EDITORIALS
CORRESPOND. ENCE Abortion Debate San Antonio, Texas To the Editors: Father Decker's article on abortion [Feb. 14] shows an overall perversity of legal, social and political...
...is supplying the Shah of Iran, who makes no bones about his desirv to Commonweal: 35 restore the days of imperial splendor to his country...
...was embarking on "a risky path" in becoming involved in a dangerous arms race, he saw a potentially disastrous parallel...
...All of this involves only our newest arms deals in the Persian GuLf...
...But Congress' position is a defendable one...
...In the last year this country has sold about $5 billion in arms to Persian Gulf states, particularly to those two traditional rivals, Iran and Saudi Arabia, but in legser amounts to Kuwait and Oman...
...So it looks to Senator Kennedy, and as the tragedy of Vietnam intensifies, we should heed his warning...
...If the Communists have not lived up to the accords, neither have other parties...
...So much the worse if Israel is penalized as a consequence...
...Most of what happened in re~ent days, however, was predictable...
...This is simply the (Continued on page 59) NEWS & VIEWS: 34 CORRESPONDENCi~: 85 EDITORIALS: 35 WASHINGTON REPORT: Nose Comes the Winter of . . .: SLryphus 3T UNIONIZING TRE EHITOIL~: Brian Wicker 38 TOWARD TELEVISION CRITICISM: Michael Novak 40 A BRITISH EYE'S VIE1W: Rosemary Haughton 41 MARCO'---SOPHISTICATED DICTATOR: Daniel B. 5chirmer 44 POLITICS, LABOR AND GEORGE MEANy: Joe Hill 47 NEW PRAL~E IN CHINA: John Sharkey 40 VERSE: Ernest Kroll 43 PRESS: UNMASKNG TRE CIA: Thomas Powers SO THE SCREEN: Colin L. Westerbeck, Jr...
...is back into the spider's web...
...Undertaken when the key negotiator's influence i,s on the wane, they are almost foredoomed...
...KISSINGER FAILS The failure of Secretary Kissinger's Middle East peace mission, and the collapse of the military situations in Cambodia and South Vietnam, represent major setbacks for American foreign policy...
...Printed in the USA and published biweekly by Commonweal "Publishing Co., 232 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y...
...we train the locals in their use: the Defeme Department has nearly $700 million in contracts to train military personnel in the Persian Gulf area...
...Rather free conscience must be balanced against requirements for an ordered society...
...Some idea of the scope of the problem can be seen in the proportionate amounts of Defense Department dollars involved: the contracts with Iran and Saudi Arabia for technical assistance and training amount to $676 million, according to the N.Y...
...First, regarding the essential concept of freedom, Father Decker suggests that maintenance of free conscience is the only criterion of freedom...
...Nor can the aid to Iran be justified on the basis of Soviet aid to its rival, Iraq, for that is far less than what the U.S...
...In Father Decker's rebuttal Prof...
...Months ago, former Undersecretary of State George Ball argued that meaningful negotiations in the Middle Fast could not exclude Moscow-Washington understanding on broad principle, and he plumped then for joint U.S.-USSR sponsorship of 9a Middle East peace program...
...Private entrepreneurs in the kill business are in a highly competitive endeavor...
...The writings of Fr...
...No one is more responsible for the plight of the people there than the U.S...
...Expressing "deep concern over the massive and apparently indiscriminate arms sales we have been making to countries of the Persian Gulf," and arguing that the U.S...
...To the Editors: I wish to commend you for the written debate and rebuttals, "The abortion decision: two years later" which appeared in the February 15, 1975 issue...
...Iran and Saudi Arabia are not direct participants in the Israeli-Arab confrontation, but is there any real guarantee that our arms shipments will not find their way to other Arab countries and thus further exacerbate a situation we are trying to calm...
...While Kissinger was floundering in the Middle East, his Indochina patch-peace came apart...
...This raises the second basic error of equating realization of a Constitutional amendment prohibiting abortion to the working of some collective Catholic demagoguery...
...An angry Kissinger would make Congress the scapegoat by its disinclination to provide yet more military funds for Cambodia and South Vietnam...
...None of this is to say that the U.S...
...This will now come to pass, but under circumstances which will add nothing to the strength of American diplomacy...
...Times, as compared with $51 million for 32 other countries around the world...
...it says nothing about our recent decision to lift the arms embargo on Pakistan, thus encouraging an arms race in that area, or the vast ramifications of our arms dealings in other parts of the world...
...SiS a year...
...Sending large numbers of Americans to the Persian Gulf to engage in military training will compromise our independence from what happens there...
...The developments are intensely disappointing and with frightening implications, particularly for the millions of innocent and helpless caught up in events over which they have not the remotest control...
...The Middle East mission, for instance, was a large and, some say, arrogant gamble...
...I should hope their writings would receive wider distribution so as to stimulate much needed discussion on the position they have presented respectfully...
...For example, the U.S...
...As the recent statement of American religious leaders noted, two years after Paris American bombs were still being dropped from American planes flying out of former American military bases...
...3S THE PLACE OF PRAYER: John Garvey SG THE POWER AND THE PRESIDENCY Thomas E. Cronin $4 BOOKS: Robert Phillips, Avery Dulles SS JAMES O'GARA: Editor JOHN DEEDY: Maaag/ef |d/for RAYMOND A. SCHROTH: Associate Editor ANNE M. ROelERTSON: |d/fer/4d Ass/4teat COLIN L. WESTERBECK, JR.: Movies JOHN FANDEL: Paatrf BRIAN WICKER: Great Britain ALAIN WOODROW: I~lris HENRY TEN KORTENAAR: Rome JOHN COONEY: Didm/lu EDWARD S. SKILLIN: Publisher JOHN BRUBAKER: Advertising MaNlier Staff: MILDRED COOK, LINDA P. KAYLER, PAMELA J. WALSH COMMONWEAL A review of Public Affairs, Literature and the Arts Second class postage paid at New York, N.Y...
...Copyright • 197S Commonweal PuM|s/I/al~ Co., Inc...
...most certainly, he has further eroded his own reputationmto a degree that may not be fully appreciated until the convening of the peace conference in Geneva...
...Russia then will sit as a party to the Middle East deliberations, a factor not likely to make the American role any easier...
...Trinkaus are provocative...
...Wittingly or not, he has cast Israel as the villain in the way of a Middle East peace arrangement...
...And how sad for those who love their country that the United Statu hag become the preeminent contender for the title of world champion death merchant, followed only by that other superpower, the USSR...
...Decker and Prof...
...Bilateral personal negotiations are chancy at any time...
...The magnitude of this aid for the area is illustrated by some comparative figures: $4 billion in arm sales to Iran on top of $2 billion the year before, as compared with the $1.5 billion arms grant to Israel during and after the October 1973 war...
...Also worrisome on this score is the proposed $7 billion sale of half-a-dozen nuclear reactors to Iran...
...he may have put Egyptian President Sadat at a disadvantage in the Arab community of nations by projecting him as conciliatory in measure that he definitely is not...
...it was not realistically designed to bring peace to the Vietnamese people...
...Kissinger's influence has been den teriorating over a period of months, to the extent, indeed, that well before his latest gambit portions of the press were speaking of resignation soon...
...ENCE Abortion Debate San Antonio, Texas To the Editors: Father Decker's article on abortion [Feb...
...it is not unfair, however, to state that Kissinger overreached himself and that in foregoing traditional diplomacy for flashy free-lancing, he has made an exceedingly dangerous situation much more difficult...
...out as a direct participant in a war that had no popular backing among the American people...
...It is only a short step from there to Americans serving as mercenaries in foreign wars...
...S/ogle copies t0c 000000000000000000 REGIONAL ARMS RACE "Merchants of Death" is what they used to call the world's arms suppliers---a somewhat melodramatic term, perhaps, but painfully accuratz...
...pledge to end military involvement was heavily qualified...
...US and Canada...
...Foreign $17...
...There had to come a time when Congress had to say, 'Millions for humanitarian purposes, but not one cent more for killing.' What is happening in Southeast Asia is tragic beyond words, but it is hypocritical on our part to feign surprise...
...CHARLES A. SCHMIDT Arlington, Va...
...Still, Russia's presence wiU represent some realities of international politics...
...But these are essentially humanitarian...
...lOOtl MUrray Hill 3.2042...
...It was against this background that Senator Edward M. Kennedy, with strong liberal backing, called for a six-month moratorium on arms sales to Persian Gulf states to give Congress and the administration a chance to reassess arms policies in the region...
...If the Amendment passes into law, it will not be for religious reasons but because the democratic majority of Americans require it for a well-ordered society...
...It was little more than a decade ago," he said, "that we watched a parade of United States military advisers streaming to another volatile part of the world--Indochinamto assist 'internal security forces' to operate the massive quantities of tanks, aircraft and other military equipment that we were sending them...
...11 April 1975:36...
...Our national arms trade has tentacles around the globe, but a good example of its mode of operation and its perils is currently provided in our dealings with the nations of the Persian Gulf...
...Trinkaus is quoted followed by the criticism of "begging the question...
...This country has tremendous residual obligations...
...can or should wash its hands of Cambodia and South Vietnam...
...The Paris Peace was designed primarily to get the U.S...
...All would be glad to see that underdeveloped country gain needed electrical power, but are the guarantees surrounding this sale sufficient for us to be sure that Iran will not follow India's example and end up in possession of nuclear weapons...
...It is perhaps tendentious to describe that gambit as self-serving, an attempt to reclaim lost personal prestige as an international wonder man...
...This appears as follows: '~'he moral argument against abortion is based on the premise that there is a victim--a tiny, helpless, innocent human being whose very life is being taken for the convenience of others...
...If they are conceived of as military, and so implemented, the U.S...
...Slaughter and devastation cannot be funded endlessly...
...We not only sell arms...
...14] shows an overall perversity of legal, social and political understanding, but there are two outstanding basic misconceptions...
...In establishing laws society does not inquire into the freedom of conscience of the murderer nor the runner of red lights on the extremes, nor should it...
Vol. 102 • April 1975 • No. 2
