THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Torture in Vietnam Dear Sirs: Your readers may be interested in letters I have written the President and Secretary of Defense McNamara calling on them to halt the torture of...
...Senate, featuring copies of The Progressive with articles by Adlai Stevenson, Chester Bowles, and Representative Henry S. Reuss...
...The houses are going up so fast that the furniture industry simply has not been able to keep pace with them...
...I need not point out that the ends cannot justify the means in this situation...
...But I see you want to keep him a secret, and I guess that is why you haven't published a single letter about him in the People's Forum...
...Some Democrats in Wisconsin are using it to help the campaign of their liberal candidates...
...I can only ask that, before we begin the slow descent to a moral level where men pass off reports of torture with indifference and impatience, actions be taken to halt our complicity in these inhuman practices...
...and Eastern Europe, Office of Intelligence Research, Department of State . . . but without success...
...He is therefore not equipped to help set policy...
...There are many other organizations and numerous Congressmen who frequently reprint this "quotation" in the Congressional Record...
...But nowhere have I read or heard a presentation of what I think one of the chief mistakes we are making—letting the military sit in on policy-making...
...He argued forcefully against indiscriminate waste in military budgets, against the spreading of nuclear weapons, against unproductive military conscription, in favor of a strengthened U.N., in favor of efforts to find a path to controlled disarmament...
...Cuba is not a police state...
...I am shocked to see them associated with these practices...
...Petersburg, Florida Birchites Fascist Dear Sirs: Doubtless the Birchites are radical in the sense of advocating rapid and fundamental change, but I agree with your reader who said the term is too good for them...
...This is the direct result of the tremendous industrial and agricultural programs underway...
...The Women for Peace obviously don't want continued bomb testing' and increasing amounts of radiation to be "a matter for us all to live with and understand as part of our total environment...
...It also indicates a strange insensitivity to the inhumanity of the actions, for these are men who do not seem to care who is watching as they supervise the brutal treatment of youths...
...It strikes the right note...
...he needs the financial support of those who share his ideals and dedication...
...engineer, heads a large organization of engineering and technological troubleshooters...
...Henry C. McIlvaine, Jr...
...The former, being of more recent origin, is more efficient, and the denial of its use is more important...
...We who are not Negroes believe that we cannot stand aside and allow the protest against these brutal acts to remain the responsibility of the Negro community alone...
...Each member will have one vote for each ten million of its population, or fraction thereof, as determined by a universal decennial census...
...And I am forced to the conclusion that these men must be instructed once more in the real meanings and demands 6f democracy...
...Both Dr...
...President, I respectfully request your response on this matter...
...None showed any sign of malnutrition...
...While I'm at it, thanks for all of The Progressive, and its excellence...
...The result in 1961 was to increase the prior year's "Defense Department" appropriation by an additional $7 billion...
...Kathleen G. Aberle Newton Centre, Massachusetts Meyer Needs Help Dear Sirs: William H. Meyer, former U.S...
...On the contrary, this may have been the deliberate intent of the Pentagon utilizing President Kennedy and the Berlin crisis to secure its desires...
...J. E. Joseph Secretary-Treasurer Meyer for Senator North Bennington, Vermont Non-Scientific Women Dear Sirs: Marilyn LeVine's letter in your August issue criticized the "non-scientific, non-medical, and non-technical" Women for Peace, Berkeley, California, for their "rash public statements" on radioactive milk...
...Aside from the educational value of subscriptions taken, many persons learned about The Progressive, and went home with the idea that they, too, might raise money in this way, for candidates or other causes...
...Committee Against Militarization 913 West 69th Street Chicago 21, Illinois Cuba Today Dear Sirs: When I went to Cuba recently, I was, according to the United States mass information media, supposed to find the Cubans starving, their economy falling apart, a police state, and a Communist satellite...
...Each member will have one additional vote for each full 1,000,000 square kilometers of total area...
...A nation will be able to delay action for the duration of the regular annual meeting, but the Assembly will be able to deal with the matter either in the next regular session or in special session...
...He again seeks office so that he may work toward bringing them toward reality...
...The accompanying article said the "scene outside the Muslim temple . . . resembled a modern-day street scene in Algiers...
...And if we are permitted to witness these acts, we might well ask what is now being done that may be hidden from our view...
...In place of international cooperation . . . [there is] a perverted sense of ultra-nationalism . . . hatred and suspicion of the people of all other nations . . . anti-United Nations propaganda...
...The country is getting the kind of Congress and Administration it deserves...
...If the non-scientific, non-medical, and non-technical Women for Peace inadvertently make any inaccurate statements in their efforts to halt bomb testing, it does not detract from their honesty or the validity of their purpose...
...It says quite sensibly what many Americans believe...
...will establish a permanent uniformed military force on the basis of lessons learned in the Suez and Congo operations for use if peaceful settlement fails...
...They were simply assembled outside the temple...
...What better way of raising money for whatever your "good cause" may be...
...Some sixty-odd thousand boarding school students in Havana also receive preferential treatment...
...Cuba is not a satellite of any other country or system...
...What a different story history would have to tell...
...Like other "civilized" nations, our tradition was once to call on the armed forces to implement policy set by the proper department of government...
...An all-white grand jury has since indicted nine Muslims for "criminal assault against the police...
...So I hope both will be happy with my modest proposals...
...It is difficult to receive a vision which will satisfy both Isaiah and the Republican Party...
...Regular and special assessments for expenses of the organization will be apportioned according to the same formula used to determine voting strength...
...Bonnie M. Curtis Guymon, Oklahoma Such a Secret Dear Sirs: Something tells me that Theophrastus Such is really Miss Marya Mannes...
...3. Voting rights will be allocated as follows: Each member nation will have at least one vote but not more than sixty...
...A characterization of fascism, tailor-made for the Birchites, comes from Army Talk...
...In Washington, Meyer was called the "conscience of Congress" by many of his colleagues...
...This sounds reasonable because of the planned increases in food production...
...To what depths must men sink before they feel shame and the fear of other men's judgments...
...Rafael Rodriguez, chief of INRA, will disappear before the year ends...
...The Castro government has the power to put this into effect with any country on a reciprocal basis...
...Robert W. Kastenmeier National Apathy Dear Sirs: The critical comments on the President and Congress in your August issue editorials are fine as far as they go, but they would make much more sense if they took into account the fact that the country is basically in an apathetic state of mind—and apathy usually means conservative drift...
...At the state Democratic Convention, for instance, we had an exhibit on behalf of Governor Gay lord A. Nelson, now running for the U.S...
...is too good to remain anonymous...
...I agree, however, with Stone that "a shorter term would be wiser," and truly hope, as he indicates he does, that "Senate liberals will force hearings and full consideration of the bill itself" in order to "focus attention on the fact that secret police agencies like the FBI and the CIA exert a power that is a potential threat to free government...
...The Cuban government and people would like to have normal relations with the United States...
...Adams, in order to achieve better understanding between them and us...
...Nations will not enjoy an equality of representation—because equality of representation of nations denies equality of representation of persons...
...Kennedy's request for a substantial increase in armaments and the resultant hardening of the Soviet attitude towards a pact to suspend nuclear tests may not have been the "distorted estimate'' that Mr...
...On Page 37, Mr...
...But these recent stories force me to question whether or not some really understand what they are fighting for...
...Secretary: I am enclosing a copy of a letter describing the brutal treatment of prisoners in Vietnam which I sent to the President today...
...Whoever he is, T.S...
...Albert Bofman, Director U.S...
...We were as free to travel there as I have ever been in the British Commonwealth of Nations or in France, Norway, Sweden, or Denmark...
...Checks in any amount are welcome, and should be sent to the undersigned...
...We have also checked the Soviet World Outlook: A Handbook of Communist Statements prepared by the Division of Research for U.S.S.R...
...The world is fully aware of our deep involvement in Vietnamese affairs...
...THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Torture in Vietnam Dear Sirs: Your readers may be interested in letters I have written the President and Secretary of Defense McNamara calling on them to halt the torture of youths in Vietnam...
...Draped in the American flag . . . they carry out- their program in the name of the democracy they are trying to destroy...
...The election campaign of 1960 and candidate Kennedy's program foretold this—as an attempt to solve the unemployment problem...
...Dear Mr...
...In a letter addressed in reply to my query, the Chief of the Genera) Reference and Bibliography Division of the Library of Congress wrote: "We have . . . made a cursory examination of Manuilsky's works, but have failed to find any reference to the quotations enclosed in your letter...
...The youth gagged and screamed, but refused to talk, even when prodded with a rifle butt...
...The policeman who shot and killed Stokes and testified before a coroner's jury that he "shot three or four others" has since been cleared by this jury which brought in a verdict of "justifiable homicide in the performance of duty," even though it was clearly established in the hearings that the Negroes were unarmed and not engaged in any unlawful activity...
...As a private citizen, William Meyer has continued to express his ideas...
...Mrs...
...Congressman from Vermont, is presently involved in a two-fold struggle...
...Yet some provision will be made for differences in power...
...6. The U.N...
...A picture in the Los Angeles Times the day after the shootings showed the Negro victims lying on the ground wounded and handcuffed...
...The only difference between the two media is that one is older...
...Certain forces in the Democratic Party have made it necessary for him to face a September 11 primary election while preparing for the general election in opposition to the veteran Republican incumbent, Senator George Aiken...
...Huch B. Hester Brigadier General United States Army (Ret...
...No one in Cuba is starving...
...Here again the new regime is making a Herculean effort to overcome this deficiency...
...This increase was projected as early as "1959 by the Democratic National Committee . . . recommended a $7 billion increase . . ." As for the Soviet attitude toward a nuclear test ban pact, perhaps that change was evoked not only by President Kennedy's July 25 call for a shelter program as well as excessively accelerated militarization...
...Police brutality against any segment of the population demands vigorous action...
...We cannot escape responsibility for our participation in these less than human acts...
...We should be infinitely better off now if we returned to that tradition...
...It is true that fresh meat, eggs, and dairy products are rationed for many adults: One and three-quarters pounds of meat per week per person...
...In this burgeoning economy there are certainly problems, many of them, but they all indicate growth, not decay...
...Rodriguez told us that they were authorized by their government to so state...
...Twenty other Americans are associated with-me in signing this letter...
...There are also managerial problems as a result of the vast nationalization and industrialization program...
...Edgar Behling Minneapolis, Minnesota Isaiah, the.G.O.P., and the U.N...
...For the information and edification (and possible amusement) of your readers, let me submit a half-utopian, half-realistic vision of the U.N.'s future...
...In defeat in 1960, he ran 5,000 votes ahead of John F. Kennedy to set a new record for the Democrats in Vermont Congressional elections— sufficient votes to have won most previous elections...
...I observed many Cubans at work and play in the cities and in the country...
...processed milk, fresh fruit, fruit products, fruit juices, many vegetables and, of course, sugar and cotlee without limitations, constitute the ration for most of the adult population in the large cities...
...29) shows two young Vietnamese boys being led off to be tortured under the watchful gaze of an American adviser...
...But the fact of the matter is, value statements ultimately have to be made on the present radiation problem, which exists not in a textbook or in a laboratory but in a real-world context of nuclear testing and the arms race...
...R. V. Brandborg Little Falls, Minnesota Police Brutality Dear Sirs: On April 27, 1962, Ronald T. X. Stokes, secretary of the Muslim Mosque in Los Angeles, was killed, and six other Negroes, all unarmed, were shot by the police outside the Muslim Temple in Los Angeles...
...San Diego, California Military Policy-Making Dear Sirs: The July issue of The Progressive is tops, especially the article, "Peace and War and the Intellectuals" by Harold Taylor...
...I do not understand how men brought up in America can condone the practice of torture in Vietnam or elsewhere...
...I spent many hours with Walder...
...Raul Roa, Minister of Foreign Affairs, stated this very clearly in my interview with him...
...It was a great comfort after reading your editorial to learn from the press that the Commission to Study the Organization of Peace has also recommended a plan to include both Nationalist and Communist China in the United Nations as part of a general plan to admit all countries that wish to enter the world organization...
...While he worked in Washington, strong conservative elements in Vermont mounted an unceasing campaign of vilification and distortion that ultimately contributed to his loss of the election in 1960...
...His efforts on behalf of a peaceful and honorable solution to the Cold War were never diluted by fears of political repercussions...
...The fact that this scene took place under the eyes and camera of an American newsman indicates a callous indifference to the opinion of the world...
...corporations intervened if and when the United States government restores the sugar quota and procures in excess of three million tons of sugar annually...
...The U.S...
...They want to stop testing...
...It would especially like to do this with the United States as Tito is now able to do with the Soviet Union...
...five eggs per month per person (more are sometimes available...
...He is convinced that all these difficulties will be overcome in due course...
...I recently completed a 6800-mile automobile trip from Haverford to Seattle and encountered indifference to the great issues everywhere I stopped...
...soldiers advising these Vietnam soldiers represent both the government and the people of this country...
...Robert Walder, a U.S...
...Nor need I say that the excuse of "necessity" or "expediency" should not be offered, and cannot be accepted in America...
...He needs the same unselfish bipartisan support that helped him before...
...The caption ran, Two Birds With One Stone: Help Gaylord's Campaign and Know the Issues...
...It is somewhat difficult for ordinary mortals to comprehend the failure of our government to make more effective use of the changes in the U.S.S.R., as reported by so distinguished an expert as Dr...
...In addition, the Cuban government is prepared to begin payment for U.S...
...In fact, on the average today's Cuban is eating more food of better quality than at any time before the revolution, despite the crop crisis caused by the lightest rainfall in more than forty years...
...There...
...foreign policy, where it is so important to have up-to-date materials, but nearly impossible to secure strictly current text-books...
...Perhaps that change was in response also to other evidence of the hardening attitude of the United States...
...Christine Wise Appleton, Wisconsin...
...Make no mistake about this...
...Bill Meyer has demonstrated his ability to appeal to thinking Vermonters of varying political persuasions and in an unassuming way has done the same on a national level...
...I do not expect everyone to find this prophecy agreeable, but perhaps most people will consider it preferable to sitting around waiting to be blown to smithereens: 1. The Security Council will be abolished, with its veto power...
...I'm still hoping that some day soon "readers get the newspapers they deserve" rather than, as you say, "newspapers get the readers they deserve...
...There is no room for indifference to the value of the individual in American history, tradition, or morality...
...If members of Congress enforce a right they don't have, how long before other minority groups, even for educational purposes, will also be denied the same right...
...George Koski Whitewood, Saskatchewan Insight on Russia Dear Sirs: Arthur E. Adams' article, "Democratic Ferment Behind the Curtain," which appeared in the August issue, represents just the kind of insight and interpretive commentary that we have come to expect from and rely on in The Progressive...
...Lens terms this...
...Such rationing as now exists, according to Dr...
...Writing as president of the Nuclear Information Committee of the Greater Delaware Valley whose objectives, she tells us, are to provide "accurate scientific information . . . from scientific sources," she concludes with the reassuring sentence, "It [radiation] is a matter for all of us to live with and understand as part of our total environment...
...It is natural that a man trained in a profession wants to exercise that profession...
...Roa and Dr...
...The election of Meyer in 1958 represented one of the major political upsets of our time because no Democrat had won a statewide contest in Vermont subsequent to the formation of the Republican Party...
...These were expected and are being brought under control...
...We publicly proclaim that we are advising, training and, indeed, supervising the actions of the Vietnamese forces...
...That gives him a warped point of view for he looks at any question in terms of his profession...
...Formosa will receive a vote commensurate with its population, size, and wealth...
...Given such a stated purpose, the Nuclear Information Committee has no business making this kind of statement of opinion and valuation...
...The accurate adjective is "fascist...
...Lens referred to the President's response to the Berlin crisis last summer...
...Small children and hospital patients, however, receive fresh meat, eggs, and dairy products as required...
...The greatest shortage is in trained manpower...
...Suppose Lincoln and the Republican Party, when it was a minority, would have been denied the rights of free speech...
...Castro and his ministers live on this ration...
...Martin Fass Los Angeles, California Theophrastus Such is not Miss Mannes.— The Editors...
...The Republican Party in its recent Congressional campaign statement calls on the U.N...
...It seems as if everyone has succumbed to government propaganda, keeps looking for a Red under every bed, and has stopped thinking constructively about the present dangerous situation...
...The Negro community in Los Angeles and Negro organizations all over the country have rallied in protest against this brutal killing...
...There are some shortages of parts, especially motor parts for U.S...
...Donald MacIver Cambridge, Massachusetts Minority Rights Dear Sirs: Members of Congress have before them a bill to deny equal rights to minority political parties over the publicly owned air waves...
...As Roy Wilkins, secretary of the NAACP, said in a press release, the "National Office supports fully the protest which the Los Angeles branch has lodged in the brutal police killing of Ronald Stokes...
...Robert W. Kastenmeier Member of Congress House Office Building Washington, D. C. Honorable Robert S. McNamara Secretary of Defense The Pentagon Washington, D. C. Dear Mr...
...and a member's voting strength will be reduced in proportion to his non-payment of his assessment...
...5. Members will enjoy a temporary veto on questions they hold to be internal, but which the Assembly considers part of a world problem (apartheid in South Africa, the Algerian revolt against France...
...4. The continental government will be admitted as the voting representative of China...
...We believe that it is particularly important for white Americans to take a stand in this instance precisely because the Black Muslims advocate the separation of the races on the ground that Negro-white relations in this country over the centuries have made their integration impossible...
...Each member will have one additional vote for each $10 billion in gross national product...
...But certainly we, the people, should not expect our legislators to act if we continue to remain silent on so important a matter...
...Isaiah calls for universal peace and brotherhood...
...Dear Sirs: Thanks to The Progressive for publishing Adlai Stevenson's eloquent demolition of "The Attack on the United Nations" recently...
...The Cuban economy is not falling apart...
...President: A picture in the July 20, 1962, issue of Time (p...
...These men are working around the clock to resolve bottlenecks in management, supplies, and parts...
...to devise new voting procedures to reflect population differences among the nations...
...2. The General Assembly will become a unicameral legislature for the .planet...
...When the drought ends," he says, "so will rationing...
...How I wish this idea could be "sold" to our press, radio, and television, and to the general public which tolerates such lousy service...
...Those students who avail themselves of the special student subscriptions are enthusiastic about the high caliber of articles in The Progressive and find it not only enjoyable reading but also a stimulating and enriching addition to the materials we deal with in the courses...
...The government wants friendly relations, including trade, with all countries...
...There is no place for our help or cooperation, or even our complacency in the face of such facts...
...The story explains that the youths, who are said to be fifteen and nineteen (but look no older than eleven and thirteen) were captured with Communist songbooks in their possession: "The older boy was pinned to the ground and—as the Rangers call it— 'taken for a swim.' His jaw was forced open and five gallons of water from a rusty old can gradually poured into his mouth...
...Fred E. Johnstone Haverford, Pennsylvania China Editorial 'Splendid' Dear Sirs: Thanks for your splendid editorial, "Deadlock over China," in the August issue of The Progressive...
...Under what clause in the Constitution do they claim to have that right when they cannot or dare not deny to any political party the right of the use of any public speaker's platform...
...I have never doubted the courage or dedication of our soldiers...
...In the past our men have been criticized for their lack of morale and fighting spirit in Korea and elsewhere...
...Zandra Moberg Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Hardening Attitudes Dear Sirs: I have just had my first opportunity to examine your special issue, "The Case Against Civil Defense" by Sidney Lens...
...vehicles, and in furniture for the new homes...
...Ruth Widmayer Associate Professor of Political Science Portland State College Portland, Oregon FBI Director's Term Dear Sirs: After having closely studied your editorial comment concerning FBI Director Hoover, "The Untouchable," in the August issue, I think that Senate Republican Leader Everett Dirksen should be in line for' a special medal of honor because, whatever his motives, he has had the courage—according to /. F. Stone's Weekly—to "put in a bill providing that the directorship of the FBI shall be a Presidential appointment for a fifteen-year term, and subject to Senate approval as is the head of the CIA...
...I hope that on your trip to Vietnam you will have an opportunity to fix responsibility for these practices and call a halt to them...
...Any time President Kennedy is willing to resume relations with the Cuban government on a basis of sovereign equality he can do so...
...Gerald Barnes Natick, Massachusetts What Readers Deserve Dear Sirs: Thank you, and Alan Barth, for his excellent article, "Freedom and the Press," in the June issue...
...Two Birds Dear Sirs: Recently I discovered that The Progressive gives a generous commission for new subscriptions...
...It is moving forward with giant strides...
...Helen S. Eaton Duxbury, Massachusetts Valuable Resource Dear Sirs: I have found The Progressive an extremely valuable resource for my students in my courses in international relations, world politics, and U.S...
...On Page 42 he mentions a "quotation" from the Soviet Marxist Dimitri Manuilsky, that "war to the hilt between Communism and the free world is inevitable," reproduced by one of the companies attempting to sell fallout shelters...
...We appeal to others to take a similar stand for justice and decency and to preserve the right of minority groups to assemble peaceably and to speak freely, whether or not we happen to agree with their convictions...
Vol. 26 • September 1962 • No. 9
