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8/10/2019 January 28, 1986
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EDITQRIAL
THE FLIGHT
THAT
FAILED
That flash you saw on the television screen last
Tuesday was a metaphor with many meanings:
loss of innocence, heroic sacrifice, national
tragedy. The fire and smoke and trailing debris
composed a searing electronic icon hat will stay^
in the mind's eye of everyone now old enough
to focus on the picture. For it is iconics, not
economics or patriotism or sentiment, that must
explain theextraordinary global lurch in reaction
to theChallengerexplosion: the condolences
from Queen, Pope and premiers, the compulsive
media coverage, the sense of collective grief. In
the great scheme of things, one small tragedy or
As
the trauma diminishes in the weeks ahead,
another meaning will emerge from the dooms-
day events. The explosion that consumed
Challenger should also reignite the controversy
overhe Star Warsnucleardefense ystem.
President Reagan and the hi-tech freaks and
hacks who are pushing the program
have
almost
convinced the opinion leaders'' inAmerica
that it is logicallypossible and mechanically
feasible to laser and pulse our way into nuclear
primacy and national security. Bu t any school-
kid in New Hampshire can now see that with a
misfire rate no worse than the shuttle's, the
Strategic Defense Initlative would be a dud or,
worse, an engine of national suicide.
S.D.I.
is
no more a miracle shield-than the
shuttle
is
a vehicle for space exploration. Sensors
explore; astronauts tinker. One launch of the
unmanned Voyager as produced more ex-
ence than twenty-four shuttles. Both
Star Wars and the manned shuttle program
are major military projects, lucrative corpo-
rate boondoggles and serious efforts i n public
relations and self-promotion for NASA. The
tragedy is that i t cost even ives to reveal
man became one big symbol for mankind.
the scam.
TRUMAN AND CORCORAN
THE
TAPPING
OF TOMIMY
TH-EXJORK'
i t
KAI
BIRD
AND
MAX
HOLLAND
In April 1976 the Senate Select Committee o
Intelligence, headed by Senator Frank Church
made its valedictory report on domestic spyin
and other intelligencegency abuses. Th
2,000-page Church committee report identifie
victims of wiretapping abuses by name, in
cluding Martin Luther King Jr., several news
men, and aides to Henry Kissinger,
The report also included a cryptic referenc
to the wiretapping of an unnamed forme
Roosevelt White House aide between Jun
1945
and May
1948
The
Washington
Po
spechated chat'the person involved was Thoma
(Tommy the Cork) Corcoran, an influenti
Washington lawyer and power broker. But th
story went largely untold because the documen
tation linking it to Corcoran was acking an
because other revelations, especially the wireta
on King, dominated the media post-mortem
Now, however, a considerable body of vi-
dence,ncluding Corcoran's own substantia
Federal Bureau
of
Investigation file, crucial in
ternal Bureau memorandums and the wireta
transcripts themselves,hasbeen made public
much of it under the Freedom of Informatio
Act. The story of he most extensive partisa
political wiretap instigated by any postwar Pres
dent can at lasteullyevealed.
The evidence shows -that just six weeks afte
assuming hePresidency, HarryTrumanhad
Edward-McKim, his top aide and close friend
ask the
F B I
o place a wiretap
on
Corcoran
Although the order for a tap on he flamboyan
lawyercame from the White House, the ide
that Truman might eavesdrop on his politica
Continued
on
Page 142
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CONTENTS.
Volume 242,
Number
LETTERS
130
EDITORIALS
129 The Flight That Failed
131 UncleButtinsky
132
Broken Reartland
133 At Home Abroad
COLUMNS
134
Minority Report
ARTICLES
129 Truman and Corcoran:
The Tapping of
Tommy the Cork
,- 135 Create Work, Not Jobs: f
The Myth of Full Employment
Stanley Aronoyi
138 Marching With Pretoria:
Reagan's Real Aims
in Sauth Africa ThomasJ. Down
140 Famine Update:
Bob McBride
In Ethiopia, Food
Is
a Weapon
JonathanB . Tuck
Hans Koning
BOOKS
THE ARTS
147 Ewen: Immigrant Women in the
1
. .
,
ChristopherHitchens
Land of Dollars: Life andulture
On the Lower East Side, 1890-1925
Susan Strass
149 Weigl: The Monkey Wars
Michaeltephens
150 Art
Arthur C. Dan
152 The Blindeding-tailpoem)
Sherod
Sanf
Kai Birdnd
Max
Holland
154 Music -
Evan Eisenbe
-
Drawings by Randall Enos .
Edifor, Vlctor Navasky
ExecutrveEdrtor, RichardLingeman; AssocrateEdrtors, Elsa Dlxler,
Edifor,Eiizabeth Pochoda; Assrsfgnt LlferaryEdrtor, Marla Margaroms;
Andrew Kopkind; Assrstant Editor, Katrina vanden Heuvel; Lrterary
Poetry Edrtor, Grace Schulman; Copy Chref,JoAnn WypIJewskl;Asstst-
ant Copy Edrlors, Vanla Del Borgo, Judith Long; Edrtorral Secrefary,
Marpessa Dawn Outlaw; Interns Gwen Bondi Washington), David Ap-
pell. Julia Bur+, Paul W Cohen, Dave Goldmer, Davld L L. Laskin,
Todd Lewan; n leave, Kai Blrd, Katha Pollitt.
Publrsher, Hamdton Fish 3rd
Assocrate Publrsher,Davld Parker; Advertrsrng Drrecfor.Chrls Calhou
BusrnessManager, Ann B. Epstein; Bookkeeper, Ivor A. Richardso
Arf/ProducfronManager, Jane Sharples; CIrculatron Drrecfor, Steph
W. Soule; Drrecfor
of
Development and Pubhcrty, Mlcah
L.
Sif
Subscrlptron Manager, Cookee V. Kleln; AssrsfanfAdverlrsrng Manag
Neil Black; Receptronrst, Greta Loell; Mai Clerk JohnHoltz;
Adminrstratrveecretary, Shlrley Sulat; Productlon, Terry Mill
Typography,Davld Aeker, Randall Cherry; Nalron AssocratesDrrecf
Nancy Bacher;
Natron
News Servrce, Jeff Sorensen.
EDITORIALS.
Uncle
Buttinsky
elect a Christian Democratic chancellor.
But
whether the i
terventionists buy off labor unions, prqmote insurrectio
or distribute disinformation, the effect is to interrupt the i
he menu for American intervention in the affairs
dependent effort of people to make their 6wi 1history.
of smaller states contains a sumptuous array of
A superpower has
so
many means of intervention at wo
choices, from full-scale invasion to polite persua- at one time that it is often difficult to see the system in i
sion. The President makes his selection, and the
taxpayers pay the check. The courses may be hot or mild:
troops are sent for permanent war games
in
Honduras, or
money is given to elect convenient andidates in El Salvador.
Big guns from the battleship New Jersey pummel Moslem
villages in Lebanon to shore up the Christian government,
or a propaganda arrage is loosed
in
West Germany to help
full complexity, or to imagine what the world would be li
without it. In South Africa, the United States :has esta
lished such a significant business and financial presence-
bolstered by political, military and cultural' rdationships-
that the withdrawal of the merest amount ?f moral ~or o
etary support is in itself an act of, ntervention, Israel is
such a stateof clientage with the United StateS tliat.debat
8/10/2019 January 28, 1986
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32
The
k t
on. ebruary
8 19
in the Knesset or editorials in Haaretz are seen as suitable
stuff for American comment, criticism and action. In Nic-
aragua, which has so far evaded clientagebut notscrutiny, a
censor has only o sneeze and half the Congress threatens to
destroy the country.
The full force of the interventionist impulse is nowhere
felt more strongly this winter than in the Philippines. The
election cam pagn has become almost as much an event of
American politics as it is
a
part of domestic affairs. In the
first place, President Ferdinand Marcoss unexpected deci-
sion to hold elections came in esponse to demands from the
Reagan Administration, which feared that an infusion of
democratic legitimacywasneeded to offset the growing
popularity of the New Peoples Army. Then the American
media rushed into the fray picking its favorites on the basis
of who would be best or U.S. interests, and determining the
issues according to what would be most easily understood
by the American mind.
he
New
York Times supplied the oppositions biggest
break
so f a r
by questioning Marcoss record in the World
War Resistance.Several groups of not-so-neutral ob-
servers are already packing to go to Manila for
a
day of
close poll watching on February 7 . And one can only guess
about the activities of the U.S. Embassy, the bankers, the
corporate centurions, the freelance consultants and the hun-
dreds of interested parties who are shaping the campaign to
their own concerns.
All the reportage, the intelligence gathering and the ex-
pressions
of
concern from official and private American
sources, on the spot and safely
at
home, amount to nothing
less than a massive effort to intervene in Philippine politics.
Hardly anyone has questioned the intervention this time
because liberals and conservatives agree on the objective,
the removal of Marcos. It was a bit different two years ago
in El Salvador, when the American right wing whs irked
by the Administrations support for
JosC
Napole6n Duarte
over an old ally, Roberto D-Aubuisson, the butcher
who fell from favor. And some lonely leftists made
a
small
fusslast year when the State Dipartment ried to wreck the
Nicaraguan elections by pressuring anti-Sandinista can-
didates to withdraw from the race.
But even the best of intentions-and seeking the disap-
pearance of Marcos is hard to beat-should not justify the
wbrst of policies. Historically, the American role in the
Philippines has been a paradigm of imperial arrogance. The
McKinley Administration grabbed the islands from Spain,
and Teddy Roosevelt fought a bloody war of repression
against an authentic native insurgency. Until World War II
the Philippines was a colony pure and simple, and even after
gaining formal independence itemains an economic,
political and military outpost. Marcos could never have sur-
vived for two decades of tyranny without the approval and
support of successive American governments.
So
intricate is
the web of relationships that a break in any strand disrupts
the whole structure. Trade, aid, cultural contacts, military
compacts, all serve o keep the Philippines in a state of per-
manent dependence.
Elections seem to legitimize authority and stabilize the
P
-
system so well in America hat it is natural for policy-mak
to export the process to markets under
U.S.
influen
Its like sending jeans and Coke and rock-and-roll
benighted nations whose nder_development as enied
themsuchpleasures. The problem is not with the pro
uct-who doesnt want an honest ballot or a cold drink o
Springsteen album?-but with the trappings that come w
it: the press, the pollsters, the polhvatchers, the political f
ers and finaglers, the consultants, the arrogant advice a
the.,unshakable assumption that Americans have a droit
seigneur to go anywhere in the world and arran
everybodys life.
Broken
Heartland
has beena harsh, bitter winter in the Corn Belt a
the High Plains. Snows began early in October, a
wind-chill factors of 50 degrees below zero have
common. A brief thaw may help, ut everyone kno
more crunching cold is ahead. More unsettling than h
winter, whichpeople on the prairies are used to, is t
uneasiness related to the farm crisis.
Last month, in Union County, which has the richest la
in South Dakota, a young Farmers Home Administrati
supervisor killed his wife,daughter, son and dog while th
slept, then went down to his office and shot himself dea
He left a note: The job has got pressure
on
my mind, pa
on left side. The wlfe had been fired from twosecre
tarial jobs in two years. The family was from- New Yo
State and had lived in three South Dakota towns in the pa
nine years. The 12-year-old daughter had written a poem
school expressing her pain at having to move
s o
often a
Ieave new friends behind. Because the father
was
an out-o
stater, the Fm.H.A. moved him about the state, apparen
figuring he would be more willing to get tough with loc
farmers who werebehind
on
their loan payments th
would a native South Dakotan.
South Dakota farmers are accustomed to hard times. T
old-timersemember thehirties, whenhe droug
came, the dust blew and they put up tumbleweed hay to t
to keep their few remaining cattle alive. The price
of
co
was
so
low that the farmers burned the ears
m
their co
stoves. Now nightmares of those years haunt tbe people.
Over in Worthington, Minnesota, some 250 farmers ga
ered recently to hear an activist tell them that they ha
no
moral obligation to repay an unjust debt and that th
would be right to use a gun to defend heir farms fro
foreclosure. Enough of the lawless spirit of the Old West
mains in rural America for people to reach for guns when
else fails.
Community spirit in the hinterland
of
America is n
dead,but it is eroding. People still contribute rather sm
amounts to food pantries to help the most needy. But
they see theirneighbors go bankrupt and move away, ma
take the community-destroying attitude that people g
what they have coming to them. Farmers who have
made (that is, happened to be around during the go
8/10/2019 January 28, 1986
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February 8,
986 The Nation. 13
years), or those who have not yet realized that they too are
in danger, say, He went in too deep, or He should have
Small owns are hard hit. Highschools are closingas
young families move o the city; those who remain are reluc-
tant to have children in these uncertain times. Rural and
small-town churches are rapidly losingmembers and are
largely supported by the elderly.
On Saturday evenings some people tune in to
A
Prairie
Home Companion, broadcast out of St. Paul over Ameri-
can Public Radio, and enjoy Garrison Keillors apt
descriptions of life in Lake Wobegon, which seems
so
much
like their hometowns. They know that there issomething
good about life in small-town America, but they wonder
what is happening to that life in a high-tech, computerized,
urbanized, war-threatening world. The only area of South
Dakota that is booming is Ellsworth Air Force Base, near the
Black Hills; to yhich cruise missiles andpreparations for
B-1 bombers have brought a fleeting prosperity.
The people are patriotic and for years have given their
sons, and now heir daughters, to the armed forces. Now
they sense hat the high-tech military binge is costing the na-
tion a sound agriculture, and they ask, Is this military
overspend necessary?
Congressional elections will be held this fall, and good
candidates are surfacing in both parties. The incumbents,
loaded with PAC money, claim that theyhavebeen the
farmers best friends in Washington, but they are in trouble
as the distress in the Farm Belt grows more serious.
Meanwhile, the people of rural South Dakota, the Corn
Belt and the High Plains,
go
valiantly ahead with life as
usual as best hey can. The high-school basketball games
and tournaments are the main action in the towns fortunate
enoughtill to have igh schools. People still go to
church, pray for the sick and troubled, try to helprheir
neighbors when they can, and hope for a turnaround.
Unlike Garrison Keillors Lake Wobegon, where all the
women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the
children are above average, the peopleof mall-town
America feel they are going down the tube, and that neither
the government noranyone else in high-tech Americaives a
damn.
BOB
MCBRIDE
Bob McBride has beena United Methodist minister in South
Dakota f o r nearly thirty years.
known better than-to take out all those loans.
At Home Abroad
London
toted
a
copy of the Sunday
New York
imes home
this morning, purchased from the one newsdealer
here who still carries it. Its not a thing youd do
everyweek, for itcosts f8.25, about $12; but on
an irregular basis it makes a worthwhile investment, if only
for the healthy shock it provides. It
is
not news to Nation
readers that,our newspaper of record has veered from its
once mildly liberal course t o a solidly right-wing one. What
shocked me (in my relative isolation from the Americ
media) were not the right-wing editorials, right-wipg essa
in the magazine, right-wing semantics in the news storie
which I fully expected, but the pervasiveness of this point
view in a wide range of articles on so many subjects.
every section, away from the newsof the moment, th
reader is given data with a dose of conservativephi-
losophy or, to be less euphemistic, a dose of propaganda
A maverick playwright who had written a drama abou
the Bay of Pigs is quoted by reporter Samuel Freedman
saying that there had been no anti-Castro undergroun
waiting for the invasion because Castro already had locke
them up and the Americans werent going to give the i
vaders the back-up support they promised. But, Free
man continues, the play does not offer conventional lef
wing wisdom. . [It] directly lampoons one of liberalism
heroes, John F. Kennedy. With that little but, Free
man in one fell swoop ascribes the right-wing version of th
fiasco to the left (the real left-wing version is presumabl
outside is en). He implies that theefthares lib-
eralisms hero worship of Kennedy, and with his seman
twist, left-wing wisdom, insinuates that the lefts dea
are little more than redundant folklore.
A
story about a news sheet in Nicaragua banned for a
.tacking the governmentgets a four-column headline.
sounds like the kind of publication whose editors would b
shot in
a
number of nations allied with
us,
but that s not m
point. What bothers me is that unless you are a caref
peruser of the story you might think that the publicatio
banned was a newspaper with the power of The Twnes itse
rather than a sheet with,a circulation of about 300.
Elsewhere, in what used to be called a think-piece, Jame
Markham describeshow the youth ofWest Germany
becoming more conservative. A number
of
students a
quoted by iiame. They all make disillusioned or born-aga
statements about their antinuclear, antipollution or ant
establishment pasts. They have returned to conservati
values, in Markhams words. There are ive or six of them
whichmakeshis ample equivalent to roughly one-si
thousandth of 1 percent of the West German student po
ulation. He also mentions unnamed teachers and profe
sors and ends up with two heads of polling organizatio
who actually call young West Germans relatively pro
gressive and who add hat lower-classWest Germans
are not necessarily affected by Markhams trend.
Public housing- n Britain, under Labor, used to be
good shape and, more important, relatively available. The
is a debate in my Times about the privatization of gover
ment services, and its proponent informs
us
that ever sin
Prime Minister Thatcher started selling off public housin
its residents have found an incentive to improve the
dwellings. Nothing about the outcry causedhere by th
policy, which doomed the very concept of subsidized hou
ing and which-, but why go on? Im grateful it on
spoiled my Wednesday morning, not my Sunday.
HANS
QNIN
Hans Koning is the author
of
De Witts War (Pafitheon)
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