THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Ideas and Bombs Dear Sirs: It passes all understanding to see this most powerful nation on earth tremble with fear because tiny Cuba arms to defend herself against repetition...
...Largely through misunderstanding, Fulbright has been discredited among civil rights liberals in much the same way that pacifists were disillusioned by Nehru's invasion of Goa: It seemed so inconsistent with the man they thought they knew...
...Mayer carry his disdain for the Food and Drug Administration over to the field of drugs, which may be foisted upon the public without proper testing, licensing, and labeling as to their peculiar properties...
...Marjorie M. MacBaim Crawfordsville, Indiana ADA Deserves Better Dear Sirs: I' was both delighted and amused to read the letter by John P. Roche, national chairman of Americans for Democratic Action, with regard to the Internal Security Act of 1950 and subsequent legislation of the same genre, in the People's Forum of The Progressive recently...
...When a Congressman acts or speaks, a dozen critics rise up to give the lie to his most minuscule misstatement...
...I found myself somewhat disenchanted also with old heroes like Adlai Stevenson, Edward R. Murrow, and Senator Hubert Humphrey...
...Early this year the distributors of Max well House coffee distributed a large jar dramatically labeled "Giant Economy Size,' and proudly marked it at two cents mon per ounce than the regular, smaller size...
...Instead of trying to justify Fulbright's position in the context of Arkansas's complicated racial atmosphere, it might better have been pointed out that fear of demagogues at home is a constant fact of life for many Congressmen...
...We gave ourselves a good sugar deal, but not a good-neighbor deal...
...In 1956 we excused his mistake of signing the Manifesto of Southern Congressmen...
...Any attempt to destroy Cuba by war—or blockade, which means war—could only result in major and costly hostilities with the Soviet Union and the destruction of America's moral influence and leadership in the world...
...F. Stone's Weekly, July 23, 1962): "In assessing the iodine-131 hazard, it is clear that the maximum risk involves the infant thyroid...
...Paul, Minnesota Milk and Testing Dear Sirs: Marilyn LeVine's recent letter in the People's Forum regarding radioactive milk leads one to inquire where the "Nuclear Information Committee of the Greater Delaware Valley" (of which she states she is the president) derives its information...
...In 1962 the repetition of the identical sentiments is a gratuitous insult to literate and honest Arkansans...
...Ralph E. Lapp, a noted nuclear physicist, has written (I...
...It is the frequent presentation of articles of this kind that marks The Progressive as a magazine apart...
...I found my faith in the Kennedy Administration greatly shaken by Mr...
...M. H. Baker Minneapolis, Minnesota Ernst Barlach Dear Sirs: For the writing of a book on Ernst Barlach, the German sculptor and print-maker (1870-1938), I should like to receive information concerning works of his in American and British private and public collections, and reviews and articles about him published in American and British newspapers and periodicals...
...Second, start talking to Cuba...
...A little enlightenment on the subject of political pressure might bring them back to supporting Fulbright when he needs it...
...It is quite another thing to persecute the Cuban people in the vain hope of getting Russia out...
...I share your approval of President Kennedy's refusal to be stampeded into hasty, warlike action, and, like countless other Americans—too many of whom have been cowed into silence—I pray he stands firm...
...Our country officially sponsored an invasion of Cuba, and our little neighbor can never be sure this will not be repeated...
...THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Ideas and Bombs Dear Sirs: It passes all understanding to see this most powerful nation on earth tremble with fear because tiny Cuba arms to defend herself against repetition of an earlier attack on her sovereignty...
...Those of us in government are confronted daily with the pressures of big farm organizations, big medical associations, big shipping interests, big drug industries, big labor unions...
...I was gratified, too, to note in that reliable conservative journal, Forbes, an article by Malcolm S. Forbes, publisher and editor-in-chief, warning the nation of the consequence of rash, unthinking action like launching a blockade against Cuba...
...Mayer uses the coffee incident to launch out at government in general, and draws an illogical conclusion when he says, "Why should we torture ourselves with choosing men when we cannot choose among jars...
...The radiation dosage of the developing thyroid in the late fetal period would seem to be significant especially because of the criticality of this gland, its high radioactivity, and its high specific content...
...I hope this country will come to its senses before it is too late...
...The failure of Congress to act on obviously worthwhile legislation would be better understood by baffled voters if the press made an intensive effort to call attention to the pressures with which Congressmen hare to live...
...Russia is not there to help the people...
...Her reasoning that fresh milk is safer, because of unknown location or amounts of strontium 90 deposits, is incomprehensible...
...According to the average number of micro-microcuries per liter for June, Spokane, Washington, Kansas City, Missouri, Oklahoma City, and Wichita, Kansas, were equal to or in excess of the acceptable limit set by the British...
...Cuba's threat to us is not remotely military...
...Dr...
...But it is vital to remember that our own government has labeled these shipments as "defensive," that is, to help Cuba defend herself against the United States if need be...
...I think ADA deserves better men and am happy that they seem to be getting a little smarter...
...This is foolhardy shortsightedness...
...Wechsler's illuminating revelations of the struggle involving the communications satellite legislation...
...Th Food and Drug Administration concluded met unreasonably, that such marketing was deceptive...
...Senator Butler of Maryland), of "the concentration camp provisions of the Internal Security Act of 1950...
...The only answer the United States seems to have now is to crush Castro...
...We therefore resort to the inhuman expedient of Tuining the Cuban economy and worsening the plight of the Cuban people...
...strangely apathetic in responding to this major challenge...
...The FDA merely lays down some rules for the game...
...Cuba is now snuggling up close to Russia, because the United States is attacking it with vast economic, diplomatic, paramilitary, and communication powers...
...properties, but rejects repeated Cuban requests to negotiate all differences...
...It seems much easier, less expensive, and somehow more satisfying to talk of blowing Castro's regime out of Cuba...
...And what is the "Health and Safety Laboratory" which advises that the use of powdered or canned rather than fresh milk will raise the proportion of strontium 90 in one's "total diet...
...Herbert S. Bacon Evanston, Illinois Arms to Cuba Dear Sirs: Every friend of Cuba must regret the Soviet arms shipments to that country, both as a drain on the Cuban economy and as a further dependence upon Russia for years to come...
...Foster Bailey New York, New York Mayer's 'Petulance' Dear Sirs: Milton Mayer's essay, "The Giant Economy Size" in the September issue of Tht Progressive, combines petulance, over-sim plication, and sentimentality...
...We could be...
...Everybody in Cuba knows that the United States, not the Soviet Union, is Cuba's natural market...
...It does not take much imagination to see that this would mean war—nuclear war over the whole world...
...Lapp goes on to say that, as a result of atmospheric bomb testing, specifically the recent Nevada underground blasts, "The levels are already sufficiently high so that recently when our seven-month old baby was, given a check-up and we were told we could switch to fresh milk I insisted on using aged, canned milk...
...Instead of loud talk against Communism to win votes, Senators and Congressmen would help meet the challenge of Communism by supporting the Kennedy Administration's domestic program to build a better America...
...The inevitable revolution could not survive without help...
...Does Mr...
...In the present relatively sane climate of Arkansas, for a Rhodes Scholar and former university president to blame the U.S...
...Within months, I believe, our country can be on better terms with Cuba than with Yugoslavia or United Arab Republic...
...Arthur J. Malabrie Cleveland, Ohio Plea to the President Dear Sirs: So much of our press has surrendered all pretense to objectivity in dealing with the Cuban crisis that your October issue editorial, "The Trap in Cuba," came as a fresh breath of sanity in a country gone mad with frustration and hysteria...
...The United States embargoes trade with Cuba, both ways, and then accuses Cubs of turning from the Americas to the Soviet...
...Marilyn LeVine may well take to heart her own sententious admonitions about "non-scientific, non-medical, and non-technical" opinions and also watch those "rash public statements" of her own coinage...
...First, quit threatening Cuba...
...We took Cuba away from Spain by war...
...Third, trade with Cuba, at least a little...
...You cannot destroy ideas with bombs—only with better ideas...
...Supreme Court of 1954 for the tragedy of Mississippi vs...
...Thomas N. Bethell Boston, Massachusetts Against Fulbright Dears Sirs: I will vote against Senator William Fulbright in November—despite Karl E. Meyer's "Fulbright of Arkansas" in the September issue of The Progressive and Sidney Hyman's "Fulbright" in The New Republic, both of which articles seem inspired by the Democrat's smooth public relations plot...
...Nat R. Griswold Little Rock, Arkansas Wechsler's Masterpiece Dear Sirs: James A. Wechsler's October issue article, "Satellite Inc.," was a masterpiece...
...But the politicians and many of the people seem...
...Blanche Wolton St...
...J. Paul Cotton Geneva, Ohio Solution for Cuba Dear Sirs: As time rolls by, a bewildering Cuban policy is emanating from Washington...
...I. F. Stone declares, in the same issue of his magazine, that "The latest monthly report of the Public Health Service for June (released July 13) showed average concentrations of iodine-131 in milk were disturbingly high in four urban areas...
...Political rivals and the two-party system take care that the public knows every shortcoming of the aspiring officer-holder, but who is going to point the finger at the label on the coffee jar, if not some agency in the government interested in consumer protection...
...We must not forget that it was the Eisenhower Administration's policies, supported by Congress, that pushed Cuba into the arms of Russia...
...This well-known writer also indulges in sentimentality as he pleads for yesterday's colorful medicine men, but those wielders of the hocus-pocus are now found in sky-high, glass, and chrome cubicles where they are known as motivation researchers, and they toil away figuring out new labels, like "Giant Economy size" and "Jumbo Quart...
...Thenceforth we kept a government in control which would play the game our way...
...Senator Humphrey has recently been quite busy helping the Kennedy Administration give away the communications satellite...
...The only effective defense against such subversion is to build the social and economic foundations of democracy in all of Latin America through the Alliance for Progress...
...Forbes went on to point out that the depth of American emotions about Russian aid to red Cuba is very real and understandable, but, he warned, "emotions are a poor guide in a case like this...
...We freed Cuba but then dominated her economically...
...But I experienced a surge of pride and hope as I read of the courageous struggle waged by that little group of liberals who fought to the end against impossible odds...
...Washington tells us, on the one hand, that this armament is of a "defensive" nature, and on the other hand, that the Americas must unite to guard itself against this recently super-armed Cuba...
...We can do more things for Cuba more quickly than Russia can...
...Since Castro came to Washington but was rejected, he asked for help elsewhere and got it...
...The danger lies in the possibility that she may successfully export her weird brand of Marxism to the rest of Latin America...
...Alfred Werner 230 West 54th Street New York 19, New York...
...Are we prepared to pay the price...
...Maurine B. Neuberoer United States Senator Washington, D. C. Meyer on Fulbright Dear Sirs: In an otherwise excellent piece on Senator Fulbright ("Fulbright of Arkansas," September issue), Karl Meyer blurs the impression of objective reportage by becoming apologist for Fulbright's stand—or lack of it—on the Southern civil rights issue...
...It is one thing to prevent the Soviet Union from using Cuba to spread Communism into South America...
...What is the solution...
...Back in his earlier days in the Senate he was apparently busy proving his Americanism in other peculiar fashions...
...Roche's letter imply repudiation today of the position taken by a former chairman of ADA, Hubert Humphrey, who my memory recalls clearly was co-sponsor (with another reactionary...
...justifiably complains that Cuba nationalized U.S...
...Does Dr...
...for trade...
...Criminals fired into Havana recently and fled back to the safety of the United States and were given a heroes' welcome...
...Surely, big government can, at least, be a counter-irritant in behalf of the housewife, while the merchant remains free to compete in service, quality, and price...
...So the people of Cuba were freed in name only...
...Arthur and Helen Bertholf Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 'Inhuman Expedient' Dear Sirs: The people of the United States, by the acts of their government, are responsible for the present situation in Cuba...
...The United States has been sending invaders into Cuba in big and small lots and threatening more, and then accuses Cuba of acquiring too much Soviet armament...
...The U.S...
...Meredith is too much to excuse as "practical politics...
...It would have been more realistic to point out that every holder of elective office has something or somebody to fear, and that in Fulbright's case, the man to fear in 1957 was Orval Faubus...
...Forbes pointed out that if we forcibly prevented the Soviet Union from supplying Cuba, the Soviet Union might well retaliate by "instructing her several hundred submarines to sink American ships supplying our thousands of American armed forces in Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, and the other lands allied to us that surround the Communists...
Vol. 26 • November 1962 • No. 11
