Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR DE GAULLE'S REALPOLIT1K Harold Kaplan's polemic in your January 1 issue ("The New Cold War") is an unfortunate addition to the growing volume of anti-Gaullist, anti-French propaganda...
...Jonathan M. Fisher DEFENDING CATV If the public is the "forgotten third party," as Jeffrey Hodes alleges in his article, "Profiteering and the Public Interest" (NL, November 20), he is attacking the very companies that are trying to come to the public aid: the cable television companies...
...this is contempt for the audience, and, behind the contempt, the familiar, good old American desire to make it, either by being good enough, or, in the case of these people, by being lousy enough...
...I believe this country should have been wired for CATV a Jong time ago...
...The state of Connecticut just recently did this, to the relief of viewers and businessmen alike...
...But taking into account the world in which we live, it is not a recipe for survival against Communism...
...Julius Bell VIETNAM Edward Witten writes that "the Pentagon has disclosed [that] in June 1965, when America had 100.000 troops in Vietnam...
...Certainly he is right when he says the Federal Communications Commission has never forced broadcasters to guarantee good reception—but it could be that the fcc is not strong enough to do so...
...The growing wave of anti-French sentiment in this country can only help to undermine this restraint...
...Davis' problem is with the term "moral...
...Where are the ether 71 channels he paid just to be equipped to receive...
...Indianapolis, Intl...
...Grabbing people out of the audience and stripping them naked in Gizmo at the Cooper Arts Theater...
...All the armed forces under the control of the People's Army of Vietnam should have been withdrawn from the South by 1955 (Articles 1, 2, and 24), and nobody was to infiltrate the South at any time (Article 6...
...This implies that the U.S...
...He's talking about Coming To Grips With Things and Being Better People Because Of That...
...if not, they can always say it's so bad it's deliberate, it's beautiful...
...But the compassion of killers for other killers is an old story...
...has been pursuing a constructive, unifying, peace-building policy which may save the world...
...Perhaps he is right, and ideally the public should be guaranteed perfect tv reception for free...
...But Selby is not good because he is moral...
...over the years, my books have not met with complete acceptance from the press, and 1 am used to the pounding...
...Eugene E. Levitt Chief...
...This is a high order...
...There was supposed to be none...
...De Gaulle refuses to be hypocritical about his actions...
...CATV could offer broadcasters healthy competition...
...But we will be very shortsighted, kideed, if we kill the goose just because we can't have free golden eggs...
...Even today, TV broadcasters are complaining of Em interference with their channels...
...supports...
...Philadelphia, Pa...
...Though evidently not a. psychologist or psychiatrist, he nevertheless feels secure enough in his own knowledge to identify my motivation...
...alter the national purpose from a mere self-indulgent security to an active empathy for all men as human beings," and "emancipate the human spirit from its self-imposed tyranny...
...a year later the total reached about 85,000...
...We are fast becoming a visual society, and we must plan for it now...
...Though Charles de Gaulle's ambitions very probably lie chiefly in furthering the nationalistic interests of France, he is appealing quite successfully to a certain pride in the French people, and to a certain understandable sentiment we Americans are also prone to...
...build-up and no bombing...
...Injecting a moral outlook into a complex world conflict is too easy and deluding...
...it explains the ridiculously light sentences meied out to many Nazi war criminals, and the response anti-Nazi Germans still encounter on occasion in Germany today: Where were you when the Fatherland was in trouble...
...Or the homosexual onslaught in the arts, from Rechy to Warhol and Burroughs...
...New York City Tony Rinaldi SOVIET COMPASSION It is ironic, as Svyatoslav Y. Kravansky says ("To the Council of Nationalities of the USSR," NL, January 15), that those who participated in the mass extermination of innocent Soviet citizens in 1937-39 are pardoned, while the victims of these Soviet Eich-manns who rose up in protest are still 34 The New Leader imprisoned...
...Cambridge, Mass...
...There should be a Federal Department of Communications set up at cabinet level to exploit and allocate our resources rationally as well as to avoid conflicts like the present quarrel between cable owners and broadcasters...
...The questions of who can originate broadcasts and when copyrights are violated by rebroadcasts will have to be settled...
...But our national topography is not ideal, and the technology of transmitting television signals over long distances is a complicated and expensive affair...
...It's an old tradition in the U.S...
...This is no way to evaluate art...
...DEAR EDITOR DE GAULLE'S REALPOLIT1K Harold Kaplan's polemic in your January 1 issue ("The New Cold War") is an unfortunate addition to the growing volume of anti-Gaullist, anti-French propaganda that one finds in the American press...
...Consider that when a person buys a television set in New York City, he buys a set technically equipped to receive VHP channels 2-13 and uhf channels 14-82, but which can in reality receive only 7 VHP and 3 uhf stations...
...If, as Bodes says, cable television may be technically obsolete within a decade, it does not seem likely that it will be practically obsolete...
...When did the Pentagon disclose anything of the kind...
...While there is a certain truth in this and there has been some relaxation of the threat of a world war, it does not mean that the United States can formulate a foreign policy on the basis that we don't have an opponent anymore...
...Piekoey John Kyper tells us that America must "revitalize, revise and renew the Western humanistic faith in man...
...A check of the May 24, 1934, issue of the New York Times {pp.1 and 3) revealed that six police officers fired a total of 167 bullets into the car, and that the pair were killed by 50 of these—in vast contrast to the hundreds or thousands of bullets fired at them at the conclusion of the film...
...In any case, why should cable companies be indicted for setting up an antenna system that will remedy the problem...
...Stein apparently believes that human behavior is not subject to analysis by scientific method...
...Ithaca, N.Y...
...In his January 1 review, Simon refers to the "staging of the lovers' death," stating that they had been "mowed down by a barrage from innumerable guns, sniping out of craven concealment...
...For lack of space, I shall mention only one of the misleading and quite false events depicted in the film...
...our own society is perfect...
...interventions in support of anti-Communists all over the world...
...From the beginning of 1961 to the end of 1964, infiltration from North Vietnam into the South totalled about 39,000...
...but in a world where only power counts, it won't get us very far...
...But he is impatient with the snail's pace of behavioral science, which has not yet reached the point where it can fruitfully consider his lofty abstractions...
...and toward the innocent: 25-year prison sentences which were passed during the Stalin reign...
...Under the terms of the Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities in Vietnam, signed by a member of the DRV government in Geneva in July 1954, there were not supposed to be 400 of Hanoi's men in the South: or 7,500...
...If it's good, okay...
...Kyper's position rests on the ground that "Communism has long ago ceased to be a monolithic conspiracy" and has developed into "nationalist movements...
...He seeks to further French national interests, and he believes that despite their protestations to the contrary so do all national leaders...
...The mass of experimental data I presented is cavalierly spurned because it is derived through scientific method, while a great deal is made of my occasional speculation, with which Stein disagrees...
...And the many bad artists I have cited above are not bad because they are "immoral...
...ground forces in Vietnam numbered 53.500 at that time...
...So a reasonable estimate of the number of Hanoi's men present in the South in June 1965 would be about 50-60.000, rather than the 400 Witten asserts were there...
...But if cable TV companies are barred from origination of facsimile newspapers, the local TV broadcasters certainly will do it...
...The Kyper article contains all the familiar half-truths, distortions, and ignorance of our real achievements and goals as well as the standard imputation of betrayal and deception common to both the present-day critics of Johnson and those who criticized Lincoln...
...Stopping Hitler, rebuilding Europe, giving aid to developing nations, blunting Communist imperialism are all wasted efforts, for we have not purged our souls and established Utopia...
...The government space agencies will surely want more frequencies—to communicate with space craft and other planets, and also to control the very movement of their hardware in space...
...The scientist is not so privileged and is required to remain within boundaries set by method and finding...
...or Glassboro —are solely in the interests of peace and humanity...
...and that now it should be broken down into communication areas serviced by cable—based on townships, villages, counties, cities, or whatever local Continued on next page DEAR EDITOR entity seems most viable...
...The best of the new avant garde, such as Selby, have something valid to say about our condition, and that is one of the many values of good art...
...Assuming that General de Gaulle, despite his protestations, will one day pass on, his successor may prove to be a bit more temperate and more understanding and tolerant of American objectives...
...John Kissin Graduate School of Design Harvard University PHILOSOPHY VS...
...In the meantime, either the fcc, the state Public Service Commissions or the local governments involved—preferably all three—will have to regulate cable television...
...If that were true, 6,000 technicians would not have been quietly slipped into the Arab nations in recent months from Russia, and the June Mideast war wouldn't have been at least partly the result of Soviet manipulation and encouragement...
...Scow Simon Editor, "Offset" Magazine VIEW FROM THE CAMPUS John Kyper's "Vietnam and Beyond" (NL, January 1) was the most complete collection of knee-jerk liberal cliches I have seen in print in many a moon...
...And it is doubtful that the beginning of a "New Cold War" will serve the interests of world peace any more than the old one did...
...In this way every area would be assured of first-rate television reception on 20, 24, or 26 channels...
...But the sentiments which the General has aroused, and the deeply ingrained problems which he has caused to surface, will not disappear as easily...
...TV broadcasters, obviously, are able to make a profit even though they submit to regulation and even though they use public air waves...
...1 am sorry I cannot say that man "suffers from lack of a spiritual center," or that "the very categories and structures of reality have lost validity," or any of the other dogmatically asserted sophistry with which the review is liberally seasoned...
...Bonnie Parker died with her head between her knees with a machine gun across her lap...
...Kypers ("Nigeria: A Study in Hypocrisy," by George T. Orick, NL, January 1...
...And it might turn out to be unfair to the broadcaster if the FCC could do so...
...As the Times reported it, "Mortally wounded, Barrow kicked open the door of the car and attempted to fire at the officers, but death overtook him before he could pull the trigger...
...Before long they will be sorely needed since rising mail rates and distribution costs, as well as the high cost of printing and publishing itself, are reducing available printed information every day...
...Kaplan takes the French President to task for pursuing a "'destructive, divisive, peace-breaking policy which may endanger the world" because he has opposed many of the policies that the U.S...
...The fact is that much of "avant-garde" culture is the aggressive march of the untalented toward the spotlight, utilizing an old technique: saturating the audience with noise, or shocking people by physically attacking them, so they are in no position to evaluate clearly what is taking place...
...But Jeffrey Stein's review is not actually critical, it is inappropriate...
...Chalk up one vote for more Oricks and fewer (no...
...escalation in Vietnam is merely a response to action by Hanoi...
...The exoneration of the guilty and the continued harassment of the innocent are two sides of the same coin...
...SCIENCE I am flattered that you saw fit to commission a review of my book, The Psychology of Anxiety ("Official Emotion of Our Age," NL, January 1), and it is with considerable regret that T must take the strongest exception to its contents...
...However, in reality these two murderers were killed in a far less gory and dramatic manner than the incredibly messy scene at the film's end...
...The Soviet Union acknowledges some of its crimes because it recognizes the need to, in order to avoid further protest...
...Think also of the facsimile newspapers that Bodes mentions...
...This much is historical fact, I dare say...
...The essence of Kyper is that expansionist tyrannies should be left alone, at least until The New Leader welcomes comment and criticism on any of the features, but letters should not exceed 300 words...
...My colleagues would, I think, find that innuendo tolerably amusing...
...This position is rather naively stated, but it is worth full consideration—in a philosophical work...
...But is not his type of pessimism, name-calling, sanctimonious preachments, every-body-but-me-is-crazy syndrome an indication of who really needs treatment...
...The moral position enables Kyper and many young people to see Vietnam simply...
...The most clever technique of all is the "put-on...
...Or the spraying of insecticide into the audience at the end of Sam Shepard's new play, Forensic and the Navigators...
...The United States, unfortunately, seems to be intent on formulating a policy towards Charles de Gaulle rather than France...
...Perhaps it realizes that it is not worth the effort to put him in his place and re-establish American hegemony over the nato nations...
...How long are people going to sit staring at one or three channels, just because these are the only channels they can see clearly...
...It is not simply thai the review is unfavorable...
...If it were a prescription for individual growth and striving, it would be admirable...
...Hanoi had only 400 of its men in the South" ("Dear Editor," NL, January 1...
...Arthur M. Shapiro How ingenious of you to place the John Kyper article alongside Gus Tyler's "How a Free People Conduct a Long War...
...Stein appears to have confused a scientific book with a philosophical treatise...
...This is a quite mistaken and a quite dangerous assumption indeed...
...If the price of CATV seems high now, there is no reason to think that it cannot be lowered (voluntarily by the company, or by franchise regulation) as the volume of subscribers grows and as the companies draw in revenue from services like TV shopping, pay television, educational and training programs, and access to computers...
...Chicago, III...
...Senate would have done...
...New York City James Chladek 'BONNIE AND CLYDE' Let me buttress John Simon's case with respect to the merits or lack of same of Bonnie and Clyde ("On Screen," NL, September 11, January 1), for he has a better argument than he knows...
...why should not cable companies also make a profit in return for providing a public service...
...Actually, I enjoyed the movie but later—before reading Simon's reviews—in contemplating its various aspects and themes, 1 decided I had been had...
...It makes the rest of us uneasy, not about their honesty and dedication (which, we admire), but about the vulnerability of innocence...
...According to Kahin and Lewis (The United States in Vietnam, p. 185), there were 7,500 men of the People's Army of Vietnam in the South in June 1965...
...Section of Psychology Professor of Clinical Psychology Indiana University Medical Center...
...Do the many relationships, themes, "messages," attitudes and behavior set forth in the movie have anything more than a faint connection with the pair and their associates in real life...
...Los Gatos, Calif...
...Conn...
...It presupposes a condition of mankind that does not exist, not to mention a world peace that is based on the balance of two world powers, one of which is still committed to the destruction of the other...
...Hartford...
...We seem all too content to dismiss the General as a fleeting phenomenon—a cra2ed old gentleman leading an entire nation down a path entirely counter to its own will...
...If this final scene was glamorized, exaggerated (and just plain falsified) by the film's makers, how many other portions are either false or misleading...
...His refusal to submit to majority voting arrangements in the eec is no more than the U.S...
...Kyper, if there is such a person, must now feel that he has been had...
...but so are Kafka, Celine, and Dickens, all of whom confront the madness of life directly without reaching any humanistic conclusions about how to better it...
...Teaching Fellow Wharton School of Finance and Commerce Harold Kaplan gives voice to a fear I have held for some time...
...I would sound like a villain if I opposed "active empathy" for mankind, and I don't...
...to be constructive, American policy must understand and deal with these essential factors, rather than drape our hopes around a false panacea...
...From the French point of view his actions have been no worse for peace than many American deeds...
...The philosopher is free to believe what pleases him, giving full vent to his personal biases...
...So Heino Ainso ("Dear Editor," NL, December 4) was quite right to say that U.S...
...This is hardly "moral...
...Vienna, Va...
...The "view from the campus" is indeed interesting—as a graduate student myself, I should know—but sophomoric writing is not...
...Kyper should be a speech-writer for Bobby Kennedy...
...John VV...
...And this can only strengthen their monopoly or monopolistic position vis-a-vis the public and the FCC...
...He died with a gun in his hands without saying a word...
...Glenn G. Morgan THE AVANT GARDE Robert Gorham Davis talks of "the moral capital of avant-garde art" ("Writers and Writing," NL, December 18...
...To the Kypers, our whole social order is sick...
...James A. Dunn Jr...
...The French perceive this as a continuation of the hypocrisy in which the English excelled for centuries: Concealed in all the moral posturing lies the selfish national interest...
...His celebrated, one-phrase "intervention" in Canadian domestic affairs in behalf of the French-Canadians can hardly be compared to many U.S...
...Such a department will have to be carefully insulated from tampering by the many people in Congress and the Executive branch who have a vested interest in communications...
...The "oil deals" thai he has concluded with the Arab states have many precedents established by British and American companies, and the attempts to "scavenge on the battlefield" as American power retreats throughout the world (assuming it is retreating) is precisely what de Gaulle saw Roosevelt and Churchill try to do with the French Empire at the end of World War II...
...Thomas Mann fits this definition and he is a great artist...
...Much of the review is devoted to a presentation of the reviewer's own existentialoid philosophy of anxiety...
...What is more, in coming years frequency space available to broadcasters through the air is certain to get more and more scarce...
...My book fails to satisfy him because of my "deep conformity to the established mode of discourse and action, to an uncritical acceptance of the status quo...
...At the same time, like all tyrannies, it exposes its true colors by its attitude toward the guilty: compassion...
...Focusing on someone sleeping for six hours in Andy Warhol's epic film, titled, appropriately, Sleep...
...Does he mean Norman Mailer playing gangster in his own home movie...
...They are bad because they lack talent...
...Minneapolis, Minn...
...When the officers ceased fire and approached the car, they found Barrow full of bullets slumped against the steering wheel with his head hanging out of the window...
...So far the American government has been remarkable in its restraint in reacting to de Gaulle's "scavenging...
...or 60.000...
...If Hanoi had honored the agreement it signed, there would probably have been no Communist forces in the South at all, no U.S...
...Similarly, the French President's much deplored neutrality in the Arab-Israeli War, a war in which Israel was the victor and the acknowledged protege of the United States, can be considered no more perfidious than American neutrality when France was crumbling before the Nazi juggernaut...
...The picture of Lincoln with more than a suggestion of LBJ's eyes, nose nnd mouth was a useful touch also...
...Washington is trying hard to convince itself that its actions oo the international stage?be they Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, nato (remember the m.lf...
...His withdrawal from a nato which relegated Fiance to third-rate status behind Britain and Germany is not much more intransigent and peace-destroying than American abstention from the League of Nations or British refusal to sign the Treaty of Rome in 1957...
...Bonnie Parker was slumped forward beside him, dead from many bullets...
Vol. 51 • January 1968 • No. 3
