The Rt. Hon. Mike Gravel's Hour of Glory
Slemp, Bascom
"The Rt. Hon. Mike Gravel's Hour of Glory" In fact, the lesson of this whole episode is, "Thank God for the speculators !" Their sensible pursuit of profit depends on an objective -- as opposed to...
...But all these complaints like the complaints about the China initiative, must be weighed against the political gains made by the President...
...The following day he 0erformed a variation of his earlier act, this time on the floor of the Senate before a packed session of his peers...
...Especially guilty of misinterpretation says Walt W. Rostow, former special assistant for national security affairs to President Johnson, have been the writers for the New York Times, whose treatment of the papers Rostow calls "the shoddiest piece of journalism I've seen since I entered public life in 1941...
...And perhaps now that the military is under such withering fire, it is worthwhile to remind Americans that the military involvement was only operational...
...D. from PrinCeton in 1968...
...And John Roche dismisses the collection as "third-echelon chitchat...
...The Vietnam War was conceived and mismanaged by Liberal Democrat civilians, with only a couple of tame Kennedy...
...The Saintliness of Dr...
...From Illinois: Dear Sen...
...One thinks, for instance, of the shabby treatment accorded Barry Goldwater in 1964, when people like Herblock depicted him as a beady-eyed bomb-thrower, opposed by Lyndon Johnson, the man of peace who, as he preached restraint during the campaign, had already made up his mind - - at least according to media interpretation - - that Curtis LeMay's advice to bomb them back to the Stone Age was best...
...I have lived through insults, alienation from my family, red baiting, etc., because of my political beliefs...
...The events of 15 July and 15 August demonstrated a homely truth about American politics...
...Respectfully, 12 The A l t e r n a t i v e October, 1971 From California: Dear Senator: I wish to thank you for giving me the first feeling of pride in being an American that I hove experienced in some time...
...Military men did not set policy under Kennedy and Johnson...
...Another is Senator Mike Gravel, the freshman Senator from America's Siberian Commonwealth...
...The papers~ says William F. Buckley, " a r e nothing more than memoranda expressing attitudes, contingency plans...
...Congressman McCloskey will have time to ponder that ~ru*h when, as he trudges through the fabled "snows of New Hampshire," the President lands in Peking...
...Mike Gravel's Hour of Glory Bascom C. Slemp as told to R. Emmett T y r r e l l , J r . Now if one is to grasp an authentic hold on the essence of America circa 1971 it will help to bear in mind that circuses are not so popular as they were thirty years ago...
...Many times I have wanted to leave, to seek an easier life in a land of peace, but I have found such a course of action untenable...
...The Alternative October, 1971 11 In fact, the lesson of this whole episode is, "Thank God for the speculators !" Their sensible pursuit of profit depends on an objective -- as opposed to nationalistic -assessment of our currency...
...Hunger stalks the' Land of the Free...
...Thousands of horses are critically ill with Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis in the Home of the Brave...
...And if things are going reasonably well in 1972, the voters will not rock the boat...
...According to a spell-bound reporter from the Associated Press, his act included reading those classified papers lifted by the celebrated second-story man, Dr...
...Through another set of papers from the same files, Kennedy and Johnson could probably have been made to look like the thwarted men of peace they both claimed to be...
...The problem with the study," says one government official, "is that it is a prosecution brief masquerading as a dispassionate study...
...And so I have remained, dedicated to the struggle, yet growing angrier as time goes on...
...On the evening of 5 July the Rt...
...And indeed he would not...
...I would find it a great honor to meet with you one day...
...Most politicians do, after all, with the exception of a few like Barry Goldwater...
...In July and August their actions called attention to the weakness of the dollar...
...Thank you...
...If there were more people like you, we wouldn't be in the trouble we are now...
...The papers have been used, quite simply, to discredit everyone connected with Vietnam...
...And it is tempting to make that clear once more...
...encyclopedic lists of alternative approaches to particular problems, routine exercises in the necessary dissimulations of government...
...I am reprinting several of them below that you who are not daily readers of the Record might know what manner of American fauna takes politics seriously...
...But still the attempt will be made to somehow discredit Mr...
...There is nothing in the Pentagon Papers which could possibly harm Nixon and although Liberals searched avidly for dark Republican secrets as the administration attempted to restrain publication, there were none, nor could they understand that Nixon acted because he sincerely felt that it was wrong to publish secret information no matter who the information implicated and that he sincerely felt that the information disclosed, even though it had nothing to do with his own administration, might affect the credibility of the United States in the eyes of the rest of the world...
...Nixon) that he had brought discredit to the Senate he asserted "What I did, I felt and continue to feel, will bring credit to the United States Senate, not embarrassment...
...But their value as historical documents is highly questionable, because the papers themselves were selective...
...Presidents make news -- and, no, infrequently, history...
...Nixon through the papers...
...George F. Will graduated from Trinity College in 1962, received a degree from Oxford University, Magdalen College in 1964 and earned his Ph...
...After reading the Pentagon Papers Americans are supposed to feel that they have been had - - then they are to cry out against the war...
...After his peroration the distinguished Senator Gravel asked that letters from various well-wishers be included in the Congressional Record...
...I have become militant and increasingly alienated from the country of my birth ~ to the point of shame, pure shame, at being an American citizen...
...Johnson and now controls Mr...
...For more on that subject, dear reader, return next month...
...There has been almost no effort in the Senate to impugn the motives of any other Senator...
...Senator Gravel performed for the Washing:on press corps by sitting alone and reading classified documents into the wee hours of the morn...
...HOO Hah, a good time was had by all, and the Junior Senator did not even slur his words or spill the suspicious looking glass of water that always remained close to his shaking paw - - so thorough had been his apprenticeship under Mr...
...All eyes were cast down...
...Pooh poohing the allegation made by one of the Senate's old guard (the Coolidge wing which controlled Mr...
...Hence a lot of second- and third-rate clowns have had to seek gainful employment outside of the big top...
...On the assumption that the President is sound on the issues but ugly on television, they may look for someone pretty...
...If unemployment is below six percent, and the GNP is growing at five percent per year, Nixon will win...
...Webster, Clay and Calhoun had been outdone...
...Their effect has been profound...
...And in Washington, D.C...
...He asserted that his act had been performed "in the best interest of this Nation we all love...
...For a new state Alaska is doing pretty well...
...At this writing the operation has been successful...
...Many have simply gone on relief and been done with it...
...Lacking a salient issue, the Democrats may choose a "'personality" (as opposed to an "issue") candidate...
...Two such buffoons are the Reverend Paul Moore, Episcopal bishop of New York and millionaire whose wit and wisdom has been preserved for future generations in our regular Brayings column...
...Now they have been reduced to arguing that they were virtuous first, or that, given the chance, they would be fiVeen percent more virtuous...
...house generals like Maxwell Taylor representing the military in the planning...
...Agnew, who doesn't find this kind of tendency healthy at all, means by , "a national spirit of masochism...
...The economy is the issue with which Democrats are most comfortable, and to which Republicans are most vulnerable...
...Others possessed-of less dignity and more foolishmess have sought employment in related industries like the ministry and politics...
...At long last Nixon is developing the disconcerting habit of acting like a President -- a President who enjoys the job and intends to keep-it for a while...
...Daniel Ellsberg and "frequently sobbing as he did so...
...Daniel Ellsberg, the fanatic who pimped the stolen papers, hints broadly that there are secrets not yet unearthed that will implicate the Nixon Administration...
...Senate is that there are 100 Members from all across the counlry who look upon each other's activities as the activities of one representing one-4ff the 50 states...
...There is not o "liberal" bone left in my body - - I am a radical through and through, and I hove found the gulf that separates me from the American system and its representatives to be a dark, gaping chasm, impossible to broach...
...Bayh concluded...
...Will is twenty-nine and instructs physical education in Washington, D.C...
...I would never be party to any act that would bring discredit to this august body...
...During those years have felt a sense of hopelessness and frustration that has at times led to terrible despair...
...Not because people have read and digested them - - only the complete bureaucrats possess the necessary immunity to boredom for that -but because of the way in which the media interpreters have chosen to use them...
...this great man continues to read and to bawl...
...Not only did it make me aware of a new star on the political horizon, but it also informed me as to the kind of American who takes his politics seriously...
...This throbbing globe of woe continues to spin dizzily through the solar system missing its sister planets by mere light years...
...I, for one, think that the Senator from Alaska has got through a very difficult time...
...Incidentally, as if his solitary performance were not amusing enough, he actually held it in -- you will never believe me - - the hearing room of the Public Work's Committee's Building and Grounds Subcommittee...
...Nevertheless, although they are biased and although they never quite touch the heart of the whole matter - - the process of Presidential decision-making--it would be disingenuous to dismiss the Pentagon Papers as inconsequential...
...In the fifties, as Joseph Kraf~ points out, Like so many of his...
...But even without the papers to prove it, he assures us that he can sense a repeat of the 1964 escalation, How...
...Sincerely, From a doctor in New York State: Dear Senator Gravel: God bless you...
...Nixon understands the power of incumbency, and will use that power resourcefully to have the economy vigorous by October, 1972...
...Shortly after the first of the documents appeared in the Times, the United States Senate, by a solid vote of 57 to 42, adopted a resolution urging the President to pull out of Vietnam by the end of 1971...
...There are those who see John Lindsay as as the natural choice...
...I do wish you well...
...This is of course understandable, when the national media tells you flatly that two Presidents have lied through their teeth about the reasons for involvement and the nature of our response...
...Well, he can't quite say, but such types are big on devining moods through some sort of mystical process - - the same sort of process by which it is determined that we are all collectively guilty and should do collective penance...
...But even without referring to the Pentagon Papers it can be reemphasized that the old truism of American politics - - Democrats get us into wars, Republicans get us out - - applies once again...
...thank God there are men in this country who still do...
...But it could justifiably do so if it so desired, and it should do so if the President's genuine attempt to wind down the war and to cut American involvement continues to be treated as a Republican con game...
...I equate you with Patrick Henry and while I hod thought Congress dead, I begin to wonder...
...Or one is tempted to rehash the whole Tonkin incident...
...It is now clear ,hat our longest war will end without ever having been a "voting issue...
...And in fact, Lyndon Johnson believes that they were commissioned by Robert McNamara and were intended to be used by Robert Kennedy in his drive against Johnson for the Democratic Presidential nomination...
...But I shall remember it always...
...You are the greatest senator, and we all love you...
...Those are not electrifying arguments, and it is hard to be heard -- never mind persuasive -against a determined incumbent unless one has something electrifying to say...
...Barnum...
...A husn befell the Senate floor...
...But to express public indignation and then to capitalize on the information disclosed in the papers would not only be fruitless but insincere as well...
...The economy is where Nixon is vulnerable...
...Most of us who followed the news day by day already suspected that the Kennedys and Johnsons often spoke with forked tongues...
...And, though he would be no more specific, I suspect his cryptic reference was to the United States of America...
...Never once did I think, not even in my wildest hopes that I could or would ever want to reach across that gulf to shake the hand of a very brave and righteous man and to say thank you, thank you very much, Senator Gravel for what you have done...
...Garry Wills, in one of his feebler columns, casts around for something good to say about Ellsberg and finally is forced to celebrate "the healthy return of a half-forgotten figure out of our history, the public penitent...
...Every ham in the house got up on his hind legs and begged the floor...
...they only forced the Nation ~o face up to that weakness...
...I salute him for the courage he has displayed" -- such is the eloquence of this presidential aspirant when he , ~ k s extemporaneously...
...War sears the great civilizations of Indochina...
...That is showmanship of the top chop...
...Sincerely, From California: Honorable Sir: Since 1961, I have been active in the peace movement...
...The temptation to make political hay is great...
...What superb cool...
...Until 15 August the Democrats were campaigning on the proposition that they were virtuous and the President was slothful...
...even though I have found myself locked in near mortal combat with some of my colleagues over an issue, one thing that has impressed me about the U.S...
...If it is not stopped, and by the power of this people, there will soon be no land of peace anywhere - - p~rhaps no world at all...
...Sincerely yours, From Oregon: Senator Gravel: We love you...
...The show was over...
...Like all the young technocrats who planned and carried out the Vietnam war, Ellsberg was a "defense intellectual...
...Sincerely yours, From an actress: Dear Senator: It was with revelation and the great hope for our country to listen to a man like you speak...
...Even at its peak --in 1968-- the Vietnam war was not a "voting issue": i: did nt, t decide eleclions...
...They did not cause f hat weakness...
...Think of it, the whole Nation gasping over the revelations suggested by the Pentagon Papers...
...The purpose, obviously, is to rouse among Americans sufficient moral revulsion for a popular outcry against the war...
...It is not recorded if there was musical accompaniment, but my imagination instructs me that somewhere behind the sobbing Senator there must have been a solitary yodeller...
...And this is precisely what Mr...
...To its credit, the Administration has not yet attempted to make political hay over the information in the Pentagon Papers...
...Sincerely, Dear Senator Gravel: I have just returned from hearing you tonight, and I apologize for everything that i have thought of you these past few days...
...Gravel: I would like to thank you for not keeping any secrets from the American people...
...It could be argued, of course, that it is, in fact, rather unhealthy to have men stumbling through the streets flaying themselves with knotted thongs, but this is what the Liberal types would most like to see-- Mr.- Nixon dragging his cross up Capitol Hill, trailed by a weeping nation...
...Naturally the distinguished Junior Senator from Indiana, Mr...
...His academic record at Harvard and Cambridge was brilliant...
...It was the first such resolution ever to win in the Senate...
...In an eloquent statement, which illicited guffaws and horselaughs from every intelligent spectator in the gallery, Mr...
...It seems safe to say that 'he President is gaining a lot of health from the awkard but endurable chore of eating some" stale words...
...Now the character of this "public penitent" is worth examining, for it seems to me that he represents a rather stunning epitomization of all the illnesses of twentieth century Liberal man and his institutions and attitudes...
...Birch Bayh, flushed with a sense of the historical import of this moment first attracted the attention of the good-natured President pro tempore...
...I have no more tears left...
...as an American this is my war and my war to stop...
...Candidates make speeches...
...With fourteen months to go before the election, ~hree things seem clear...
...Rostow continued, "The Times headline writers, lead writers, editorial writers and columnists all went beyond the Pentagon papers in conveying around the world the charges of deceit by the President, charges which are not substantiated by the papers themselves...
...So the most ,he Democrats have left by way of an issue is the economy...
...And according to polls, even Southern hawks are now demanding an immediate withdrawal...
...Ellsberg The Public Penitent John R. Coyne, J r . The McNamara-Pentagon papers were put together in the sixties by a group of Defense Department functionaries, most of them liberal, most of them anti-war...
Vol. 5 • October 1971 • No. 1
