The Nation's Pulse
Hanratty, Liam
The A l t e r n a t i v e November, 1971 19 The Most Liberated Women of All Speaks on Defense Liam Hanratty WASHINGTON --"A monstrous impertinence," said one ladylibber. "Treason," said...
...Military weakness and national insecurity literally invite diplomatic blackmail and the strategy of terror from the Soviet Union...
...Even threeterm senators, most of whom can detect a political slider long before it's thrown, were caught with their bats on their shoulders...
...There is a desperate ~ need to remind the American people that the road to peace has never been through appeasement, unilateral disarmament, negotiation from weakness, or scaling down to parity to prove sincerity...
...Treason," said another...
...The only way to overcome this difficulty is to get the facts to the American people and to bring home to them the clear consequences of second-rate military status...
...transvaluation of all values," remarked yet another of philsophical mien...
...Strom Thurmond...
...Cock your Naders ! Can we make dollars and not make sense...
...There is a desperate need to remind the American people of the continuous external pressures exerted against our nation and people...
...when the U. S. military posture is described as being at a "dangerous level" and fast becoming "second-rate...
...For one thing, she has never liked the ABM and has said so by voice and vote on a number of occasions...
...and when you consider that the speaker is Senator Margaret Chase Smith, then, ladies and gentlemen, we do indeed have a national defense crisis...
...Jim Buckley...
...No warhawk she, by any means...
...Peter Dominick...
...Military weakness and national insecurity increase the chances of overconfidence and miscalculation by the enemy to trigger war...
...Let us pray that recognition and action on the frightful truth comes sufficiently in advance to bolster our national security to such strength as to save our Nation and people...
...indeed, some of her greatest triumphs were brought off precisely because of her mastery of taciturnity...
...No more phosphates, glass or tins Paper, autos,'leopa~:d skih's War, sin, crime are not the issue Stamp out colored toilet tissue Pesticides, aluminum, Come you green crusaders, COME ! Eco-Freko, sun and sky :odern world goodbye When the grass comes out to play The Eco-State will wither away...
...Harry Byrd...
...Don't say "goodbye" to sludge and slime Just say farewell till suppertime Eco-Freko, dreck and drvss Mankind's gain is housefly's loss Cesspools, dump~ and septic tanks All deserve a vote of thanks E co-Freko, crud and slush For the sake ol starving flush ! Belgians, What we think is flushed away Will be tomorrow's prime filet Come you Eco-Frek crusaders...
...Mount your Udalls...
...For there is joy along the banks of Chemquasabamticook, and, Ed Muskie to the contrary notwithstanding, it would appear that that good, oldfashioned, proud Down-East independence still thrives in the Senate...
...Smith's style...
...The speaker, of course, was none other than the redoubtable Margaret Chase Smith, the most truly liberated lady now - - perhaps ever - - in American public life...
...when the peroration.opens with the phrase "Let us pray...
...Guess again...
...It is the latest step in the steady, uninterrupted trend toward making the United States a second-rate power incapable of assuring the future security of its people...
...Praise the Lord and Pass the Sewage, Please Eco-Frek, pollution and waste Do scums make man, or men make Recycle that garbage and serve to taste scum...
...To no one's great surprise, Mrs...
...Carl Curtis...
...If anything, she i s best known for her understatement...
...President, I am supporting the 1972 defense authorization bill, now before the Senate, with mixed feelings...
...Listen to her: "In this time of disillusionment with internation responsibilities and in intense concern with pressing domestic needs...it is obviously difficult to achieve the desperately needed public understanding and consequent support of the American people for an adequate national defense and national security...
...Finally, an ominous closing note: "The day of reckoning is approaching...
...Smith's speech was ignored by the press...
...And as seasoned Capitol Hill observers can tell you, she is one of the few members of the Senate who can wither an overly zealous and inquisitive reporter with a mere glance...
...Now, for those of you who know little about the Senate and even less about the lady from Maine, it must be pointed out that July 4th rhetorical overkill is hardly Mrs...
...To spare you further suspense, I shall inform you that the occasion for all this wonderment was a speech made on the OOr of the Senate on 15 September...
...Who is speaking...
...Thus, when phrases like "desperate need" occur half-a-dozen times in a tenminute speech...
...Well, Iql be damned," is about the best that one of them could manage...
...And the silence of the American press will not go unremarked in the Soviet Union...
...But whether the American people will ever find out is quite another matter...
...It gan as follows: "Mr...
...Let me first say that I consider that it has lowered our national defense and national security to a dangerous level...
...Call her hawk or dove if you will, she knows when the nest is in danger, and as ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee she knows whereof she speaks...
...when the warning is issued that we shall soon have to face a "day of reckoning" and that the American people ought to be informed about the "frightful truth...
...Pass the questions troubling some: --TeeWee...
...They, like most other residents of the Federal City (the rest of you don't know about it yet, because the press doesn't think such things newsworthy), could h a r d l y believe the news...
...Can we aJford our elfluende...
Vol. 5 • November 1971 • No. 2
