Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR VIETNAMESE VIEW I would like the opportunity to express my views about Robert S. Elegant's "South Vietnam: the Theory" (NL, April 16), which I read with great interest. How...
...For in a guerrilla war, the most powerful weapon is morale...
...And regrettably, Daniels' list of Fromm's "realistic" views hardly clarifies the discussion—particularly since, as regards Soviet society at least, Daniels appears to disagree with himself...
...yet no one gives them credit for it...
...yet our defeat to the forces of Communism at Dienbienphu was complete...
...We must establish a government in Saigon based on the fundamental principles of liberty...
...What was lacking...
...The Communist ideology cannot be defeated by a feudal tyranny...
...It is made up of a thousand ambushes and assassinations, in a manner which is appropriate to the mountains and marshy terrain, to the tropical climate in which it is being fought...
...There is no need to reiterate the notorious methods by which the present regime in Saigon clings desperately to power, to the detriment of all that is good and just...
...government spending...
...We must, at last, take the initiative thus far left to the Communists...
...Nor did I suggest that readers not give the book their "thoughtful attention...
...But as President Kennedy has noted, we are involved in a savage guerrilla war...
...Yet it is taken for granted that European public finance is more conservative than America...
...What I contended in my review was simply that the pursuit of a disarmed world does not require a sentimentalized and cheap chiliastic view of Russia or Russo-American relations...
...Chamber of Commerce by Maurice H. Stans, former director of the Budget Bureau...
...Ten years ago, another war was fought in Vietnam...
...Washington, D. C. Sidney Koretz...
...Comparing budget results, adjusted to a basis comparable to the United States consolidated cash statement—which shows Federal receipts from and payments to the public—the study concludes that England ran deficits in nine of the last 11 calendar years...
...New York City Tran Van Tung MORE ON FROMM It is a pity that your correspondent Robert V. Daniels ("Dear Editor," NL, April 30) so completely misunderstood my review of Erich Fromm's May Man Prevail...
...How ironic it is that the ideals and deep humanity of the American people should be distorted to the profit of a little mandarin, of a tyranny as reprehensible as the tyranny of Communism itself...
...Stans blamed "government by credit card," among other things, for our economic difficulties—although he did not mention unemployment...
...Was it not Lenin who said, "The Communization of Europe and the world begins with Asia...
...How tragic it is that the United States, so generous in its aid and support of Vietnam against the Communist menace, should be identified in the eyes of the people of South Vietnam, and of all Southeast Asia, with feudalism, concentration camps, a censored press and rigged elections...
...The fact is that deficit financing is not the rule for the Federal government, but it has been the rule for every other major sector of our economy for the last 15 years...
...We can only cure the evil by applying the greatest good, by replacing feudalism with true democracy, by fighting Communism with liberty...
...Net Debt in Billions of Dollars—End of Year 1945 1960 State & local gov't 13.7 60.0 Private corporations 85.3 295.0 Farms 7.2 25.4 Nonfarm individuals & noncorporate 47.4 261.5 Federal Gov't 252.7 241.0 Many people who talk glibly about "financial responsibility" have not taken the trouble to look at the record...
...It depends upon the factors of time and constant terror...
...Evil cannot be fought with evil...
...Dale's idea finds support in a recent study for the Bureau of the Budget, which Senator Paul H. Douglas (D.-III...
...Any other method of treatment can only lead to another Dienbienphu...
...They simply want to, and must, know what they are fighting for...
...He reports that in Western Europe "the cardinal rule of government economic policy appears to be: never try for a budget surplus and never let there be one...
...At that time, as now, the people of Vietnam were disheartened and discouraged by the arrogance and corruption of the ruling family...
...We must destroy the psychological weapon of Communist propaganda by removing the asis on which this propaganda rests, and which has allowed the Communists to install themselves in South Vietnam like a cancer...
...Only by giving the people of South Vietnam true democracy to protect and defend, can we give them the will to win...
...Show us that we are fighting now for this freedom, and we will win...
...But surely not even Daniels could still be struck by any special originality or overwhelming depth in Fromm's analysis of what his letter terms, monolithically, "the nature of popular American thinking...
...Not long ago, a financial writer even noted a "just submitted plan for the first deficit budget in the history of the West German Federal Republic...
...How vital, then, how fundamental an aspect does the present struggle in Vietnam assume...
...NL, April 30), "All of the evidence is not available, but what we have indicates that structural changes are not the primary cause of rising total and long-term unemployment...
...It is not only the arms of war which the people of Vietnam need, but the arms of freedom, the ideals and example of liberty and progress...
...It never quite appears out in the open...
...And we must do this at once, before the cancer has time to spread beyond the point of no control...
...Cambridge, Mass...
...I raised no objections to Fromm's "disarmament optimism," though one might very well question such optimism without endangering one's standing in the disarmament ranks...
...We must bring new men and new ideas into the government, men with the courage to take the initiative in a general mobilization of all the mental, moral and material resources of the country...
...There is a widespread myth about "the Government's persistent habit of over-spending, running in the red and borrowing more and more" (the language is from a recent Scripps-Howard editorial...
...Recently, Robert C. Turner, Assistant Director of the Bureau of the Budget, pointed his finger at public attitudes toward the Federal budget, as it is calculated now, as "a significant barrier to the achievement of sustained full employment and vigorous growth in the United States...
...The people of my country are not "lazy" or "indifferent...
...What is the trouble...
...The answer is inevitable: the reasons to fight and the will to win, which are the indispensable ingredients for victory...
...Edwin L. Dale, writing from Europe for the New York Times, believes that "Americans can go on having unemployment if they want to enjoy their quaint ideas about 'deficits,' the 'national debt' and the 'dangers' of Government spending...
...Seems a pity, though, for the unemployed...
...Contrast this view with that implied in an address before the U.S...
...In the 11 calendar years 1950-60 inclusive, the United States ran surpluses in five years and deficits in six years...
...The history of my country is a great one, filled with heroic deeds and an unending struggle for freedom...
...Neither money nor weapons nor adequate manpower was lacking...
...Politicians have been financially more conservative than businessmen and bankers...
...thinks should be brought to the attention of European bankers hypercritical of U.S...
...France in every one of the last 10 calendar years...
...The vices of this regime have been condemned by the entire world...
...If Ngo Dinh Diem once believed in integrity, we must recognize the fact that today he is the very symbol of feudalism, corruption and inefficiency...
...and West Germany in four of the last six calendar years...
...Martin Peretz UNEMPLOYMENT According to Richard C. Wilcock and Walter H. Franke, in "Is Growth the Answer...
...The full story can be found on page 268 of the President's Economic Report: Table B-51, showing Net public and private debt, 192961...
...Wal Street Journal, April 18...
Vol. 45 • May 1962 • No. 10
