The Bootblack Stand: Letters to Plunkitt from Senator Hart and Senator Hartke
The Bootblack Stand Dr. George Washington Plunkitt, our prize-winning political analyst, is celebrating the publication of his new book, which is now available at avant-garde bookstores...
...During the fifties Secretary of State John Foster Dulles' prose style obscured the increasing subtleties of Soviet policy, is over, she is throwing her considerable weight into the women's movement by setting out on a circumcision of the globe in a little boat...
...I am now asked to speak before many distinguished groups like the Clyde City Mental Health Association, The Society of Jesters of Greenwich Village, the Paducah Lodge for Disabled and Demented Pig Farmers, Richard Speck, the Wilmette League of Women Voters, the National Association of Melon Growers, and The New Politics Coalition of Palm Beach...
...He managed that hurdle, contrary to most of the guesses of the time, but then a year and a half later the Korean War began and Truman once more had his hands full...
...GWP the sometimes involuted calculations of Nikita Khrushchev who out of increasing concern for the Chinese wanted friendship with the United States...
...11, Box 360 Bloomington, ind...
...The Soviets were happy to see the Americans in trouble in a comer of Asia...
...It may be that the better is the enemy of the good, but one wonders whether courses other than a careful conservatism might have worked better...
...And out of reverence for the American political system I am not going to tell you when the next one comes up...
...The President was unsure of election in 1948...
...Ulam probably is showing hindsight when he stresses the Soviets' economic and military weakness in the immediate postwar years...
...Yes, by all means men should be forced into women's organizations...
...Of course it does not...
...I took your advice and in kicking off my campaign for the 1973 Democratic presidential candidacy I championed the civil liberties of a sorely oppressed group, that being the precious liberties of U.S...
...in domestic politics it was in a confusing situation, and for foreign policy there was little conventional military strength...
...The reader may well be wary of some of the supporting detail...
...It would be pleasant to say that Adam Ulam's new book, now available in a paperback edition, has all the answers to its grand subject, the first quarter century of American-Russian relations since the end of the Second World War...
...sometimes he is too analytic, inclined to see order or thought where there may not have been much...
...senators...
...Then consider the essentially conservative nature of American foreign policy during the past quarter century, the years since 1945...
...The author has spent much time studying Soviet Russian foreign policy...
...The author in a footnote to his concluding chapter properly remarks that "an informed and dispassionate mind is the first and perhaps the most fundamental condition of the individual's contribution to social improvement...
...Plunkitt expects to earn ten million dollars from sales of his new book, he has agreed to continue to advise public figures through this column...
...PlunkittI have been an activist for the women's movement for a very long time...
...For the first period, when the cold war heated up, he considers the forces behind policy to have been Soviet malevolence and American fear, the latter based on an overestimate of Russian strength...
...In fact I have gotten quite a lot of publicity...
...Write for details...
...Plunkitt's book is about the importance of altruism in politics and it is titled What's in It for Me...
...Hence the reason for reading this book...
...The Aiternatwe R.R...
...My wife calls me the Abraham Lincoln of Pretty Feet...
...I chose to defend them against those weirdo pre-flight searches by sick airport security guards whose eager hands make II III IIII I mE me feel personally like a defenseless muskmelon or something...
...I suggest that you take the lead by joining La Leche, the women's organization which advocates natural breast feeding...
...Although Dr...
...Address all correspondence to The Bootblack Stand, c/o The Establishment, R.R...
...I am never going to win the 1973 presidential race...
...Earn a liberal commission for yourself or for your club treasury introducing The Alternative to your friends and cohabitants...
...I have always thought you one of the biggest blockheads in the Senate...
...It is easy in retrospect to point out Soviet weakness during the Truman era...
...Hartke: Turn yourself in to the authorities you nitwit before you do yourself harm...
...11, Box 360, Bloomington, Indiana 47401, Continental U.S.A...
...The Truman Administration was itself weak...
...American-Russian relations since 1945 have often been costly in lives and treasure--a hundred thousand American, not to mention Asian, lives, and defense budgets are approaching the astronomic...
...In fact, we should probably force men into women's organizations at least to fill certain goals...
...There was even a modest cooperation between the USSR and the People's Republic of China, for the Chinese were likewise happy to see the Americans humbled...
...I made at least one memorable statement in The New York Times: "As a person I do not obiect to a search...
...Cordially, R. Vance Hartke Dear Mr...
...GWP Dear Mr...
...but he brings information, intelligence, and lively prose to his points and the result is always interesting, at times fascinating: Relations between the two rivals divided conveniently into the years from 1945 to 1950, the fifties, and the sixties, and Ulam's opinions of policy during these three eras are never in doubt...
...Dear Mr...
...The historian can be thankful that policy proved as sensible as it did...
...Plunkitt: My chances of winning the presidency this year seem hopeless...
...At the same time it is attractive to read about alternatives...
...The Alternative is looking for campus distributors...
...What can one agree with in Ulam's book...
...But none of the Democratic clubs of New Hampshire or any of the other primary states seems interested in me...
...And yet it contains a good many acceptable answers...
...Now if we are to truly liberate the sexes in this country it seems to me that men are going to have to be able to join women's organizations...
...Robert H. Ferrell Students: Need some coin...
...Now where do I turn...
...he tends to be opinionated and iconoclastic...
...There is no presidential campaign this year...
...47401 The Alternative April 1973 27...
...Have you any suggestions...
...Perhaps the best part of the book is the framework, the general analysis...
...Regards, Senator Philip Hart Dear Senator Hart: I spotted you years ago as a forwardlooking solon of the old school, a fitting sequel to Robert La Follette...
...In a theoretical manner it is fairly easy to say something should have been otherwise, but then so many mistakes would have been possible, especially beginning in 1952 or 1953 when there was a virtual equality in nuclear arms between the United States and the USSR...
...George Washington Plunkitt, our prize-winning political analyst, is celebrating the publication of his new book, which is now available at avant-garde bookstores throughout New Jersey...
...As a senator, I do object...
...This last stunt proves it...
...From now on even Senator Gravel takes a back seat to your genius...
...Then in the sixties, after the missile crisis, American policy slipped into irrelevance because of preoccupation with Vietnam...
...In wondering the first move should be to accumulate information...
...In fact, now that the war 1 l[ Book Review The Rivals America and Russia Since World War II by Adam Ulam Compass Viking $2.95 pb...
Vol. 6 • April 1973 • No. 7
