THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Lesson in Gunfire Dear Sirs: Bank robbers have been having a wonderful season here in London, outdoing even those British comedies in ingenuity. Recently, one gang lured bank...
...A spokesman for another firm, Security Express, Ltd., said: "We do not want to arm our men...
...Let me quote some...
...Friends of Africa should recognize this "support for Katanga" for what it really is—an attempt to wreck the United Nations and to defeat an enlightened American foreign policy in Africa...
...Seeking in many cases an over-simplified solution to the problems of our day, it espouses a strange combination of causes that might be overlooked were it not for their ability to influence legislation...
...A strong Germany can be our valuable ally . . . Russia . . . murdered eight million Kulaks in the 1930's . . ." It seems that Mr...
...Lens, of course, was aiming his shot at all of us who, judging Castro by his works, had concluded that his government was essentially a Communist government whether or not one could prove formal membership in the Communist Party...
...The Associated Press dispatch from Havana noted that Castro was not a Marxist-Leninist until after he came to power, because he had been "influenced by imperialist and reactionary propaganda against the Communists...
...will receive the Legislative Bulletin of the Arizona Civil Liberties L'nion (approximately ten issues during the time the Legislature is in session), as well as additional information from the L.C.C...
...Neither Matthews nor I are so naive that we are unaware of the character of the present Cuban regime...
...The record shows that as early as 1947, Liao went to Hongkong where he worked closely with Su Hsin, now chief of the Japanese Section of Radio Peiping, and other Communists in organizing the "Taiwan Re-liberation Union...
...By insisting on this sort of nonsense, we doom all negotiations to failure...
...An economically vigorous, democratic new Europe, with no ambitions to hold colonial possessions or to regain lost territories, could become one of the world's strongest forces for peace and democracy...
...Otto Wetzeix Hannover, Germany Hitler's Ghost Dear Sirs: With each passing day the U. S. government's German policies become more incredible—even more fantastic, if possible, than those with respect to China...
...He does not feel—ami I agree with him— that Castro will ever be a Soviet stooge, nor Cuba a Soviet satellite...
...As a first step, it is necessary to become informed about measures which are expected to come before the Arizona State Legislature in the coming months (for example, an Arizona house un-American activities committee...
...As pointed out by Howard Margolis in the December 8 issue of Science, the resolution passed by the AAA "was framed to win the support of three mildly divergent views among the 192 anthropologists at the meeting: those who feel it has been scientifically established that there are no significant mental or emotional differences between the races...
...In summary, I suggest a return to the F.D.R...
...those who feel that the question has not been firmly settled...
...Acnes Hole Madison, Wisconsin Questions Coffin Dear Sirs: Tristram Coffin's article, "The New Know-Nothings," seems to pose a question of intellectual integrity in connection with the inclusion of Catholics as targets for attack by the "hard core of the radical Right...
...To quote: "Considering the need for European economic unification, considering that this unification is taking place under the leadership of an irredentist, expansionist Germany, and thus speeding up the arms race, the question is whether anything can be done to change an obviously dangerous course...
...Were the Germans right who told me as I left Germany, October, 1947, that the only thing wrong with Hitler was that he lost the war, and that he lost it only because the United States was on the wrong side...
...This brilliant proposal may not be understood or appreciated by the many Americans who are victims of pro-German, anti-Soviet propaganda...
...The pro-Katanga people also overlook the facts which do not suit their purposes: 1. Tshombe's African support rests on two tribes, while the Balubas, a major tribal group, oppose him...
...Representative Francis E. Walter, chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee, and Martin McKneally, past national commander of the American Legion...
...These two paragraphs are, I think, as precise and accurate a statement as can presently be made regarding the scientific evidence on the segregation question...
...It is hardly news that the extreme Right is exerting great influence on the American political scene and its activities on the local level are of particular concern...
...But he says, "I now think ii is possible that they can have a Communistic type of revolution that is also Cuban and Latin American...
...Public meetings...
...I am opposed to all dictatorships, Right, Left, or middle, and this would presumably be the stand of a journal professedly liberal, pro-democratic, and anti-Communist...
...We need help...
...Why has the Soviet press failed to trumpet his speech...
...Whether Castro was an underground Communist operative through all these long years or whether he is a a chaotic, muddled Marxist now maneuvering for position in the Communist hierarchy may have serious bearing on future American positions...
...Roberta Seibel Orange, California Confusion on Germany Dear Sirs: Bertell Oilman's snap conclusions ("The People's Forum," November) based on his six weeks stay in Berlin, with—as he says— considerable contact with the people of East Berlin, are a somewhat confused contribution, to the discussion of Germany...
...But in this case one of the guards pulled a gun and shot one of the fleeing gang...
...As to Piofessor Sedler's implication that Taiwanese are being treated as second-class citizens, statistics show that more than seventy per cent of the staff members in the Taiwan Provincial Government are Taiwanese...
...I do not think they should be ignored, but they and their activities should not be allowed to dominate the news to such an extent...
...Giving them guns could lead to all kinds of dangerous situations...
...We thought Erich Fromm's article was superb, timely, and urgently needed...
...No one interviewed the thieves, but they were probably equally horrified over the breaking of the code...
...in the Congo...
...If these are among the leaders who are directing a hate campaign against the Catholics, it is difficult for the uninitiated to understand why two of them were given the highest military orders recently by a Catholic-sponsored organization...
...Discussions with acquaintances and in groups...
...Visits and letters . to your representatives in Congress...
...Calvin Leete Bellows Falls, Vt...
...Lens to us as an expert...
...My only criticism of Fromm's analysis would be that he rather understated his case...
...Apparently, he has not heard of Herr Franz Joseph Strauss, the bristling Defense Minister of West Germany, who insists that the German Army be equipped with nuclear weapons by the United States...
...We ordinary citizens gain courage from this affirmation—the courage to speak up, and to push for greater community effort...
...In the Provincial Assembly, more than ninety per cent of the popularly-elected members are Taiwanese...
...retired Judge Harold R. Medina...
...Oilman know that these people were expelled contrary to the Potsdam agreement and the U. N. Charter...
...Thus, in a nation of sheep they could not attract new adherents because of their supposed strength...
...Immediately after the publication of the December Progrewh'e, however, Castro gave Mr...
...The four are still serving prison terms...
...Where does Lens go from here...
...The President of the Legislative Yuan, the highest law making body of the Republic of China, is also a Taiwanese...
...If, as Mr...
...Hamilton Fish, former Congressman...
...F. M. Arscott Madison, Wisconsin Progressive 'Finest' Dear Sirs: Hold the torch high...
...W. L. Neumann London, England Katanga and the U.N...
...Isn't what a man does more important than whether formal membership in the Communist Party can be proved...
...Tristram Coffin's penetrating and detailed investigation into the "hate" ledger of our democracy is an invaluable contribution to our individual and collective sanity...
...Liao as a staunch anti-Communist and the Taiwanese as a downtrodden people with no opportunity to participate in the affairs of the government...
...Muriel S. Short Larkspur, California Shelter Program Unrealism Dear Sirs: More than fifty Berkeley women together with many others in the East Bay area have joined together to encourage citizens across the nation to return the recently published fallout shelter pamphlets to President Kennedy with a note asking for a more positive approach to world problems...
...The New York Times reported: "By 1953, three years before his invasion of Cuba, his political thinking 'was more or less like what it is now,' he added...
...And, "Premier Castro explained in his speech today that he had hidden his belief in Communism from the Cuban people and from his American friends for years 'because otherwise we might have alienated the bourgeoisie and other forces which we knew we would eventually have lo fight.' " How seriously can we take Mr...
...William Palmer Taylor Hamilton, Ohio Fromm 'Superb' Dear Sin: We hope you ignore letters from people like Detlev Schumann and Lyle Norton, in the December issue...
...The objections were not pacifist, of course, but merely pragmatic...
...They emphasize, in summary, the fact that there is courageous leadership in Washington and elsewhere...
...What are the facts...
...They will be asked to write or telephone their legislators regarding measures which will restrict the civil liberties or human rights of Arizona citizens...
...Detlev l. Schumann, Swarthrr.ore, Pennsylvania, objects that Fromm wants to come to an understanding with Russia at the expense of Germany, which allegedly had to be dragged into rearmament...
...What can Castro do now, as an admitted Communist, that he hasn't done already as a concealed Communist...
...Can you see no difference between social revolution and Communism...
...The American Committee on Africa urges its members and friends to explain the controversy to all who are interested through: • Letters to the editor of your local newspaper...
...I am a Marxist-Leninist and will be one until the day I die...
...Julius Fleischmann Zurich, Switzerland Nonsense on Germany Dear Sirs: The adverse reaction to Erich Fromm's article on Germany is puzzling...
...here in Arizona...
...The extreme Right exerts pressure on public officials and legislators through letter-writing, telephone campaigns, and personal coniacts that are seldom effectively countered by those holding other opinions...
...It was not until the Hongkong government made it clear that Liao was no longer welcome in Hongkong that he and some of his associates shifted their base of operations to Japan...
...You are getting out the finest journal of opinion in the land...
...Eleven distinguished citizens, including General Wedemeyer and Senator Thurmond, received the Order of Lafayette Freedom Award...
...At press-time, seven weeks afterward, we had received no reply.—Thf Editors) Dear Sits: Sidney Lens, in his admiring review of Herbert L. Matlhews' book on Cuba, writes in the December issue, "To dismiss the Cuban Revolution or Fidel Castro as 'Communis!' is to miss ihe lesson ot historv...
...The typical reply of the apologist, at this point, is to say that Castro was driven to Communism because (to quote only slightly out of context) "he had little choice in the light of our State Department's stoneheadedncss...
...Robert E. Reynolds Arlington, Virginia (On December 12, 1961, the Editors of The Progressive wrote Mr...
...The managing director of the same firm said, regarding guns, "This would not only be a threat to the safety of the public, but to the guards themselves...
...Spencer Brown Pleasantville, New York Lens Replies Dear Sirs: Herbert L. Matthews—whom I paraphrased in my review of his book, The Cuban Story—does not deny that Cuba has gone over to the Communist world...
...If this is true, they are ably assisted in their noise-making by the news media, since all their activities seem to be highly newsworthy and are reported exhaustively in the press...
...Dear Sirs: Readers of The Progressive need to know about the attack on the United Nations and on American policy in the Congo...
...The articles you print, and your editorial comments, fairly well support a conclusion that your view is that whatever our enemies do is right, whatever our own government does is wrong...
...The United Press International dispalch from Miami—based on the translation of Castro's speech by a Cuban exile—said that Castro admitted he had been a Communist since school days, but had fooled everyone...
...Norton has overlooked the fact that the efficient Germans, our enemies in World War II, murdered six million Jews and an unknown number of Czechs, Poles, Dutch, Belgians, French, Yugoslavs, Greeks, Russians, Ukrainians—and Germans who dared to express their opposition to Hitler...
...Some twenty-odd generals, admirals, and civilian co-conspirators were hanged by order of a world court for crimes against humanity...
...This may be somewhat of an exaggeration, but not too much of one...
...The week before, another gang wedged a bank truck between two vans in a narrow street and then, wearing gas masks, attacked the guards with compressed air bombs of talcum powder and pepper...
...Shelters raise new problems, but do not solve any of the existing ones...
...But Tshombe's Munungo has—last July, he proposed an entente with Gizenga and was on the point of sending a delegation to Czechoslovakia...
...Doesn't he know that the Communists call many a U. S. soldier a war criminal for such incidents as the bombing of Dresden with its 300,000 victims...
...Huch B: Hester Brigadier General U. S. Army (Ret...
...In mid-August, 1961, I wrote an article for Fellowship (published in November) in which I said: "Cuba has become part of the Soviet bloc . . . it is now a Communist country . . ." One final comment...
...Why haven't nations been able to see their own security in terms of the Bomb in the same practical light...
...AFL-CIO President George Meany...
...Lens as an expert on Cuba and Communism...
...James A. Wechsler, editor of the New York Post, conducted a searching inquiry into the discrepancy between the two versions and concluded that the AP dispatch was indisputably more accurate...
...Since Germany rearmed at America's insistence, it seems unfair to take this as a sign of a revival of German militarism...
...The chairman of Securicor, Ltd., one of the largest security firms, said: "We have always opposed the idea of arming the guards we provide...
...Is he, as some reports have indicated, viewed by Mr...
...What about the mysterious irredentist organizations which demand return to—not of—their former homes, now in the lands of Poland, Czechoslovakia, and others...
...And it might be that the far-right extremists are benefiting from such extensive coverage, in order to proselytize for themselves...
...It is our hope that if sufficient numbers of the pamphlets are returned to President Kennedy, White House, Washington 25, D.C., it will serve as a notice of our desire for peace and as an indication that we do not accept the unrealism encouraged by shelter building programs...
...Contrary to much public opinion in the United States, many Germans would like to see total disarmament, and are in favor of a neutralist course for their country...
...The article further states that "Translated into blunter language the statement might have said that while the anthropologists differ among themselves about the extent, if any, of congenital racial differences, they agree that there is no proof to give a policy of enforced segregation a scientific basis, and that while there may be evidence of racial differences, the suggested differences are not so firmly established or so uniformly favorable to any one race that they can support a flat assertion of the inferiority of another race...
...Such a policy . . . would strengthen the democratic forces in Western Europe and the United States . . . and offer hope of ending the fatal arms race...
...There are reasons to believe that a change could be effected if Britain, instead of Germany, became the leader of a New Europe...
...It was only a .22 revolver and it foiled the robbery...
...Do you still defend Castro...
...How seriously can we take the Editors who present Mr...
...All too frequently this results in restrictions on civil liberties...
...That was the point Matthews wanted to make, and I think it still is, and will remain, valid...
...Tshombe did not even carry Elizabethville in the 1959 elections...
...The other nine recipients were: Cardinal Spellman...
...Coffin writes: "They [meaning the Rightists] profess to be crusaders against Communism yet their chief targets are not the Communists but teachers, ministers, liberals, Jews, Catholics, and Negroes...
...I want to congratulate you on it...
...On December 14, 1961...
...Did the hundred million men, women, and children sacrificed to dispose of this monstrous conspiracy lose their lives in vain...
...It would seem foolhardy to try lo out-slogan or out-epithet them...
...These are elusive questions...
...Our government's German policies for the past sixteen postwar years seem to me to answer these last two questions in the affirmative...
...Oilman tells it, all East Germans are so afraid of what he calls West German militarism, then why did every fourth citizen of the East German Republic flee to West Germany in the course of the last fifteen years...
...Is this another way of saying there is more noise than numbers...
...Josephine Gomon Detroit, Michigan The 'Know-Everythings' Dear Sirs: "The New Know-Nothings" by Tristram Coffin in the December issue is an informative and well-documented expose of far-right radicalism, the members of which, however, seem to be "Know-Everythings"—since they have passed judgment on so many issues...
...Khrushchev as an eccentric troublemaker in the Chinese-shadowed Communist world...
...If we were in the position of the Russians, we would not for one moment consider cooperating in any plan to make a united and militarized Germany dominant in Europe and the keystone of an anti-Russian coalition...
...The ghost of Hitler as he stalks the Berlin bunker is probably no longer just smiling for he can now laugh...
...Lens, and he obviously is convinced of their accuracy...
...Lens a history lesson by proclaiming...
...Alexandra Tolstoy...
...Beginning with a full-page advertisement in The New York Times, the Committee claims that the resulting "public outcry laid the groundwork which will result in a full-scale Senate investigation of our disastrous policy in the Congo...
...As proof of this West German militarism, Mr...
...and those who feel there is some evidence for marginal racial differences, but not for any differences marked enough to support a view that one race is inherently inferior to another...
...By disposition and personality Castro "probably never can be" a Communist in that sense...
...Where does The Progressive really stand...
...Recently, one gang lured bank messengers into a bogus taxi and then drove into an underground parking garage where they relieved them of the "lolly...
...The far Right further creates an atmosphere in which it is difficult to make adjustments to the rapidly changing world...
...Mrs...
...The attack is being mounted by the "American Committee for Aid to Katanga Freedom Fighters" with the aid of other extreme Right-wing groups...
...The Russians could then have backed him—and the cold war would have a permanent foothold in Africa for the first time...
...2. Neither Adoula nor Kasavubu of the Central Government has ever appealed to the Russians for help...
...Reynolds characterizing his comment on the magazine's policies as a "gross distortion of the facts" and inviting him to submit "any evidence" he had to support his conclusion...
...The atmosphere of hysteria created through their "schools...
...It could have serious consequences...
...None of us believe that digging a hole, with only a tenuous hope for survival, will solve in any constructive manner our current political tensions...
...To fill this need, those who are interested in cooperating with the L.C.C...
...However, he said that it was only after he came to power that he developed into a Marxist-Leninist...
...According to an article by Irene C. Kuhn in the November 7, 1961, issue of the Long Island Star-Journal, four of Liao's associates were arrested in June, 1958, in Japan for trading in narcotics...
...The essentially negative approach of trying to counter the arguments of the extreme Right is difficult, if not impossible, since their arguments are such as to make rational counterarguments difficult...
...3. The backbone of the "Katanga Freedom Fighters" were not Katangese at all, but mercenaries, soldiers of fortunes, and white settlers...
...Not only If the convicted war criminal General Foersch in command of West German Armed forces, Nazi General Hans Speidel in command of NATO ground forces, including U.S...
...The hard fact is that much of the country has been duped by a misleading report which reflected a sad lack of sophistication in dealing with the intricacies of Communist world politics...
...All the mayors of the five principal cities and fifteen of the sixteen county magistrates are Taiwanese...
...Vernon C. Elfbrandt 1602 South Via Elnora Tucson, Arizona Hope and Courage Dear Sirs: Please accept my warmest admiration for the manner in which you extended individual Holiday Greetings in the January issue to those you selected for their courage and efforts in the direction of hope and progress...
...The pity is that your readers are not numbered in the millions...
...As Oscar Wilde once said: "It is better to be criticized than to be ignored...
...action: the Russian bloc in the U.N...
...former President Herbert Hoover...
...These sentences are in a summary of Matlhews, but the words are the words of Mr...
...They have gained national prominence and status by this public acknowledgment of them as a force in American life, and although much of the publicity has not been sympathetic, it has carried their crackpot message to everyone who can read...
...James H. Shea Geology Department University of Illinois Urbana, Illinois Castro the Communist Dear Sirs: The frequency With which The Progressive has printed apology for dictatorships of the Left has been disturbing...
...All power to your arm...
...George E. Sokolsky, columnist for the Right...
...Not every policy offered as an antidote for Communism can be gulped down without question...
...Therefore, we reject the push by our government for fallout shelters...
...When Scotland Yard was asked how the guard could have got a license for a gun, a spokesman said, "Weapons are hardly ever considered necessary for protection purposes...
...The pro-Katanga groups solicit support on the grounds that they are fighting the international Communist conspiracy...
...Fulton Lewis, Jr., a popular radio news commentator, also listed in the radical Right by Coffin, is one of the chief advocates of Cardinal Spellman's politics...
...Oilman names General Foersch, who was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison by the Soviets as a war criminal and who now serves in the Bundeswehr...
...All our men are trained in the use of truncheons...
...They are judo experts also...
...troops, and "major war criminal" General Adolf Heusinger in charge of NATO planning, but Admiral Gerhard Wagner, Hitler's naval planner, commands the Northern Naval Sector of NATO, and Herman Goering's aide Ernest Kusserow heads the air defense staff of NATO air forces in Central Europe...
...Another Taiwanese serves as Minister without Portfolio...
...J. L. Markham Phoenix, Arizona Wonderful Job Dear Sirs: We have had The Progressive for more than 50 years and find it a source of great comfort...
...One could well imagine the type of street gun battles that would occur if we did...
...T. C. Chiang Corvallis, Oregon 'Invaluable Contribution' Dear Sirs: I want to commend you for including "The New Know-Nothings" in the December issue of The Progressive...
...All these men served Adolf Hitler and his murderous purposes loyally and well until it became obvious to all that he could not win...
...Reader Lyle J. Norton of San Francisco exclaims: "How can you give space to such ideas, ideas which could result in our resigning our humanity...
...Mrs...
...he summed up the importance of the different shades of meaning in these two press reports...
...Coffin says in his article: "Yet behind the loud uproar is only a minute segment of American society...
...we are visitors from England who came here five months ago and have been disagreeably surprised to find the vast bulk of the American press so superficial and biased...
...I like The Progressive very much, not so much on account of the views expressed, since I am "neutral" as far as American politics are concerned, but because it is the first periodical I have seen which seems to be really trying to present objective facts rather than palatable and popular half-truths...
...But there has been a storm of protest over the action of the guard, not only from the press but from banks and security companies...
...But Castro boasted in his speech that he was a Communist in the Sierras, in the days when United States support was given to him...
...What prompts this letter, of course, is Fidel Castro's admission of his longtime adherence to Communism, an admission coming right on the heels of your December issue...
...A positive approach is proposed by the Legislative Coordinating Committee (L.C.C...
...Mrs...
...As James P. Warburg long ago predicted, rearmament of Germany guarantees permanent misunderstanding, hostility, and division in Europe...
...Now, according to Associated Press, the U. S. Secretary of Defense has decorated General Joseph Kammhuber with the Legion of Merit for reorganizing the German Air Forces...
...Doesn't Mr...
...Hasn't he already suppressed free elections, free press, free speech, nationalized property, and done all the other things marking the dictatorship of the Left...
...Indeed, "The People's Forum" of the December issue includes two letters from readers who stated they will not renew their subscriptions...
...If Arizona subscribers to The Progressive would be willing to help in this effort to protect our constitutional liberties, send one dollar for the legislative bulletin and your name, address, and telephone number to: George Goldmark, L.C.C, Roster Chairman, Phone Ma 4-5862, Route 9, Box 508, Tucson, Arizona...
...policy of a firm alliance with Britain and the pursuit of a peaceful modus vivendi with the Soviet Union...
...This revival of pro-German, pro-Nazi sentiments among the reactionaries in our country is a frightening manifestation...
...This is not a wrangle over semantics," said Wechsler...
...In the cabinet, one Taiwanese holds the important post of Minister of the Interior...
...3. Had Katanga seceded, Gizenga would have done likewise...
...Lillian Levenson Los Angeles, California Support for Taiwan Policies Dear Sirs: In his letter appearing in the December issue, Professor Robert Allen Sedler, who calls the denial of a visa to Dr...
...crusades," "alerts" and other public "educational" programs has tended to discourage reasonable judgment...
...Petersburg, Florida Overstatement Dear Sirs: In the January issue of The Progressive you make the statement that the American Anthropological Association has "refutefd] unequivocally the notion that Negroes as a race are congenitally inferior to white people in mental endowment, and . . . re-affirmfed] 'the fact that there is no scientifically established evidence to justify the exclusion of any race from the rights guaranteed by the Constitution.'" This is somewhat of an overstatement...
...Collin Gonze Editor, Africa Today Defends Fromm Dear Sirs: One of the most remarkable articles in The Progressive during the past year was Erich Fromm's "The Choice in Europe," in the November issue...
...Jackye Hutchins Women for Peace Berkeley, California Objective Facts Dear Sirs: Recently a copy of the December issue of The Progressive was passed on to me by a friend, and my wife and I read it with great interest...
...Sidney Lens Chicago, Illinois Crisis in Arizona Dear Sirs: This letter is directed primarily to subscribers and readers of The Progressive in Arizona but will, I think, be of interest to others throughout the United States...
...Into what unpleasant judgments of his (and Matthews') blindness or partisan commitment must we not be led when we ordinary people, years ago, could perceive the truth now insolently confirmed by Castro himself...
...has never contributed one cent toward either military or civilian operations of the U.N...
...Thomas W. I. Liao to visit the United States "one of our most shameful and hypocritical policies," also pictured Dr...
...In his review of Herbert L. Matthews' new book, The Cuban Story, Sidney Lens, in his typical slashing, contemptuous way, announced that "Castro is not now, was not yesterday, and probably never can be a Communist...
...You are doing a wonderful job and we look forward to each issue...
...1. Russia did not support the U.N...
...Among members of the "hard core," dominated by the Birch Society, Coffin lists Senator Strom Thurmond, General A. C. Wedemeyer, and Fulton Lewis, Jr...
...2. In the Katanga Provincial Assembly, members not supporting secession were arrested and Munungo's secret police ruthlessly suppressed all non parliamentary opposition...
...Are you opposed to dictatorship, or only to dictatorships of the Right...
...4. The real support for Tshombe comes from European investors whose holdings produce more than $350 million annually...
...For Caslro is not now, was not yesterday, ami probably never tan be a Communist...
...This collection of greetings formed, in a striking way, a picture of some hope in a world of deep concern...
Vol. 26 • February 1962 • No. 2
