Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR The New Leader welcomes readers' comment, regardless of point of view. For space reasons, however, we prefer letters under 300 words. Teacher Praises Last Week's Issue of 'The New...
...It is in gratitude and admiration that we venture, on ?very small scale, to borrow this spirit for a similar undertaking in America...
...My article reported the opinion of number of American officials in Bonn and Washington...
...Since the article credits me with being one of the authors of this "project," I would like to note three pertinent points: 1. As Mr...
...Government...
...Oppen-lieimer'' [The New Leader, July 19...
...Personally, I do not think he will ever do the latter, but the insult he suffered at the hands of his own countrymen must have left a deep wound...
...2. The several dozen "America Houses" in Germany have been by far the best-received part of the U.S...
...Since, in the meantime, our Parliament has approved an increase in funds, help from private sources is no longer needed...
...It seems to me that there are two big questions in this case: Are we to lose Oppen-heimer's brilliant brain for good...
...Surely Mr...
...Eckardt who have known first-hand both Hitler's Reich and the Federal German Republic...
...In addition, my diary notes, Mr...
...Films like From Here to Eternity and Pickup on South Street have done us more harm than most people realize...
...as well as various Government ministries in Bonn have long been deluged with American requests for genera] information...
...von Lilienfeld's words, "the Hitler era forced certain compromises," would hinder rather than help the purpose it is to serve...
...The Federal Republic, it is true, is still so deeply committed to postwar reconstruction that our means for any public-relations program are very small...
...It is a superb number...
...They feel that an ostentatious German information effort in this country, sponsored by private groups and run by people on whom, in Mr...
...We need them to watch closely and compare the two records...
...CHARLOTTE PALM...
...Does he not have things now in his head which could be passed on to an enemy...
...My diary notes that, on October 5 of last year, while I was in New York, Mr...
...Government's public-affairs program in my country...
...von Lilienfeld doesn't agree...
...Also, great number of outstanding Americans in public and private life indicated their belief that such an undertaking would be welcomed by the American public...
...Godesberg, Germany Georg von Lilienfeld There doesn't seem to he any dispute about the facts...
...Beverly Hills, Calif...
...Eckardt well knows, our diplomatic and consular missions in the U.S...
...Eckardt was so friendly as to suggest that he might even take part in such u program himself and place at our disposal the great experience he had gained in similar work for the U.S...
...Teacher Praises Last Week's Issue of 'The New Leader' Please send me 15 copies of the July 26 New Leader for distribution in my class at NYU...
...Such trained observers can be our severest critics and our most valuable advisers —especially if they report on our endeavors not within the framework of sterotyped references to Joseph Goebbels and the discredited past, but on the basis of what we are trying sincerely to achieve for the present and the future...
...As Mr...
...To students, to researchers, to all comers they offer a free selection of books, lectures, films, cultural materials and other information on the U.S...
...These people have greatly contributed to the friendly relations now existing between West Germany and this country...
...Oscar Schnabel's "The Atlantic Community" and Chester Bowles's contribution to the "Alternatives to the H-Bomb" symposium were particularly outstanding...
...If the Hitler era forced certain compromises on countless Germans who stayed behind through its tyranny, we are all the more determined not to let history repeat itself...
...I certainly agree that something has to be done about the quality of American movies, particularly those that are sent abroad...
...We need him...
...Los Angeles Kate Holliday Claims Germany Does Not Want 'Propaganda Center' in the V. S. In his article, "Reviving German Propaganda'' [The New Leader, May 17], W. V. Eckardt writes of an alleged plan lo "sponsor a German Information Center in New York which [as it allegedly might embarrass the diplomatic mission] is to be financed by German industry.'' He calls the enterprise a "projected propaganda center...
...You tagged the Oppenheimer case "tragedy'' and you are right...
...There was never any idea, however, of having any such project primarily "financed by German industry...
...We in Germany need people like Mr...
...Eckardt met with me and—as he had done before on several other occasions, both in Bonn and in Washington—stressed the need for more and quicker information on Germany...
...This was duly discussed with American officials in Bonn and in Washington, who welcomed any such effort as "in the interest of relations" between our two countries...
...Eckardt knows that we Germans are all too conscious of our disastrous history from 1933 to 1945 to be interested in borrowing any of its cynical techniques in representing the Federal Republic to its friends and neighbors abroad...
...It soon became apparent that we ought to follow the example of other countries and establish some means by which this work could be concentrated in one office...
...He also advanced a number of suggestions for a program of cultural and press relations...
...3. Any similar project of ours will represent no special party or group, but the entire free German people...
...What is more, these films have a dangerous effect on the youth of our own country...
...I have friends in various European countries who write me disappointed, disgusted letters after seeing pictures like these...
...Washington, D. C. W. V. Eckardt Stresses Need to Improve Quality of American Movies I enjoyed Geoffrey Wagner's article, "Rough Stuff in the Movies" [The New Leader, June 14...
...The possibility of accepting private contributions in this connection was, therefore, considered—especially since this method has worked out so well with the great foundations and other institutions in the U.S...
...Eckardt will recall from his own years of service in that program, the "America Houses" are successful precisely because they never deal in "propaganda...
...New York City George E. Axtelle Praises Bohn's Article on 'The Oppenheimer Tragedy' Congratulations on "William E. Bohn's magnificent article, "The Tragedy of Dr...
Vol. 37 • August 1954 • No. 31
