Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR Vietnam I have recently returned from the Hue area of Vietnam where I served as military observer and interpreter. I had many opportunities to mingle with the...
...Buffalo, New York John Hastings Dominican Debacle Congratulations on your coverage of the military coup in the Dominican Republic ("The Dominican Debacle—Four Articles," NL, October 14...
...He had a similar solution, I recall, for Cuba, several months after the abortive invasion took place...
...Rogoffs comments on Luther were especially apt...
...Why all the fuss about discrimination...
...True, Madame Nhu and her husband have incited the wrath The New Leader welcomes comment and criticism on any of its features, but letters should not exceed 300 words...
...The four articles you printed complemented each other perfectly and forcefully presented a point of view which has been too little heard...
...We enjoy him immensely and find vigor and courage and maturity and great clarity of expression to be the qualities which distinguish Hyman from other writers...
...New York City Immanuel Wallerstein Hyman We want to give our vote of confidence to Stanley Edgar Hyman...
...Another assertion in the article with which I take issue is the following: "I find it odd, too, that it should be those very American liberals who are most insistent upon the official disestablishment of religion in this country who are simultaneously (and suddenly) demanding the official establishment of Buddhism in Vietnam...
...Honolulu A. R. Russo Cap t. USMC I think Irving Kristol has a crystal-clear vision of what must be done in Vietnam ("Facing the Facts in Vietnam," NL, September 30...
...If the Ngo family had been Baptists, the highest positions of the government would have been controlled by his Baptist relatives...
...Having seen both Luther and The Rehearsal, I am able to appreciate Rogoffs acuity and perceptiveness...
...she and her husband are blatant opponents of what we believe...
...My point is that Diem says nothing and does nothing while his sister and brother-in-law act, not according to the principles of America, but at least for the ultimate success we all hope for—a victory over Communism...
...And now, having read Robert Karr McCabe's article "The Swamps of Saigon" (NL, August 19), I would like to submit my own views on a subject I believe to be misunderstood by many Americans...
...the fact that Buddhism is the religion of a large majority of the country makes it all the more imperative, for political reasons, that equal treatment be accorded by the minority in power...
...I had many opportunities to mingle with the Vietnamese soldiers and to converse with educated civilians whose opinions were by no means reserved...
...Of the four articles offered, John Roche wrote the most vivid and penetrating account of how it all came about ("Return of the Syndicate...
...I remember the old definition of radicalism: "another person's belief...
...I particularly enjoyed the combination of Bosch's own statement with John Roche's personal observations about the man and his policies...
...It may be argued that this respect is a product of fear -—so is the Christian concept of the "fiery pits of hell...
...I fail to appreciate the position in their letter of September 30 that it is illegitimate for me and Tom Mboya to share the same analysis of the dynamics of African society and of what kind of social action will best promote democracy...
...and Mrs...
...Our press fumes at Madame Nhu...
...I know of no one who has demanded the official establishment of Buddhism, publicly or privately...
...She has been denounced as being radical...
...Nanaimo, B.C...
...Madame Nhu is now the prime target of all Americans interested in the Vietnam crisis...
...During my two visits to this wartorn country I have formed many opinions about its people and their problems...
...the liberals want to appease and forget...
...of many Americans by their seemingly antiAmerican opinions...
...P. Thornburg...
...Having myself kept up with most liberal magazines and newspapers, I have no idea whom Kristol is talking about...
...Placid theatregoers can go home happy, feeling uplifted, enlightened and unscathed...
...I wonder, though, about his suggestion that we ought to have dispatched the Marines to rescue Juan Bosch from his enemies...
...Here we are, a great nation which for 100 years has been nonchalant about our own prejudices, feeling that we have fathomed the motives of a mysterious people thousands of miles away...
...The longer things go on as they have been in South Vietnam, the more infiltration, unrest and struggle for power will take place there...
...Searcy, Arkansas James D. Bales It has often occurred to me that Irving Kristol, under the guise of "hardheaded liberalism" (and I hesitate to call Kristol a liberal of any stripe), actually serves up analyses of the most simplistic kind...
...I can only believe that Kristol is setting up a straw man, and an awfully flimsy one at that...
...Unlike other jingoists, he appears to consider each situation on its merits, but like the others he ultimately concludes with the same simple solution: brute force...
...The Buddhist situation was more political than religious—we all agree on that...
...New York City Mara Maloff African Democracy In their original article ("Africanism's Constitutional Malarkey," NL, June 10) the Ritners inveighed against double standards of analysis...
...Further investigation would have revealed that the majority of officials in the National Assembly, in the government, and in province and city districts are Buddhists...
...The great majority of Diem's top military men are Buddhists...
...The inviolable sanctuary in North Vietnam must be done away with and North Vietnam be made to cease and desist...
...You are to be commended for having him on your staff as literary critic, despite the complaints from the cultural heeldraggers...
...A little investigation would have shown that all Vietnamese are essentially Buddhist —if not consciously, at least unconsciously...
...Providence, R. L R. T. Smythe I was enlightened, though inevitably depressed, by your issue on the "Dominican Debacle...
...I was first of all bothered by his not-sosubtle suggestion that the "answer" to the problem there is an American military involvement on the scale of Korea...
...But, significantly, in all cases I found a deep respect for them...
...In this frenzy of sharp opinions, the Western mind—with its typical "our-way-is-best" attitude—clouds the real issues...
...Needless to say, there is no comparison between him and the daily critics, all of whom raved ((or fawned, rather) over both plays...
...They have blundered many times, have made many wrong decisions, and have caused resentment among their people...
...Springfield, Mass Abigail O'Malley Rogoff I was very much impressed with Gordon Rogoffs first On Stage review in The New Leader ("Portraits of the Artists," October 14...
...It has been, and will continue to be, a booming commercial success because it raises no uncomfortable questions, gores no one's ox, creates no stormy personality other than Albert Finney's...
...In talking with many intelligent Vietnamese privately, both Catholic and Buddhist, I found a unanimous dislike for the Nhu's...
...The conservatives want to abandon the Diem dynasty...
...If anything, he was too kind to Osborne, for Luther is the perfect trap for those impressionable reviewers who are taken in by such plays, mistaking pretentiousness for lofty meaning and theatricality for drama...
...Vietnam is the most enigmatic problem American diplomats must cope with...
...The one or two per cent of those Vietnamese who are Catholic may profess and practice their faith as piously as any other Roman Catholic but—and this is all important— they have a philosophy of life, a culture, a tradition of Buddhism that is too cohesive to allow a radical departure from their neighbors...
...Too many people confuse nepotism with religious prejudice...
...What liberals have demanded is that Buddhism be placed on an equal footing in South Vietnam with Catholicism, the religion of the ruling clique...
...The chasm between the Oriental mind and the Occidental has not been narrowed by improvements in technology and transportation...
...My suspicions were confirmed by two points in his recent article on Vietnam...
...His proposals, when divorced from his deceptively intelligent language, are in actuality old-fashioned jingoism...
...A few dissident Buddhist leaders, aided by opportune blunders by the Diem government, caused a situation that was regrettable both for us and for Diem...
...Naturally, taking up the banner of "fair play," the American press ignorantly accused the Vietnamese government of prejudice...
...If our problems in Latin America are primarily political and economic, as Roche himself argues, then let us deal with them accordingly and not prove the antiAmericans right by a gratuitous display of military force...
Vol. 46 • October 1963 • No. 22
