The People's Forum

...Because I, too, share that hope, I want to add my support to your labors...

...The present engagement of the United States in Vietnam arises out of an ob38 sessive fear of Communism on the part of American political leaders, and is quite as much a psychological as an economic phenomenon...

...But is it so advisable, especially with the present Administration in power, to spend more billions in a program that has become something of a farce, what with city hall and business aggrandizement, and projects tied, by definition, to the established power relations...

...It is a paranoid disease based upon bigotry and fear...

...Those who accept our government's resort to arms encourage continuance of the costliest, least efficient way of serving any people's best interests...

...You still believe that there is hope for America...

...Actually I went to the convention for the purpose of arguing for working inside the Democratic Party rather than founding a third party, and I was frustrated in this also...

...Why, after twenty years of American help, is this same country "threatened" by a common front of leftists and Communists...

...General MacArthur said, "Only an insane leader would send an American army onto the Asiatic mainland...

...J. Sherman Los Angeles, California Opposes Third Party Dear Sirs: As one who went to—but not with—the New Politics convention in Chicago, I am in a good position to appreciate the editorial on "Black Power and New Politics" in the October issue of The Progressive...

...Armed Forces in Vietnam for the past ten months, I can at last see the truth of your reasoning on this critical question...

...The various world powers are all rival capitalist states who line up as allies or face one another as foes when it suits their material national requirements and not because of any idelogy...

...Nearly two million Keralians are jobless, and many are the educated unemployed—people who have diplomas but no work...

...Wars arise out of a multiplicity of causes, among which the corporate-industrial complex and economic imperialism are certainly important, but international conflict cannot be ascribed to these alone...

...Catherine F. Williamson Indianapolis, Indiana Jarring Blow in India Dear Sirs: The readers of The Progressive may be interested to learn that there exists at the southernmost corner of India an Indo-American Club in Chengannur, Kerala State, dedicated to the cause of fostering understanding and friendship between the two democracies...

...Raymond T. Bye Emeritus Professor of Economics University of Pennsylvania Moylan, Pennsylvania Personalizing Death Dear Sirs: The Department of the Army is changing its policy dealing with death...

...In short, I cannot read The Progressive without feeling "bad...

...The only ones who profited from American aid were the colonels...

...The description of the lack of unity in the conference and the "uncharitable" stance of the black caucus was accurate, unfortunately...

...We are indeed grateful that there are publications like The Progressive which give authentic information about the United States and her people...

...They haunt the rural reading room, loaf at the tea stalls, curl up hungry and discouraged at night on railway platforms, and snatch at promises...

...It is senseless savagery when young men, strangers without personal grievance against one another, must commit mutual mutilation and murder...

...Such peace as man has been able to achieve in the world has come by bringing small groups under the rule of law in ever-larger political units, under the control of central governments...

...Thanks for editing a publication that makes it impossible to evade moral decisions...

...You evidently hoped that they would endorse more of the "anti-poverty" war, which is presently "so little and so late...

...Instead of a telegram to next of kin, "personal" letters will be sent from President Johnson, Secretary of Defense Robert McNa-mara, and a military commander...

...Ian Sinclair Edinburgh, Scotland Dear Sirs: In The Progressive for October, Conrad Gutermuth, Jr., restates the often repeated belief that wars are caused by industrial and commercial rivalry, and that peace can only be established through revolutionary change to a new social system in which wealth will be collectively owned and production will be for use, instead of profit...

...Columbia University Press in publishing the volume neglected to identify the author in the usual way on the dust jacket of the first printing, an oversight that was called to its attention and corrected in subsequent printings...

...It need not be added that the above makes clear that The First Vietnam Crisis was not in any sense "supported" by the Government or by the Rand Corporation as Gettleman insinuates and Cranberg assumes...

...His efforts in its behalf, and his dismal failure, are symbolic of the liberal tragedy: the oh-so-good intentions which are no match for the demands of the illiberal system he basically accepts...

...But poverty and hopelessness may eventually turn in any direction in a desperate effort for relief...

...The tanks of the Greek army, which are made in the United States and which were given to Greece to protect her freedom from Communist aggression, were turned against the Greek people...

...then peace became established between the political units that comprised these larger entities...

...Samuel Michaelson Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Lefkowitz Grateful Dear Sirs: Your comments in the October issue of The Progressive on the activities of my office in the field of charitable foundation regulation are greatly appreciated...

...The Truman Doctrine and the three billion dollars poured into Greece had one, and only one, aim: to save the country from Communism and make it safe for Western-type democracy...

...He neatly stated the basic world situation today...

...I have now had an opportunity to see the effects of the war on the people we say we are saving and this, plus a better knowledge of the motives of the military here, convinces me that your underlying assumptions were right all along...

...The crusade against non-existent Communism acts as a smoke-screen to conceal the real cause of modern wars...

...Life and peace would be more helpful than any public relations approach...

...Socialism, in itself, cannot do away with racial, cultural, nationalistic and territorial animosities...

...An officer will call at the home of the survivors within twenty-four hours, express condolences, and provide counsel on financial benefits...

...In Kerala the pro-Peking wing of the Communist Party was able to form a government...

...Only two of the ancient nations—India and China—escaped this fatal sickness...

...The secret plan of NATO to neutralize the internal enemy in case of actual war was put into operation by the colonels in the midst of an electoral campaign...

...Louis J. Lefkowitz Attorney General New York, New York Gettleman on Gurtov Dear Sirs: With reference to Marvin Gettleman's review of The First Vietnam Crisis (August issue) and Lawrence Cranberg's letter in the October issue, several points need to be made: The First Vietnam Crisis is Melvin Gur-tov's master's thesis at Columbia University and its publication by Columbia University Press was arranged by the author before he became a member of the social science staff of the Rand Corporation...

...The aggressions of Hitler and Mussolini, while supported by the industrialists, were not primarily motivated on the part of those two leaders by the quest for profits...

...I am grateful that you have brought this to the attention of your readers...

...For two hours I tried unsuccessfully to get the floor to speak against accepting the thirteen-point ultimatum of the black caucus because I wanted to make a point no one else made: its acceptance would seem to convict us of poor judgment and hence would diminish the impact we needed to make...

...Thus, the implied criticism of James Forman's statement that the black man "must assume leadership of our own struggle"—there can hardly be Black Power with white leadership...

...They, also, supported their leaders' policies...

...This is the orthodox socialistic and communistic dogma, expounded more than a century ago by Karl Marx, and further developed by Lenin...

...But the reasons why this is so will not be blown away by moral persuasion and electing liberals to Congress...

...Thomas R. Robinson Longview, Washington Paranoid Nations Dear Sirs: The decline of most great nations can be dated from the time they got the worldwide policing idea...

...Your endorsement of Black Power sounds good—until the rhetoric is laid aside and the substance is reached...

...Rather, it seems to me that your needling of the body politic is done in love, with the expectation that correction will be followed by reform...

...Although I count myself an evolutionary socialist, I regard the idea that socialism is the cure for war as a wishful illusion...

...Brown lee Haydon The Rand Corporation Santa Monica, California Causes of War Dear Sirs: It was refreshing to read Conrad Guter-muth, Jr.'s letter in the October issue of The Progressive...

...People were sufficiently baffled to put them in power in a free and fair election in India recently...

...One of the major charges in the editorial is that the meeting did not come up with a "national program of affirmative legislative action...

...I do know that I am unable to complete the reading of any issue without experiencing dismay over some new evidence of man's failure to be human...

...the grass roots, local organizing that you disparage, because conservatives have picked it up (because of the default of liberals) as a slogan, will certainly be required if the needed change is to take place in America...

...You may be assured that the Charitable Foundations Division of my office will continue its activities to supervise the thousands of foundations which are registered in New York State so that a full disclosure of their activities will be made to the public, particularly those who contribute to their support...

...China is getting it now, and, apparently, the United States is "catching" it too...

...It seems that Greece is a classical example of a small country suffering the terrible consequences of the Cold War...

...Even such cruel killing seems almost humanitarian alongside villages burnt and babies broiled by napalm bombs, as we prove our death-dealing superiority in Vietnam...

...Communist promises looked tempting indeed...

...Alice Franklin Bryant Seattle, Washington Defends New Politics Dear Sirs: Your editorial, "Black Power and New Politics," in the October issue left me with mixed feelings...

...However, after serving in the U.S...

...We invite correspondence from individuals and organizations interested in the projects of the Indo-American Club and from all those who could help us with books and other materials...

...However, I was glad that the idea of starting such a party was relinquished, although for reasons different from mine...

...Clans merged into tribes, city-states into nations, and nations into empires...

...It is indeed ironic that you should end the editorial with one of the late President Kennedy's statements on the need for peaceful revolution in Latin America...

...The Korean War and the war in Vietnam are both symptoms of this disease...

...Fred McGimsey Blythe, California Needling with Love Dear Sirs: I do not remember how many years ago I became a subscriber to The Progressive...

...It is not because I enjoy flagellation that I remain a subscriber to The Progressive...

...India has received a jarring blow...

...If a military junta in 1967, "in the name of democracy," drags thousands of people out of their homes without a writ and herds them to island prisons because of their political beliefs, what separates them from the Nazis when they were rounding up the Jews as Untermenschen, and from Stalin when he was liquidating thousands of Russians in the name of his dialectical materialism...

...The overwhelming majority of the Indian people have so far indicated no wish for Communism...

...Too many of us are patriotic, as Germans were a generation ago...

...So, only by bringing the nations under the rule of world law, in some such organization as the United Nations, can we hope for world peace at last...

...I think we will find that each step out of the "other America" by the black and white poor will have to be accompanied by a step out of the social, economic, and political structures that produce and sustain the ghettos by middle-class Americans...

...Elsewhere you state sadly the fact that the United States places more priority on "foreign adventures" than on "domestic reform...

...If the Wallace Progressive Party, led by a Vice President of considerable fame and stature and consisting of politically knowledgeable people, won only two per cent of the vote and then went to pieces, just what could the group in Chicago be expected to accomplish except to reduce the hope of Democrats for sending delegates to our national convention next year who will demand a decent Presidential nominee...

...The serious friction between the U.S.S.R...

...T. J. John The Indo-American Club Chengannur, Kerala State, South India Criminals or Crazy Dear Sirs: Effective alternatives to war cannot emerge while reliance on military might enjoys popular favor...

...THE PEOPLE'S FORUM 'Right All Along' Dear Sirs: I want to admit a grievous mistake on my part and to reaffirm my belief in the editorial integrity and competence of The Progressive...

...General Bradley said of the Korean War, "It is the wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time...

...The United World Federalists have the right idea...

...Serviceman's name withheld at his request] Greece Cold War Victim Dear Sirs: As an American citizen interested in the history of modern Greece I still can't stomach the coup of April 21, 1967, and especially the absence of any reaction from the side of the so-called democracies of the West...

...To my mind, there is only one explanation: it seems that the enormous American help did not succeed in establishing a solid foundation upon which to build firm and lasting democratic institutions...

...We achieve our objectives through activities such as providing reading matter about the United States and India, finding friends to write to one another, arranging film shows and exhibitions, and rendering all possible facilities to American tourists to this part of the country...

...Two years ago I was deeply disturbed over your position on Vietnam and for that reason refused to support your request for funds...

...If free elections are not allowed to take place in Greece—a European nation, a member of NATO, and the birthplace of democracy—because the people might want something different from the cold calculations of the strategists, the impossibility of free elections in the feudalistic Dominican Republic and primitive South Vietnam appears as natural as the antidemocratic essence of every imperialist intervention...

...Harold R. Lohr Northfield, Illinois...

...It is much too simple an explanation of a complicated socio-economic problem...

...and Red China, which holds a real threat of war between the two countries, should be sufficient evidence of the fallacy in this way of thinking...

...If we believe our desire to keep a country "free" justifies making it a bloody crematorium, we are criminals or crazy or both...