Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR human race Ralph de Toledano's inferences in his letter of May 26 are strictly the product of his own imagination. There are no best and worst nations, only different. The quicker we...
...By "'senseless" I mean that innocent people will die to assert the promise of either cause...
...Berlin Melvin J. Lasky...
...Besides, readers of my book will be aware that it could not possibly have gone into this whole intricate issue because it went to press (spring 1957) before the question of nuclear defense had arisen for the German Federal Republic and, hence, had not yet entered into Adenauer's considerations...
...and if it is admitted that it is absolute limit of irrationality and absurdity that innocent people should be forced to die for a cause in which they do not believe, and if it is further admitted that these are the only two alternatives and in the event of either innocent people will die, then the question will obviously be reduced to this: In the service of which cause will the least number of lives be lost...
...Hook seems to be in rather strange position: If we generalize from, the experience of the khans and say that the loss of a single life does not justify the fruits of the cultures to follow, how can he maintain that it is better to wage «. war (and thereby incur millions of deaths) to insure the continuance of the democratic-type culture proclaimed in the U.S...
...Baltimore, Md...
...It strikes me as equally unfair that Seger accuses me categorically of avoiding the discussion of any trait in Adenauer's personality which one might consider unfavorable—citing specifically Adenauer's so-called "autocratism...
...He writes: "George Kennan was grievously wrong when he declared already in 1956 that 'there is a finality for better or for worse about what has now occurred in Eastern Europe' " I have asked George Kennan about this reference, and he assures me that Professor Hook's dissent is based on a misunderstanding...
...On the contrary, Kennan has always believed in the forces of change which would transform, slowly, the Soviet empire...
...This point is that, whether we have Communism or World War III, there will be senseless destruction of human life...
...I believe that anyone who considers this question honestly—and objectively—will immediately grant that Russell is right—if, and only if, it is granted that there are only two alternatives (Russell's and Hook's...
...Hook to tell us exactly what it is that makes "democracy" so valuable that the loss of a tremendous number of lives would justify its existence...
...If this is so (and how could anyone deny it...
...Abba P. Lerner Adenauer I must take strong exception to the way Gerhart Seger treated my Adenauer and the New Germany (NL, May 26...
...Anyone who knows anything about either Communism or war will readily grant that people uninterested or opposed to either will be slaughtered by the one or the other...
...The 1956 context was a speech in Philadelphia to emigre groups, and the "finality'7 referred to was not at all a freezing of the status quo in Eastern Europe...
...The Prince said to the Jew: "You must eat a bowl of stinking fish, or you must receive 100 lashes, or you must pay 1,000 ducats.'' The Jew chose to eat the fish, but after he had eaten nine-tenth of it he was unable to hold any more, so he said he would take the 100 lashes, but after he had received 95 he felt that death was upon him so he paid the 1,000 ducats...
...Russell and Hook are, basically, agreed in one point and in one point only—though neither of them seem to realize it...
...How, in short, will the innocents fare...
...As an author, I am not in the habit of quarreling with the opinions expressed by reviewer of any of my books...
...That, clearly, may be arguable...
...In the light of it, who would not choose Russell's stand if it came to a test...
...Having discussed this with him, publicly and privately, in Paris last winter, I can only repeat my complete agreement for his admirable exposition...
...The "finality" meant was the hopelessness of the dream of a return to power on the part of East European political exiles...
...New York City Mark Starr RUSSELL-HOOK I would like to comment on the May 26 debate between Bertrand Russell and Sidney Hook, "Communism and Nuclear War...
...Anyone who is in any way rational can see that, if the Communists win out, only those people who are anti-Communists will perish (and perhaps not all these...
...And there you have it...
...but it certainly is t» completely different question...
...I feel, however, that some clarifications are called for in this case...
...To deal with the highly complex problems which atomic warfare poses for the Christian conscience by contrasting its "m-kujnan consequences" with "Christian beliefs" is, to my mind, outright demagoguery...
...Even more revealing is, perhaps, the fact that a former leading member of the German Social Democratic party— to which Seger still avows his loyalty—should choose to ignore completely any extensive analysis of the German Social Democrats' attitude toward Adenauer...
...New York City Edgar Alexander Kennan & 'Finality' I have just read, on my return from India, Sidney Hook's article, "A Foreign Policy for Survival" (NL, April 7...
...He went so far as to abuse my Catholic background in questioning my objectivity as an historian (e.g., by dubbing by favorable analysis of Adenauer's statesmanship a "'premature beatification," contrasting it with what he calls the "more restrained practice of the Church...
...On one small point, however, I should like to offer correction...
...for it is a decision which, though realistic in my opinion, may well have inhuman consequences...
...Farmington, Michigan Wayne I. Boucher Missing from my 21-point June 9 letter, in which I argued that submission to world Communism would yield not the lesser evil but an increased probability of both evils—Communist domination and human annihilation—is the following punchline: 21...
...Even the most superficial perusal of my book would show that Seger has neglected to give anything in the way of factual report—in favor of his own opinions about Adenauer and his policies...
...But in an all-out nuclear war, those of us who profess an iota of intelligence must concede literally millions of people whose chief concern is raising babies and making dinner would be bombed, burned and blasted out of existence...
...Might I refer him to pages 22, 26, 40 and 41, containing an extensive discussion of this subject, and of the genuine "paternalism'' which I believe to be at its root...
...This may be true—even though some of the lives that were taken would not have been worth the usual $1.98—but I would like Dr...
...While I do not intend to use this occasion for a defense of the methods I have applied in my analysis, I would like to take a specific issue with two points...
...Fable...
...The quicker we think of ourselves as human beings and unite as such, the safer the world will be for us all...
...Indeed," Seger writes, "devout believers may well claim that Adenauer left his Christian abode when he decided to include Germany in the Western defense system...
...Hook says that the triumphs of Kublai Khan were not worth even one of the lives that were taken during the rule of his grandfather, Genghis...
Vol. 41 • June 1958 • No. 25
