Letters, Sep. 20, 1971

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Judaism Scarred?

Sir: Your article on the Jewish Defense League's military-style training camp [Aug. 30] is only another sad commentary on how the "American way of life," with its emphasis on guns, defense and hatred, is scarring Judaism. I wonder how long it will take these young men and women to realize, as many other young Jews have, that our only liberation lies in moving to and settling in our homeland of Israel, that the only place really worth "fighting for Jews" is in the Jewish state.

LAURA BROWN Cleveland

Sir: As a member of the J.D.L., I know what it is like. You should not put us under the category of "militants." We should be under the heading of "Jewish survival." The J.D.L. is not a militant group but a group of Jews attempting to put an end to this antiSemitism. We've been used as scapegoats for thousands of years. We are trying to prevent another Hitler, and damn it, we're gonna make it! In my opinion every Jew and any Jew should be a member of the Jewish Defense League.

PHILIP B. BIRNBAUM Far Rockaway, N.Y.

Sir: Maybe we should ask where the J.D.L. intends to use these newly acquired skills. If they intend to tear my country apart, I am concerned. If they intend to protect the home they stole from the Arab, they should be training on that ground.

JOSEPH J. STRAUB Rochester

Sir: I am a black American and I want to express my anger about the militant Jewish Zionist camp in the Catskills. It is indeed hypocrisy that the so-called democratic leaders in our land and state permit such camps. Hitler called them youth camps; what does the J.D.L. call them? To say the Jews do not enjoy full equality would be a base lie, as they control the economy. Do these cubs intend to bomb Christian homes? Just what is the real purpose? If anti-Semitism becomes active, then the actions of the Jewish Zionists are the cause, and they must assume the full responsibility.

DORIS BROWN New York City

Viet Nam Election

Sir: Contrary to your implication, it wasn't Tricky Thieu or Big Minh [Aug. 30] but Henry Kissinger who splattered Vietnamese election egg over the face of America.

Following a private meeting with General Minh several months ago, I tried to tell Mr. Kissinger what he should have known anyway: that Minh would not accept his assigned role in a Kissinger-produced, Ellsworth Bunker-directed charade. Minh happens to be an honest man as torn inwardly as his country is torn outwardly by an endless, American-made war. Mr. Kissinger and Ambassador Bunker bear full responsibility for blocking South Vietnamese self-determination and destroying the best chance for peace since the war began.

The Pentagon papers say: "The explanation of how the U.S. mission became detached from political realities in Saigon in August 1963 is among the most ironic and tragic of our entire Viet Nam involvement." Unfortunately, it is no different in 1971.

HAROLD WILLENS Chairman Businessmen's Educational Fund Los Angeles

Nixon's New Economics (Contd.)