THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
THE PEOPLE'S FORUM That Week in Saigon Dear Sirs: Press reports greatly distorted the recent Saigon trip made by six, including myself, who have been active in peace groups. One of our main...
...At least $2,500 will be needed for the present appeal, and more if the case is appealed to a higher court...
...In this case, as in most, the securing of rights is not cheap...
...Our task in overcoming "de facto segregation" is not to create artificial enrollments for each school, but to break down the walls of the ghetto...
...A favorable decision would have many implications...
...The fight to carry on the case and raise funds for it has been undertaken by a newly-formed group: the Michigan Free Speech Defense Committee...
...Janet G. Dowty East Lansing, Michigan Gardner Jackson Memorial Dear Sirs: Some of your readers may be interested to learn that Marquis W. Childs, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., and others have set up the Gardner Jackson Memorial Foundation to make it possible for those who knew and loved Pat Jackson to provide an appropriate memorial to him and his work...
...As for us, we are happy to have a part in exposing him further to American liberal thinking...
...The Marines were apparently not disturbed at the time by their presence...
...Next morning we walked from our hotel toward the U.S...
...We talked at length for five days with Buddhists, Catholics, professional workers, students, and others...
...With 127,000 square miles in North and South Vietnam together and a combined population of twenty-five million, this represents five tons of bombs for every square mile and one ton for every forty persons...
...If there is any hope in the tragic situation in Vietnam, it is among the anti-military (both anti-Ky and anti-Vietcong) pro-democratic elements represented by those with whom we talked during our significant week in Saigon...
...Would you consider it restraint if a 'benefactor' from abroad budgeted a similar ratio of bombs for every square mile and citizen of the United States...
...The case is being appealed...
...The answer lies in the nature of the university...
...More information about the case may be obtained directly from the defense committee...
...Americans for Democratic Action...
...political and economic, as well as racial and religious realities will doubtless become involved, and probably prevent the world from reaping the benefit of Senator McGovern's program...
...They received us enthusiastically, expressed strong opposition to the war, and shared our desire to have U.S...
...To buy the philosophy that the National Liberation Front is just another political movement of South Vietnam is naive...
...The four students were found guilty, but were released on bail pending appeal...
...The Peace Corps...
...William C. Davidon Chairman, Physics Department Haverford College Haverford, Pennsylvania Scalded Liberal Dear Sirs: As an avid reader of The Progressive I am perturbed at the lack of a balanced view in articles concerning the Vietnam conflict...
...Embassy for help, complained that we did not receive it, and said that we planned to visit Hanoi and Peking from Hong Kong...
...If it was there at all, it was mighty weak...
...What really scalds this liberal is the unjustified criticism of Vice President Humphrey...
...When our walk was stopped by police near the Embassy, we were carried courteously to the van and later onto the plane on which we had already made reservations...
...Since the name of Gardner Jackson was synonymous with civil liberties for three decades, it has been decided, with Brandeis University's consent, that the Foundation will provide a civil liberties room and civil liberties scholarships at Brandeis in the city where Pat pricked the conscience of the nation during the Sacco-Vanzetti case...
...The students involved in this case intend to appeal it to the U.S...
...Attainment of a color-blind society would, I believe, be impossible were we to officially assign individuals into arbitrary "race" categories...
...Irving F. Laucks Santa Barbara, California Critical But Constructive Dear Sirs: We want to renew a subscription as our graduation gift to Jorgen Nielsen, an American Field Service exchange student from Denmark who has been a member of our family for the past year...
...Did it ever occur to the majority of the liberal establishment that there could be conflicting views in regard to the Vietnam situation...
...and Mrs...
...2) that he is wise enough to stick to the specific proposal which he is presenting rather than to use the "buckshot" style of discussion...
...This is to mention just a few of the causes for which this man fought so long...
...Jorgen chose your magazine as the American publication he would most like to continue reading after his return home...
...In the original trial the defense was blocked in its attempt to bring out the free speech issue...
...But, at the same time, students circulating a petition in favor of the U.S...
...Many of the faculty in the political science and police administration departments have profited from U.S...
...A few who took part in it even apologized afterwards, saying they had only done what they were told but felt ashamed...
...Where was the voice in the Fifties of the liberals' new, fair-haired boy, the junior Senator from New York...
...Anyone desiring to contribute to this tax-deductible venture should make out a check to the Gardner Jackson Memorial Foundation and send it to Marquis W. Childs, 3554 Edmunds Street, N.W., Washington, D. C. Joseph L. Rauh, Jr...
...Fair housing legislation and strengthened Federal executive orders on housing can aid some individuals in moving from a ghetto to a neighborhood of their choice...
...government, and much of the press, blindly and foolishly to minimize the war-weary protests of these people...
...Supreme Court if necessary...
...Mrs...
...Cloud, Minnesota...
...Charles L. Farr North Hollywood, California Race Irrelevant Dear Sirs: The views expressed in G. W. Foster's "Color-Conscious, Color-Blind" (March issue) deserve rebuttal...
...Those who cannot afford to move should be assisted via a broad range of anti-poverty and renewal programs...
...These had been translated into Vietnamese and duplicated by Vietnamese volunteers, despite risk of prison where many already serve long sentences for anti-war views...
...The extent of contact and support we found among Vietnamese was ignored by the press, who focused only on the one expression of hostility engineered by the Saigon government...
...The press also widely but falsely reported that we appealed to the U.S...
...I consider myself as good a liberal as the next, but I do not believe that because I disagree with the majority that they have a right to try to read me, or any other person that takes a somewhat hawkish view of Vietnam, out of the liberal movement...
...Barnes state that "the intelligent reader must ask himself, 'Why no mention of birth control?' " I call Mr...
...Embassy, distributing a statement of our position and carrying signs calling for U.S...
...As the war in Vietnam expands, the tolerance for dissent will undoubtedly decrease...
...We have used our power not willingly and recklessly ever but always reluctantly and with restraint.' Princeton speech, May 11, 1966 as reported in The New York Times...
...The caption beneath quotes the President as saying that every day his decisions to send young Americans into battle in Vietnam are sustained by prayer...
...The appeal judge gave the defendants a lecture on "responsibility" and changed their former fines to jail sentences...
...A national educational policy should be aimed at providing every child the opportunity for an excellent education, irrespective of such irrelevant considerations as race or color...
...Two were given thirty days each, and the other two ten days each...
...Long before many of us ever thought about the liberal causes this man was raising his voice for all to hear...
...We left Saigon, after our planned one-week stay, with a keener awareness of the large opposition to the war among many groups there, and of the efforts of the Ky regime, the U.S...
...Irene A. Nordling St...
...Why, then, were the four arrested...
...Remember the Democratic Convention of 1948...
...I cannot comprehend how the establishment of a racial quota system for public school attendance can possibly be beneficial in helping abolish discrimination, ensuring equal rights, and providing equal opportunity for each and every United States citizen...
...support of the Saigon government...
...Are we now to suppose that the divine father and son do not agree on this philosophy of the folly of violence, or is it perhaps that the Vietcong (and other ? Communists), are not included within the love and concern of the Creator...
...Remember when Uncle Mao was just an "agricultural revolutionary" and the liberals of the Thirties were flocking to the defense of Uncle Joe...
...There seems to me a distinctly totalitarian tinge to the notion that a conscious effort should be made to achieve "racial balance" in the schools or anywhere...
...The staged nature of the display against us at the government's "press conference" was clear...
...Mr...
...Ardsley, New York Free Speech in Michigan Dear Sirs: On October 12, 1965, four students were arrested in the Michigan State University Student Union...
...Dear President Johnson: "We find the following two statements difficult to reconcile: "Time Magazine, April 29, 1966, page 26: 'The Pentagon plans to use 638,000 tons of bombs in Vietnam in 1966...
...The Michigan Free Speech Defense Committee is soliciting support from friends throughout the country...
...One of our main purposes, largely achieved but not reported, was to have intensive discussions, as private citizens of diverse ages and backgrounds, with many groups in South Vietnam...
...The four students were dragged out of the Union building for actions in opposition to the war...
...With strong encouragement from so many Vietnamese, we decided to hold a press meeting and peaceful public witness at the end of our visit...
...He appreciates The Progressive's policy of critical but constructive analysis of public affairs, plus its cliche-free approach to controversial issues such as civil rights and Vietnam...
...Ralph L. Ferguson Tulsa, Oklahoma Bomb Budget Dear Sirs: We have sent the following letter to President Lyndon B. Johnson...
...Its address is 215 Linden Street, East Lansing, Michigan 48823...
...Barnes' attention to two points: 1) That Senator McGovern in his article proves that his practical technique of massive world-wide food production is a basic necessity...
...They were charged with trespassing and with interfering with normal use of a university building...
...Kenneth A. Stevens Jessup, Maryland Divine Guidance to Kill Dear Sirs: A photograph of President Johnson with Billy Graham—both heads bowed in the conventional attitude of prayer...
...troops to stop killing Vietnamese now...
...They had been distributing literature next to a Marine Corps recruiting booth...
...Shall we now blot out of the New Testament Christ's teachings of peace...
...Harold A. Nomer, Jr...
...position were given free access to classroom buildings, and some even interrupted classes in their attempt to obtain signatures...
...A decision reinforcing the right of freedom of speech will become even more important as the efforts to quell dissent increase...
...It is quite true that U.S...
...The involvement of Michigan State in Vietnam is important because it influences the range of political expression permitted on campus...
...military devastation immediately replaced by constructive programs...
...So, let us not be so self-righteous that we can try to read one of the great liberals of all time out of the liberal movement because he disagrees with the liberal doves...
...At no time did we "shout, kick, and struggle" as was widely reported...
...The conviction was upheld...
...Who advocated the war on poverty...
...Wallace M. Cohen Washington, D. ?. McGovern's Wisdom Dear Sirs: In the April issue of The Progressive a letter from Gerald Barnes of Denver, Colorado, states at least an implied criticism of Senator George McGovern's valuable and humanitarian article, "The Most Important War," in your December issue...
...To what an extremity of contradiction have we come...
...We, who loudly proclaim ourselves a Christian nation, followers of Jesus Christ, who taught by word and example the futility, the senselessness of violence, have a supposed leader who now purports to receive divine guidance to kill—men, women, and children wholesale ¦—both of his own and of another race...
...Or could this leader of ours have misinterpreted the message...
...But that does not minimize the wisdom of his suggested plan and his effort to contribute to world peace, progress, and good will...
Vol. 30 • July 1966 • No. 7
