Letters

"Quite Inaccurate"

To THE EDITOR:

As most readers have undoubtedly realized, Leon V. Alden's letter in the November Alumni Magazine, purporting to correct President Dickey's convocation address, is itself quite inaccurate.

Mr. Alden states, "United States forces were ordered into Korea, and the 7th Fleet was ordered to protect Formosa, before any action was taken by the U. N. Security Council." This is not correct. The actual sequence was:

June 25 (Korean time): North Korean invasion begins.

June 25 (U. S. time): Security Council meets, calls for cease-fire, and calls on U. N. member nations "to render every assistance to the United Nations in the execution of this resolution."

June 27 (Noon): President Truman orders air and naval forces to help repel invaders, and orders Navy to defend Formosa.

June 27 (10:46 p.m.): Second Security Council resolution, again calling for help against North Korean invasion.

June 30: President Truman authorizes General Mac Arthur to send ground troops to Korea. First American troops arrive in Korea July 1.

Thus, Mr. Alden's statement that President Truman's "order was already in action" prior to "any action" by the Security Council is untrue.

Mr. Alden goes on to comment, "We (the U. S.) are those entrusted with security unto death, unless and until those other sections of the world demonstrate a practical example of a proportionate sacrifice of life and dollars."

What about the 78,000 South Korean casualties (to October 21)? What about, to look back a little, Britain's "finest hour" in 1940? What about the troops, ships, and planes, of the British Commonwealth, France, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Turkey, Thailand, and others now in Korea?

I do not intend to play down U. S. participation in the defense of the free world. Of course, the facts are plain that the U. S. is now playing the leading role. But we are by no means alone, and we have done everything possible to operate through the United Nations, giving strength and meaning to the U. N. The entire tone of Mr. Alden's argument, quite unintentionally I am sure, plays into the phony Communist line of "the imperialist Americans vs. the peace-loving Russians." The world has room for only one "Big Stick" these days—the one waved by the United Nations in the interests of security and peace.

New York, N. Y.

Dick Lauterbach '35

TO THE EDITOR:

Friends of Dick Lauterbach '35, as well as his many readers were profoundly shocked by the news of his tragic and untimely death on September 20. The newspapers carried lengthy obituaries detailing Dick's career during his all-too-brief span after graduation from college. Author of three well-known books, two of them on the best-seller lists: These Are the Russians, Through Russia'sBack Door and Danger From the East; former chief of the Time and Life Bureau in Moscow during World War II; editor-in-chief of the literary magazine Forty-Seven later FortyEight; feature editor of the daily newspaper The Star; also formerly an editor of Life Magazine, as well as a Nieman Fellow and critic and lecturer to audiences all over the country and over both radio and television, Dick crowded more into the short space of his life and particularly in the 15 years since his graduation from Dartmouth than most of us can boast in the far longer life allotted to us.

But it is not merely the titles or offices or the decorations or citations which a man holds that are imDortant to him, or to his family or to posterity. It is what he, the man, really was during his lifetime .... in human terms. Dick had remarkable powers of observation and the gift of quick but thorough assimilation of facts. He had a talent for language; knew how to use words to their maximum effect. He was a true writer, a sane, sensible and accurate observer of our times, who at the same time never lost sight of the fact that this world is by no means perfect....

Dick felt and believed in the need for the integrity of the writer, as an artist; in the necessity for his independence of thought and conception; in his absolute honesty and freedom from restraint at all times. But the maintenance of such standards could not, Dick understood, be realized by any withdrawal from the battle of conflicting ideas which dominates our present day life. He participated in this struggle because, as a clear thinker and accurate observer, he could not remain silent while issues of world-shaking importance existed. During World War II he helped to give us an understanding of what was going on before and behind the scenes in the Soviet Union.... a country which had suddenly become an ally after years of hostility and lack of understanding on both sides. It is probably safe to say that Dick's assignment, in Moscow, during which he reported not only on many of Russia's notables, but, more important,' on the life, conditions, and opinions of many average Russians during wartime, gave him the perspective and understanding which made possible his later achievements as well as his fundamental point of view, of which he was so able an exponent.

What was that view? While there may be many answers to this question, probably the most accurate and succinct statement of it would be to say that the Russians as a people, a government, an economic system and a way of life are neither entirely bad nor good; that we can gain understanding of the problem presented by our relations with that country only by actually observing the facts not by generalizing about them; that in forming opinions about the Russians we must also scrupulously examine ourselves; and that somehow a solution must and can be found to the problem of living with them in the same world, other than atomic war. Dick made a real contribution in presenting these views to the American public, not only in his articles appearing in Life and Time, but also in his books and lectures.

But Dick was not content to confine his observations to the Soviet Union alone. He had become interested in the Far East during his journalistic career, and when the opportunity to study this area of the world in detail presented itself, through an assignment for Life and Time in Japan and China, Dick quickly took advantage of it. Again his illuminating articles in those publications were not the only results of his travels and studies. In 1947 his third and last book, Danger Fromthe East was published. This volume represented Dick at his best. It not only included many interesting and acute observations of a trained reporter, but contained the first, and probably the best analysis and critique of American foreign policy in the Far East .... particularly of Military Government under General Mac Arthur. Dick's understanding and prophetic insight is nowhere better shown than in his statement on Korea, written in this book more than four years ago: "Today the needle of history, which quavers between the magnetic forces centered in Washington and Moscow points directly at Korea."

Dick was not a man who pulled his punches, even if his observations showed that it would be necessary to step upon the toes of the mighty. As he found the facts, so he reported them, even though he fully appreciated that his views would not always be popular.

It is not easy (to put it in the grossest form of understatement) for those who knew Dick best and who loved him, to reconcile themselves to his loss. It was not the usual loss which occurs when a man who has lived a long and full life finally dies. Dick's passing is a personal loss to all who knew him well. It is not an occurrence which takes place and is then forgotten amid a host of other events. On the contrary, as time goes on it will become more important, more meaningful. We will feel it as we try to count the writers and journalists of integrity. We will feel it even more when we look not only for skilled and talented writers and observers of the current scene, but for men who have the honesty to report what they see and hear and the courage forwardly even though they may be unpopular. In the words of one of Dick's good friends, here was a man who, at a time when others ran, stood firm.

Hewlett, N. Y.