Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR TOLSTOY Raymond Rosenthal, writing about Leo Tolstoy ("Tolstoy Today," NL, February 27), uses the phrase "social awareness." I wish that I knew what this phrase meant, because then I...
...The organization merely made its views public in a New York Times advertisement as part of a continuing series of statements issued during a career of more than a quarter century...
...desiring both to win friends and spread American ideals, sent over William Howard Taft to find out what the Filipinos wanted and to set up a civil government...
...I only wish to defend (though I doubt they need my defense) Leo Cherne and Freedom House from the tone, if not the logic, of Hans Morgenthau's attacks...
...Led by Aguin-aldo, a young freedom fighter, the Filipinos rose up against the American occupation, which seemed to them merely a replacement of former Spanish rule...
...I am thoroughly cold to the so-called liberals who see the contest as one that must be waged solely against the totalitarian Right...
...As a matter of fact, a man who can do this deserves the status of God, and we should genuflect before that man...
...Count Leo Tolstoy's work needs no defense...
...These people assume that because one reads, along with them, the liberal weeklies, and subscribes to liberal positions, one will necessarily agree with them on the war and its conduct...
...The reference should have been to the French philosopher Alain...
...The literate person who does not give himself a big dose of this work is neglecting one of the most compelling experiences to be gained from reading...
...Tolstoy in his answer declared: "A happy man has no history...
...This is what Morgenthau seems to expect...
...Shortly after his marriage, and while he was in the honeymoon stage, a relative wrote and asked him for news of himself and his bride...
...William Jennings Bryan campaigned for President in 1900 on the Democratic anti-war ticket, and Aguinaldo kept fighting in the hope that anti-war sentiment "in America would force withdrawal of the forces already sickening of their task...
...I do not wish to imply that Professor Morgenthau's position is anything but sincere...
...role in Vietnam is unique...
...The readers of The New Leader must be aware that Freedom House did not initiate the sharp exchange...
...At a gathering of such liberals, one gets the feeling of being back in the '30s when at any moment someone would level an accusing finger and hiss out the epithet: "Trotskyite...
...Warns Landaue...
...New York City Martin Reardon FREEDOM HOUSE The words Freedom House, at the head of an article or letter to the editor, have been the hallmark of every issue of The New Leader for several months...
...This is the first time we have ever been involved with large numbers of our forces in a war against guerrillas...
...There is reference made to "the failure" of The Detuh of Ivan llyich...
...Tolstoy's awareness was wider than that of any European writer of the 19th century...
...He wrote with quietly compelling conviction about happiness...
...Many people, like Henry Cabot Lodge (the Senator), supported the move as essential to the national interest...
...George Orwell's suggestions that there is a "healthy" element of totalitarianism in pacifism...
...NL, March 13), he writes: "Politically, bureaucratically and militarily the U.S...
...The moment these good innocents discover that one disagrees with their own brand of conformity, then all hell breaks loose—and one is made to feel like a dissenter during the blackest period of the Stalin terror...
...Back in 1899, the U.S., after annexing the Philippines from Spain, sent in regiments, brigades, divisions—over 75,000 troops, a very sizable army for that day—to squash the native guerrilla insurrections...
...i am thankful because those few anti-totalitarian liberals today who happen to support the Administration's stand in Vietnam are all but being drowned out by the shrill, strident voices of the self-righteous "liberals" and "pacifists...
...AVif York City George Field Secretary, Freedom House In answer to Hans Morgenthau's assertion ("Dear Editor," NL...
...The U.S...
...L for one, am thankful for the presence of Freedom House and such people as Leo Cherne and Leonard Sussman, especially at a time when the ritualistic liberals are so hawklike in their "pacifism" <cf...
...they could easily avail themseves of it...
...It is one of the most remarkable facts of the culture of mankind...
...Sam Bluefarb CORRECTION In George Woodcock's review of From Proust to Camus by Andre Maurois ("Lectures and Notes," NL, March 13) Henri Alain-Fournier was incorrectly cited as one of the writers "whom few of us, after one effort, have continued to read...
...New York City James T. Farrell VIETNAM John Mecklin may be a perceptive observer of the Vietnam war, but his history is lacking...
...In this respect it is perhaps of value to tell an anecdote about Leo Tolstoy...
...If our organization's activities were as well financed as those of the opposition (Freedom House has never seen any of the cia cash so much in the news these days), I would favor rerunning this text in publications throughout the country...
...I wish that I knew what this phrase meant, because then I could decide whether or not it is merely empty...
...or by looking up the issues of the magazine in any medium-sized or large (public or university) library...
...Torrance, Calif...
...either by ordering copies of the various exchanges from The New Leader (which they can probably still do...
...There have been accusations and countercharges, but from the beginning of this series the text of the Freedom House statement and the list of the eminent signers have not been available to all the readers who have been subjected to this barrage...
...I do not propose to accept the implied invitation to join the new united front on the Left and abandon support for our policy in Vietnam...
...February 27) that Freedom House did not bother to make public Morgenthau's side of the argument against its statement on Vietnam, let me say that it is hardly incumbent upon Leo Cherne or Freedom House to make available reprints of Professor Morgenthau's part of the exchange...
...as an original member of President Kennedy's team, could not possibly be identified as a Right-wing Goldwater Republican...
...The current French political polarization has no allure for me...
...Well, I, for one, don't believe that the Reagans and Wallaces can be bracketed as representing the same values in our society although the California Governor is considerably to the right of me...
...So why all the animus...
...The list of Americans who endorsed the Freedom House statement could easily be expanded by the names of others who have since identified themselves with it, including Pierre Salinger who...
...Count Leo Tolstoy was miraculously great...
...The only logical explanation is that the Freedom House piece hit its mark...
...Anti-war dissent rose, chorused largely by Eastern intellectuals...
...I believe that those who received the reprint of Cherne's reply to Morgenthau were also acquainted with Morgenthau's opening salvo—or if not...
...I am no expert in matters of debate, but I hardly think it is the responsibility of a contender to furnish the audience with the arguments of his opponent—at least in the form of fully reproduced reprints...
...The writer identifies himself with the views of Morgenthau, Lippmann and others, and reinforces the Morgenthau thesis that Freedom House has aimed its statement at all critics—not merely those who are guilty of the "absurdities uttered by fanatics on the Left...
...His experience was greater, and he was probably the most extensively read of all major 19th-century writers...
...The country scratched its head over headlines that claimed victory after victory over the guerrillas and back pages that reported an "enemy who constantly renewed himself...
...Any man who can prove this deserves all the literary honors that are available...
...In his article "Should We Negotiate in Vietnam...
...The last letter by a Freedom House critic, Carl Landauer, in the March 13 issue, is a case in point...
...Landauer sheds crocodile tears over "the acrimony of this discussion, for there will be a day when the Vietnam war is over . . . and we will have to work together against the Reagans and the Wallaces...
...if those supporters of the war who consider themselves liberals want to do their share in halting the degeneration of the debate, they will have to show more understanding of our position...
...The genius of Leo Tolstoy is vigorous, rare and sometimes delicate...
...The parallels can be extended...
Vol. 50 • March 1967 • No. 7
