The People's Forum

...I am sure that he would rejoice in the prospect of an honorable peace and again turn his unlimited energies to relieving the miseries of poverty for all of mankind...

...Reverend Alfred W. Swan Madison, Wisconsin Gavin for President Dear Sirs: General James M. Gavin has been quoted as saying that the real problems the United States has to face are not in Vietnam but in Washington, in the White House...

...But, let's go one step further and make the program for all mankind...

...Because of my present status, I am rather restricted orally, and I am unable to voice my opinions whenever I wish to do so, yet there is one way I feel that I can contribute to the cause of peace and towards making a better world, and that is by taking advantage of your "three for three" gift subscription offer...

...Underscoring the practical difficulties of meaningful political challenge to the war buffs, he seemed intrigued by proposed mobilization of a "peace caucus" at the Democratic National Convention calculated to "set the stage of a nationwide debate" on Vietnam...

...That is, our sympathy and practical help should reach out to Israel and Arab lands together...

...6. The Chief Observer, Madame Nguyen Cao Ky, would call the result "reasonably fair, eminently efficient, and totally serene...

...And when Vietnam is over, whichever old party is in power will be ready for further B-52 diplomacy...

...It is also a red herring, and from a surprising source...

...air pollution advancing with only token opposition...

...Alan J. Stone Chicago, Illinois Middle East Proposals Dear Sirs: Our concern for the Middle East ought to include the whole area...

...Later, when questioned by reporters, he would exclaim: "No, no—I said I would coo—act like a dove, peacefully accept the will of the people...

...We see in the campaign against Mr...

...Arab oil wealth should be involved, as well as European and American, in educational and vocational, economic, and cultural liberation of Arab refugees and of the entire poverty-depressed Arab population...

...The kind of thinking expressed in your editorial only proves that liberals of this stripe are not ready for national action...

...Irving Gold Levittown, New York Picasso in Chicago Dear Sirs: Being deeply in love with my newly acquired home, Chicago, I greatly appreciated "Picasso in Chicago" by Charles-Gene McDaniel in your October issue...

...I have spent eleven months here and I will serve seven more in this beleaguered country...

...The inescapable comparison leads to the inexorable conclusion that Black Power is a fine thing only so long as it is not exercised...

...General Gavin's past experience qualifies him for high office...

...Rambling Governor George Romney's outspoken criticism of the Administration's untruthfulness on the conduct of the war (uttered since Wechsler wrote) introduces a new potent factor, and adds substance to "the view that almost any Republican could more effectively negotiate a settlement than a President who has invested so many lives in an inconclusive struggle...

...Here is a projection of how our contests might look if done a la Saigon: 1. Martin Luther King would be ruled off the ballot as an "extreme" peace candidate...

...Our aid now—voluntary through the churches and public through governments —should be addressed to the whole community of the Middle East...

...Political parties in a country as big as the United States are not born full-grown from the heads of a handful of liberals and organized blacks...

...No one should doubt whose nest is truly fouled by your editorial...

...The base of the two parties we now have is local organization which creates the only kind of party with staying power when it loses...

...To be taken into account are the hard facts that delegates of both parties, for the most part, are virtual appointees of patronage-conscious bounty chairmen, and that a peace minority would most likely be dispersed with no more than a respectful hearing before the Platform Committee...

...If the program adopted is not big enough for The Progressive, may I ask how you plan to get any faster results working in one of the two existing parties...

...Mayer's persuasion to affect significantly Mr...

...The practical intent of this attitude is to deny Mr...

...Box 1968, Lexington, Massachusetts, 02173...

...here the only deliverance from fratricidal future wars...

...Dorothy M. Gross Capistrano Beach, California Peace Camp Problems Dear Sirs: James Wechsler's forthright delineation, in the September Progressive, of the anguish and indecision in the peace camp deserves most serious study and consideration...

...as the Army's chief of Research and Development and Deputy Chief of Staff...

...fascists on the right growing louder and fatter through the graces of their military-industrial cohorts...

...With hundreds of thousands of children starving in the midst of unparalleled affluence...

...Nevertheless, there is no earthly reason why a similar demonstration of public opinion could not be organized at the Republican National Convention, thereby crystallizing widespread intra-party unpopularity of the war...

...Some lines later The Progressive editorially opines that Black Power is a fine thing "to the extent that it seeks to instill creative racial pride and to establish an effective and independent Negro identity capable of exercising strategic influence in a coalition of progressive forces...

...One can't hang everything on Vietnam...

...Congressional thought controllers and smear artists...

...You seem upset that the convention ultimately decided not to run political candidates for national offices...

...the omnipresent CIA...

...In particular, it must have been known to the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese...

...settlement of 1948, and that this should include such access to the headwaters of the Jordan valley as would provide adequate irrigation facilities...

...If the liberals must criticize this Administration for its policy in Vietnam, let them provide a logical alternative for the Administration...

...The address is P.O...

...We should, that is, resist the temptation to act as Mr...

...After taking that country and our country through four years of hell, it will be only too easy for both parties to lie their way out of Vietnam just as they lied their way in...

...Negroes going from despair to rage...

...But place the blame where the blame belongs, and that is with the selfishness of the American people and their conservative representatives in Congress...

...Lee Dresh Mesquite, Texas Mayer's Truth and Anger Dear Sirs: The article in the September issue of The Progressive, "The Young: Their Cause and Cure," by Milton Mayer, was wonderful...

...In 1948 one-third of the Arabs then in Israel chose to remain there, and have continued to share in its economic and political life...

...Here is the "bastion of democracy...

...Governor Nelson Rockefeller, a confirmed hawk, would not be allowed to run because he might win...

...Citizens to Draft Gavin has abstracts of the General's Senate Foreign Relations Committee testimony, a short bibliography, and petitions on which to collect signatures...

...The editors even of The Progressive are afflicted in the end with the virus of racism endemic in American society...

...In it he announced the building of a wall to cut off infiltration from North Vietnam into South Vietnam...

...Your magazine is the best of the six I now receive...

...and now as chairman of Arthur D. Little, Inc...

...What most seemed to upset The Progressive was the decision, by an overwhelming majority vote of whites participating in the National Conference for New Politics (NCNP) convention, to give equal representation to a caucus of black delegates...

...Instead, for motives which are unclear to me but for their racist tinge, you resort to invective: "self-flagellation," "rampant racism," "guilt-ridden anxiety" (of the white participants), "burlesque of democracy," and finally, "Black Power extremists . . . foul their own nest...

...It is characteristic of such a boycott that no suggestion need be made that Mr...

...The time for national electoral action by the new politics will come, and come sooner, if, like Black Power, white liberals cut loose from the two old parties, and organize politics locally...

...3. The Democratic candidate for Vice President would be General Curtis LeMay...

...in Vietnam Dear Sirs: I am a member of the U. S. Army presently serving in Vietnam...

...Semitic kinship should move them in this direction...

...Cohn's bank investment in Chicago's Hyde Park community...

...It seems to me that, considering the history of third-party national movements in America, all of which have ended up by being absorbed and largely nullified, you might extend an enthusiastic welcome to a movement aiming at solid grassroots building and a radi-calization of politics in general, a movement which refuses to be dragged into the morass of futile electoral campaigns...

...4. Two weeks before the elections, the FBI would seize the presses of the New York Post and the St...

...Many of us would urge that Israel retain all the area west of the Jordan, as should have been the case in the U.N...

...It appears to some of us who have visited the region recently that Christian mission contacts with Arab areas move us toward relief of Arab refugees, needy as indeed they are, without concern for the integrity and security of Israel...

...Robert L. Kealy Oconomowoc, Wisconsin From a G.I...

...I decided to devote all my free time toward continuing my education as much as possible, and to inform myself of the critical issues of our time, especially Vietnam...

...Together we might lift the level of living in that historic area where is the fountain of the best and noblest we all inherit from our past...

...This tone now reached a new height in the first part of your October editorial, "Black Power and New Politics...

...The political facts of life are that the Administration is far ahead of the American people...

...Nor is there any serious attempt made to show that his political opinions (whatever they may now be) affect his competence or reliability as a vendor of the wares and services he offers the public...

...It is rather hard for this liberal to comprehend how some can even think that the Administration enjoys the conflict in Vietnam and would not pull back and opt for peace if opportunity arose...

...Indeed, I understand that enough people have been of Mr...

...But after a few weeks I concluded that this was not possible, for the only reading materials available were such journals as Life, Time, and hollow, one-sided publications...

...Some of the latter, we use as human sacrifices to the greed gods...

...At the same time I am also circulating The Progressive among my friends here, hoping that they too will recognize the difference between honest and candid presentation of the issues and the deception and bias provided by our government, military, and many newspapers and magazines...

...You could then just as well say that the Black Power "collapsed into a state of self-flagellation" in accepting this dictate of the whites...

...James G. Orford Bay City, Michigan Flowers for Mayer Dear Sirs: Milton Mayer's article on the Hippies was the 'grooviest' article in an especially good issue of an outstanding magazine...

...Ideally, the Dome of the Rock should be ecumenical, as the place where Abraham, angel-admonished, rejected human sacrifice and laid the foundations of ethical religion...

...Cohn continues to hold the political opinions he held more than a decade ago...

...Black racism in America is only a liberal bogeyman, utterly lacking in the sanctions which might make it a force...

...it is we who are asking for his...

...The campaign to urge General Gavin to run for Presidential nomination in Republican primaries is gaining momentum throughout the country...

...The city's religious culture should be "ecumenified...

...Cohn the implicit disparagement of one critical safeguard against popular tyranny that was preserved even in the worst days of Senator McCarthy, the recourse the politically-harassed citizen has had to the world of business...

...Survival demands it...

...This democratically arrived at decision is continually referred to as a "surrender...

...Hershel Jick, M.D...

...In the end perhaps it will have to be "the dismayed, the desperate, and the angry" who form the battalions of the new politics...

...It was pointed out by the CBS reporters that just two weeks prior to the announcement that the wall was going to be built, the Johnson Administration had denied that there was any discussion within the Administration of building such a wall...

...To carry our political vendettas into the realm of money-making reinforces the effects of government repression...

...Since a member of the military is not supposed to express publicly opinions contrary to those of his superiors, I must ask you to withhold printing my name in "The People's Forum...

...Our more naive ones, we use as pimps for our false doctrine of morality with which we may ultimately explode the world...

...5. President Johnson would threaten to stage a coup if any "un-American" or "tail-tucking peacenik" candidate should win...

...I have only filled in one of the address forms because I am deeply moved by the idea that you are willing to provide The Progressive to people who are unable to afford a subscription...

...Criticize if you must, and that is your right, but also give credit where credit is due...

...as ambassador to France...

...Some of us attempt to strew reason and morality and seemingly accomplish about as much as do the Hippies strewing flowers, for it is easier (perhaps safer) to crack a safe than a closed mind, or to convert a heathen than a "Christian...

...a largely reactionary, helpless, hopeless Congress...

...I am an old, old woman and I admire the plain truth and the hot anger in his statements...

...I must admit that today I am quite satisfied with the results, especially concerning Vietnam...

...George Koski New York, New York Give Credit Where Due Dear Sirs: I am amazed every month that our President cannot do anything right...

...Indeed, Soviet interest might well be drawn into this "oil pool" of resources, to be invested at the point of their origin...

...Louis Post-Dispatch because they had displeased the Administration...

...Cognizant of the "hog-butcher's" recent thirst for sophistication, Picasso attempted and accomplished the jest of the decade, the duping of an entire city...

...The Citizens to Draft Gavin Committee is asking General Gavin to solve these problems...

...THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Racist Editorial Dear Sirs: During more than twenty years over which I have been a reader of The Progressive, I have found the magazine one of the most valuable journals in print, despite occasional dissatisfaction with a tone of complacency which seems increasingly to creep in...

...It is arguably correct that those who see the old politics as bankrupt should choose to build their base at this stage...

...But nothing will wipe away those four years of hell, and the setback for a generation it has given to any program to abolish the underclass here—and in other countries we could really be helping...

...Karl V. Teeter Cambridge, Massachusetts Birth of New Politics Dear Sirs: Your October editorial on "Black Power and New Politics" is inexact in some important factual matters, and misleading in its conclusions because based on a false model of the political process in this country...

...I maintain, as do a number of University of Chicago cynics, that Picasso has pulled the great hustle on the "city of the hustler...

...This Administration has put across many programs that the liberals have been advocating for many years...

...Cohn did in the days of his youth...

...Your use of the term "black racism" is further evidence of your bias...

...Norman Thomas would go on, though...

...he has performed distinguished service in every field...

...This nation can afford much more in helping mankind than it is doing today...

...The second part, which rightly emphasizes the shameful domestic neglect and continued racism in American policy, hardly makes up for it...

...And one of the principal reasons is the many stimulating and thought provoking articles and editorials contained in The Progressive...

...The hoax is beautiful to one who understands the character of Chicago...

...George Anastaplo University of Chicago Chicago, Illinois...

...The denial by the Administration made no sense at all and to have that denial exposed as falsehood within two weeks continues a policy that is greatly disturbing to me and to many other Americans...

...As commander of the 82nd Airborne in World War II...

...The question was asked at the time because of the bulldozing and clearing of land, miles in length and width...

...Arab and Jew must contrive a modus vivendi economically, politically, and culturally viable...

...They might find some interesting parallels to their own experience...

...General Gavin has not asked us for our help...

...In a time of despair at home and abroad, General Gavin's courage and conscience offer some hope—join us now to make this possibility a reality...

...Cohn an opportunity to engage in any business or profession which may be dependent upon the public...

...Also barred from consideration would be Senators Robert Kennedy and Charles Percy for advocating a bombing pause...

...This Administration is due a lot...

...Jerusalem should be held by Israel, but the religious sites of the Holy City should be "internationalized...

...Mrs...

...Disgusted by the constant fabrications produced by the Administration and military command, I wrote home requesting to have independent journals sent to me...

...We slaughter our more sensitive and intelligent children spiritually...

...We of the churches should urge our Government to work toward these ends...

...No matter how hard it is for some liberals to believe and accept, President Johnson abhors the position he now finds himself in...

...In short, we should restrain the natural but short-sighted desire "to get in our licks" when we can...

...The Suez Canal and the Gulf of Aqaba should be internationalized...

...Before the Black Power group at Chicago entered the New Politics convention, it was half over and the white liberals, as you call them, had made the only really big decision of the convention—that organizing and electoral activity on a level lower than the national was the right thing to do in 1968...

...The point The Progressive puts across that the money spent on this conflict could be better spent on domestic poverty programs, is well taken...

...It is the first article about the young that makes sense...

...Israel has now returned Government House in Jerusalem to the United Nations...

...Lest anyone think the statement of the Administration was designed for security reasons, it must be remembered that the moving of heavy equipment for bulldozing purposes and the activities that precipitated the question must obviously have been known to others than just American reporters...

...Name withheld) More White House Lies Dear Sirs: Your article in the September issue by William McGaffin and Erwin Knoll entitled "The White House Lies," is most timely...

...and an egotistical front man for the nuclear strategists with his nervous finger poised over the button to oblivion, what is more logical than to "drop-out...

...as the area where Jesus taught and where he laid himself on the line by driving out the exploiting money changes in favor of an economy to satisfy the wants of all the people, and where Mohammed is said to have ascended into heaven...

...seeing eyes menacing every bedroom...

...2. Those suspected of neutralist or leftist leanings—members of SNCC, CORE, SANE, ADA, LID, Reform Democrats, and militant Unitarians—would be kept from voting...

...Lexington, Massachusetts Elections a la Saigon Dear Sirs: President Johnson smilingly suggests that a South Vietnamese delegation observe our 1968 elections...

...Ralph L. Ferguson Forrest City, Oklahoma Rejects Boycott of Roy Cohn Dear Sirs: It is only natural that people with long memories, such as Milton Mayer ("My Banker," in the August Progressive), should not want in any way to do business with Roy M. Cohn or any of the other accomplices of the late Senator Joseph R. McCarthy...

...The labor pains in Chicago only prove that the birth was genuine...

...Shortly after receiving this issue, I watched a televised news conference of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara...

...it is mine and yes, yours too...