Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR NIXON As Roger Kingsbury notes ("Custodian of the Great Society," NL, March 17), the Nixon Administration has been rather "sluggish" in setting forth its policies. People were...
...It is an old Russian practice to initiate pogroms in times of internal or external crisis...
...The insensed people of Warsaw took justice into their own bands, and a number of traitors were hanged in the city...
...John A. Garraty ("Ranters, Ravers, and Reaction," NL, March 3) says that Roosevelt wasn't "consistent" enough for his taste...
...When he has departed from this standard, as in the abm decision, Nixon has exposed himself to catastrophic consequences...
...Chicago, III...
...Even our universities are no longer abodes of the rational mind (particularly Garraty's Columbia University...
...They were afraid the Germans would devise a nuclear weapon before the United States did—mistakenly, as it turned out...
...He notes, for example, that "Almost all of America's major financial institutions have inaugurated special programs in connection with the racial crisis...
...Los Angeles, Cal...
...Moreover, Nixon seems even less willing to push integration than his predecessor, so that if blacks simply sit back and wait for the day of the multiracial paradise, we will be waiting a long time indeed...
...One is by now rather tired of these "change the man and not the system" dirges...
...A pro-Russian party had been very active in Warsaw...
...Blacks, whether the Panthers like it or not, have been prominent in American musical history...
...The universities are now being exposed to a vicious cycle of political pressures which will surely weaken all but the richest among them...
...Perhaps, in some future time, America will be integrated...
...NL, March 3), like everyone else, has used the Metropolitan Museum's show, "Harlem on My Mind," as an occasion to participate in the racial war...
...Considering the disadvantages to which they have been subject, I wonder if this is not heroic enough, even for Mellow...
...Jean de Gratch POLAND It was interesting to read about the present condition of Poland's Jewish community in Barbara Coudenhove-Kalergi's article, "The Polish Exodus" (NL, March 3...
...In the end, young men and women who now plan to teach will probably conclude that it is not worth the trouble, and will attempt to make some other career...
...Nobody doubts that the literature, painting and architecture of the Sun King's reign are among the glories of the human mind, but neither do many historians doubt that France would now be happier if Louis had not wasted so much money on wars of prestige against the Spanish, the Dutch, the English, the Austrians, the Portuguese, the Germans, etc...
...With the end of the Yagellons, also, came the end of the period of tolerance for Polish Jews...
...Why is it that the achievements of Frei's moderate Left government have been so few...
...But anyone who knows the ways of Comrade Gomulka, and his subservience to Moscow, will not be surprised at all, although during this past year tie Communists who rule Poland have broken all records in their disregard for public opinion in Poland and the rest of the world...
...Is it perhaps because he has hesitated to launch a really thorough attack upon those oligarchic elements which still control Chile's economy, and through it, every aspect of the country's national life...
...First, the reactionaries execrated him for Bringing Godless Communism to America...
...Radicals want to break out of parliamentary democracy entirely, not because they reject democracy, but because parliamentary democracy is undemocratic democracy...
...Last year, the students at New York's Columbia University seemed at least to be aware that in the last analysis their strength lay in public opinion...
...Columbia, S. C. S. Stein Department of International Studies, University of South Carolina The principal shortcoming of Barbara Coudenhove-Kalergi's analysis of the recent renaissance of Polish anti-Semitism is the author's failure to make clear that this phenomenon has a long and disgraceful history, and is not, in fact, the invention of Premier Gomulka or Interior Minister Moczar...
...Boston, Mass...
...And I think we ought to ask ourselves whether, in the long run, this policy of deliberate confusion is not best for the country...
...His only real achievement in the area of home policy was to end the Algerian War...
...George Yerbst...
...Mellow, with the others, has criticized the Met show as "a socio-political event...
...Santa Barbara, Cal...
...But now the most important problem facing blacks is the reinforcement of self-respect, and we will not get this by waiting for Chase Manhattan to appoint H. Rap Brown to its board of directors...
...Barbara Alderson OPPENHEIMER Henry A. Zeiger is mistaken in his view ("Lincoln Center's Oppenheimer," NL, March 17) that J. Robert "Oppenheimer [was] horrified by the atom bomb," although I must admit that this error should properly be ascribed to Heinar Kipphardt...
...Detroit, Mich...
...Catherine the Great, the Russian Empress, had rewarded her supporters handsomely...
...into a socialistic Utopia...
...This latest phase of so-called "anti-Zionist" agitation is a disgrace, but one should remember that, on the whole, the Communist government of Poland has probably been less anti-Semitic than any Polish regime in 200 years...
...What, for instance, is the nature of the relation between the radicals and the blacks...
...Though I recognize the failures of capitalism, I wonder if, for basically the same reasons, it is not a more practical solution to poverty than vaguely thought out Socialist schemes...
...There were assassinations, riots and discontent on an unheard-of scale...
...In fact, they were clearly disillusioned with the whole French political Establishment...
...Today we are clearly standing amid the ruins of these Democratic policies, and no one, I think, knows what to replace them with...
...I doubt, though, whether this group or the audience to which it appeals is very large...
...William Baker ROOSEVELT Poor old F. D. Roosevelt...
...George Herrschein SAN FRANCISCO The rebellion at San Francisco State College, examined by Steven V. Roberts ("The Mood in San Francisco," NL, March 17), seems to be setting a new trend in student revolts...
...Dear Professor Garraty: Some people without PhDs can be consistent according to their lights...
...Poland admitted Jews into its territory in the early 16th century, at the time that the Yagel-lonian dynasty was expanding its borders to include the Baltic states, White Russia and much of the Ukraine...
...In fact, these "gorilla" regimes represent the most reactionary elements in South America...
...It was aimed against all the oppressors of that country, but principally Russia...
...The fact that such evils will probably be with us forever does not at all imply that we cannot work to make them more nearly harmless than they are at present...
...In 1794 a national uprising, headed by Thaddeus Kosciuszko, broke out in Poland...
...Edward Pratt IDEOLOGY Paul Marx concludes his review of The End of Ideology Debate ("Of Ideologues and Intellectuals," NL, March 17) with the rather hackneyed thought that "aspects of our social system that we dislike intensely will have their parallels in whatever type of system might be contrived...
...The Russian bosses evidently found it necessary in 1968 to extend the wave of anti-Semitism to Poland also...
...I do not dispute the idea that black banks are, in the long run, bound to be economically futile...
...Miami, Fla...
...The scientists who worked on the atomic bomb were mostly Jews and refugees from Hitler or Mussolini...
...Seth Wilks It may be, as Elliott Abrams argues, that segregation is "undesirable, in banks, in capitalism generally, in principle," but infor-tunately, ours is a segregated society, and I doubt whether there is very much we can do about this at the moment...
...While I certainly do not challenge this opinion, one wishes that Bradshaw had concluded upon somewhat more momentous a note...
...San Francisco, Cal...
...I am sorry that Tom Peebles was blinded in San Francisco, but I am not so sorry as I would have been if Peebles' bomb had blinded someone else...
...Even if certain personality types will continue to exist under the most perfect system, it is a non sequitur to add that there is no point in changing a system that is admittedly bad...
...New York City Paul Sardis CHILE James Stanford Bradshaw, in his article "Chile's Political Scramble," (NL, March 17) seems to feel the future of Chile may belong to either the Left, the Right or the center...
...This, I presume, will constitute the triumph of Mark Rudd and his comrades...
...It should be remembered that even in the '30s, during Hitler's early years in power, the persecution of the Polish Jews under the governments of Pilsudski and Colonel Beck was much worse than anything that the German Jews experienced at that time...
...Then he caught it from the radical Left, because he failed to transform the U.S...
...According to him, too, "Hiring practices have undergone considerable revision even on the executive level," and "past business failures, and the criminal records of life-long ghetto residents are coming under increasingly sympathetic review...
...And during the World War II, the Poles assisted Hitler in his Jewish extermination plans more enthusiastically than any people except the Ukrainians and the Rumanians—even though they were themselves marked for extermination...
...But they do, as Abrams admits, symbolize our determination to create institutions that will enable blacks to function independently...
...People were wondering what Nixon intended to do with the country while he was campaigning for the Republican nomination, during the Presidential campaign, and during the interregnum...
...I also wish that Bradshaw had examined the implications of the joke with which he initiates his piece...
...I gather from Abrams' previous articles that he considers himself a bit of a Socialist...
...Nor would Moczar adopt this new policy if he did not anticipate that it would strike a responsive chord among the population...
...Since the downfall of the Yagellons in the 17th century, Poland has been in a state of permanent political and economic decline, culminating in the partition of the country between Austria, Prussia and Russia...
...Or have they, perhaps, neglected to think about such problems...
...today's Harlem, on the other hand, raises vexing and emotional issues...
...In short, we are capable of looking at the Lower East Side with some perspective...
...De Gaulle, as Steel notes, has concentrated ruinously upon a policy of foreign aggrandizement at the expense of internal needs...
...I only wish that he would follow his basic principle more consistently...
...Shortly after this play was first produced in Germany, Oppenheimer was asked for his opinion of its accuracy...
...But one does wonder whether the white students have any intrinsic concern with the issues that the blacks have raised, or whether they simply regard these as one means among many to The Revolution...
...He categorically stated that he was not ashamed to be known as "the father of the A-bomb," and that he would have done it all again if he had to...
...Most frightening, however, is Bradshaw's suggestion that the Nixon Administration may turn to the extreme Right as "the best way for Latin America to break out of its progress inhibiting mold . . ." In none of those countries where Rightist military regimes have replaced democratic governments—Argentina, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, and the Dominican Republic—has there been the slightest indication of social or economic progress...
...In many respects, the present arrangement of American society gives full rein to avarice, cruelty, hypocrisy, and stupidity...
...Liberals accept this unfair and undemocratic allocation of power, and struggle to work within it, even though they know perfectly well that it can't be done...
...Diana Wilson MELLOW It is unfortunate that James R. Mellow ("The Electric Uncle Tom...
...in this respect, at least, Cohn-Bendit was right...
...Now in his article on the banks, he challenges the notion that a black bank will be any more effective than a white one—even while conceding the shortcomings of white banking...
...Mellow complains that the show "emphasizes precisely those aspects of black culture?Harlem nightspots of the '20s, the melodic verities of the musical comedy stage, the foot-shuffling, toe-tapping rhythms of '30s movies—that blacks have thoroughly disowned as nostalgic fictions of the white man's mind...
...Milwaukee, Wis...
...And now the academics have got to him...
...Nixon seems to be acting upon the conservative principle, "When in doubt, do nothing...
...Catherine Rickey DE GAULLE Although it is certainly true, as both John L. Hess and Ronald Steel believe ("From a Gaullist View," NL March 17), that General Charles de Gaulle will be remembered as one of the great figures of French history, I personally doubt whether he will be remembered as one of the beneficial figures as well...
...otherwise, he has pursued the type of conservative economic policy which is loved by the Swiss "gnomes," but penalizes the workers, the peasants, and a large portion of the middle class...
...the author of In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer...
...And everywhere the radicals have seconded these demands...
...New York City Samuel McTool BLACK BANKS In his first sentence, Elliott Abrams indicates that " 'white' capitalism is failing to solve America's social problems," but strangely enough, in the rest of his article ("Black Capitalism and Black Banks," NL, March 17) he argues that the white banks, surely institutions of capitalism, are dealing more or less adequately with these problems...
...he was a politician...
...Roosevelt wasn't a Great Mind...
...Since 1954, there has been no more than token integration of the schools, of neighborhoods, or of the major institutions...
...This year, however, the radical and black students seem to be completely indifferent to what the rest of the world thinks about them, and have resorted to the most obviously fascistic sort of pressure tactics...
...I also wonder whether the black students are revolutionaries, or if they are ultimately prepared to work within the democratic system...
...Because, unfortunately, not everyone realizes the extent to which the Russians control events in Poland, the Polish name has become tarnished...
...the critics just liked the politics...
...How much more irrational, then, that great gray world outside, where there are no professors to enlighten us...
...Roberts' excellent article still leaves some questions unanswered...
...All of the major elements of Polish society—the Church, the conservatives, the Liberals (who were mostly of the ultranationalistic variety), the business community, and the peasants?share the blame for this tragedy...
...Everywhere, this year, these revolts have been provoked by demands for autonomous Black Studies Departments (autonomous, that is, in every respect but financing...
...it's my guess that they'll be wondering three years from now...
...Gus Tyler ("Puncturing the Liberal Illusion," NL, March 3) seems to admit that the structure of American "democracy" gives conservatives an undue predominance in all our national institutions, especially in those obscure congressional committees where all the important work seems to be done...
...Thus, changing the system is not the answer...
...In the summer of 1947, the same type of "anti-Zionist" action was promoted by the Polish government press at the Kremlin's behest...
...At the Russians' command, against every code of international relations and of morality—even against the very interests of the Polish nation—the Polish Army invaded Czechoslovakia, a neighboring Slavic country...
...They assumed power, not because they were frustrated by the slowness or inefficiency of democratic change, but because they were afraid of it...
...The public universities, such as State and Berkeley, must certainly come under attack from the extreme Right, which, lest we forget, is much stronger than the extreme Left The private universities will be harassed by their financial contributors and trustees...
...Interestingly, with the addition of the U.S.A., these are de Gaulle's enemies also...
...For the last 200 years at least, Polish Jews have been exposed to a persecution which, in its sustained viciousness, matches just about everything except the Holocaust itself...
...Baltimore, Md...
...But the Jewish Museum's show on the Jewish Culture of the Lower East Side was equally sociopolitical...
...Steven Till TYLER It is by now rather amusing that whenever liberals are asked to explain their shortcomings they always blame them on some kind of dark reactionary conspiracy, rather than on the activities of liberals themselves...
...The classes forced to pay for de Gaulle's foreign policy certainly did not want a revolution—the June elections demonstrated that—but neither did they want a continuation of the General's conservative, deflationary policies...
...He had to be inconsistent precisely because there were so many ideological lunatics yelling for his blood...
...The years of Lyndon Johnson's Presidency were probably the most strife-torn this country has even known...
...Johnson fervently believed that he knew what he was doing, and did not fear to advertise this fact...
...Gomulka has chosen to play the gendarme in order to maintain his personal position, which has been under attack, by sacrificing the national interest of Poland...
...But this fear was strong enough so that even in 1962 Oppenheimer refused to disclaim responsibility for his part in designing the bomb, and actually criticized the sentimentality of Kipphardt's whole approach to the subject...
...Hence, it is not surprising that last May his policy exploded...
...I rather think that de Gaulle will ultimately be pigeonholed with that other great embodiment of French grandeur —• Louis XIV...
...Now I am aware that there is a group of black propagandists who are set upon creating a kind of mythical heroic black American past in which these things are forgotten...
...The guilty were duly punished then, and history may yet repeat itself...
...They expected that the bomb would be used to destroy the thousand-year Reich, not Japan...
...The summer of 1968 showed even more clearly the dependence of the Polish People's Republic (which is not Polish, popular or a Republic) on Moscow...
...Portland, Ore...
Vol. 52 • March 1969 • No. 6
