THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
THE PEOPLE'S FORUM .S. Dissent and Hanoi Dear Sirs: It is noteworthy, in view of White House and Pentagon claims that dissent in the United States strengthens Hanoi's war effort, that two...
...Even Saigon is no longer a secure island...
...J. Edgar Hoover should be summoned to an investigating committee to answer the questions Mr...
...Edwin R. Bayley New York, New York Students and the Draft Dear Sirs: Dr...
...A question still under consideration is whether students should be inducted at the age of nineteen with other youths, or be granted two more years (sometimes three) to finish their undergraduate work...
...If there are, and if they ask "Where were the good Americans...
...President: For two weeks now, the battles which have ravaged the countryside of Vietnam have turned to the cities...
...Each summer I gather the cones from it and give them to a local garden club...
...I know how much you admired him...
...Now, in the days of our maturity and in the fullness of our power, we see the dire prophecy of John Quincy Adams fulfilled...
...Hopefully, it is only the beginning of a long neglected and much needed attempt to point out how Christianity has always been perverted and prostituted to serve the source of all war —nationalism...
...Mrs...
...but it does give the student an opportunity to advance in emotional stability and self-confidence...
...Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority...
...Literacy programs, schools, and the freedom from hunger campaign all receive assistance from purchasers...
...The colored conscript returns to find himself still only a second-class citizen at best...
...This is no attempt to tell the military how to wage war...
...My family and I live in a section of Saigon which was under Vietcong control for nine hours when this new phase began...
...It is quite another to ask the young man to leave college and risk his life in the jungles of Asia merely to maintain a climate in which Dow Chemical, Standard Oil, and other American firms can make huge profits...
...I get three cents for each one—and today I got a check for five dollars...
...As one of the few liberals in my high school, I use your magazine constantly in current events panels...
...It reads, in translation: "I wish to tell you, quickly, that my beloved good husband died suddenly on Monday, February 11, without any suffering...
...Robert Banville Washington, D. C Warning from Scotland Dear Sirs: Concern for the future of the American people prompts me to write, not the sad wastage of its manhood in Vietnam, but the more terrifying prospect of the racial repercussions at home...
...Alfred Werner New York, New York UNESCO Gift Coupons Dear Sirs: Many readers of The Progressive may be interested in UNESCO Gift Coupons...
...Even though I enjoy your magazine, I get terribly frustrated when I read some of the articles, especially about the racial situation in this country...
...The kids in my school hate pretty badly...
...Lee Dresh Mesquite, Texas Selective Objection Dear Sirs: We hear a lot of discussion concerning the right of a young man to choose whether he will accept military service or be a conscientious objector in a particular war...
...Civil war will be a heavy price to pay for the Vietnam venture which should never have been undertaken...
...I have also listened to the views of the other candidates, and the repetitious nonsense which comes from the "Great White Father" in Washington...
...She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all...
...Not much, but something...
...The smoking ruins of half-destroyed cities from South to North demand a sober review...
...Halleck's principal thesis is that emotional disturbances may be created when young students are suddenly faced with a choice between going to Vietnam and going to prison...
...Our Prime Minister and your President are completely discredited...
...helicopters fired rockets and automatic cannon shells into the area while the troops advanced up the street with guns blazing...
...It was to defend the homeland...
...Starr was truly an inspiration to his many friends...
...At times it seems a bit dubious that there will be future generations to inqure about this troubled era...
...So Steinhardt, the noted German and Israeli Expressionist, one of the last representatives pf what was once an important and revolutionary movement in the arts, is now dead...
...It is one thing to ask a young man to leave college and fight for the protection of the homeland...
...M. F. Beall Portland, Oregon Prophecy Fulfilled Dear Sirs: In a recent speech in the Senate, Senator Frank Church of Idaho quoted these "wise words of John Quincy Adams," spoken on July 4, 1821: "Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will be America's heart, her benedictions, and her prayers...
...With such methods, how can anyone boast of a ten to one kill ratio...
...Said Senator Church afterwards: "These words were uttered in the days of our infancy...
...So I am enclosing this check that it may help you to keep publishing...
...We stayed in our house and were unmolested...
...However, the greatest danger to us and our neighbors came with the counter assault that afternoon...
...Frank E. and Grace Sully Cuckfield, Sussex, England Christianity & Nationalism Dear Sirs: It was with a sense of relief that I read Milton Mayer's "No Holier than Thou" in the February issue...
...She is the champion and vindicator only of her own...
...However, fresh heart is being given to the friends of the American people by the U.S...
...Richard A. Chinn Providence, Kentucky Acclaims McCarthy Editorial Dear Sirs: Your March issue editorial endorsing Senator McCarthy is the best concise statement of this position that I have seen...
...We are also concerned by the suffering caused by the other side...
...When will the American people realize that the majority here simply don't want what we're trying to force on them...
...Three centuries ago, colored people were shipped to America from Africa to work as slaves for their white masters on the plantations of the South...
...peace movements...
...It is to prevent the spread of Communism in order to keep Asia open for profitable exploitation by American business...
...If true Christianity had ever really been tried by the majority, perhaps we would not have our conscience drenched in blood and would not be ever perched on the brink of catastrophe...
...John McManus Washington, D.C...
...Among them were university professors, ministers, scientists, writers, artists, and students...
...Richard Handler Perm Run, Pennsylvania...
...But we know that we must count mainly on ourselves and no one else...
...If he has the intelligence to perceive or be convinced of the injustice of the war in Vietnam, he will react against the aggression of the white man in the United States as he has seen the Vietnamese do, and will react with all the barbarity and violence he was trained to use before he was shipped overseas...
...Seymour Halleck's article, "Students and the Draft," in the February issue, is interesting, but his prescriptions seem a little dubious...
...Now seven of the demonstrators, all in their early twenties, have been singled out for prosecution on conspiracy charges...
...This war he is prosecuting by the most barbaric methods the world has ever seen, under the cloak of an anti-Communist crusade...
...A new house two doors away was hit by a rocket, and burst into flames...
...The Cornell experts go on to quote this statement by Premier Pham Van Dong: "Our enemy pretends that we seek victory through U.S...
...Nationalism may be rationalized, but it can not be Christianized...
...The future of the United States and indeed the survival of mankind may depend on those who call for a halt, and in particular those in the United States...
...but they are now, as always, a scorned minority...
...There are here, as there were in pre-revolutionary Russia, in Nazi Germany, and elsewhere, minorities who see the contradiction between Christianity and nationalism...
...The cost of defending these cases may run as high as $50,000...
...UNESCO Gift Stamps are for sale in amounts from ten cents up...
...I feel that I "owe" The Progressive something...
...Your readers may want to know of his demise...
...As specific actions I personally plan to: 1) Send Senator Eugene McCarthy money—getting it to him early enough to aid him in the primaries...
...What justification is there for attacking snipers in densely populated areas with rockets and artillery...
...They are a unique form of international currency that enables the recipient project, regardless of currency or import controls, to buy needed books or equipment...
...I particularly admired your refutation of the "can't win" argument—the most serious of the obstacles, I believe—and I hope that the statement convinces many others to act in this effort...
...It is clear that a terrible time of reckoning will come and is already showing itself in the racial riots that have taken place...
...and even, the persuasiveness of 100,000 additional Progressive magazines sent out by 33,333 subscribers...
...Will these people really blame the other side for the half-million refugees or the thousands of dead and wounded civilians of these fourteen days...
...We certainly "can't have it both ways...
...Senators urging support for a rational foreign policy and needed domestic legislation...
...If it is really desirable that all youths receive the same treatment, one might do worse than to consider the proposal made by Representative Teague in the House last spring, that only soldiers over twenty-one be sent to Vietnam...
...Wechsler cites in his article...
...Ted Poltash Student of Criminology California State College Long Beach, California Old Admirer Dies Dear Sirs: I want to share with you and your readers the sad news that one of the oldest admirers of The Progressive, a man who may have been a subscriber to it for nearly half a century, died recently...
...Jakob Steinhardt Dear Sirs: Just as the March issue of The Progressive, containing my article on Jakob Steinhardt, came off the press, I received a short note, in German, from Israel...
...They captured the army camp just next to our house quickly during the night without much fighting...
...Margaret Hoffmann Austin, Texas Teen-Age Benefactor Dear Sirs: I am a high school student and I read The Progressive regularly—my father is a subscriber...
...It would seem, however, that confronting boys with this rather agonizing decision at a less mature age would place an even heavier emotional burden on them and might cause even more serious psychological difficulties...
...Spock...
...What is the purpose of the Vietnam war...
...The U.S...
...I have heard him denounce the tragic war in Vietnam, and I have heard him urge America to go forward with social reforms for the creation of a better society...
...We are horrified at this frank frontal assault on constitutional liberties...
...2) Write to my Congressman and my two U.S...
...He passed away while playing chess with one of his grandsons...
...If we are genuinely concerned about the pressures society is placing on the student, the most helpful thing that we can do is to give him a chance to acquire sufficient maturity to work out his own problems before we confront him with a dilemma that few men would care to face...
...She might become the dictatress of the world, She would no longer be the ruler of her own spirit...
...What was the purpose of World War II...
...Writing recently in The New York Times, Professors David Mozingo and Johri W. Lewis, both specialists on Southeast Asia, report these conclusions from their examination of North Vietnamese commentaries on the war: "The role of the American peace movement is not even mentioned as a major factor in the war...
...If they ever reinstate the Nuremburg war crimes trials, the draft card burners and the C.O.s will not be the ones on trial...
...The "conspiracy"—a felony—consists of the defendants allegedly banding together to commit misdemeanors...
...This study by authorities on the area should put to rest the repeated charge that Hanoi is counting heavily on the American peace movement...
...The undersigned protest the indictments and urge support for the defendants...
...She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standards of freedom...
...Now the white masters of the Pentagon ship them across the Pacific to fight against another colored race, in whose affairs the white man has unwarrantably interfered, unasked save by the puppet government he has set up, so as to procure for himself the riches of the East...
...Less than the cost of two fifths of whiskey and less than an hour of writing time...
...We pray for victory for this resistance movement and shall do all in our power to support it...
...Every day they continue to resist this gigantic war machine is additional proof of this fact...
...Friends from many places give a similar account...
...Contributions can be sent to: Stop the Draft Week Defense Fund, 6468 Benvenue Avenue, Oakland, California 94618...
...Halleck is no doubt correct in saying that the present situation is a bad one, wiping out undergraduate deferments might create as many new problems as it would solve...
...All persons should definitely have this right...
...We have to take the most militant leaders...
...conduct in Vietnam and the cruel and barbarous weapons used in each "escalation" is turning into contempt and hatred...
...Mauno Saari Yakima, Washington McCarthy Deserves Support Dear Sirs: For some time I have been following the Presidential campaign of Minnesota's Senator Eugene McCarthy, a most admirable progressive...
...Coupons are available in $10, $50, and $100 denominations...
...He appears to favor the abolition of all student deferments, as a means of wiping out privileges based on social class...
...After much careful consideration, I have come to the conclusion that the great senior Senator from Minnesota deserves the whole-hearted support of all Americans who seek an end to war and the regeneration of domestic progress...
...These are not nationally famous leaders like Dr...
...Mary Gray Portree Isle of Skye Scotland British Dismayed at Vietnam Dear Sirs: The British people, either as individuals or through many organizations and societies, including the British Council of Churches, the United Nations Association, the Labor and Liberal parties, the Trades Union Congress, and the peace movement, have demanded the immediate dissociation by their government from the United States' undeclared war on Vietnam...
...Here in Britain there is a rapidly mounting support for all those in the United States who know the policy in Vietnam to be wrong and who are so courageously protesting...
...We must stop and consider what we are really doing to these people...
...Kay Boyle Herbert Gold Jessica Mitford Mark Schorer San Francisco, California Cheaper than Whiskey Dear Sirs: I doubt if ever in the history of this nation has there been a more appropriate time to advise liberals to "put up or shut up...
...George Koski Bronx, New York Investigate Hoover and FBI Dear Sirs: I sincerely hope that James A. Wechs-ler's "The F.B.I.'s Communist Brigade" in the February issue ignites action in the halls of Congress...
...The war will be decided in Vietnam and nowhere else...
...However, the image of deliberate destruction by indifferent Allied forces is contrasted by a picture of discipline on the part of the Vietcong fighters...
...Dissent and Hanoi Dear Sirs: It is noteworthy, in view of White House and Pentagon claims that dissent in the United States strengthens Hanoi's war effort, that two eminent scholars emphasize how little the peace movement here affects North Vietnam...
...Thomas Reynolds Cambridge, Massachusetts Report from Saigon Dear Sirs: Here is a copy of an open letter I have written to the President...
...Bullets popped constantly over and around our house...
...Since they live and move among the people, the guerrillas are seen attacking military installations, while the Allied soldiers must appear to attack the people...
...William B. Starr of Cisco, Texas, a farmer, a Quaker, a Socialist, a champion for liberal and controversial causes at a time when most of us were not even born, passed away in his ninetieth year...
...I, for one, want to be able to say that I did attempt to do something for the good of my country...
...He added: "The indictment procedure is a new one, a new policy we have adopted, and should serve as a warning and notice to people who would violate the law in so expressing themselves...
...In World War II, this nation was attacked by an aggressor, after which war was legally declared by the elected representatives of the people...
...In our back yard we have a large pine tree...
...and South Vietnamese forces...
...This suggestion was apparently based on the theory that young men should be allowed at least twenty-one years before being asked to sacrifice their lives—a sort of Guaranteed Minimum Life Span—but in practice it would involve raising the age of induction to twenty-one, and would therefore enable most students to complete college without the need of any special deferments...
...3) Send out short term gift subscriptions to The Progressive...
...James E. Metzler Saigon, Vietnam Dissent Now Felony Dear Sirs: The public expression of dissent in Oakland, California, seems to have become a felony punishable by a three-year prison term...
...Maybe 30,000 Vietcong were killed—but how many more did we force over to their side...
...It must take very great moral—yes, and physical—courage to do this...
...For further information, please write UNESCO Gift Coupon Office, Room 2201, United Nations, New York...
...She will recommend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and by the benignant sympathy of her example...
...But how can such a mighty nation brag of victory when fighting guerrillas in city streets with planes and tanks...
...they are young people plucked out of the group to be isolated and punished...
...The urban people are now aware of how such lopsided battle reports come to be...
...The two-year deferment does not enable anyone to avoid his share of the collective responsibility, and therefore should not give rise to any guilt complexes...
...Last October thousands of concerned people expressed their opposition to the Vietnam war at the Oakland Army Induction Center...
...The revulsion throughout the world at the U.S...
...Is this desirable...
...It's like swatting flies with sledge hammers...
...There is growing dismay at the wanton squandering of American lives in this arrogant destruction of a tiny land which could in no way ever threaten the security of the United States, and a people who wish only to live in peace as masters of their own house...
...The prosecutor's "new policy" is designed to make an example of these seven—to silence dissent against the war...
...Dear Mr...
...District Attorney J. Frank Coakley explained to the press: "Technically a hundred or even a thousand of the demonstrators could have been indicted for their actions...
...The law is being used to suppress the right of dissent...
...The general impression is that most of the destruction of life and property was caused by U.S...
...of three letters to Congress from each of a million writers...
...The letter, postmarked Naharia—a lovely resort town settled largely by immigrants from Germany—was signed Minni Steinhardt...
...that they accept the mass murder that is war, helps prevent rather than promote Christianity and induces their believers to continue sacrificing their young like so many cattle to the slaughter...
...I recount this personal experience because it is common to millions of Vietnamese...
...Justice Robert Jackson once called use of the conspiracy charge "the prosecutor's darling...
...That "Christian" leaders see the conscription of our sons to kill and be killed as a duty, rather than a blasphemy...
...There seems never to have been any atrocity so revolting that the majority of "Christians" were unable to reconcile it with their version of Christ's message of love...
...But she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy...
...It would seem, then, that while Dr...
...This is a truly noble appeal in the tradition of Abraham Lincoln...
...As a Mennonite missionary who has lived in Vietnam over the past five years, I am increasingly disturbed by America's action here...
...Moreover, lowering the age at which students were inducted would increase the role played by military training and indoctrination programs in forming their attitudes and ideals, for military authorities tell us that nineteen-year-olds are more pliable in intellectual character than older boys and can be more easily molded to the specifications of the services...
...To fire some dreams of better days in the future, think of the power of McCarthy receiving $5 each from one million peace-minded supporters...
...The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force...
Vol. 32 • April 1968 • No. 4
