Downhill Dealignment 6 Neighborhood ~Olitics S That Soviet Nuclear Anns Are "No Threat" Is of Course That the West Disarm Unilaterally
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PUBLISHED BY THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA JANUARY 1983 VOL XI, NO. 1 T $1 MARGULIE~ ROTH CO What Price National Security? Ron Dellums on Defense Spending 3 Downhill Dealignment 6 Neighborhood ~olitics s that Soviet nuclear anns are "no threat" is of course that the West disarm unilaterally .... Against this I would say that the Soviets are LETTERS not noted historically for their kindness and consideration of weak and defenseless na tions. New Design Scrap Higgins Cartoon DSA has clearly stated its position of supporting a bilateral nuclear freeze. The We've come a long way in design, from To the Editcr: roughly equal and verified reduction of nucle the days when THE NEWSLETIER OF THE On the cover of th.e Unity Issue (Sept - ar arsenals on both sides seems a relatively DEMOCRATIC LEFT was a one-color, two-col Oct.] was a photograph of an unemployed safe and expeditious way to end the anns umn,\no photograph, eight-page communica auto worker. A good photo, moving. It com race. A nuclear freeze proposal, if and when tion to this latest design. Thanks to Sandy municated a message, a real and severe adopted by the US government would of Cate, who, we believe, has brought together message. course also require approval by the Soviets. the best of DEMOCRATIC LEFT and MOVING Yet on the back cover ever present as Helmut Wenkarl ON to create a new look for the publication of part of "Jimmy Higgins Reports," I see a New Ylri, N.Y. a new organization. Along with the new de caricature of working people: the little, mus sign will come an increased emphasis on tachioed guy with a broom and cap. It seems news from within the organization. We look to me a mocking figure of the real thing on the Get Your Hands Dirty! forward to hearing from you, about what you cover. I have never really appreciated that To the Editor: want to see in your publication, about what graphic. It is idyllic and misrepresents what a you're doing. worker really is.... I am a socialist from the old country and I do have a nutmeg to grind with you, my TM Editors I encourage the graphics editor to search for an alternative graphic and ap American comrades. All this debate about proach Jimmy Higgins, if that is the process, how, just HOW we are going to work in the Old Mistake and get his o.k. to switch. Democratic party reminds me of Huck and Mike Fogelberg Tom in that barn. All the while they were As a result of a proofreading error, a line MadisonDSA figuring out intricate plans on how to escape, was dropped from Joe Holland's article on the door was open. All they had to do was to Latin America in the November-December Ed. twle: See the explanation of the Higgins walk out. All we have to do is to go to the figure that appears at the end of the column. issue that completely changed the meaning next meeting of our local Democratic Com of the sentence. We are red-faced. The sec mittee, get to work and get our hands dirty. tion should have read (dropped portion in Threat to West There is no other way. italics): Dwight Eisenhower sent the CIA To the Editor: EvaOlkn into Guatemala. fl) overthrow the democrati Frank Scott, in a letter to DEMOCRATIC Rochester, N. Y. cally ekcted government of Jacobo Ar LEFT takes issue with Pat Lacefield's asser benz; Lyndon Johnson sent the marines into tion that Soviet nuclear weapons pose a the Dominican Republic to overthrow the threat to the West. Scott feels there is no Thank You in 1982 democratically elected president Juan such threat, but neglects to present argu Bosch. ments of any kind to back up his claim.. .. The Labor Day-Unity issue carried The logical thrust of those who argue names of friends and members who con tnbuted to our Socialist Unity Drive and EDITORIAL BoAID sent greetings tQ DEMOCRATIC LEIT. We were afraid that we might have left Leo Casey Gordon Haskell some names out because of our book F~ld Dirrctqr Polilical Director keeping problems and we were right Maxine Phillips Listed below are names of those we Organir.alional Dinctor know we missed. We appreciate their F""""'1y Newsldter of tM Democratic Left and support. If we missed you, we apologize Moving On. ADVISORY BoARD again. If you missed us, we hope you'll Joanne Barkan David Bensman send greetings next Labor Day. MICHAEL HARRINGTON Jim Chapin Jack: Clark Editor Gretchen Donart Kate Ellis Founding Sponsor Founding Pioneers Patrick Lacefield Ricardo Otheguy Quin Shea David and Eva Gil MAXINE PHILLIPS Jan Rosenberg Bernard Stephens Founder M (J1l(J{fing Editqr Peter Steinfels Guy Molyneux Susan Palmer DEMOCRATIC LEFT is published nine times a year (monthly except July, August and October) by Greetings Democratic Socialists of America, formerly DSOC/NAM. The editorial office is located at 853 Ruth Jordan Paul Garver Broadway, Suite 801, New York, N. Y. 10003, Telephone (212) 260-3270. Other national offices are located at 1300 West Behnont Ave., Chicago, ll. 60657, (312) 871-7700 and at 29 29th Street, San Helmut Wenkart Francisco, CA 94110, (415) 550-1849. Subsaiptions: $15 sustaining and institutional; $8 regular. For my sons Israel and Joshua, in the Signed articles express the opinions of the authors and not of the organization. ISSN 0164-3207. hope that their future is ~ ofpeace and Microfilm, Wisconsin State Historical Society, 816 State St., Madison, WI 53703. Indtxed in the Alternative Press Index, P. 0. Box 7229, Baltimore, MD 21218. Second Class Pennit paid at New justice. York, N.Y. Richard W. Smith DEMOCRATIC LEFT 2 IANUARY 1983 DEFENSE UNCONSCIONABLE COSTS by RONALD V. DEUUMS ince 1945, American foreign and ent growth/inflation rates, we may well be sile, the Trident II (D-5) Missile, and military policies have been predi spending $422 billion a year on the military by ground-, sea- and air-launched Cruise mis cated on a series of hypotheses, 1987. siles ushers us into a new era of the nuclear revolving around the basic theme The dimensions of disaster being plot arms race, one that drastically reduces the of preserving the "national secur ted by the Reagan administration almost defy prospects for a meaningful nuclear arms Sity" of the United States. Eight successive any rational analysis, as Robert Scheer dis freeze and subsequent mutual-balanced presidents have contended that the corner covered when researching and interviewing force reductions of both nuclear and conven stone of this policy must be an unrelenting for his excellent new book; With Enougls tional weapons. response at all levels to the alleged Com Sltovtls: Rt.ogan, Busls and Nuclmr War. It was in this context that, in January of munist crusade for "global hegemony" and The Reagan administration has consciously 1982, I mounted a comprehensive legislative the defense and maintenance of the "Free and debberately moved beyond the strategy challenge to the policy assumptions and World" Thus, with the passage of time, the of deterrence to one that proposes to fight, spending priorities of the Pentagon and the purported "vital" "national security" inter survive and "win" a nuclear war. White House. Two days after the Presi ests of the United Stated have assumed glob When he was Secretary of Defense in dent's State of the Union message, I formally al dimensions. Both Democratic and Repub the Kennedy administration, Robert Strange petitioned Representative Mel Price of Illi lican administrations have repeatedly McNamara defined deterrence as the capac nois, the Chair of the House Armed Services sought, through covert or overt interven ity to destroy 30 percent of the Soviet soci Committee, to expand the Committee's tion, military solutions to international prob ety's population and 70 percent of its eco hearings on the military budget in order to lems that are essentially political, economic, nomic infrastructure. He felt this objective examine a broader spectrum of policy issues social or cultural in origin. could be achieved through the use of approxi and economic f:actors relating to the military This "national security" psychosis has mately 400 strategic nuclear warheads. In budget The Committee informed me that it made possible the evolution of a permanent 1983, the U.S. possesses more than 10,000 had deadlines to meet, and could not afford war economy that has made the United strategic warheads in its nuclear arsenal, the time. States, because of its superior technology, plus 15, 000 more of intermediate range for the principal force in global anns escalation, theater nuclear use. At present, it IS estima n response, I decided to convene the both nuclear and conventional. It was a Dem ted that there are approximately 886 cities Special Congressional Ad Hoc Hear ocratic administration, headed by President and towns in the U.S.S.R. with a population ings on the Full Implications of the Harry S. Truman, that tri/Jkd the military of 25, 000 or more people. How much is Military Budget After raising the budget in 1950. It was a Democratic adminis enough? necessary funds from various peace tration, headed by John F. Kennedy, that The Reagan administration is commit I first proclaimed a missile gap with the Soviet ted to developing nuclear weapons that go Union when it knew the opposite was true, beyond our capacity to verify or control In and then brought the planet to the verge of a past years the necessity for verifiability and nuclear holocaust during the Cuban Missile control have been integral elements of all Crisis in 1962.