure in the Toshiba operation, Kazuo Kumagai, as well as on information from senior Japanesegovernment officials and police officers...
...Tyrrell charges that the conservative "takes pride in existing apart . . . rarely reaches out," and fails to integrate "into the broad range of human experience...
...David Anable Managing Editor Christian Science Monitor Boston, Massachusetts Michael Ledeen replies: Mr...
...In fact, I even added, "I don't plan to read it before it appears in print...
...Hilton kindly suggests, my confusing Franklin Pierce with James Buchanan simply bears out my point that those Presidents who fail either to get us into war or to get themselves shot tend to blur in the memory...
...We need to look at the framework and rules of engagement given to our Flag and General Officers used in carrying out our foreign policy...
...We should not be examining our force composition...
...Although I am not pro-abortion I am, nonetheless, bothered because this affair brings to light a much deeper and more encompassing issue...
Vol. 21 • January 1988 • No. 1
