Vol. 2 No. 1
gouns ^terica'si Jfounbation
spnng, i98o
Robinson Accepts Coalition F o r Peace Through Strength Award Ron Robinson, President of Young America's Foundation, received an award for "distinguished leadership" from the Coalition for Peace Through Strength. The award was presented by Coalition President John M . Fisher at an awards ceremony at the national headquarters of the Reserve Officers Association of the United States. The award cited Robinson's and Young America's Foundation's, "leadership of outstanding service to the nation during the SALT I I debate." Robinson cited the need to keep the youth of America informed of our national defense needs and of the threats the Soviet Union poses to world peace. Robinson noted, in accepting the award, that America's defenses were seriously weakened after the campus Left helped undermine our national resolve to maintain a strung
miJitary.
Robinson noted that the campus radicals attacked the draft, military
J o h n Fisher, C h a i r m a n of the A m e r i c a n S e c u r i t y C o u n c i l , presents F o u n d a t i o n P r e s i d e n t R o n Robinson a "Distinguished Leadership A w a r d " .
R o b i n s o n , s e c o n d f r o m t h e left, w i t h o t h e r n a t i o n a l defense leaders ( f r o m left t o r i g h t ) , Peter F l a h e r t y of Y o u n g A m e r i c a n s for F r e e d o m , R o b i n s o n , S e n a t o r G o r d o n H u m p h r e y (R., N . H . ) , H o w a r d Phillips of the C o n s e r v a t i v e C a u c u s , Phyllis Schlafly of the Eagle F o r u m . G e n e r a l M i l n o r Roberts of the Reserve Officers A s s o c i a t i o n . G e n e r a l A l b i o n K n i g h t of t h e C o n s e r v a t i v e C a u c u s , a n d P a u l W e y r i c h of the C o m m i t t e e for the S u r v i v a l of a Free Congress.
recruiters on campus, and students' right to participate in reserve officer training programs. "These efforts by the
Left,
a i m e d at young adults
on
campus and in the community, ultimately were successful in weakening our national will and strength. We must never let this happen again." Robinson received the award in part for his efforts in organizing Young Americans for Freedom's "Stop SALT H " project when he served as the Executive Director of the youth group. But Robinson has also brought a strong concern for our national defenses to Young America's Foundation. Since Robinson became president of Young America's Foundation the group has increased its efforts to help educate young people on Communism and our national defense needs. The Foundation sponsors an annual Summer school on Interna-
tional affairs (see story on page 4), sponsors pro-defense literature and films, and encourages increased debates on campus regarding the need to meet increasing threats from the Soviet Union. The Foundation recently sponsored campus app e a r a n c e s by defense m i n d e d speakers including General John K. Singlaub, Phyllis Schlafly, and General Daniel Graham. The Coalition for Peace Through Strength also presented awards to Senator Jake G a m (R., Utah), Senator Henry M . Jackson (D., Wash.), Howard Phillips, Chairman of the Conservative Caucus, Peter Flaherty, Projects director of Young Americans for Freedom, Major General J . Milnor Roberts of the Reserve Officers Association, Phyllis Schlafly of the Eagle Forum, and Paul Weyrich of the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress.
ANNOUNCING.
..
AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE LIBERAL ACADEMIC ESTABLISHMENT Y O U N G AMERICA'S FOUNDATION'S Second Annua ORIENTATION CONFERENCE for College Students American University Washington, D.C. August 3-9, 1980
The Foundation's Orientation Conference is designed for responsible students w h o believe in America and its values. It is aimed at preparing these students to meet the attacks on our system and our way of life that they will face in college. The Foundation does this by rigorously preparing the student for the study of particular academic subjects that bear on public policy. This year's conference i n cludes 2 one-week seminars; one on International Relations and one of Economics and Public Policy. Students may attend either of the seminars or may opt to attend b o t h .
C O S T : $ 3 5 . 0 0 for one seminar; $ 5 0 . 0 0 for both sessions. (Price includes r o o m , meals, books, lectures and tours.) L i m i t e d Scholarships available.
If interested in attending, please return the c o u p o n .
Please send information on Y o u n g America's Foundation's Orientation Conference and an application to:
Name Street City
State
Zip
Mail t o : James B. Taylor, Y o u n g America's F o u n d a t i o n , Suite 8 1 2 , 11800 Sunrise Valley Drive, Reston, V A 2 2 0 9 1
Hiertas;
3
University School .of Law, where he received his Juris Doctorate Degree in 1977. Lacy is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Conservative Union, the United States Justice Foundation, and the Young Republican National Federation. He also serves as the Chairman of Young Americans for Freedom. In 1978 he served as an advisor to Howard Jarvis and was responsible for compiling, drafting, and having introduced the "American Tax Reduction Act of 1979." He was previously a
member of the California Republican State Central Committee and a delegate to the 1976 Republican National Convention. Earlier this year Lacy was nominated for the "Patriot of the Year" award by the Pink Sheet on the Left. Lacy frequently addresses high school and college audiences both as Chairman of Young Americans for Freedom and as a Foundation leader. His study on Sino-American relations was previously published by the Foundation. Lacy notes that he welcomes the new challenges as a Foundation director. " I have dealt with a growing number of college and university students who desperately need the type of high quality programs Young America's Foundation offers. I am convinced that the future of our nation will be determined by the attitudes young adults are forming now. Without the active programs of Young America's Foundation, I'm afraid there will be a dangerous void in the average student's education." The Foundation welcomes James Lacy as its newest director with the knowledge that he brings an excellent educational background and good judgment to the Foundation's leadership.
rently on the lecture circuit for Young America's Foundation. His h i g h school and college audiences are presented with a unique and most i n formative speaker. Prior to his break with communism Luce was one of the left's most promising young leaders. He edited the Maoist oriented journal Progressive Labor and was personally acquainted with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and guerilla war advocate *Xhe" Guevara. Luce split with the Communists when he realized they were only using young people as a pawn in their game of world conquest. Since that time. Luce has become one of the most articulate and effective anti-communist leaders among campus lecturers. He has written a number of books aimed at reaching high school and college students i n cluding The New Left Todax;, The Road to Revolution, and the Intelligent Student's Guide to Survival. Luce has worked on Capitol H i l l , with the American Security Council and with Young Americans for Freedom.
He edits the Pink Sheet on the Left which monitors leftwing activities and is a contributing editor to Human Events and New Guard magazines. But Luce is most effective when he is before a college audience. As a young American who has experienced the Communist movement from the inside, he tells a remarkable story of the abuse of America's young people. And while many of his former New Left leaders s t i l l receive thousands of dollars per campus lecture. Luce has remained far more accessible to student audiences. His current lecture topic is entitled, "The New Imperialism: Cuba and the Soviets in Africa." Young America's Foundation has also made his latest study, with the same title, available free to high school and college students. If you are interested in receiving a copy of The New Imperialism or sponsoring Luce on your campus please write to the Foundation. (Young America's Foundation, Suite 812, 11800 Sunrise Valley Drive, Reston, Virginia 22091).
New
James V. Lacy a 27 year old California attorney, is the newest member of Young America's Foundation's Board of Directors. A resident of Newport Beach, Jim is an active leader in California's and the nation's public affairs. Lacy graduated from Bellarmine College Preparatory School in San Jose in 1970, and received his undergraduate degree in International Relations from the University of Southern California in 1974. Jim received his legal education at Stanford University Law School, where he received a specialized course in Civil Rights legislation, and at Pepperdine
F o r m e r N e w Left leader, Phillip A b b o t t L u c e , t o d a y w a r n s students of the dangers C o m m u n i s m poses t o their f r e e d o m s .
LUCE C O N D E M N S SOVIET A N D C U B A N IMPERIALISM Phillip Abbott Luce has been aptly described as t h e ' ' W h i t t a k e r Chambers of his generation." A former Communist leader. Luce now warns America's students of the dangers of Communism. Luce is cur-
Foundation
troduces
Director
James V .
National Journalism Center
Lacy
in-
Chairman
M . S t a n t o n Evans at a W a s h i n g t o n C o n f e r e n c e .
4 Young America's
Foundation
CoUegiates C a n Benefit from P r o - U . S . Seminars This is a story which is, at the same time, pessimistic and filled with hope. It is pessimistic because of the serious decline in the teaching of history in our public schools and the fact that most young people approach their college years with little basis for understanding America's role in the world and the threat posed to the free world by the Soviet Union and its satellite states. It is, however, also a story; filled with hope—for at least one group, Young America's Foundation, is attempting to do something to correct this unfortunate state of affairs. The dimensions of the problem are not widely know. A clear description of the failure of our public schools in this area may be seen in the results of a test of college freshmen conducted in 1976 by the New York Times. The test, given to 1,856 freshman at 194 colleges across the country, consisted of 42 multiple choice questions—24 basic questions and 18 questions that required more detailed knowledge. The students correctly answered an average of only 21 of the 42. In addition, the students were surveyed on their attitudes towards history and how it was taught to them. Only 49 per cent of the students could name Woodrow Wilson as the President during World War I . Only 16 per cent correctly named William McKinley as being President during the Spanish-American War. Asked to place the following four events in the proper chronological order, only 3.5 per cent could do so correctly: passage of the Homestead Act (1862); Civil Service Reform (1883); the war with Spain (1898); and the inauguration of Theodore Roosevelt (1901). Schools have largely abandoned the teaching of American history in the traditional way and now discuss only what they call "concepts" and "themes." What this means, says Daniel Roselle, an editor at the National Council for the Social Studies, is a lack of focus on history per se and a "lessening of the substance" that students receive. Dates, names, hard facts have been eliminated. At the Paul D. Schreiber H i g h School in Port Washington, N . Y . , for example.
B y A L L A N C.
BROWNFELD
James Taylor, Projects D i r e c t o r of Young America's Foundation, addresses the Foundation's Orientation Seminar.
teacher Jonathan Harris deals with the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan by putting his students through a mock trial of President Truman. Those who really care about American history are clearly shocked and concerned. Jerry West, a professor of American thought and language at Michigan State University, states: "It's almost comical. Who knows where they'd place Theodore Roosevelt in time? Maybe somewhere near Grant. The way they're being taught now is too general, too simple, and so easy." William E. Luchenberg of Columbia University, one of four history professors who served as consultants to the New York Times project, concludes: "This group of students knows remarkably little American history. Their knowledge of the colonial period is primitive. Two-thirds do not have the foggiest notion of Jacksonian democracy. Less than half even know that Woodrow Wilson was President during World War I . " D a v i d Reisman, the H a r v a r d sociologist, attributes the lack of history teaching to an anti-American bias on the part of many educators: "There's a feeling that the country isn't worth much. It's racist, sexist, imperialist. It reflects a d e s p a i r . . . . There's no search for a usable past." Hazel Hertzberg, a historian at Teachers College of C o l u m b i a University, sees history as suffering from the fact that "there is no longer an agreed upon body of knowledge that is thought to be necessary for everyone to have." Once they enter our colleges and universities—with a m i n i m u m of knowledge and information—young
R e p r i n t e d w i t h p e r m i s s i o n f r o m Human
Events
people are taught by men and women who, all too often, are themselves unconvinced of the nature of the Communist challenge and undecided about whether or not their own country is, in fact, the major culprit in the international arena. The conduct of many of our faculty members during the Vietnam War is, with a number of notable and courageous exceptions, a sad story indeed. Jordan Kurland, associate general secretary of the American Association of University Professors, states, "The number of professors with Marxist or strongly anti-establishment ideologies has multiplied tremendously since the mid-1960s. Increasingly, they are being judged on academic merits rather than their political philosophies." Consider historian Eugene D . Genovese. He left the U.S. under pressure in 1%7 after his remark that he "welcomed a victory" by the Vietcong. Now, he is a professor in the history department of the University of Rochester and is serving as editor of the journal Marxist Perspectives. During the next two terms, Marxist-oriented scholars will head the Organization of American Historians and two others have been nominated for top positions in the American Political Science Association and the American Economic Association. "Events of recent years h a v e put orthodox capitalist economics on the ropes," said Samuel Bowles, a Marxist professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts. "We believe that Marxism offers a better way of understanding why the world is in such economic t u r m o i l . " Y o u n g America's F o u n d a t i o n , which has been in existence for 10 years and has built a substantial r a n g e of p r o g r a m s a i m e d at spreading free market and pronational defense ideas, has decided to make every effort to offset these damaging trends. Jim Taylor, a consultant to Young America's Foundation who now serves as assistant to the president of Freedoms Foundation in Valley Forge, Pa., declares: "Young
magazine.
America's Foundation is at war. The battle that has been raging on the college campuses for decades is every bit as important as the real shooting wars we have fought. What good does it do to fight Nazis, Communists and other totalitarians if our people are delivered like sheep to the barbarians by the force of ideas? The ideas that have made this country great—selfreliance, individual liberty, faith in God—are under constant attack in American colleges." Taylor, who entered Swarthmore College in 1968, shortly after returning from military service in Vietnam, could not understand how young Americans could be so misinformed about the nature of communism and America's world role. " I soon found out," he recalls, "how American students could have such ideas. It was not simply because radical ideas were given an airing well beyond their worth, but because the ideas of freedom—when they were taught at all—were portrayed as old, worn, unexciting and irrelevant." He came to realize that the real war was at home. It is Jim Taylor who is largely responsible for o r g a n i z i n g and originating Young America's Foundation's new summer o r i e n t a t i o n seminars for pre-college students and undergraduates. The idea of the seminar is to prepare students who believe in freedom to defend their beliefs in the often hostile environment of the college campus. The first such program took place at the A m e r i c a n University in Washington, D . C , in August 1979. The academic director was Prof. Alan Ned Sabrosky of the Catholic University of America. Lecturers included Dr. W. Scott Thompson, professor of political science at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, who discussed the SALT I I treaty, and Andre Visser of the South Africa Foundation, who addressed the question of U.S. policy in southern Africa. Among the faculty assistants were Robert A . Schadler, director of publications for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Jeffrey Gayner, director of research for foreign affairs of the Heritage Foundation, and Paul Koch. Among the subjects discussed in depth were the origins of the Cold War, the origins of the Vietnam War, detente, the SALT treaties, and the
manner in which the traditional policy of containment was tested by the Vietnam War. The seminar was attended by 54 students from 34 schools in 19 different states. The students were enthusiastic. A junior political science student from Columbia University said: "The seminar most certainly changed my views. I discovered that America really did not play the bad guy in international affairs." Says Ron Robinson, president of Young America's Foundation, "The preservation of a strong and free America depends on building a responsible young leadership who are sufficiently informed and articulate to serve it. The problem for many young people who would provide this corps of leadership is that the mechanism and institutions where such leadership is cultivated are often absent. "America's colleges should provide this mechanism. But responsible young people who value freedom. . . often feel isolated—especially those in an academic setting To cultivate a corps of genuinely capable leaders requires an intensive program that intellectually arms a student for his academic experience; one that i n sures that he will not merely be a passive receiver of what passes for establishment wisdom. To provide this service, the Foundation has established annual summer orientation seminars. These conferences will prepare students for what they will face in their college classrooms in such d i s c i p l i n e s as h i s t o r y , philosophy, politics and economics." The students who attend this seminar will be given an overview of foreign policy as an academic study. Lecture topics for this year's seminar include "Marxist Attitudes on Foreign Policy," "Revisionist Foreign Policy," and "The Liberal View of Foreign Policy." The participants will also learn what major texts are assigned in foreign policy courses and will be provided with a bibliography of alternative readings. As a seminar participant from Miami University of Ohio stated: " I had more or less accepted the idea that Soviet-U.S. relations were part of a multipolar conflict. I now understand that is was and still is a bi-polar c o n f l i c t . . . . Also, I discovered that I had been taught some revisionist ideas in my American history class, specifically in the area of the Cold
War." A junior at the University of California at Santa Barbara said: " I came to see the importance of a stronger armed forces in our foreign relations. The seminar made me consider views I had not considered before." The 1979 seminar was so successful that the Foundation is not only making it an annual event but also has announced the establishment of an additional session concerning economics. Eventually, the Foundation hopes to offer annual alternative programs for all subjects which i n fluence public issues. Jim Taylor says, " I wish there had been such a program when I was a freshman. Today, such a program is needed more than ever. The campuses only appear quiet today. They are boiling under the surface. The same professors are still there teaching the same destructive things and their students of the '60s are back too. But now they are teaching in high schools as well as in colleges. If radicals are no longer burning down campus buildings, it is because they now have offices in t h e m . " The battle of ideas is, in the long run, even more important than the battle of arms. A nation can be defeated as much by losing its will to fight and its belief in principle as it can in battle. Abraham Lincoln said: " W i t h public sentiment, nothing can fail; without i t , nothing can succeed. Consequently, he who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions." "Ideas," as Richard Weaver said, "have consequences." The ideas which dominate our high schools and our colleges are, unfortunately, not those w h i c h lead to a proper understanding of America's world role and the challenge we face from our adversaries. Fortunately, groups such as Young America's Foundation exist to do battle with these intellectual orthodoxies. Such orthodoxies, Disraeli said, are the views of "the g e n e r a t i o n w h i c h is passing." Hopefully, this will prove to be the case. If it does. Young America's Foundation will have played no small part in the effort. (Those interested in attending one of the seminars should write to: Young America's Foundation, Suite 812, 11800 Sunrise Valley Drive, Reston, Va. 22091. Telephone 703-620-5270.)
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COLLEGE LEADER WARNS OF C O N T I N U E D RADICAL INFLUENCE Dr. John Howard, Director of the Rockford College Institute, warned of the Radicals' Spring offensive in an address to the Rockford Chamber of Commerce. Howard noted that while some of the radical Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) formed more militant organizations such as the Weathermen and the Symbionese Liberation Army, the larger portion, *'have p u r s u e d t h e i r Marxist ideological goal with passion and persistence in hundreds of organizations promoting social, political, religious and economic change." The former SDS activists, "remained active agents, progressively contaminating the institutions, the traditions and the norms of virtually every aspect of our society." "There is scarcely a militant movement of today that does not derive much of its intellectual justification, its tactics and its momentum from SDS origins and often from leaders who are SDS alumni. The targets for their highly sophisticated attacks i n clude the nuclear-energy industry, all corporations which do business with South Africa, the CIA and F B I , the defense budget, the J . P. Stevens and
Publisher: Ron R o b i n s o n
Nestle corporations, the oil industry and multinational corporations, just to mention a few that are of direct concern." Dr. Howard noted the radicals attempt to fashion " B i g Business Day" i n t o t h e v e h i c l e for r e n e w e d radicalization. This follows a pattern of the young revolutionaries fanning out to attack one organization or another. "The track record is one of impressive, precisely calculated longrange planning and exceedingly skillful manipulation of the media, and above all, the enlistment of innocent and well-meaning individuals and groups in behalf of the cause."
YALE PROFESSOR RAILROADED BY FACULTY LIBERALS Stories like this don't make the national media unless they involve a Marxist or liberal professor, but it proves that nothing has really changed in American colleges since the late sixties and early seventies. This story was reported in National Review of March 21 by Richard Vigilante, a 1978 Yale graduate. Dr. Thomas Pangle is a young political philosophy professor who had taught for five years at Yale University. He had published scholarly works that were well received by the academic community. He was one of the most popular professors at Yale and the Yale Course Critique labeled h i m one of the school's most brilliant lecturers. Only one problem. Pangle was a member of the "Straussian" school of political philosophy whose method of inquiry runs contrary to the traditional liberal social science view. Its members also tend —though not
necessarly—to be more conservative than others. In the spring of 1979 Pangle came up for tenure. The Yale Political Science Department denied h i m that tenure. The manner in which they did so and a comparison of Pangle's treatment with that of noted Communist historian, Herbert Aptheker, is instructive. In the spring of 1976 Aptheker was denied a temporary teaching position at Yale by the school's History D e p a r t m e n t because of c l e a r evidence of intellectual dishonesty in his pro-Marxist work. When Aptheker's rejection became a cause celebre' of the liberals on campus, the Political Science Department stepped in and gave h i m the appointment. Pangle was not as lucky. When he was denied tenure, he filed a grievance with the University charging he was the victim of prejudice because of his political views and his association w i t h the Straussian school of p o l i t i c a l p h i l o s o p h y . Halfway through the discussions of the three-man committee on Pangle's candidacy, a fourth openly-avowed anti-Straussian was added to the committee. This addition sealed Pangle's fate and the committee rejected h i m . Nevertheless, the University set aside the Political Science Department's decision and established a new committee to examine new candidates—as well as Pangle—for the position. But the University told the Political Science Department that it could reject Straussian professors so long as the rejection was based on academics, not on political or personal prejudice. Pangle resigned in disgust. He now holds a tenured position at the University of Toronto in Canada.
Editor: Eileen Potter
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Road t o S e r f d o m , by Friedrich A. Hayek. The Nobel laureate's classic warning against the dangers to freedom inherent in social planning. $3.00 ($4.95)
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W i t n e s s , by Whittaker Chambers. The story of the Chambers-Hiss confrontation as told by the former Time editor. $7.00 ($9.95)
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U.S. C h i n a Policy Today, by Professor David Rowe. Foundation Advisor, and a distinguished Far Eastern expert, reviews the current events in Sino-American relations, the future of the Republic of China and the future of the Carter Administration's new Far Eastern policies.
Nelson
W h y t h e Soviet U n i o n T h i n k s It C o u l d F i g h t a n d W i n a N u c l e a r War, by Richard Pipes. A well respected Harvard Professor looks at the strategic military questions facing the United States.
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The C o n s e r v a t i v e I n t e l l e c t u a l M o v e m e n t in A m e r i c a S i n c e 1945, by George H. Nash. An excellent history of a vibrant and important
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Dear Friend: If you change the past, can you change the future? Some radical American professors seem to think so. And they are working hard at lying about our past in order to influence the future of our foreign policy. These professors —most of whom claim to be historians—are called "Cold War Revisionist" and their writings and teaching are similar in this way—they are attempting to teach American students that their own country's policies were to blame for creating and sustaining the Cold War. The Soviet Union, they say, was a peace-loving nation anxious to rebuild its war-torn land and to pursue a policy of cooperation and trade. But the aggressive and war-like posture of Harry Truman and his generals scared the wits out of poor old Joe Stalin—so much so that he felt compelled to gobble up Eastern Europe purely as a means of self defense. Ridiculous you say? To anyone who lived then or has read about the period, the radical theory is patently absurd. Malcolm Muggeridge, the distinguished British author and commentator, worked in British i n telligence during World War I I . His comments about the war's aftermath are instructive. He says that the world was prostrate. Of all the great powers, only the United States emerged unscathed and with an overwhelming military might that gave it the power to dictate its own will. The world sat back and waited. What happened? As an Englishman, Muggeridge was amazed. "The silence was deafening," he says. Never had a nation possessing such power so neglected to assert i t . Nothing happened! A power vacuum was created and the Soviet Union stepped in to fill the void.
Of course, most students today were not around after World War I I . And it is an unfortunate fact that most of them, when they enter college, are totally unfamiliar with 20th-century American history. The radical revisionists take full advantage of this in their efforts to persuade young Americans of the evil of American diplomacy. The radicals do this by playing fast and loose with the facts. In a 1973 book. The New Left and the Origins of the Cold War, Robert James Maddox shows how the new-left historians misuse historical data to make their case against America. Maddox, a Penn State historian, compared the radicals' writings with their source material and, while he himself is restrained in his language, the picture clearly comes through that the radicals have not merely misquoted and taken quotes out of context to misapply them, but have perpetrated outright lies about the Cold War period. In spite of their clearly false doctrines and in spite of the work of true scholars such as Maddox, the radical revisionists have had a disturbing degree of success. Their theories are s t i l l d o m i n a n t on m a n y campuses—especially in so-called prestige schools. Many of their students have adopted their views and have gone on to graduate schools for advanced teaching degrees. Even more alarming is the fact that their radical ideas have filtered down into the high school level. Not only are the students of the radicals now teaching in secondary schools, but a number of the most widely-used highschool history textbooks are full of radical sentiment. The radicals' success in the area of American foreign policy is evidenced in the following excerpt from the New York Times of February 8, 1980: T h e revisionists p r o v i d e d the t h e o r e t i c a l u n d e r p i n n i n g for w h a t D a n i e l Y e r g i n , a H a r v a r d h i s t o r i a n , called the " e n d of the a n t i - C o m m u n i s t c o n s e n s u s " a n d for a r e v u l s i o n against w h a t t h e y saw as i n t e r v e n t i o n i s t policies. B o t h the r e v i sionists a n d their o p p o n e n t s agree that a f u n d a m e n t a l c h a n g e in public attitudes in i n d i s p e n s i ble for c h a n g e s in f o r e i g n p o l i c y . "Senator George McGovern, Democrat of S o u t h D a k o t a said "1 t h i n k w e c a m e off the V i e t n a m e x p e r i e n c e feeling it was i m p e r a t i v e that w e a v o i d c o n f r o n t a t i o n w h e r e v e r possible, that w e h a d to d e v e l o p a f o r e i g n p o l i c y of a c c o m m o d a t i o n and detente." E v e n after C u b a n t r o o p s a n d S o v i e t advisors b e c a m e i n v o l v e d in A f r i c a . M r . M c G o v e r n said, " i t s e e m e d to m e that those w h o w e r e skeptical a b o u t the v a l u e of i n t e r v e n t i o n w e r e still r e p r e s e n t i n g the
dominant country."
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and
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W H A T HAS ALL THIS TO DO WITH Y O U N G AMERICA'S FOUNDATION? One of the central aims of the Foundation is to instruct young Americans who are proud of their country and its heritage on how to defend their beliefs—and the t r u t h — i n confrontations with such professors as we have been talking about. Last August in our Washington seminar on international relations the radical revisionists were a specific target of the program. Students were warned of the arguments of such "academics" and taught how to counter them. One student had already been exposed to r e v i s i o n i s t t h e o r i e s a n d did n o t r e a l i z e
it until he had attended the conference. As we reported to you in an earlier issue of Libertas, we are repeating the seminar on international relations in August, 1980 and will be conducting an additional session on free enterprise economics. If you are a student, we welcome your participation. If you know students who may benefit from our program, we would appreciate your putting them in touch with us. In closing I would like to comment on how tragic —even bizarre —is the situation on American campuses and w i t h our educational system in general. We have a situation in which dishonest professors use public money to destroy our history, our heritage, and our will to resist tyranny; a situation in which one of our society's important public institutions—the university—is aimed at that
society
s destruction.
W e have
a
situation in which concerned i n dividuals must band together to form an organization like Young America's Foundation, w h i c h raises h a r d earned money from private citizens to correct the situation. But that is what it comes down to. Without the Foundation and similar groups and without the support of i n dividuals who share our beliefs and concerns, the battle for our past—and our future—would have been over long ago.