"

ing Nixon editorially, gave the Democrats a j a i l brcalc

system in the South.The:beneficial-ies
of the system
111
11s ne~i7scolumns The Denlocratsarereportedto
m a y repair somc of t h e damage, b u t I t w1ll n o t he quite
feel t h a t t h c y rece~ved.-the fairest prcss t r e a t m e n t of
tK?"sarn& agaiii.'DecpIte: t h e f a c t t h a t
Mr. Kennedy
recentdecades.
Some of the ~ n t e r p r e t i v ej o u l n a l m n
carried a number of Southern states, heis not the bondswas not only fair, but brilliant. Whatever redounds to
m a n of t h e D ~ x l e c r a t s a d d , as a p o l ~ t ~ realist,
al
h,e IS
thecredit of t h e press redoundstothecredit
of t h c
n o t l ~ k e l yt o reward the Qulslrngs in his party. The
country, let us h o p e t h a t the gam m d l be held.
defectmgDixiecrats shou,ld notreceive so much as a
slngle fourth-classpostmastzrshipfrom
the Presidentelect, w110 has few past favors to
pay for and little expectatmn of new ones The Dixlecrats who lined up for
F ~ d e iCastro may have asounder basls for 111s cxthe Kennedy-Johnson t~clcet i n t h e end dld so n o t o'ur
p~-essedfears of a U S -f~nanced "Guatemala-typc" 111o i loyaltytotheDemocratlc
Party butbecause t h e y ,
vaslonthanmost
of usreallze.
On a recent ;;sit t o
had bccome convinced its nominees would ,wm.
. Guateinala,Dr.RonaldHdton,Director
of t h e InIn the future, the influence of the Dlxiecrat element
s t ~ t u t eof ~llspanlc-American Studles at Stanford Umwill decline relative to thk ~nfluenceof the liberal South,
verslty, was told :
~ncludingthegrowing~;ol~ticalstrength
of Southern
I T h e UnltedStat-sCentral
Intklllgence Agency h a s
NegroesMr. Kennedy ilitervened - showingimaglna
c
q
u
~
r
e
d
a large tract of land, a t a11 o u t l a y i n exccss of
ation and courage-in the Marrin Luther King, Jr ,case
$1,000,000. whlch- IS stoutly fenced and heavily guarded.
where a GeorgiaJudge llad revoked the Rev. K ~ n g ' s
Dr. J-Idton w a s ~ n f o r m e dthat I t I S "common knowledge" III
probation on atrafficviolation
and s e n th i mt ot h e
Guatem$n that t h e tract IS belng used as B tralmng ground
statepen~tentlal-y. In fact,RobertKennedy'sdirect
for C u l h counter-revolutlo~arleswho are prcparlng for
commun~cation with the ' jddg-e w a s improper,: but t h e
an evenrual landmg inCuba It :vas also S;IICIth3t'U.S.
uproar ~ ~ 1 1 n1lgbt
~ ~ 1 1 have been expectedfaded
t o depersonnel 2nd equlpment a l e b e ~ n gused a t the base The
veIop. Segregat~on1s losing ground,and Mr. I<ennedy
camp ~ s ; s a ~ tdo be locate2 111 lietahuieu. b;twecn Guhrem'ala Clty and the coast
helped. The Negro now'knom~s thathisintcl-estsIic
2 Substantially a11 of the above w a s reportcd' by a
m t h theNorthern,
Ilbei-al wmg of theDemocratlc
well-known
Guatemalan pur17a11st, Clemcnte M a n oquln
P a rlry.
R o ~ a s ,111 L a H o ~ n n
, C u a t e n ~ a l a n11ewspnpe1- of which he
' AnotlIcr dcvelopmcllt
w11ic11 may assuage the irustraI S thc director. HIS attl,cle appearcd 111 vlolatron, I t I S s.ud,
tion OF l ~ b e r a l sI S t h a t d i c C a t h o l ~ c b u g a b o o has bcen
of a Government p r o h l b ~ t ~ oagamst
n
any public drscussion
I a ~ d , o n c c and for all. Like racialsegregation, which ~t
of t h e matter.
resembles 111 l ~ ~ i i~t dw ,d s *a disgrace t o the country. Its
3 More recentIy, ,the Pi-esident of Guatcm;rI;~,fol-ccd to
tnke cognizance of thepcrsistcnt reports r o ~ ~ t c r n ~thc
ng
dlssolutlon mdl add t o Afnerica's i n t e r n a t ~ o n a lpi-estige
base,
went
on
T
V
and
adnxtted
Its
eslstence,
but
d
L
l
S~d
andlift
a burdenflomitsconsclence.
Mr. Kennedy
to
dlscuss
Its
purpose
01- m y oth'el- f x t s ahout I t
metthisissuehead-on;frankly,Iogically
and courageously, a n d by all ~ n d i c a t ~ o n sh eg a m e d more votes
T h e American press - even nledla w t h accl-editcd
t&n 12e lost.
corrkspondents on t h e scene - hasapparcntly
reThe Roman Catholic'Church came o u t ahead, n o t
mainecI unaware of t h e p'ubl~ccommotio11 'thc S U ~ J C C ~
only because the outtomc.defjlollstrated that a,qualilied
has arouhed~nGuatcinala.Not
even President Y d l Catholiccould be elected, butbecause the clergyand
goras' TV: s t a t e m e n t t h a t a secret base exlsts has been
laity ah k e behaved with hotable wisdom and rcstraint.
rcported in the Unlted States, so far as we k 1 7 0 ~ .We
,
O m instance was a pronouncement by Msgr Franlclyn
ourselves,'of course, pretcnd t o 110 first-hand kilowlcdge
J. Kennedy, echto1-ia1 ma;1ager of t h e Call%ol,icHerald
of t h e facts, ~~everrheless,
vire fecl an obligation ro br1ng
Cztzzcn, ~
1 I S published
~
~ weekly
~
1 by t ~h e Archd~ocese the subleet t o public attentldn. Ii Wasl~ingtonIS lgnoof Mdwaukee and the Diocescs of M~iwauIcee'and Sur a n t of t h e e x s t e n c e of t h e base, or, k n b w n g t h a t ' i t
perior. Despitc much urgmg, t h e H e r a l d Cztizen refuscd
e s ~ s t s ,isneverthelessinnocent
of a n y ~nvolvernent111
tosupport e ~ t h e scandldate. "We are?onfldent,"said
it, then surely the appropriate authoritlcs wdl w a n t t o
Msgr Kennedy,
"that
our readers
would
thinb 1:
scotch all invid~ousrumorsandissue
a' fullstatclncnt
hghly improper for a Cathollc paper - published UIIof t h e realfactsOntheotherhand,
if t h e reports as
der t h e d11-ectlon of one Archbishop and two Bishops heard by Dr. I-lllton are true, then public pressure should
t o come out in favor of one candidate over t h e o t l ~ e r"
be brought to bear upon the Adrnin~stratlont o abandon
And in P u e r t oR ~ c o , where thebishopsovexstepped
this dangerous and hair-bramed project.
their proper bounds, they were deservedly rebuked by
There 1 s a second reason w h y we belleve the reilorts
t h e Cathollc electorate - 2 n d again the Church gained,
mcl-it publlcatlon: they can,and
should, be checked
although t h e bishopsdldnot.
immediately by all U.S. news media wlth correspondents
Flnally, t he press as a whole, whde largely supportin Guaterhala,
I

"

3 78

-,

The NATION

Meanwhile, Dr. HiItoninforms us that: lie will pub

lish addltlonaIdetarls of hisfindings in Guatemala in
the November issue of the H~s~a.1zzc-A?,z~1-lcnlb
Rcview,
published by the Institute of which he is the director.
T h e sooner the truth emerges, the better for
allconcerned - the Umted States, which now stands accused;
the Cubans, who assert fear
of an imminent invasion,
and the Guatemalans, who appear to be thrust mto a
perdous quarrel not of their making.

lessed to Receive
Amongthemultitude
of problemswhichbeset
the
UnitedStates,tworelatedoncsaremosttroublesome.
PaulHeffernan,afinancialwriter
of The Nezu Y o &
Tzwzr-r, asks in that paper where the $6 billion in monetary gold which the United States has lost since 1948
hasdisappeared
to, and n7ho is to helpUncle
Sam
pick up the tab for aid t o t h e underdeveloped countries.
T h e answer to both questions is the same: West Germany,In
19-15, w7hen the rescueoperation
in West
Gcrmany was well under way, the formerly errmg, but
free and capitallstic country, had no
gold reserves. She
was 111 debttothe
ears. Now thisshowcase
of free
enterprise,herdebtsforgiven
by her ormer enemies,
possesseS $6 5 blllion in gold The transfusion has becomepainiul
t o the donor, buttheWestGerman
fmancral interests are happy. The debt capital forgiven
by the United States IS being loaned o u t a t high interest
ratcs - 6 per cent in Greece, for instance.
So go the
incredible f l l l a n c d miscarriages of thepostwar
period,
writes
Mr.. HeffernanThewarvictorpays
reparations t o the loser by forgivingdebt.Theloser
lends out the forgiven debt capital
in thc land he ravaged. The victim of the ravagement pays 6 per cent
tcrest to the war ravager for the use of capital donated
by the war v~ctor. And the losergorgeshimself
with
gold slphoned of from the victor.
WhenthetechnicallyvlctoriousUncle
Sad1 humbly
asks the victorious loser for help, he is sternly rebuffed.
ChancellorKonradAdenauerproteststhathecannot
afford t o taxtheWestGermansinan
electionyear,
and he always has an ,eIcction year coming up, or the
danger of a recession, or some other impending calamity.Latcrthismonth,Secretary
o l theTreasury
Robert Anderson and Under Secretary of State Douglas
Dlllon dl travel to Bonn to present their petitions to
the Chancellor in pcrson. They may even threaten
to
slash local purchases of supplies for U.S. troops stationed
inGermany,
or t o sendhomethe
iamilies of U S.
servicemen T o reduce the occupation troops, of course,
is unthinkable;everyoneknowsthatWestGermany
would 1mmedIateIy be overlun by the Russian hordes
It is safe to predict that the lame-duck Secretaries \vi11
getllttlesatisfactloll
from theperpetualChancellor,
although I t is not rulcd oL1t t h a t he may throw them a

1-

Novembe?. 19, 1960

symbolic bone,or t w o so that they will n o t have to go

home conspicuously empty-handed.
But
the
job
of
gettingtheaffluentWestGermancapltallststo
shell
out is a job for President Kennedy; and
goodIuck t o
hlm.

The Resal-rection of Vaelkyrie

When the B-70 bomber was cut back
by t h e Adlninlstratlsn of Old Infailtryman Dwight Eisenhower
last January, the howls of the Air Force and the prime
contractor. North American
Aviatlon,
resounded
through the land Thousands
of subcontractors and the
West Coast newspapers joined in the outcry. The B-70,
christened J7nlhy7ie by North Amencan, was to fly at
three times the, speed of sound at an altltude of 70,000
feet; it was the darllng of the World War I1 generals of
t h e An- Force. The N a t i o 7 ~was not greatly impressed,
however, foi 2,000 miles an hour is still only a fraction
of a ballistic missiles speed; what was even more t o the
point, the aircraft could not be ready for actlon until
1965 orlater - probablylater.The Old Infantryman
secmed to have a pretty good case, as long as one did
not happen to own alrplane stock or have some other
partisan interest 111 the matter
The declbels of protest were such, however. t h a t The
Notion remarkedthat V a l k y l i e might have life 111 hcr
yet, and so I t hasturnedout.Eightdaysbeiorcthe
election the Old Infantrymanrelentedandshelledout
$265 mllllon in fiscal 1961 funds t o pcrmlt construction
of two cdmbat-equlpped B-70s, as well as the two strippedlnodelsbriginallyallowedfor.
Thedecls~on was
iminenseIy popular in Southern
California, where unemploymetit in the air-frame industry IS a major hcadache. A four-daymarketrallywasset
off in Wall
Street in the stocks of NorthAmerlcanAviation
sild
some of its major subcontractors ( G E., MTesiingllouse,
I B M., etc ). One who did not join in the chorus
of
reJoicing was Jack
Kennedy.
Although
Democratic
sentiment hati favored BaZFzy~-ie andher
anguished
sponsors,and the Democratic-contrdlled Congress had
Increased the (Old Infantrymans $39.2 brilion defellse
budgetby
$662 million, M r K e n ~ ~ c d assaded
y
the
A d m m s t r a t ~ o nfor a transparent political mancuver
t u increase Republican votes.
Well, the votes wercnt
cjiute enough, and Candldatc
f
Kennedy wvlli soon bePrcsidentKennedy.
If the resuscitation of TTnZkyrie was a transparent polltlcnl
maneuver, should she not, in fairness to the taspaycls,
noiv be taken obt of the iron lung from ~ h l c h ,in any
case, she will probablyneveremerge?She
IS llttlc
more than a set of plans on paper (and some n o t c v m
on paper). By the tlme thls prodlgy
of the A n Force
can become a wenpons system, mlsslles ~ 1 1 1 h a v e m n d e
alrcraft obsolete. Here IS one of the items that belong on
t h e Preslcient-electscrowded
agenda.

3 79