Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR KENNEDY'S LIBERALISM John P. Roche's article ("The Limits of Kennedy's Liberalism," NL, October 1) seems to me an auspicious beginning for your new department, "Thinking Aloud." If...
...Specifically, Roche's estimation of President Kennedy's liberalism, its inability to seem alive and forceful, is right on the mark...
...Watertown, Wise...
...Many of the same people who voted unenthusiastically for John Kennedy in 1960 because of his apparent lack of conviction, were dismayed at his cautious, even reluctant, approach to the showdown with Governor Barnett...
...If the articles that follow are as lively, informative and well-written, "Thinking Aloud," along with Stanley Edgar Hyman's column will take its place on my own list of priority reading...
...If a regime is not corrupt to be.pin with, U.S...
...This is a failure, I believe, in his pledge to restore "moral leadership...
...Wallace A. Benedick GREEK STORM CLOUDS Perhaps I suffer from a slight Cassandra complex, but behind Jane Peterson's article, "Storm Clouds Over Greece" (NL, October 1), it is difficult to see anything other than one more instance of the U.S...
...italics mine...
...Yet, not long after the election (on December 27, 1961, to be precises, the U.S...
...Leslie Nagler John P. Roche's critique oversimplifies the President's problems, especially those related to domestic issues...
...In the case of Greece, the Right-wing Karamanlis Government's victory over the pro-Western Center Union party, as is clear from Miss Peterson's as well as other reports, appears to be one of the most flagrant instances of election fraud on record...
...But most important, Roche has caught Kennedy's style...
...Walter R. Storey John P. Roche's article (published before the event) is the best explanation that I've seen of Kennedy's role in the Mississippi affair...
...San Francisco, Cal...
...Kennedy, like Eisenhower, has failed to enunciate, clearly and unequivocally, his support for and approval of the Supreme Court's 1954 school desegregation edict...
...But the realization that Kennedy is not motivated by moral considerations becomes comprehensible and not so shocking when seen in the context of Roche's concept of "technocratic liberalism...
...Noel Jenner READER'S REACTION I am pleased to renew my New Leader subscription...
...The September 17 issue was one of the best, combining depth, scope and smooth reading...
...At the very least, Karamanlis was returned by quite dubious means...
...It is a style, in short, utterly without vitality...
...Philadelphia, Pa...
...And in politics, as elsewhere, the style is the message...
...Detroit, Mich...
...I suspect that Roche is too young to have experienced the mood of the 1930s...
...Douglas W. Schimmel...
...They said (and I agree) that Kennedy took his stand because Barnett left him no alternative, rather than because of any ingrained, heartfelt attachment to civil rights...
...By tracing it back to the Fabians and their clinical approach to all problems, even those that call for more than a clinician's skill, Roche helps explain why almost all of our young President's rhetoric seems like so much empty composition...
...But now we have many blocs, each with its own concerns-the minorities, tie senior citizens, organized labor, the liberals, the increasingly articulate conservatives...
...It is neither fair nor accurate to claim that the present Administration is afflicted with "liberal technocracy...
...Your magazine continues to provide the same comprehensive, stimulating, three-dimensional content that first aroused my interest 10 years ago...
...Ambassador in Greece announced to American residents: "We are among people who believe as we do in personal freedom and in the dignity of the individual: elections here last October testify to those beliefs...
...but one should not overlook the many new issues that the electorate does not fully understand...
...Batista's Cuba, Laos, and the list could be extended...
...One is entitled to criticize Kennedy's techniques and style...
...It is a style which, in the author's words, lacks "a joyous commitment to battle against injustice and inequality...
...Most Americans were convinced then that our economy was really depressed and that millions of unemployed were suffering needlessly...
...Congress would not have defeated or emasculated New Frontier legislation if the voters had really supported the many measures the President has advocated...
...support, like the love of an innocent young girl, is usually given too indiscriminately and too fully, with the result that it only increases boldness on the part of the recipient...
...But then this seems to be a practice of Ions standing-Vietnam, Portugal, Spain, Korea...
...In one domestic area after another, the people themselves have failed to give Kennedy a clear mandate...
...thoroughly identifying itself with a corrupt regime...
...Chicago, III...
...The result was active support for FDR's New Deal...
...Ho hum, as the man said, it's only the cold war...
...These liberal critics of Kennedy were sorely disappointed when he said in his speech to the nation, in effect, "You must obey the law because it is the law"-when it would have gladdened them if he had said instead, "Not only must you support the law because it is the law, but also because it is a right law, a just law and a proper law...
...Roche's piece should be recommended reading for those liberals who think that all their worst suspicions of 1960 have been confirmed...
Vol. 45 • October 1962 • No. 21
