Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR PROPAGANDA May I commend you for the article by Arnold Beichman in the December 3 issue of The New Leader entitled, "Hungarians Didn't Need U. S. Radio to Open Their Eyes to...
...Fromm with Hebrew-Christian love, we might enjoy the kind of debate which the issues of love and social sanity deserve...
...You have pointed out that Dulles and Eisenhower gave the Russian regime assurances, through the Yugoslavs, that they would in no way interfere in the troubled situation of the satellite countries...
...There is little point in trying to advise an administration which has shown itself devoid of any ideas...
...I reverently hope he is right...
...What better voices than those of the Americans themselves...
...The Administration is already being called to account for this by the Kremlin, which has raised the issue in the UN of United States interference in the affairs of the satellites...
...This will give the Poles, the Hungarians, llie East Germans the distinct feeling that they must face Russian might and retaliation without any possibility of help from abroad...
...Nay, more...
...This is certainly one of the most pungent and intelligent articles I have read on the role of radio in the Hungarian Revolution...
...Beichman's penetrating analysis...
...Already the Americans are denying, almost laughingly, that they have anything to fear from such a debate...
...The Russian leaders want nothing else than to make this point crystal-clear to the satellites, to prove before the enlire world that the most powerful country, the United States, has not lifted and will not lift a finger to help...
...That is another reason why the Russians wanted to open the debate with all speed...
...Those familiar with Dr...
...At i time when hearsay reports, highly colored by emotional reactions, have been so widely published, it is gratifying to note Mr...
...The more the Russians accuse, the more the Americans will protest their complete innocence...
...Fromm himself, in The Sane Society, analyzes this tragedy and concludes: "Christianity has preached spiritual renewal, neglecting the changes in the social order without which spiritual renewal must remain ineffective for the majority of people...
...But can it be said that the Christian church today is characterized by activism...
...New York City HENRY FRUCHTER Executive Secretary New York Social Democratic Federation FROMM ON LOVE In reviewing Erich Fromm's The Art of Loving [NL, December 10], Robert E. Fitch is surprising...
...Only those who really understand the masses in all countries would know how to deal with the Russian tactics...
...This is quite distinct from the quietism of the yogi, from narcissism, and from that cruelest subjectivism in which we equate subjective ideation with objective truth...
...Fromm's work will be puzzled by Dean Fitch's references to his "narcissism," "pronounccd subjectivism" or "utopianisin/' Is it true, as the Dean suggests, that Fromm merely laments the absence of a social environment for love or merely awaits a "Utopia...
...The Hungarians have already called the Americans betrayers of their fight for liberty...
...Where they make their mistake is in thinking that this will really help to end the present (for them) trying period of revolt...
...Forest Hills, N. Y. Louis Jacobs...
...The Russians themselves, under the guise of labelling these assurances as false, will bring this out with startling clarity at the UN to display American cowardice...
...Has not the tragedy of the Church been its early admission of social defeat and its withdrawal into metaphysics...
...New York City W. J. Convery Egan Director, Radio Free Europe SOCIALIST UNITY I should like to call the attention of your readers to the following resolution, which was passed by a 41-9 vote at the January 9 City Central Committee meeting of the New York Social Democratic Federation: "Whereas, the majority of the members of the Social Democratic Federation are opposed to unity with the Socialist party, and "Whereas, arrangements for a so-called unity convention were made and announced with complete disregard and utter contempt for the wishes and opinions of this majority, "Therefore, be it resolved that the New York SDF Central Committee declares this announced convention to be irregular, unauthorized and invalid, and "Be it further resolved that the New York SDF Central Committee, in addition to repudiating the proposed gathering, calls upon all Federation members not to participate in any way in the sessions set for January 18, 19 and 20, and "Finally, the Central Committee of the New York Federation proclaims itself unalterably opposed to'affiliating with the Socialist party...
...In short, the Russians will demonstrate that Eisenhower is so fearful of war that the Russians can blackmail the Americans into complete quiescence, no matter what the situation...
...This feeling will be rubbed in all the more after the debate in the UN...
...What it will do is to convince the East Europeans that they must rely only on their own masses, and that they must spread the struggle to the masses in Russia itself...
...Obviously Eisenhower and Dulles have no capacity in this direction...
...If Dean Fitch would abjure that once-over-lightly benevolence characteristic of the American book review, and assault Dr...
...Durham, N. H. Paul Wilson Sullivan HUNGARY The New Leader has cried out with feeling against the tragedy of seeing the Administration fail to lift a finger to help the Hungarians in their life-and-death struggle...
...Is it not true that Fromm, in reasserting the "I" as the center of creative power, is saying with Sartre that, far from passive lamentation, man is individually responsible for creating the objective conditions of environment...
...They know what they want in a given situation and act accordingly...
...They need speed to pour water on the flames in East Europe...
...The Russians do not play by ear, and day by day...
...The willingness of the Lodges to have the issue aired shows how naively they play right into Soviet hands...
...Dean Fitch asserts that Hebrew-Christian love "is prepared now to make assault against a hostile environment...
...DEAR EDITOR PROPAGANDA May I commend you for the article by Arnold Beichman in the December 3 issue of The New Leader entitled, "Hungarians Didn't Need U. S. Radio to Open Their Eyes to Communism...
...What better sounding board for this than the UN...
Vol. 40 • January 1957 • No. 3
