The People's Forum
THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Negotiate with Honor Dear Sirs: Because the rulers of Russia are brutal men, should the United States be ready to join with them in destroying both countries and much...
...And so, "Get thee to a nunnery, Go...
...to clean up government corruption...
...The Mother Superior, it was announced, is willing to have the cellars of the large novitiate used as a shelter for as many residents as possible, in addition to the forty novices...
...3. Therefore, Castro had to use totalitarian methods to achieve the drastic social reform that was needed in Cuba...
...A wide variety of liberal material was exhibited—magazines not readily found on newsstands...
...Over the past two years this action has attracted world-wide attention...
...Local issues include everything from school bond elections to the activities of the John Birch society...
...WFMT is another indication that enough people do value excellence in broadcasting...
...The nuns...
...and to reorganize its electoral system so that democracy can work effectively...
...Last year 175,000 was contributed nationally in support of this idea, in the form of a voluntary tax, as an acknowledgement of each participant's sense of international responsibility...
...It would be ridiculous to call it pro-Communist, but in practice it is working towards the very ends that Khrushchev has in mind: a weakening of the Western Alliance...
...So the Russians had to make a spurt to catch up with us and restore the balance of power...
...I would also like suggestions about possible publishers...
...Exploiting Terror Dear Sirs: Those who hesitate about accepting nuclear war as "the price we may have to pay for freedom and democracy," might reflect that a $20 billion investment in bomb shelters will increase the power of civil defense officials and, indirectly, of the military...
...They say we lack the will to fight...
...SYLVIA H. MACCOLL Seattle, Washington Liberal Guidebook Dear Sirs: This is in reply to the letter from M. Scott in the November Progressive, in which he warns against providing information for my liberal guide book...
...On both counts there is a denial of selfdetermination on Formosa...
...The question is not, should we turn "this planet into a flaming pyre" rather than submit to control of the United States by the rulers of Russia...
...If everyone races for the novitiate, who will bar the doors to the 100 men, women, and children who are too late...
...The elections are not significantly more free than in any Communist state...
...I am in hearty accord with your comments about "the treacherously unreliable oversimplification of most of the press . . . " I attended the President's last press conference and found myself silently asking, "Why hold press conferences at all, considering what comes out of them in the way of reportage...
...Senators Clinton Anderson and Chet Holifield are advocating our resumption of tests as "necessary to keep the pace with Soviet weapon development...
...Therefore, peace was jeopardized...
...I can hardly believe that another "PinkoRoosevelt" Administration allied with Britain and a Russia which murdered eight million Kulaks in the 1930's and dispossessed twelve million Germans on the east bank of the Oder River could come about again in this world...
...Fromm suggests we arrive at an understanding with Russia and neutralize Germany...
...If rulers were humiliated, honor called for war...
...Sensible men and women, therefore, direct their anger against nuclear testing without regard to geographical boundaries...
...the program will offer handsome profits and enhanced prestige to the military-industrial complex President Eisenhower warned against...
...Americans have no grounds whatsoever for anger against the Russians for trying to catch up with us in nuclear technology...
...Make checks payable to: The United Nations...
...He may meet C. P. Snow, Aldous Huxley, Eric Bentley, or a migrant farm worker from the San Joaquin valley...
...to improve administrative efficiency...
...On this premise, the peace would have been endangered if the Russians had not resumed their tests...
...The problem for the broadcaster is to stay on the air long enough to find his audience...
...Their anger should, of course, be directed against the nuclear strategy which compels every nuclear power continually to test its weapons...
...As to the need to abolish individual and human rights to achieve the needed reforms, we know very well that the popularity of Fidel Castro was so overwhelming that he could have gained eighty or ninety per cent of the popular vote in an election and obtained Congressional ratification for all his non-Communist reforms...
...to tax more heavily high incomes and to collect taxes effectively...
...Comments were favorable, indicating that Party leaders primarily occupied with administration would do well to recognize the issues, not only as propaganda in election campaigns, but as the very spirit and life of their organization...
...I think this is one reason why, in this suburban area, a muchpublicized meeting to demonstrate a fallout shelter, held in a big stadium, drew fewer than 100 persons...
...No opposition party is permitted to function effectively...
...It is your privilege to allow space to whomever you wish, but Fromm's motives for writing the article and yours for printing it interest me and should others...
...JUDGE HENRY W. EDCERTON United States Court of Appeals Washington, D.C...
...TREVOR THOMAS Manager KPFA Berkeley, California Opposes All Testing Dear Sirs: It is natural, I suppose, but it seems to me illogical and even unreasonable that the indignation of the non-Communist peoples should be directed against only the Russians for resuming nuclear tests...
...Milton Mayer, Norman Thomas, William O. Douglas, and Sidney Lens have all been on KPFA recently...
...Let us go to the United Nations, willing and eager to negotiate in the spirit of the Charter...
...I am hardly the type of person to want to give aid and comfort to the John Birch Society...
...We do not know that such an alternative will ever arise...
...I think it is unique in mass communication today...
...Castro's Cuba has been analyzed and reviewed from the Left and from the Right...
...One thing, I think, is sure, that if nuclear war comes, there will not only be very few humans left alive, but those who do live will have no humanity left in them...
...They may have had some success in creating a conditional will to fight a limited war, but I hope and believe that the great majority of Americans have no will to fight a nuclear war for West Berlin...
...to use additional tax collections and formerly plundered and squandered funds to improve services for the people, especially in education, health, and housing...
...DETLEV W. SCHUMANN Swarthmore, Pennsylvania Fromm's Thesis Assailed Dear Sirs: Recently, I contributed flO to keep The Progressive alive...
...on the same basis we risk war over Berlin and Germany so that Germany can be united through free elections...
...Our first "Know the Issues" literature table was a successful experiment...
...KPFK, Los Angeles...
...In the terms of the nuclear strategy, which the United States originated and to which it and its allies are committed, there is justification for the resumed Russian tests...
...They oppose tests by France in the Sahara no less than by Russia in Novaya Zemla, or by the United States in Nevada...
...Political liberty, even in the most rudimentary sense, is unknown on Taiwan unless the person seeking such liberty is pro-Chiang...
...which I could criticize as severely as anyone, Mr...
...When Chiang was repudiated by the mainland Chinese, he established his rule on Formosa with our backing, much to the chagrin of the native Taiwanese, who now have no opportunity to participate in the government save as members of Chiang's clique...
...Prime Minister Macmillan assured Parliament that "Britain will endorse any atmospheric testing necessary to maintain the balance of power...
...We may be continually on the edge of insolvency, but we gain, through our subscribers, the freedom to do this kind of broadcasting...
...The present question is, should we end the world rather than negotiate changes in the status of West Berlin and clarification of the relations of West Berlin and West Germany with East Germany...
...Such attitudes survive from times when not only weapons but ideas were more primitive than they are now...
...A strong Germany can be our valuable ally...
...Is it not time the American people realized that, from motives noble or ignoble, their terror is being exploited, and their money (urgently needed for waging peace) is being spent not only for an impossible objective, but to prolong and tighten the cold war tensions...
...It is not necessary to follow the one per cent formula...
...LYLE J. NORTON San Francisco, California Importance of Issues Dear Sirs: The new emphasis among Wisconsin Democrats upon understanding and working for issues, as the strongest motivating force for becoming a party member, voting, and influencing legislation, might well be copied by all state party conventions...
...BERENICE ELLMAN COAN 334 North Berendo Street Los Angeles 4, California Fulbright Takes the Lead Dear Sirs: In my opinion, Senator J. William Fulbright is now the leading statesman in the United States...
...He conjectures that Germany will rearm and that we, with a British-led Europe and Russia, should stop Germany...
...The resolve assumes that we are under a conditional moral obligation to turn the world into a flaming pyre...
...I believe The Progressive has performed a valuable function, especially during the unholy McCarthy period...
...A nominally "free city," guaranteed by the presence of troops of the United Nations and the four great powers if it means the whole of Berlin, or the United Nations and the three Western powers if it means only West Berlin, might have much freedom...
...The Taiwanese have never considered themselves part of China and have historically sought independence both from Japan and from the Chinese mainland...
...Live broadcasts and studio concerts (now almost extinct on commercial radio) are part of the design...
...But there is no occasion to consider how we would answer it...
...The other good Christians...
...The President has spoken of "humiliation...
...PETER D. KING Encino, California No Freedom in Taiwan Dear Sirs: The recent action of our government in agreeing to deny Thomas W. I. Liao the opportunity to come to the United States in exchange for the Nationalist Chinese government's withholding a veto on the admission of Outer Mongolia has swept from under the rug again one of our most shameful and hypocritical policies—the denial of selfdetermination to the Taiwanese...
...it depends entirely upon listener subscriptions and donations...
...This year's tax will be used for United Nations' Technical Assistance in Africa...
...It follows that, at least as to great centers of population, the campaign for shelters is only an anodyne that makes nuclear war more possible by making it seem less frightful...
...On this basis (and rightly so) we condemn Portugal for her Angola policy...
...Despite the brutality and bluster of the Russians, it may be possible to negotiate tolerable terms concerning West Berlin or even the whole of Berlin...
...and further, it will suggest to the Russians that our preventive-war advocates are beginning to call the tune...
...But that was before he subordinated himself to the voluble, peripatetic, underdeveloped President, John F. Kennedy...
...A "will to fight" used to be a will to send men to kill, and be killed by, other men in order to promote a policy...
...We hope that in future years more and more people in this country and in other countries will come to give similar positive expression to their concern for human welfare...
...KPFA's on-the-spot reporting of the 1960 San Francisco hearing of the House Committee on Un-American Activities received the California State Fair Award for Excellence in Metropolitan Radio...
...The President said in his recent speech at the United Nations: "We shall be remembered either as the generation that turned this planet into a flaming pyre or the generation that met its vow 'to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.'" Though "vow" is figurative, "flaming pyre" is the literal truth, at least as to great centers of population like New York, Chicago, and Washington...
...I have the feeling that the average person in such a group does not plan to do anything to "defend" himself...
...Notwithstanding his failures, some of...
...With space for 250, plus the forty nuns, about 100 residents would not be able to squeeze in...
...It is thought that we would lose prestige if we engaged in give and take with Russia, and it seems to be assumed that this would be worse than nuclear war...
...It is hoped that President Kennedy, a cool-headed man and a student of history, will not be forced into the fatal escalating arms-race that leads only to universal destruction...
...Kennedy has made progress when compared with the stagnant Administration that preceded him...
...After the meeting there was little talk about the subject...
...GERALD BARNES Natick, Massachusetts The Tragedy of Civil Defense Dear Sirs: Recently, while visiting friends in a nearby suburb, the chairman of the civil defense committee reported on conversations his committee had had with the Mother Superior of a novitiate in the community...
...Ross mentions...
...It was only when he began to steer openly towards Communism and to lose popular support that he closed the independent newspapers...
...Louis, Missouri Disputes Matthews on Cuba Dear Sirs: I do not agree with most of the central theses of Herbert L. Matthews' book, The Cuban Story, nor with the reasoning that supports them...
...If the initial premise of the nuclear strategy is assumed, then the logical consequences must be accepted...
...A true statesman must wear no man's collar...
...Above all, the Taiwanese do not have the opportunity to develop their legitimate nationalist aspirations so long as they are a pawn in Chiang's unrealistic ambition to remain a world figure after having been repudiated by the people he ruled...
...Send your voluntary tax, in any amount you choose, to Citizens for the United Nations, 3959 15th Avenue, N.E., Seattle 5, Washington...
...Even as long ago as 1915, when the Germans sank the Lusitania, President Wilson said we were "too proud to fight...
...he used totalitarian methods to achieve the undesired and undesirable transformation of Cuba into a Soviet-type socialist nation...
...to step up its rate of economic growth...
...There was a brief period when I thought that Adlai Stevenson was entitled to this distinction, despite his penchant for flippancy, which I find unbecoming in someone in his position...
...The magazine, it seems to me, is becoming "liberal" in a doctrinaire and rather sterile way...
...Kiao is a staunch anti-Communist, who also opposes the dictatorial rule of Chiang Kai-shek on Formosa...
...Urban Whitaker ("Last Chance on China," October Progressive) is a regular commentator...
...Current programs for children include songs, stories, and a series adapted from Sidney Lens' recent book, Working Men...
...If it ever arises, then will be the time to confront it...
...The President and the Press Dear Sirs: Your editorial, "Flight from Reality," in the November issue, is the most thorough and able analysis yet of what the Kennedy Administration has, and has not, accomplished...
...I wondered as I listened that night how many others got the feeling that in this local example of planning, we had stumbled upon a symbolic situation, ironic, tragic, and so futile...
...To us, self-determination means more than merely elimination of foreign rule and influence, as it does to so many neutral nations, who, having attained freedom from foreign domination, proceed to retain many of the repressive features of the departed foreign regimes...
...Why drive a wedge between ourselves and Germany, whose "vice" seems to be efficiency...
...Bach lovers recently heard the full week's program broadcast live from the Carmel Bach Festival...
...He has a suspicion that if it happens, nothing will be of much use...
...You realize, no doubt, that the enthusiasm for rearmament in Germany has not been fervent...
...It was decided at the recent Wisconsin Democratic convention to have four "issues" meetings throughout the year, in each quarter of the state...
...We are committed, or so we say, to the ideal of self-determination...
...There are two distinct differences between WFMT and the Pacifica stations (KPFA, Berkeley...
...Yet in this same speech the President said: "The Western powers have calmly resolved to defend, by whatever means are forced upon them, their obligations and their access to the free citizens of West Berlin and the self-determination of those citizens...
...Perhaps this is why they do not see any issue of self-determination involved in the German crisis...
...Tax Dear Sirs: We are again asking for the thoughtful support of your readers in expressing their belief in the United Nations...
...ROBERT ALLEN SEDLER Assistant Professor of Law Saint Louis University St...
...There is not only, or mainly, a difference of degree between these two types of social change, as is implied in Matthews' book, but a basic difference of substance...
...I am not sure to what extent your periodical is at present performing a useful function...
...No living persons would be mentioned in my proposed guidebook...
...I have decided not to renew my subscription...
...And what a difference...
...To the nativeborn Taiwanese Chiang is a foreign ruler, who denies them the opportunity to govern the land of their birth...
...A mature nation may well be too proud to turn this planet into a flaming pyre over Berlin...
...Because negotiation involves give as well as take, some people cry "appeasement" when it is mentioned...
...Against a flaming pyre there is no defense...
...The syllogism is formally correct and contains many elements of factual truth, but it fails to explain that the social reforms mentioned in the conclusion are different from those mentioned in the first premise...
...Many of the participants have taxed themselves one per cent of their annual incomes...
...I have heard it argued that acceptance of any change would be an entering wedge and we must be "firm" on West Berlin because if we are not, we may at some future time be compelled to choose between destruction by nuclear war and destruction of some vital American interest without war...
...WALTER STONE New York, New York Nuclear War Insane Dear Sirs: Those who maintain it takes "courage" to risk nuclear war are mistaken, in my opinion...
...If he can cut the arrogant generals down to size and put them in their proper place, that would have an important bearing on world affairs and do much to allay growing world suspicion of us, largely caused by the fact that political policy has been made subservient to the military...
...It may take courage to risk one's own life for a cause...
...First, Pacifica radio carries no commercials...
...2. Drastic social reform has to be achieved through totalitarian methods...
...ELLIS O. JONES Washington, D. C...
...They are supported in this belief by the "score" on nuclear testing recently published by the Atomic Energy Commission, showing the United States and its allies as having made 181 tests up to October 14, 1961, and Russia 75, plus 31 since October 14...
...he could have maintained all individual rights, including an absolute freedom of the press and still not endanger his reforms in the slightest way...
...LAWRENCE FERNSWORTH Press Gallery House of Representatives Washington, D.C...
...They believe, as we do, that the weaker power invites attack by the stronger...
...How can you give space to such ideas, ideas which could result in our resigning our humanity...
...FELIPE PAZOS Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico Objects to Fromm Dear Sirs: Recently I have become more and more disappointed with The Progressive...
...What I want is to give aid and comfort to liberals by providing information about the numerous movements and organizations left of center, of the past and present, in the United States...
...This means that these powers have resolved to apply in the present crisis a national morality inherited from the pre-nuclear age...
...But the implementation of these reforms cannot be identified with the establishment of totalitarian Soviet socialism...
...One chain of reasoning, repeated several times in different wordings, could be summarized as follows: 1. Drastic social reform was needed in Cuba...
...TAYLOR ADAMS New York, New York Voluntary U.N...
...According to the New York Times, "This was the first time in history that ordinary citizens voluntarily taxed themselves in support of the principle of world law as a way to peace...
...As for the Birchers, they would certainly have no trouble in learning about liberal and radical groups in their own communities without the aid of my guidebook...
...There were reprints of speeches by Senators and Congressmen on such subjects as disarmament, nuclear testing, and foreign aid...
...It was also personally informative, even though, as a Washington correspondent, I am close to the scene...
...My family is a long-time subscriber to The Progressive, and before that to the American Guardian...
...A will to fight a nuclear war would be a will to kill hundreds of millions of men, women, and children at once and expose other millions to death of hunger and disease...
...Contrary to the position of the Nationalist government and the China lobby, anti-Communism is not inconsistent with opposition to Chiang—indeed they stem from the same source, which is a repugnance to any government which denies political and personal liberty...
...Cuba needed to break up large land holdings and to create a substantially large number of landowners who cultivate their land...
...Such action will have strong symbolic significance and is also a tangible way for citizens of one country to share with others...
...They are merely maintaining the balance of power, which everybody holds to be the only way to prevent war...
...Statesmen of outstanding qualifications are pitifully few today in our floundering country...
...The weakness of this argument as a basis for national policy is immediately apparent...
...A broad range of social action groups was represented...
...She was urged to contribute to NATO and then criticized for dragging her heels in building up her military establishment and for rearming...
...T o us it means that the people of a given territory, whether an existing state or a part of another state striving for separate existence, e.g., Algeria, have a right not only to rule themselves free of foreign control, but to decide who their rulers will be through free elections...
...We will forward all voluntary tax contributions to the United Nations after a significant amount has accumulated, in hopes that the total will be impressive enough to be newsworthy and to encourage others to participate...
...Surely it is not necessary for all but conservatives to go underground—or is it...
...Mankind can no longer afford such attitudes...
...It is like saying, "I regret that I have but 180 million lives to give for my country...
...Both KPFA and KPFK have been awarded broadcasting's most coveted prize, the George Foster Peabody Award...
...An objective examination of Cuban developments shows clearly that Castro did not have to resort to totalitarian methods to achieve the desired and desirable reforms...
...to establish new industries to occupy the unemployed (seasonal, cyclical, and structural...
...we proclaim Captive Nations Week, urging the freedom of nations when we know that we cannot or will not do anything to implement these pious resolutions...
...If a gentleman was humiliated, honor called for blood...
...After reading Erich Fromm's "The Choice of Europe" in the November issue, I question my wisdom in making the contribution...
...Our leaders hold firmly to this "balance of power" line...
...An awakened sense of personal involvement is the best of all reasons for working in politics...
...This is not necessarily a high compliment, because of the weakness of the competition...
...A recent pronouncement of the Air Force Association in a conference, backed by the Pentagon brass, stated that neither political nor moral considerations should be allowed to stand in the way of military policy...
...It might well be humiliated by any thought of entering a nuclear war to avoid humiliation...
...has become a civil defense command...
...We cannot reasonably prefer certain present destruction on minor issues to possible future destruction on major issues...
...The present question is not even, should we end the world rather than permit Russia to control the future of West Berlin...
...T o risk the lives of others in a nuclear holocaust is not courageous, but insane...
...I shall not renew my subscription...
...History abounds in examples of catastrophic failures of power-balances, maintained at incredible cost and suffering, to avert war for more than brief, uneasy periods...
...Many of The Progress sive's contributors are heard on the stations...
...he would also do well to move some of his press conferences from Washington...
...Several enthusiastic and helpful replies have come to me since my letter appeared in the September Progressive...
...The good Jews...
...Political opponents have been jailed and exiled...
...I could use many more, however, since there are so many communities in this country which contain the homes of great Americans of the past, progressive institutions, local headquarters of organizations, and similar places of interest to travelers and others...
...If that were the question, many of us would answer it in the affirmative...
...CHRISTINE WISE Appleton, Wisconsin Freedom on the Air Dear Sirs: Thanks for the Sherwood Ross article, "Queen of the Airwaves," in the October issue of The Progressive...
...I agree with you that, in view of the inadequate reportage in Washington, coupled with the widespread failure of the press to give such coverage as these occasions require, the President ought to take his case straight to the people...
...The Soviets believed they were falling behind the Americans in the development of nuclear weapons...
...Further comment is unnecessary...
...The range is wide...
...and it fails also to take into consideration that the overwhelming popular support that Fidel Castro enjoyed would have permitted a large degree of social and economic change with no major or permanent deviations from democratic principles and procedures...
...Specifically, I object to the November article by Erich Fromm with its advice—let us call a spade a spade—to come to an understanding with Russia at the expense of Germany...
...WBAI, New York) which account, in part, for the "fiscal agonies" Mr...
...government bulletins, United Nations materials, as well as Democratic Party literature...
...He did maintain this freedom during the first fifteen or sixteen months of the revolution without weakening his regime...
...Second, in addition to a full fare of music, drama, letters, and poetry, we tackle a wide range of social, political, and philosophical controversy...
...If it is true (and most of us believe it is) that this balance of power is the great deterrent that preserves the peace, then maintaining that balance is essential to peace...
...THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Negotiate with Honor Dear Sirs: Because the rulers of Russia are brutal men, should the United States be ready to join with them in destroying both countries and much besides...
...Even if we assume that the Taiwanese have no right to national self-determination, nonetheless the people living on Formosa should have the opportunity to elect their own rulers in free elections, and not be subjugated to a dictatorial regime, completely dependent on our economic and military aid...
...A listener may hear Senator Goldwater on what he terms "phony liberalism," former Governor Goodwin Knight's view of political reality, or Herbert Aptheker's "A Communist View of the McCarranWalter Act...
Vol. 25 • December 1961 • No. 12
