E. HOWARD HUNT WAS AN AMERICAN PATRIOT WHO DEDICATED HIS
LIFE TO SERVING HIS COUNTRY
The late Howard Hunt, who died earlier this month, was an
American patriot whom I was privileged to know during the time he served on
the staff of President Nixon’s White House Counsel, Chuck Colson.
When he and Gordon Liddy were arrested following the
Watergate break-in, his attorney was my friend, Douglas Caddy, the founder
and first National Director of Young Americans for Freedom.
Hunt frequently called to pick my brain concerning Federal
funding of pro-Communist Left-wing activists in the context of Lyndon
Johnson’s "Great Society" programs.
At the time, I was the White House’s OEO "Watch Dog" and
Special Assistant to then OEO Director Frank Carlucci who made decisions to
fund many of these Marxist activists.
Hunt was, at one point, associated with the Mullen Company,
a CIA asset, headed by future Utah U.S. Senator Robert Bennett.
" ‘What we were looking for is the same thing every
congressional committee is looking for today, which was evidence of illegal
foreign contribution,’ he told the Miami Herald in 1997. ‘That was the
rationale for going in there. We’d heard rumors that both the Vietnamese and
Fidel Castro were inserting funds illegally into the Democratic National
Committee. And the idea was to look at the books, photograph them, in and
out, and that’s it.’ …
"He was born Everette Howard Hunt in Hamburg, N.Y., on
October 9, 1918. He graduated from Brown University in 1940, and was
commissioned as a Naval Reserve officer the following year. A talented
writer, he worked as a correspondent for Life magazine until he was called
to active duty during World War II. He served as a gunnery officer on a
destroyer.
"After the war, he received a Guggenheim fellowship and
worked as a screenwriter before joining the Office of Strategic Services,
the precursor to the CIA. He retired from the CIA in 1970 because ‘I found
out the CIA was just infested with Democrats,’ he told Slate magazine in
2004.
"Throughout his life, he wrote more than 80 spy novels and
thrillers, usually under such pseudonyms as John Baxter, Robert Dietrich,
David St. John, P.S. Donoghue, Gordon Davis or David St. John. He described
one of his leading characters, Peter Ward, who shares some of his background
as a Washington-dwelling Brown graduate, as ‘the secret agent with the taste
and the talent for fine living.’ …
"Hunt’s first wife, Dorothy Wetzel Day Goutiere, was killed
in the Dec. 8, 1972, plane crash of United Airlines Flight 533 in Chicago.
"Congress, the FBI, and the National Transportation Safety
Board investigated the crash, but they did not find any basis for
determining that the crash was not purely accidental. The more than $10,000
in cash found in Dorothy Hunt’s handbag was generally regarded as part of
the ‘hush money’ paid to Watergate defendants in an attempt to procure their
silence regarding White House involvement.
"Survivors include his wife of 30 years, Laura Martin Hunt
of Miami; and six children." [Source: The Washington Post,
1/24/07, p. 1]
"…in a new memoir, ‘American Spy: My Secret History in the
CIA, Watergate & Beyond,’ due out in April, Hunt, 88, writes: ‘Having
Kennedy liquidated, thus elevating himself to the presidency without having
to work for it himself, could have been a very tempting and logical move on
Johnson’s part.
" ‘LBJ had the money and the connections to manipulate the
scenario in Dallas and is on record as having convinced JFK to make the
appearance in the first place. He further tried unsuccessfully to engineer
the passengers of each vehicle, trying to get his good buddy, Gov. [John]
Connolly, to ride with him instead of in JFK’s car — where … he would have
been out of danger.’
"Hunt says Johnson also had easy access to CIA man William
Harvey, who’d been demoted when he tried to have Fidel Castro
poisoned in defiance of orders to drop covert operations against Cuba.
Harvey was ‘a ruthless man who was not satisfied with his position in the
CIA and its government salary,’ Hunt writes.
" ‘He definitely had dreams of becoming [CIA director] and
LBJ could do that for him if he were president … [LBJ] would have used
Harvey because he was available and corrupt.’
"On Watergate, Hunt says he saved G. Gordon Liddy
from gagging on urine-tainted booze as they got ready to break into
Democratic National Committee headquarters, telling him, ‘I know you like
your scotch, but don’t order it … Last night when we were hiding in the
closet, I had to take a leak in the worst way, and when I couldn’t bear it
any longer, I found a fairly empty bottle of Johnnie Walker Red — and now
let’s just say it’s quite full.’" [Source: New York Post,
1/14/07, p. 10]
" ‘I am crushed by the failure of my government to
protect me and my family as in the past it has always done for its
clandestine agents,’ Mr. Hunt told the Senate committee investigating the
Watergate affair in 1973, when he faced a provisional prison sentence of 35
years. ‘I cannot escape feeling that the country I have served for my entire
life and which directed me to carry out the Watergate entry is punishing me
for doing the very things it trained and directed me to do.’…
"Everette Howard Hunt Jr. was born in Hamburg, N.Y., on Oct.
9, 1918, the son of a lawyer and a classically trained pianist who played
church organ. He graduated from Brown University in June 1940 and entered
the United States Naval Academy as a midshipman in February 1941.
"He worked as a wartime intelligence officer in China, a
postwar spokesman for the Marshall Plan in Paris and a screenwriter in
Hollywood, Warner Brothers had just bought his fourth novel, ‘Bimini Run,’ a
thriller set in the Caribbean, when he joined the fledgling C.I.A. in April
1949.
"Mr. Hunt was immediately assigned to train C.I.A. recruits
in political and psychological warfare, fields in which he was a rank
amateur, like most of his colleagues. He moved to Mexico City, where he
became chief of station in 1950. He brought along another rookie C.I.A.
officer, William F. Buckley Jr., later a prominent conservative author and
publisher, who became godfather and guardian to the four children of Mr.
Hunt and his wife, the former Dorothy L. Wetzel.
"In 1954, Mr. Hunt helped plan the covert operation that
overthrew the elected president of Guatemala, Jacobo Arbenz. ‘What we wanted
to do was to have a terror campaign,’ Mr. Hunt said in a CNN documentary on
the cold war, ‘to terrify Arbenz particularly, to terrify his troops.’…
"The C.I.A. had received orders from both President Dwight
D. Eisenhower and his successor, President John F. Kennedy, to alter or
abolish the revolutionary government of Fidel Castro in Cuba. Mr. Hunt’s
assignment was to create a provisional Cuban government that would be ready
to take power once the C.I.A.’s cadre of Cuban shock troops invaded the
island. He fared no better than the paramilitary planners who had vowed to
defeat Mr. Castro’s 60,000-man army with a 1,500-strong brigade. …
"He retired from the C.I.A. in 1970 and secured a job with
an agency-connected public relations firm in Washington. Then, a year later,
came a call from the White House. A fellow Brown alumnus, Charles W. Colson,
special counsel to President Nixon, hired Mr. Hunt to carry out acts of
political warfare. …
"By the time Nixon resigned in August 1974, Mr. Hunt was a
federal prisoner. His life was in ruins: his wife had been killed in a plane
crash in 1972, his legal fees approached $1 million, he had suffered a
stroke, and whatever illusions he once had that his government would protect
him were shattered. Standing before the judge who imprisoned him, he said he
was ‘alone, nearly friendless, ridiculed, disgraced, destroyed as a man.’
"Freed from prison just before his 60th birthday,
Mr. Hunt moved to Miami, where he met and married his second wife, Laura, a
schoolteacher, and started a second family. Besides his wife, he is survived
by the two daughters and two sons from his first marriage: Lisa Hunt of Las
Vegas, Kevan Hunt Spence of Pioneer, Calif., Howard St. John Hunt of Eureka,
Calif., and David Hunt of Los Angeles; two children from his second
marriage, Austin and Hollis, both of Miami; seven grandchildren; and three
great-grandchildren.
"Mr. Hunt’s last book, ‘American Spy: My Secret History in
the C.I.A., Watergate and Beyond,’ written with Greg Aunapu, is to be
published on March 16 with a foreword by his old friend William F. Buckley
Jr." [Source: The New York Times, 1/24/07, p.C13]
|
Herman Badillo Promotes Puerto Rican Success |
January 30, 2007
|
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FORMER CONGRESSMAN HERMAN BADILLO FEARLESSLY CHALLENGES
THE PATH TO FAILURE AMONG NEW YORK’S PUERTO RICANS
During my tenure as Director of the U.S. Office of Economic
Opportunity (OEO), I was able to meet with a number of outstanding political
leaders from virtually all 50 states.
One of those who impressed me particularly was Herman
Badillo, who, at one point, was a front-running candidate for Mayor of New
York City.
The following article from the New York Post (1/10/07,
p. 4) will help you understand my high regard for Herman Badillo.
"Herman Badillo yesterday defended his controversial book
in which he writes that Hispanic parents don’t value education — and slammed
his Latino critics as caring more about organizing big parades than
educating kids.
" ‘They don’t want any criticism of the Hispanic community.
They think the way to go ahead is to say, "Everything is wonderful,"’
Badillo said during a luncheon discussion of his book ‘One Nation, One
Standard’ at the Harvard Club.
" ‘They think the greatest thing you can do is to have the
largest Puerto Rican parade of all the parades,’ Badillo said to laughter
from guests affiliated with the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think
tank. ‘They think going to dances and parties is the biggest thing.’
"Badillo didn’t mention any names — but he was clearly
referring to Bronx Democratic party leader and Assemblyman José Rivera,
ex-mayoral candidate Fernando Ferrer, Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión
Jr. and Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo, among others.
"They all criticized passages in the book, first published
in The Post last month, as a smear of the Hispanic community.
"Arroyo branded Badillo a ‘blanquito’ — Spanish for white
traitor.
" ‘Education is not a high priority in the Hispanic
community,’ Badillo, the first native-born Puerto Rican elected to Congress,
writes in the book.
"Badillo — the former chairman of the City University who
eliminated open enrollment and boosted standards — said of his critics:
‘There was one who called me "whitey". This is what happened in the
African-American community, where people who do very well are said to be
imitating white. That’s ridiculous,’ he said."
BUCHANANS BACK TANCREDO FOR GOP NOD
The appointment of Shelly Uscinski as Tom Tancredo’s
Presidential Campaign Manager is another indication that Pat Buchanan and
his sister, Bay, are backing Tancredo for the GOP nomination.
Shelly, who is a personal friend of mine, ran Pat Buchanan’s
New Hampshire campaign in Y2K.
|
State of the Union |
January 26, 2007
|
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PRESIDENT BUSH CONTINUES TO IGNORE THE CONSTITUTION
In his State of the Union message last evening, many of the President’s
recommendations were clearly unconstitutional. In this blog, I spell out
some of them.
"Spreading opportunity and hope in America also requires public
schools that give children the knowledge and character they need in life.
Five years ago, we rose above partisan differences to pass the No Child Left
Behind Act. …
"When it comes to health care, government has an obligation to care for
the elderly, the disabled, and poor children. …
"States that make basic private health insurance available to all their
citizens should receive federal funds to help them provide this coverage to
the poor and the sick. …
"Let us build on the work we’ve done and reduce gasoline usage in the
United States by 20 percent in the next 10 years. …[W]e must increase the
supply of alternative fuels, by setting a mandatory fuels standard. …
"We hear the call to take on the challenges of hunger and poverty and
disease, and that is precisely what America is doing. We must continue to
fight HIV-AIDS…I ask you to continue funding our efforts to fight HIV/AIDS.
And I ask you to provide $1.2 billion over five years so we can combat
malaria in 15 African countries. And I ask that you fund the Millennium
Challenge Account, so that American aid reaches the people who need it…let
us continue to support the expanded trade and debt relief that are the best
hopes for lifting lives and eliminating poverty." [The Washington
Post, 1/24/07, p. A16]
|
2008 Survey: Republicans |
January 25, 2007
|
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WHOM DO YOU FAVOR FOR THE 2008 REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL
NOMINATION?
Here follows a partial list of actual and potential
Republican Party Presidential and Vice Presidential contenders:
(1) New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, (2) Columnist Pat
Buchanan, (3) Florida Governor Jeb Bush, (4) Vice President Dick Cheney, (5)
Oklahoma U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, (6) former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore,
(7) former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, (8) former New York Mayor Rudy
Giuliani, (9) Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, (10) California Congressman
Duncan Hunter, (11) Arizona Senator John McCain, (12) former Alabama Supreme
Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, (13) former New York Governor George Pataki,
(14) Texas Congressman Ron Paul, (15) Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice,
(16) former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, (17) South Carolina Governor
Mark Sanford, (18) Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo, and (19) former
Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson.
Please e-mail your response to
webmaster@conservativeusa.org
or fax it to me at 703-281-4108.
|
2008 Survey: Democrats |
January 24, 2007
|
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WHOM DO YOU FAVOR FOR THE 2008 DEMOCRATIC
PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION?
Here follows a partial list of actual and potential
Democratic Party Presidential and Vice Presidential contenders:
(1) U.S. Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN), (2) U.S. Senator
Joe Biden (D-DE), (3) U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), (4) U.S.
Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), (5) former North Carolina Senator John Edwards,
(6) former Vice President Al Gore, (7) U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-MA), (8)
Illinois Congressman Dennis Kucinich, (9) U.S. Senator Barack Hussein Obama
(D-IL), (10) New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, (11) former Iowa Governor
Tom Vilsack, (12) former Virginia Governor Mark Warner, and (13) U.S.
Senator Jim Webb (D-VA).
Please e-mail your response to
webmaster@conservativeusa.org
or fax it to me at 703-281-4108.
PREEMPTIVE SURRENDER ON AMNESTY IS A BAD STRATEGY
Some of my conservative friends have engaged in a strategy
of pre-emptive surrender on the immigration issue.
As reported in The Washington Times (1/8/07), "A
number of leading Christian conservative groups have formed a coalition on
immigration and illegal aliens that will push religiously grounded positions
that both sides of the current immigration debate will both love and hate.
"In letters sent today and obtained by The Washington Times,
Families First on Immigration urges President Bush and leaders of the new
Democratic Congress to adopt a grand compromise on the divisive issue that
includes strong border security, an amnesty for illegals already here who
are relatives of citizens and an end to birthright citizenship.
"Former Republican presidential hopeful Gary Bauer, Deal
Hudson of the Morley Institute for Church & Culture and David Keene of the
American Conservative Union are among those who have joined forces to chart
a new path on immigration reform, an issue that conservative Christians have
generally avoided. …
"At the heart of their position is a compromise that could
give both sides of the immigration debate their ‘holy grail,’ as Mr. Miranda
puts it, while also making a major, one-time concession that would eliminate
one of the biggest magnets for illegal immigration.
"Out of concern for keeping families together, the religious
leaders propose granting citizenship to any illegal aliens in the country
who are related to U.S. citizens. This would include anyone who has had a
child born here, often referred to as an ‘anchor baby.’
"In return, the federal government would end birthright
citizenship, which automatically grants U.S. citizenship to anyone born
here, regardless of his parents’ legal status. The 14th Amendment
says ‘all persons born or naturalized in the United States…are citizens of
the United States.’
"’This is a real compromise,’ Mr. Miranda said. ‘On the one
hand, there is legalization of a large number of people, but conservatives
get the settlement of the thorniest issue for them in the immigration
debate.’ …
"Among others who have joined the coalition are…the Rev.
Louis Sheldon of Traditional Values Coalition and Rabbi Aryeh Spero of
Caucus for America.
"The group hopes to draw support from fellow religious
conservatives in Congress such as Sen. Sam Brownback, Kansas Republican.
"Mr. Brownback caused deep consternation in conservative
circles last year when he enthusiastically embraced the Senate immigration
bill, which was reviled by most conservatives because it would grant
citizenship rights to most illegals. A member of the Judiciary Committee,
Mr. Brownback argued that it was his Christian duty to support a bill that
would help illegal aliens who came here in search of a new home away from
the tyranny and squalor from which they came."
|
William Verity |
January 12, 2007
|
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REAGAN’S PRO-SOVIET COMMERCE SECRETARY IS DEAD AT 89
William Verity, who served as Secretary of Commerce
beginning in 1987, has recently died at the age of 89.
On September 10, 1987, I testified before the U.S. Senate
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation in opposition to his
nomination to be Secretary of Commerce.
In my testimony, I said: "I urge respectfully that in
determining whether to confirm C. William Verity, Jr. to be Secretary of
Commerce the Senate recognize the underlying concern which has engendered
widespread grass roots opposition to the President’s nominee.
"Simply stated, the question is whether or not the Soviet
Union is in fact an enemy of the United States, at war with our vital
interests worldwide, even as its Leninist faith rationalizes the systematic
oppression of those unfortunate hundreds of millions imprisoned by its
totalitarian yoke.
"If the Soviet Union is not our dangerous adversary, we can
substantially diminish our defense expenditures and cut off additional
billions of dollars in foreign aid which is urged upon us, in large measure,
on the basis of its utility in fighting Communists.
"I must conclude, on the basis of his statements, his
writings, and his activities, that Mr. Verity does not regard the USSR as a
threat to the United States.
"Surely, if he did acknowledge the reality of Moscow’s
deadly challenge to American liberty and security, he would not have
established himself over the past fifteen years as a principal advocate of
economic intercourse with and assistance to the oligarchs of the Soviet
empire and the regimes over which they exercise control.
"Both as chairman of the U.S.-USSR Trade and Economic
Council and as a private citizen, Mr. Verity has made clear that he stands
for policies which would economically strengthen the Soviet Union as surely
as they would profit commercial enterprises with which Mr. Verity has been
associated.
"Most Favored Nation status for the Kremlin, Soviet
membership in the IMF and World Bank, eligibility for credits from the U.S.
Export-Import Bank---no special concession within the authority of the U.S.
government to confer has been omitted from the list of proposed inducements
which Mr. Verity has recommended during the decades of the 1970’s and 80’s.
"If William Verity is confirmed as Secretary of Commerce,
Mikhail Gorbachev will have a voice at the Cabinet table, but representation
will have been denied those of us who believe that Communism should be
opposed, not subsidized."
REMEMBRANCE OF A CHARMING ISRAELI SOCIALIST
In 1982, my wife, Peggy, and I visited Israel as part of a
delegation which included Mr. and Mrs. Morton Blackwell, William A. Rusher,
Mr. and Mrs. Paul Weyrich, Mr. and Mrs. Philip Truluck, Dr. and Mrs. James
P. Lucier, and several other conservatives.
Prior to departure, we were briefed by Benjamin Netanyahu,
then the Israeli Ambassador to the United States.
While in Israel, we visited Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, the Dead
Sea, Jericho, Macpelah, and many other historic venues.
One of those whom we met was the legendary mayor of
Jerusalem, a charming socialist by the name of Teddy Kollek. Mayor Kollek
died recently at the age of 95 and The Washington Post recounted some
aspects of his very colorful life.
"Teddy Kollek, 95, the irrepressible champion of this
volatile city during a nearly three-decade tenure as mayor that spanned war,
uprising and shifting demographics, died here [Jerusalem] Jan. 2. No cause
of death was reported.
"Mr. Kollek, long associated with the center-left Labor
Party, was elected six times to lead Jerusalem, starting in 1965. …
"Although his vision of a united city remains elusive in
many ways, Mr. Kollek was hailed yesterday as the driving force behind
Jerusalem’s evolution from a parochial hilltop town coveted by the world’s
leading religions and contested by the Palestinian people to a modern
metropolis of arts, tourism and the numerous culture landmarks he engineered
during his decades in office.
"Named for Theodor Herzl, the chief theorist of modern
Zionism, Theodor Kollek was born May 27, 1911, in Nagyvazsony, Hungary, near
Budapest. He was raised in Vienna, where his father became a director of the
Rothschild bank. …
"Mr. Kollek immigrated to the British mandate of Palestine
in 1934 and helped found kibbutz Ein Gev on the shores of the Sea of Galilee
and near the Syrian border. He defended the kibbutz against several attacks
during a period of Arab revolt. …
"After Israeli forces occupied East Jerusalem in June 1967,
Mr. Kollek reached out to Arab residents in an effort to bridge religious
and cultural divides that persist in this city of 700,000. …
"Mr. Kollek established an Arab liaison office to address
inequalities in education funding, public transit and other municipal
services between the city’s Arab and Jewish neighborhoods. He walked the
streets daily, and despite his fame, continued to list his home number in
telephone directories throughout his tenure. …
"Mr. Kollek permanently altered the city’s landscape, adding
world-class cultural institutions that have expanded Jerusalem’s draw as a
tourist destination. The Israel Museum, which cascades down a prominent
ridgeline in the city‘s center, and the Jerusalem Theater are among his most
important cultural legacies. The modern soccer venue, known as Teddy
stadium, was dedicated to him." (Source: The Washington Post,
1/3/07, p. B5)
|
Raymond P. Shafer |
January 8, 2007
|
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RAYMOND P. SHAFER, FORMER GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA
In 1968, I was the manager of Congressman Dick Schweiker’s
successful campaign for the U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania in which Dick
ousted incumbent liberal Democrat Joe Clark. The Schweiker victory was the
only race in the nation where a Republican challenger defeated a Democrat
incumbent.
During the course of that campaign, while I was living in
the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and visiting all 67 of its counties in
behalf of Dick Schweiker, I had the opportunity to develop good
relationships with virtually all the key leaders and activists in the
Pennsylvania GOP. Even though Governor Raymond Shafer was far more liberal
than I, he was, nonetheless, quite kind to me and invited me to sit in on
his cabinet meetings, which I regularly did.
Governor Shafer died recently, and The New York Times
ran a comprehensive obituary, excerpts from which here follow.
"Raymond P. Shafer, the former Pennsylvania governor who
oversaw a revamping of the state’s Constitution and led a drug commission
for President Richard M. Nixon that recommended decriminalizing marijuana,
died Tuesday in his hometown, Meadville, Pa. He was 89. …
"The son of a minister from rural Pennsylvania, Mr. Shafer
rose through the political ranks before serving as Pennsylvania’s governor
from 1967 to 1971. He could have risen to even higher office in 1968;
President Nixon asked him to be his vice-presidential candidate, to balance
the ticket with a moderate Easterner.
"but because he was an ally of President Nixon’s rival,
Nelson Rockefeller, and ‘because he didn’t trust Nixon,’ his son said, Mr.
Shafer turned down the offer.
"Later, when Mr. Shafer was barred by term limits from
seeking re-election to the governor’s office, President Nixon declined to
appoint him to a federal judgeship and appointed him instead as chairman of
the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse.
"In 1972, when what became known as the Shafer Commission
released a report recommending that the federal government decriminalize the
personal use of marijuana, but not make it legal, the findings stunned the
Republican establishment.
"President Nixon promptly rejected the findings of the
13-member commission, telling reporters, ‘I do not believe you can have
effective criminal justice based on the philosophy that something is half
legal and half illegal.’
"Mr. Shafer was a college soccer and basketball star at his
alma mater, Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa., where he met his wife,
Jane, before earning a law degree at Yale University. During world War II he
was captain of a PT boat and was awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze Star. …
"After winning his seat as governor, he set out on a
campaign to bolster the state’s education and public assistance spending,
proposing the state’s first income tax to help pay for it. …
"The income tax proposal and large increase in state
spending proved to be a political disaster. Support fore him and his party
plummeted and Republicans lost not only the governor’s race in 1971 but also
the state House and Senate.
"Before he left office, he oversaw his proudest political
accomplishment, putting into effect historic changes in the state
Constitution. The changes included creating the state’s first unified
judicial system, giving governors a two-term limit, and allowing for a state
income tax – which was apprtttttttoTiw RomanTed during the tenure of his successor, Milton
J. Shapp." Source: Sean Hamill, The New York Times, 12/14/06, p. A33
ROMANIAN LEADER CONDEMNS COMMUNIST RULE
Following the death of Communist dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu,
I visited Romania on several occasions.
The pain and suffering of the Romanian people and their
greedy exploitation by such "Americans" as Armand Hammer and Bob Robertson,
former Administrative Assistant to Paul Laxalt, was disgraceful.
On one occasion, I served as an election observer and, on
another occasion, I lived in the home of a local bureaucrat whose family
kept the lights turned off because of the high cost of electricity.
I met a number of Romanian political leaders, including
Corneliu Coposu, the long-time leader of the National Peasants Party who had
served 17 ½ years in prison because of President Franklin Roosevelt’s policy
of accommodating and appeasing the Communists in Moscow and Bucharest. His
plea to me and my colleagues was "Please don’t sell us again".
The good news is that finally a Romanian government has
condemned the Communist tyranny which persisted under a different name long
after Ceauşescu was gone.
"The Romanian president, Traian Basescu, on Monday
formally condemned the Communist dictatorship that ruled his country for
more than four decades, the first time a Romanian head of state had
officially denounced the Soviet-era system.
" ‘The regime exterminated people by assassination and
deportation of hundreds of thousands of people,’ Mr. Basescu told
Parliament. He based his assessment on a 660-page report compiled by a
presidential commission charged with analyzing the country’s Communist past.
…
"After Communist authority weakened in Moscow, many of the
region’s Communist officials simply changed hats and continued to
participate in government when authoritarian one-party governments remade
themselves, largely unchallenged, into independent free-market democracies.
"When Romania’s last communists-era dictator, Nicolae
Ceausescu, was overthrown and executed in 1989, he was replaced by a
coalition of former Communist Party officials under the banner of the
National Salvation Front. …
"The work was not without its challenges because much of the
Communist-era ruling elite remained embedded in Romania’s structures of
power. The commission met silence from some government agencies and
resistance from others. One of the commission members resigned, admitting
that he had been a Communist informer. …
"Former President Ion Iliescu, who dominated Romania’s
post-Communist political scene and is now honorary president of the Social
Democratic Party, is mentioned in the report as an important ideologue of
the Communist Party. He served as the head of the Department of Propaganda
of the Central Committee.
"On Monday, he accused Mr. Basescu of ‘McCarthyism’ and
‘politicizing history’ and trying to demonize the democratic left. The
Social Democratic party has adopted a resolution condemning the report.
"While some lawmakers applauded Mr. Basescu’s remarks,
others sat in silence." Source: From Paris, Craig Smith, The New York
Times, 12/19/06, p. A16
Here follows the text of a speech I was privileged to
deliver in Bucharest on May 19, 1990 (while on a fact-finding tour to
Romania, serving as an observer of the Romanian elections) from the balcony
overlooking University Square with a crowd of tens of thousands of Romanians
committed to the end of Communism and the defeat of the Gorbachevaesk
National Salvation Front led by former Ceausescu operative Ion Ilisecu:
"We are here from the people---not the government of the
United States.
"We are here to express our admiration and support for your
courageous struggle to be free from Communism.
"We cannot be satisfied until Communism is defeated and
completely eliminated everywhere---in Cuba, in China, in Russia, and in
Romania.
"Freedom and tyranny cannot live together. One or the other
must perish.
"In America, the founders of our country knew that we---all
men and women everywhere---have been endowed by our Creator with inalienable
rights to life, to liberty, to property, and to the pursuit of happiness.
"Our rights come from God---not from the state---certainly
not from the little men who control the Communist Party.
"The purpose of government is to protect our God-given
rights---not to add or subtract from there.
"The struggle for liberty is a long struggle---it will not
be over in six months or in six years. Romania has paid a high price for
many years.
"Do not be discouraged.
"We respect your courage.
"We benefit from your example.
"May God bless you and your nation.
"Down with Communism!
"God bless Romania!
"Jos Communism ul."
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