Vietnam Revisited
Hughes, Peter
"Vietnam Revisited"
...Dear Dr...
...A1"-2OO I NAME I ! ADORESS I . ,tomes, e~ts 0 enaase add'sale=~s tax J tire look Club-the only book club expressly for pohhcal cooservarWes I agree to buy 3 books from among I the more than 150 to be offered in the next 15 months after which I may resign at any time Membership en- I titres me to a free subscr~gflon to the Club Bulletin wbnch brlrn5 w~th news of interest t6 conservatives I am eligible to buy Club books at discounts of 20% to 89% plus shipoing books on politics investing, social I issues, religion, economics conservative ideas history etc If I want the monthly Selection I do nothing...
...This is a contiguous zone from the demili~ area to Quang Duc Province, along the Cambodian front where the North is attempting to rebuild its infrastructure by infiltrating 40,000 civilians (men, women, and children) to populate the lowly populated border zones...
...This bracing book will challenge many conservatives...
...The North also hopes to rebuild its infrastructure through what has been called the 'Whird Vietnam" concept...
...The Alternative Circulation Department R.R...
...Having grown up in Berlin, Germany, and having visited the Eastern European countries, I have had the opportunity to see what I consider to be police states...
...Far from being government interventionists, the ministers I met with were classical liberals to the man, i.e., favoring as little government intervention into all aspects of human life as possible...
...But with rare exception (South Vietnam's Minister for Information, Hoang-Duc-Nha, has the unique distinction of being able to get favorable press reviews in this country--no small task for a Saigon official) we are led to believe that the leadership of South Vietnam is an anonymous face of military and bureaucratic hacks...
...11, Box 360, Bloomington, Indiana 47401, Continental U.S.A...
...Since the cease-fire agreement the North has infiltrated more than 30,000 troops into the South, bringing its total troop strength (as of December 1973) to 75,000...
...Its ultimate goal VCh> it is more danger(ms than nihilistic politics o Schisms ~m the Right: conflict between libertarians and traditionalists reveals deeper, more iml)lacah]e division o The ehureh garrisoned...
...Lysander M. Delfin, Ph.D...
...As a result the Vietcong have had to resort to terrorist activities in an effort to gain control over the civilian population...
...Although Dr...
...Kaplan said: "I know of no more decisive commitment a nation can make than to bring down the President of a friendly country in order to win a war...
...Wheeler concludes, the young are unwittingly performing a service-by showing how little their elders care about anything, "and least of all about moral and spiritua{ convictions...
...name address city s ate date ot change: ztp _ _ There is opportun.ity in America...
...bombing...
...He compares the Christian vision of salvation with its secular counterparts -- science, h~mane liberalism, individualism, copping out...
...I (as the other visitors with me) was very surprised with the predominant youth of the government officials we met...
...The question," writes Richard S. Wheeler, "is whether this is to be a Christian civilization, or whether Christianity is to be merely a sect within a secular civilization...
...10801 I I enclose $7.95 Please send, dehvered I free...
...As to your earlier question, it seems to me Mr...
...Always attach address label when writing to us about your subscription...
...SARKES TARZIAN INC...
...In the meantime, however, President Thieu feels compelled on the one hand to alert the world to the aggression of the North, but on the other hand he recognizes that by doing so he is scaring off foreign economic aid...
...This energy crisis is bad and then there is the shortage of dance halls...
...The barbarism of kid polities An appreciation of Puritanism ~ 2 WAYS TO GET THIS SEARCHING BOOK ~ / x I ~ , , e Eumination: To your booklet, . . . . . ' | C o n s e r v a t i v e B o o k Club - / RLINGTON HOUSE I 'l II A'I / 5 1 1 81Cer, tre Aven,,e, New Roche,e, New York 10801 I I~ UPUBL,S.ERS EOR I I | THE SILENT MAJORITY | Please send ~REE The Children Of 9atknes= by Richard S Wheeler and accept my membershic-in ~he Cor~serv;i- | I 81 CENTRE AVENUE I NEW ROCHELLE...
...In 1973 more than half of the North Vietnamese enemy activity was in the Delta region (the so-called Rice War) as the Vietcong have attempted to capture the rice supplies necessary to sustain their activities in the South...
...and is it true that his list is not even printed on recycled paper...
...Most of the ministers we talked with, for example, were in their early thirties, a striking contrast to the leadership of North Vietnam...
...John I.~nard of the New York Times Book Reviewis bound to pounce on it with the same kind of mad delight he evinces for all such stuff, and you will be off and running...
...the policy was not aggressive but basically defensive...
...All I know is that for his personal correspondence he uses old campaign stationary which he managed to stockpile from his 1962 gubernatorial campaign...
...but he is frank to blame part of our decline on the collapse of "straight" society...
...But the details can be worked out later...
...South Vietnam, however, has steadily increased its control to approximately 85 percent of its territory and 95 percent of its population...
...Mr.Wheeler pleads for true individuality--which he finds less among individualists than within the frame of traditional values...
...it I will come automatically about one month later H I dont want 1he Selection...
...o Where, in thu spectrum between natural and religious man, do the bulk of Americans belong...
...Although American troop involvement in Vietnam ended with the cease-fire agreement of January 27, 1973---thus concluding U.S...
...What politician has the influence, the foresight, and the brains to take up this sorely needed reform...
...This is just not the c a s e . Throughout my visit to Vietnam no one tried to hide the fact that problems (including problems of corruption) exist...
...I can't even find one in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and I love to waltz...
...Bloomington, Indiana The Alternative April 1974 31...
...I must find a politician who will give my reform the needed push it deserves...
...America, if it is not t o t a l l y to ignore its international responsibility, has a commitment to South Vietnam and it is a commitment worth preserving...
...And New York City's dog population could become a grave menace...
...So I have thought up a solution to our fading resources, but like all solutions it involves a matter of national priorities as they used to say in the 1960s or of critical choices as they say today...
...I suggest you get some publishing house to put together a book by you (Random House is full of gullible oafs lusting for such junk...
...Important: allow six weeks for address change...
...The North is also concerned t h a t any blat a n t violations of the cease-fire accord would bring about the resumption of U.S...
...GWP Peter Hughes Vietnam Revisited THIS WRITER RECENTLY had the opportunity to take a ten-day trip to the Republic of Vietnam...
...While no one doubts that Hanoi still in: tends to gain control over the South by force, recent intelligence data indicates that the North does not now consider it the tactical time to attempt any major advances...
...Why liberals are s() much bettcr at p~litics than c(,nservatives Is it true that conservatives tend to be more religious than liberals...
...Political exphfitation o( sex...
...And peace, as we understand it, will take a t least another generation (precluding the total collapse of the South)--for Hanoi's present ruling cadre will never give up its aim of taking over South Vietnam...
...En route to the States I thought of an observation once make by Morton Kaplan on the subject of U.S...
...The other day my teacher was talking about President Nixon during my language arts class (actually she talks about President Nixon during all of my classes, but this time she did not cry and use bad words), and I do not think I like him very well...
...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...
...Hanoi is handicapped by the short(continued on page 31) f RICHARD WHEELER, CONSERVATIVE, WILL RUFFLE ALL LIBERALS AND MANY CONSERVATIVES The gulf in America is widening into a chasm: between religious people and secular...
...The mistakes did not lie in our purpose, but in failing to understand the enormous difficulties of actually doing what we had in mind...
...Of course this would involve some significant changes in our society...
...puritanism...
...Plunkitt: I am a fourth grade student at I_~vely Heights Elementary School in Lovely Heights, New Jersey, just outside Newark...
...The latter complaint, I found to be a very healthy one...
...ecology and love as counterculture issues...
...As to your last question, I can neither confirm nor deny the rumor that the President's various Enemies Lists are printed on recycled paper...
...the relationship between the liberals and the kids...
...My trip was not confined to meeting with government officials and I had ample opportunity to walk the streets of Saigon alone (without, incidentally, the fear of being mugged...
...Nixon could cause you a lot more grief were he to put you on his Friends List, and even worse he could make you his next vice president--that would be the most damaging of all...
...Contrary to the popular belief, espoused by that world-wide movement of alienated intellectuals and progressive opinion, South Vietnam does not have the trappings of a "police state...
...involvement in Vietnam...
...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...
...In the countryside a pacification program (which is moving too slowly for some) is returning farm land to the peasants with the goal of giving them total control over their output, the Vietcong notwithstanding...
...47401 i please attach address label here Please renew my subscription for one year Enclosed is my check ($4.50 for students and faculty, $6.00 for others...
...Address all correspondence to The Bootblack Stand, c/o The Establishment, R.R...
...I am pleased to be able to set your young mind at ease regarding these vexatious questions...
...But South Vietnam has a story of i t s own t h a t deserves to be told and I cannot help but believe t h a t most Americans will a t least listen (if they are given the opportunity...
...or I prefer one of the Alterffates...
...The trip included visits to all four of the country's military regions, meetings with various Vietnamese and American officials, as well as visits to Con Son Island --the location of the so-called tiger cages...
...Dear Professor Delfin: There are probably many politicians with the brains to suggest your reform, but as to the vision and the foresight that is another matter...
...Please attach address label from the back cover of your Alternative in the space below...
...Plunkitt: As a practicing marine biologist and full-time ecologist I have for some years been concerned that the world is going to hell in a handbasket and perhaps worse...
...disengagement from the longest war in our nation's history--for the Vietnamese the war continues unrelentingly...
...For such a rational and visionary proposal as yours the intellectual groundwork must be laid...
...Thus for the time being the North seems content to continue strategic raids in the South, to attempt to expand Vietcong control over both population and t e r r i t o r y in the South, and to force Saigon to accept the North's interpretation of the cease-fire accord...
...Perhaps, Mr...
...Americans, however, in the aftermath of the Vietnam war, have not adjusted so readily...
...All of this can change if oil is discovered, and the prospects for finding the world's sweemst crude oil are considered very real...
...GWP Dear Dr...
...Yet, few of those today who write the history of the Vietnam war remember it t h a t way...
...Vv'hy the church will not die n Faith in science: despite ecology, still the last, flickering hope of both kids and liberals o The church, not government, as tile one avenue tn domestic peace o The vital role of custom, courtesy, and everyday civility o The political thrust of secularism * Why the New Left anarchistic though it is-cannot be div(lrce(t from Communism Dissent, individuality, confnrmity-all put in Christian perspectiw The most neglected group in America B. F. Skinner as the nvw guru of the Left o Why the state is always a poor repositnry for church law The orthodox Christian approach to social responsibility Situational morality Why the kids hate capitalism a Proliferating versions of do(~m current today Who are the true radicals m today's society...
...My parents want me to grow up to be just like John F. Kennedy or one of the astronauts, but I am afraid if I enter politics President Nixon will put me on one of his Enemies Lists and I will not be able to watch Sesame Street with my father and his friends from the encounter group...
...Hit hard by rampant inflation (estimated at over 60 percent last year) the country, nevertheless, has managed a certain prosperity...
...Wheeler opts for Christianity but concedes that "the church has pretty much decamped to the counterculture...
...The streets of Saigon are filled with motorcycles (Hondas, of course), few policemen, and even less traffic lights (at least that were in use...
...By the end of the century I feel we will have absolutely exhausted many of the modern world's most crucial elements including antacids and Valium...
...Many of these ministers had had the opportunity to spend some time in foreign universities, and they were clearly in their positions because of their own merits, and not just because of their loyalties to Thieu...
...But after visiting the South one has to be impressed with the perseverence of the people, the legitimacy of the Thieu government, and by the very fact t h a t life in t h a t country can continue as remarkably as it does, given the conditions of constant war...
...He knows this counterculture, having watched it firsthand since Berkeley...
...Mr...
...The problem is NOW...
...There is the whole question of doorknobs...
...squares and conservatives...
...I merely inform you on the handy form aJways provided AT-~OO I | NAME I ADDRESS CITY/STATE_ .ZIP / The Alternative April 1974 25 (continued from page 25) falls of its own rice crops, as well as its inability to exploit Sino-Soviet differences...
...In the year since the cease-fire accord 58,000 Vietnamese soldiers have been reported killed (more than America's total twelve-year loss), and there have been over 335,000 alleged cease-fire violations...
...According to the findings of my research group, the present supply of natural resources in this country would be sufficient for the American people to live independent of the rest of the world for the next five hundred years if they would follow one simple reform: Americans must breed citizens who are only twenty inches high...
...But the economy is bordering on crisis and the South Vietnamese are in dire need of foreign aid and investment...
...In offering a religious alternative to both the counterculture and the corruptions of "straight" society, Wheeler explores Christianity as the keystone of human liberty...
...Your best bet is Senator Gravel, the fellow who assured his place in history by commandeering the podium at the Democratic Convention and actually begging the assembled yokels to put him on that fated ticket with the late George McGevern...
...o The loyalists and their values o Root reasons why the politics of the Left are corrupt...
...The Children of Darkness by Richard I S Wheeler If not pleased...
...The fact is that we are about to run out of many vital resources...
...the political exploitation of sex...
...changing your address...
...Why does President Nixon want to put me on his Enemies List...
...Incidentally, I feel you are going about this all wrong...
...As Robert Bartley (the Editorial Page Editor of the Wall Street Jourvml) recently wrote: Americans seem to have forgotten t h a t whatever the inevitable outcome of Vietnam may be, " . . . the fundamentals of our policy in Vietnam were not sinister...
...Further, you politicians will have to tackle the basketball lobby...
...For if the Vietnam war taught us not what to do, i t should also teach us what we need to do...
...Vietnam is a country t h a t has been a t war for more than two generations...
...11, Box 360 Bloomington, Ind...
...Nixon is hard on his enemies take a look at how he treats his friends and his vice presidents...
...Even 24 The Alternative April 1974 Professor Nguyen Ngoc Huy (a leader of the opposition party, the Social Democratic Alliance) and Bui Diem, (a former ambassador to the United States and publisher of the Saigon Post who is held in high regard by opponents of Thieu) were more than candid in their assessment of the cease-fire agreement, America's future role in Vietnam, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of President Thieu, who is generally given good marks...
...I believe that the present state of our knowledge of eugenics is sufficient to achieve this goal by the end of the Nixon Administration if only somebody would listen...
...But the Vietcong political infrastructure in the South is in serious disarray...
...The people I met with spoke freely about their problems, which covered the entire spectrum of woes, including the need for political reforms and the price of beer...
...With a little bit of luck you could be the next Ralph Nader...
...Although no American or South Vietnamese official we met believed the North had the capacity to launch an attack on the level of the 1972 offensive, the Vietcong, for the present at least, do have the capacity to cause occasional embarrassments for the South...
...individualism and confortuity...
...Perhaps even more fundamental for us today is t h a t for young America the moral revulsion t h a t came with the war has come to t h r e a t e n and cloud the perception of youth with a myopic infatuation of the Hanoi regime...
...If you think Mr...
...The Vietcong claim to control 12 percent of the population, a modest claim in itself...
...Respectfully, David Taylor-Ault Dear Master Taylor-Ault: Young man you have come to the right place (though I am surprised the goo-goos at National Public Radio did not get to you first...
...I may return ~t within 30 days of delivery for full refund I PLUS payment for return postage...
...One day I visited (unscheduled) the School of Arts and Letters of Saigon University and found (perhaps ironically) that a student election was being held...
...Plunkitt's book is about the importance of altruism in politics, and it is titled What's in It for Me...
...Must Christianity now retreat into monastic life...
...Thus if the United States were now to withdraw its support of South Vietnam (as many would have us), Kaplan continues, it woald be like the man telling his pregnant girlfriend: "No, I made a mistake---let's call a halt to the matter now...
...Print your new address and mail this form to The Alternative...
Vol. 7 • April 1974 • No. 7
