The Peoples Forum
The Peoples Forum Johnson's Expediency Dear Sirs: In my opinion, you use one phrase too frequently and with little or no justification. That phrase is "President Johnson deserves credit for . ....
...R. Riddle Denver, Colorado Peace Plea Dear Sirs: Interested readers are invited to help the peace movement in Australia and New Zealand by sending books, journals, news clippings, and documents on the war in Vietnam and other trouble spots...
...Do I hear objections that a vote for an independent candidate is, in effect, thrown away...
...Somehow or other, the accumulated sacrifices of the Americans will make up for the moral argument...
...Kathryn R. Frey Chicago, Illinois Shocking Moral Failure Dear Sirs: In response to the letter by Father Thomas J. Endel in the September issue, may I make a few remarks...
...3) continued large-scale fighting without needed supplies—in which case the onus would clearly be on the Administration...
...Mary's College, California Peace Requires Risk Dear Sirs: One can only echo Senator Vance Hartke's question—indeed, "Where Are the Peacemakers...
...Moreover, your courage in voicing opinions which are highly unpopular in a country prone to hysterical witch-hunting (a tendency which is not restricted to the United States) deserves the heartiest applause and support...
...The only persons with grass-roots access to the people across the country are the Representatives and Senators...
...But those in this country who have the power to make peace, or to contribute to peacemaking, are in Washington...
...2) withdrawal of forces from Vietnam, which would not save the nation's face, but might save its soul...
...With moral leadership like this, we have nothing to expect from the clergy and other "moral" leaders...
...It is shocking to see here in evidence the moral failure of the clergy in the Vietnamese question...
...If elected to office during the November 1966 elections, the Labor parties of Australia and New Zealand may withdraw troops...
...Free mailings of important articles are made to all Australian and New Zealand Members of Parliament to promote peace in Vietnam and a more realistic foreign policy toward newly emerging Asian states...
...If there are enough of them who grasp the immorality and danger in U.S.-Asian policy, who are willing to risk their political lives for what could be human life itself, they will put on a coordinated, massive teaching program during the next recess of Congress, and they will refuse to appropriate funds for the slaughter of the nation's fittest young men...
...American sacrifice "is now too great...
...That phrase is "President Johnson deserves credit for . . ." and then follows, in all probability, something like the comment on Page 4 of the September Progressive on his proposing the now defeated 1966 Civil Rights Bill...
...If we don't solve it, none of the other problems will matter...
...They have not been—the Justice Department practically refuses to budge, "drags its feet," or gives in to a little political pressure, such as Mayor Daley's when Federal funds for schools were ordered withheld from Chicago a year ago, and settles the matter contrary to the provisions of the Civil Rights Bill of 1965...
...Alice DeGanton Schrank Bay City, Michigan Votes for Peace Dear Sirs: Has it not become pretty obvious by this time that it is useless to expect an end to the cold war, with all its imminent peril and eventual catastrophe, so long as either of the two major parties of this country is in power...
...Johnson, in fear of a belligerent Goldwater...
...After giving him his "credit" you added, "but once he introduced the measure, he made little or no fight for its passage...
...After President Johnson's cynical double-cross of the American electorate following the last election, which showed an indecent haste in getting on with the war which the Democrats had warned the people they would have if they elected that "trigger-happy" Goldwater, after the performance of Stevenson, Humphrey, and Goldberg once they acquired a position in the government,, can any sane person believe the Democrats represent a hope for peace...
...The Reverend Father justifies the war by simply appealing to what sacrifices have already been made to implement that policy...
...All his efforts in that direction can be covered with one word—expediency...
...The Republicans, as the chosen instrument of Big Business which wants cold war as an economic stimulant, cannot be expected to represent such a hope...
...Enrique Vera Villalobos Buenos Aires, Argentina...
...To make peace, or to contribute to its making, one must have the power to make peace...
...In return for materials sent, correspondents will receive selected Foundation peace papers by return mail...
...No, President Johnson is not and never was a sincere believer in integration...
...No wonder God is dead...
...If we manage to solve that one, we will still have an abundance of others to plague us...
...L. F. J. Ross, Chairman Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation of Australia and New Zealand Box 18527, Christchurch 7, New Zealand Progressive's Courage Dear Sirs: I regard The Progressive as the truest exponent of an indigenously American contribution to political thinking...
...In my opinion, even President Johnson's support of the Civil Rights Bills of 1964 and 1965 is suspect...
...I urge all Americans who are seriously interested in bringing about a return of peace to stop voting for the candidates of either major party, certainly on the national level and preferably altogether...
...There is no excuse for anyone, ever again, being scared into voting for a Johnson by the threat of a Gold-water, now that events have shown that Goldwater was just an honest Johnson...
...So, I ask again, why must you constantly lean over backwards to give him credit for intentions that you must know he actually does not have...
...Surely, this is a perversion of the moral argument...
...If we are not to go over the brink, a new party must come to power in America, but in the meantime it is highly desirable that a large number of independent votes be cast as a declaration of "no confidence" in the established order of things and, if possible, a few independent voices be placed in Congress to lend moral support to the handful of maverick Democrats already there...
...One who votes for these funds is not making peace...
...Father Peter J. Riga St...
...Napalm bombing, indiscriminate bombing of villages, burning and spraying of food crops, the danger of world war, the civil nature of the war, the tyranny of the puppet government of the South as well as of the North, torture of prisoners by both sides—all these are simply brushed aside...
...As President after the bills became law, he, and he alone was responsible for seeing that those laws were enforced...
...By refusing to vote for funds beyond an amount to cover troop withdrawal Congress would leave the Administration with three possible courses: 1) withdrawal of forces to enclaves from which it might be possible to reach some face-saving solution...
...Isn't that just what happened to the votes of those who cast their ballots for Mr...
...This would be a significant de-escalatory step toward peace...
...A small percentage of the peace supporters, most of whom are politically powerless, have marched, talked, written letters...
...Is it cynical to conclude that introducing the measure without any intention of pressing for its passage was simply a political trick—an effort to get credit with people like the staff and readers of The Progressive for an intention that he did not have...
...he is contributing to escalation...
...That argument must be based on political and factual evidence...
...Senator Hartke writes in the September issue of The Progressive that he "will continue to vote for the appropriations which support our military in Vietnam, since to deny the material of war to our boys there is to jeopardize them further...
...To those who say the Democrats are preferable for reasons of domestic policies, I reply that there is one problem in our world of today which overshadows all the rest put together, and that problem is how to keep the champions of the H-bomb from leaving the world a shambles...
...You thereby help him play his little game of covering up his actions—or lack thereof—by fine sounding words and meaningless gestures...
...Information received will be used in articles, reprinted, or distributed to concerned individuals and groups...
Vol. 30 • November 1966 • No. 11
