Dear Editor

...Can Israel fight its permanent war against its foreign enemies and control internal dissent without repression7 That, unfortunately is by no means proven Seattle, Wash George Colby SOVIET LIBERALISM The last paragraph of Lewis Feuer's review ("The USSR on Trial," NL, February 16) seems to imply a good deal more than it says, though I may perhaps be reading into it meanings which are not m fact intended Yet when he complains that "the New Left is largely indifferent to the Soviet liberals" I wonder if he does not overestimate the importance of foreign opinion upon events in the Soviet Union The New Left's unconcern with political liberty-in the United States as well as the USSR-is a profoundly depressing spectacle But even if contemporary American radicals were more libertarian in appoach could one really expect that a movement with continued on next page Dear Editor a principal commitment to change within the United States would make repression elsewhere a major concern...

...Not very much, and I am sure Roche must know it Events in Latin America during the Johnson Administration point up a rather depressing aspect of Roche's alleged concern about the triumph of democracy In Vietnam we have seen fit to send half a million troops to defend a government scarcely less repressive than the one which opposes it We have done this, no doubt, in the interest of government of, by, and for the people, indeed, according to the pure Roche doctrine we ought to be doing this everywhere, since "You stand up for freedom whatever the price " This is tough but empty talk As I have noted, we did nothing to intervene m Brazil and Argentina, countries where we might have brought about the restoration of democracy without committing 500,000 soldiers Roche's capacity for moral outrage seems highly selective I do not doubt the desirability of an American foreign policy of promoting democracy, wherever possible I only wonder if we can hope to achieve this by war We have already fought three conflicts in the present century to make the world safe for democracy and judged by that standard, they were all miserable failures In short the whole idea of spreading democracy by the sword seems a contradiction in Dear Editor terms Even if our intentions are pure, they must inevitably be frustrated by the dislocation and suffering wrought by violence, which weaken the very institutions that must be nourished if there is to be democracy This does not mean that war or violence are necessarily wrong, but it does mean that we must think very carefully about what we hope to gain from war if and when we are driven to it New York City William Warner SIMON One begins to doubt John SimonS qualifications to discuss the bad taste of others in light of his review of Hello, Dolh ("Pfennig Dreadful " NL, February 2) And what do the editors do...

...The Milky Wav might have seemed less ''wrapped in a triple cloak of befuddling obscurantism" Kicking lehgion around publicly requires sure knowledge of the mattei, otherwise the kicker is certain to get his foot stuck m it New Yoik Citv Llewellyn Davies John Simon replies I thank Mi Davies for his biblical scholarship^—J...

...Just collect articles7 Neu York Citv David Grossberg Because I agree with John Simon's interpretation of Luis Bunuel's religious ambivalences ("Kicking Religion Around,' NL February 16), I was quite surprised to find a glaring inaccuracy in his evaluation of The Milky Way 'The Stranger" he writes "then foretells that the pair [of hobos] are to beget upon a whore two children, to be named You-Are-Not-My-People and No-More-Pity This sounds like something from the Book of Revelation, but, then, everything really pretentious and vacuously opaque seems to me to come from (that source" And two paragraphs farther down is this assertion "Now so mercilessly named a progeny can only be twin Antichrists " The true source here, however, is not the New Testament Apocalypse but the Hebtew prophet Hosea " the Lord said unto Ho-sea 'Go, take unto thee a wife of harlotry, departing from the Lord' So he went and took Gomel the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore a daughter And He said unto him 'Call her name Lo-ruchamah [i e, Not-Pitied], for 1 will no more have compassion upon the house of Israel Now when she had weaned Loluchamah, she conceived, and boie a son And He said 'Call his name Lo-ami [i e, Not-My-People], for ye are not My people, and I will not be yours'" Juit how much beanng all this has on Simon's overall critique is impossible to say, since once again he has elected to continue his leview in the next issue Still, it seems to me that had he been more famihai with Bunuel's references...

...much prefer my Bible reading done by prow So now we know that the particular bit ot obscurity stems from Hosea not Revelation Obscurity, by the way, not because the source is obscure but because the use to which it is put remains indecipherable VIETNAM With its emphasis on field operations, Arnold Abrams' "Return of the Vietcong" (NL, February 2) implies—and falsely, I think.—that the main problem in Vietnam is the deteriorating military situation But the reason for past failures to find a basis for negotiation lies in our refusing to recognize the true circumstances and character of our initial commitment We became involved "in the first place" (to borrow a phrase from President Nixon's policy speech last November 3) not in order to implant our brand of freedom on a segment of the Vietnamese people, but through the investment of millions of dollais m support of France's effort to defeat the Indochinese struggle against colonialism Our objective was, and still is, to prevent the use of Vietnam as a staging ground for the spread of Communist lmpeuahsm through subversion, terror and military force On the other hand, the primary arm of Hanoi and the nlf "in the first place" was, and still is, a unified Vietnam free to work out its destiny without outside interference—something they thought they had won 16 years ago at Dien-bienphu and Geneva Any hope of a negotiated peace depends upon accomplishment of these two overriding, fundamental objectives Both sides have indicated the Geneva Declaration of 1954 is an acceptable basis for negotiation This provided for administration of the north by Hanoi and the south by Saigon for a two-year period of pacification during which there would be "no individual or collective reprisals" and all foreign forces would be withdrawn not to be replaced At the end of that tune, there were to be general elections throughout Vietnam to choose the government for a unified nation All of the conditions were to be supervised by an international commission Because the turmoil and destruction is greater now than m 1954, to reactivate (these terms it would be logical to extend the period of pacification to substantially more than two years, and stipulate that the time be used for a massive rehabilitation and development program, in...

...Whether we like it or not, anti-Communism is associated with reaction We know, for instance, that former Secretary of State Dean Acheson and Ambassador George F Kennan were reluctant to make ctusading anti-Bolshe-vism the mainspring of American resistance to Soviet expansion, yet they could imagine no other way to get the public and the Congress to agree to containment Once anti-Communism became the main issue, however, the Democrats were bound to suffer politically, since the more conservative Republicans were better placed to exploit that issue Reform and foreign menaces have never mixed well There is another, and somewhat less cynical reason for my belief that American feelings about the Soviet government's policy of re-Stalinization will not matter much Feuer quite rightly wants to see the development of Democratic institutions within the USSR But before this can happen there must occur a development of democratic sentiment, for the liberals are still only a small minority This can happen only through the evolution of opinion within the country, what the New Left does or does not think here will not make the slightest bit of difference Moreover, in a nation so paranoiac as Russia, foreign support may not even recommend the liberals to their fellow countrymen In short, though American radical antidemocratic sentiment is a tragedy for those of us who hope to democratize the United States, it means little in the Soviet Union Boston, Mass Wilfred Lawton BIAFRA John Mander's view of the Biafran tragedy ("Correspondents' Correspondence," NL, February 16) was very instructive to one who had so naively extended moral as well as financial support to the relief effort Starving children were not the paramount horror of the war after all, as I had believed them to be, economic disruption and "Balkanization" were Now I see that secession would have been truly disastrous for Nigeria this most successful of African nations, this brutal vanguard of a bloody future Waltham, Mass Deborah Lange...

...neighboring countries as well as Vietnam, thus healing the wounds of the land and the people The way is open through extension of the UN's Mekong Delta project generously underwritten by the US at a cost far less than continuation of hostilities Necessary, too, would be the prompt election of a new interim government in Saigon, guarantees by Hanoi and the nlf against retaliation—in effect a moratorium on "wars of liberation", and of course, creation of an international supervisory commission with adequate powers A negotiated peace on less than these terms would mean a humiliating and unacceptable defeat for one side or the other Except for his stand in regard to the status of the present Saigon regime, Nixon has offered every concession suggested here in his May 14 and November 3 speeches It only remains for the President and Congress to present a proposition so simple, clear and fair as to justify an immediate cease-fire and an armistice while details are worked out m Pans and made effective m Vietnam Seattle Wash DC Knapp ISRAEL I do not doubt that, as the late Liston M Oak suggested ("A Talk with Israel's Arabs," NL, February 16), the Israeli administration of the occupied territories has been extraordinarily, even uniquely, enlightened I wonder, though, if Oak was not a bit sanguine about the prospects for the future Israel must now exist under conditions of perpetual war Though the Arabs do not have the ability to restore the status quo ante 1967, let alone to destroy Israel, this pressure has exacted and will continue to exact a terrible price—both m the lives and property lost in the short run, and, moie important, in the psychological tension it imposes Already, this has had certain unfortunate, though inevitable, consequences Israel is now a nation devoted primarily to the making of war One does not mention this as a criticism, but as a fact Yet the implications of this fact for the future are quite depressing, for conditions of extieme pressure so often lead to repression Arab military activity outside Israel is not likely to cease The Israeli policy of retaliations, though morally irreproachable, is not likely to achieve its goal of diminishing guerrilla activities which are not, after all rational in origin The policy (whatever its military logic) will more probably intensify Arab paranoia to the point where it will be irreversible, if that point has not already been reached Another aspect of the situation must also be considered Israel is not likely to return the terntones obtained in June 1967, however much it might sincerely like to do so The government no doubt hopes that in time the inhabitants of these areas will come to accept Israeli occupation, but the almost universal experience of mankind is once again that reason will not prevail I am sure the Arabs on the West Bank are mateiially better off now than they could ever hope to be under "King" Hussein, yet the humiliation of foreign rule will remain, and in time will probably seem more rather than less offensive All of this, of course, represents at most probability, not certainty But guerrilla activity can be expected to escalate, the Israelis will have to arm and militarize themselves even more, and the problem of internal Arab dissaffection will probably get worse Under those circumstances, how long will the present policy of enlightenment last...

...Dear Editor MUSKIE The Muskie-Nixon ecology pas-de-deux over who got there firs test with the mostest is not only ludicrous and irrelevant at this stage of our national decay, but downright immoral Man's rape ot the environment is a terrible reality, brought to the public attention every day What is not always so plainly evident is the penchant of some politicians for the transformation of every American tragedy into a partisan issue Nixon's smokescreen programs are no more disingenuous than Muskie's self-seeking crusades (, 'Fighting for Survival," NL, February 16) The Senator's principal aim is to shore up a fractured Democratic party with this long-dormant concern, now that Vietnam has been so successfully coopted by the 'President's domestic pacification program Hartford Conn Denise Robbins ROCHE John Roche s ' Morahsm and Foreign Policy" (NL, February 16) was excellent He is one of the last authentic representatives of FDR's democratic heritage and thanks to his great skill as a journalist, the most articulate one To supplement one of his points, I would like to further justiiy America's postwar morali^m by putting it in the context of certain facts about the Cold War Contrary to Rightist distortions and Leftist misinterpretations, at Yalta Stalin formally agreed with Roosevelt and Churchill to apply the principle of self-determination to the Russian-occupied countries of Central and Eastern Europe after the Nazis' defeat He soon violated the agreement, of course, by ordering his Army commanders to install these nations' Communist minorities in power—and thus initiated the Cold War President Truman protested these coups d'etat citing the UN Charter, but without effect, then he reacted by organizing Western Europe's defense While the ensuing era of confrontation saw the gradual weakening of Western resolve to uphold the supremacy of democratic tenets, the fate of Hungary and Czechoslovakia clearly indicated that Stalin's heirs remained determined to hold hrs expansive heritage In spite of consistent Communist acts of domination and intervention, a new class of political relativists, who began describing the Cold War as a period of collective Soviet-American guilt, gained prominence in the West They have, in fact, abandoned the concept of popular sovereignty and consented to the status quo of force, satisfying themselves with such insubstantial notions as "dialogue," "cultural exchange" and unconditional "detente" This same group also argues that, since the Sino-Soviet split, Communism has ceased to be monolithic and therefore its containment is a needless effort There is mounting evidence, however, that while the rivalry has ended Moscow's ideological monopoly, it simply added another brand of tyranny to the international scene These various advocates of isolationism-skillful tacticians, victims of vogue or plain dilettantes—should be reminded that every nation's rights to self-determination are inalienable, i e , non-negotiable When they callously choose to treat these principles as irrelevant absti actions or meaningless Cold War rhetoric, they are inflicting ieal damage on their country's historic structure, which was founded and has grown on democratic idealism New Yoik City Laszlo t Kiss I have read with great regret the latest product of John P Roche's sohpsistic inability to comprehend that his notions of morality and engagement may not be the only possible versions of these ideas It is by now amazing to me that anyone can be so umepentant am d the ruins of his own policies I am no great admirer of President Nixon for example, but it is absurd to argue as Roche does, that Nixon killed the Alliance for Progress The Alliance was based upon the cooperation of the United States and indigenous Left-wing (but democratic) forces I seem to remember that m 1965 Roche's own beloved President Lyndon B Johnson sent troops to the Dominican Republic to prevent the reinstatement of Juan Bosch, the democratically elected President of that country Shortly thereafter, Johnson seemed willing enough to suffer the imposition of authoritarian regimes in Brazil and Argentina Was there truly anything to save after we had made so perfectly clear our unwillingness to trust the Latin American Left...