Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR VOTING The figures on New York City's recent voting registration clearly indicate that the people are not taking an active interest in political affairs. This year's registration was...
...schools...
...The article also explicitly states that the report clearing UNESCO was made by "a special American Legion committee...
...Sheldon seemed to find our Commander-in-Chiefs observation on this score rather amusing and merely an indication of foolish yearning for "the good old days" when veterans' groups played a more influential community role...
...Sheldon...
...The fascist label, however, according to the new head of the VFW, Timothy J. Murphy of Boston, cannot legitimately be pinned on the VFW...
...The attacks some persons have made on the VFW were undoubtedly made with the VFW's stand on UNESCO, among others, well in mind...
...McNamara's confusion...
...McNamara's comments and further quotations tend to emphasize the points already made in the article...
...An abbreviated headline, "VFW Hits UNESCO, Legion Clears It," is apparently the source of Mr...
...McNamara's implication, my article states very clearly that the VFW was accusing UNESCO of "'promoting world government and subverting American youth...
...Sheldon wrote his article...
...Lastly, there was nothing "conveniently omitted...
...Sheldon conveniently omitted the final sentence of the VFW leader's remark on this point, to wit: "It's hard to tell who's telling the truth.'' Is there anything wrong in expressing regret that such a condition exists...
...Sheldon's statement that the VFW has been publicly whipping UNESCO because it has found it "fashionable" to do so is just not true...
...Many thoughtful observers besides our Commander-in-Chief have commented in recent years on the plethora of information and opinion media that often tends to confuse rather than inform...
...How does he reconcile that charge with the statement (in his next paragraph) that this country has not responded to the VFW's "strident cry of alarm...
...No further charge against UNESCO was attributed to the VFW...
...This year's registration was the lowest in 24 years...
...In the context in which that observation was originally made (in a. Christian Science Monitor interview), it was not that at all, but rather the expression of an intelligent wish that it were easier for the average citizen to get all the facts on important current issues so that he could take a sound position on them...
...And when one notes the alarming fact that close to 50 per cent of the people who are eligible to vote fail to exercise their privilege, he can only conclude that too few Americans appreciate their freedom...
...Secondly, the American Legion never "cleared" UNESCO...
...McNamara overlooks the fact that the article's emphasis on VFW "hesitancy'' was not based on any VFW unwillingness to comment on world affairs but on the charge that it lacked understanding of the "complexities of existence in a. world where understanding the aspirations of all peoples is essential to survival...
...Does this indicate hesitancy in facing world problems...
...About 260 of these resolutions were adopted as submitted or after being amended, others were submitted to committees for further study, and considerable number were rejected...
...Also because UNESCO proposes, as a possible solution to some UN problems, a plan which "would be a beginning of functional world government" (UNESCO's own words) and states that its educational goals are threatened "as long as the child breathes the poisoned air of nationalism.'' The VFW believes in nationalism, which, according to standard dictionaries, is "patriotism'' or "devotion to the interests of one's own nation.'' It does not accept UNESCO's view that patriotism is poison...
...Sheldon replies: Contrary to Mr...
...These delegates passed the resolution critical of UNESCO because UNESCO teaches that (and this is just one of many similar declarations) "One of the chief aims of education everywhere is to develop those qualities of citizenship which provide the foundation upon which international government must be bused if it is to succeed" (italic mine...
...The delegates to our recent National Encampment acted on over 435 resolutions concerning not only veterans' affairs in general and the organization's internal affairs, but also national security, national and foreign affairs, civil service and housing, Americanism, civil defense, community service and athletics, and youth activities...
...First, the VFW at its Boston Encampment criticized, as it has twice before, just one phase of UNESCO's activities: its attempt to use American schools to propagandize for world government...
...Washington, D. C. Francis J. McNamara Director, American Sovereignty Campaign, VFW Mr...
...So wrote Mr...
...Without my explaining why, I think your readers will be able to see that that was an implied smear, especially since this statement of Mr...
...The report favorable to UNESCO, prepared by a special American Legion committee, had not been adopted by the Legion and specifically stated in its foreword that it did not alter the Legion's policy toward UNESCO...
...Murphy on the "fascist label" in reference to the VFW stand on UNESCO is indeed legitimate...
...The article's quotation of Mr...
...Sheldon charged the VFW with "hesitancy to face the complexities'' of the modern world...
...The VFW's stand on UNESCO, regardless of fashion, is determined by the manner in which delegates vote on resolutions submitted to them at our National Encampments...
...The article did not say or imply that the entire Legion was behind the report and, in fact, indicated the opposite by reporting the "pressures exerted on them [the special committee] to drop the report...
...Murphy's was not made in reference to UNESCO...
...At its 1954 convention, it passed resolution condemning the use of UNESCO's pro-world-government material in U.S...
...At the Legion's 1955 convention, held this month, that report was rejected and the Legion reaffirmed its opposition to UNESCO's pro-world-government teachings...
...That was still the official Legion stand when Mr...
...Brooklyn, N. Y. Simon Cohen VFW AND UNESCO Courtney R. Sheldon's "VFW Hits UNESCO, Legion Clears It" [NL, September 19] was not up to the usual reportorial standards of your magazine...
Vol. 38 • October 1955 • No. 43
