Mrs. Anne Adams
415 Central Park West
New York, New York 10025

29th. December, 1972

Dear Mr. Kissinger:

Given the background of your family, I wonder how you
can lend your support to the sort of war crime now going
on for which people were executed at the end of the last
war. I would have hoped that you had more sensitivity
and conscience, but apparently not.

My heart goes out to the people of Hanoi, I was one of
Hitler's 'non-military' targets in London in 1940.

Wesley United Methodist Church
Warehouse Point, Connecticut

Rev. Daniel D. Allen, Pastor
53 North Main Street
Warehouse Point, Conn. 06088

Dec. 26, 1972

Mr. Henry Kissinger
The White House
Washington, D.C.

Dear Mr. Kissinger,

The following is a copy of a petition sent by some members
of our church to President Nixon on Dec. 24th.:

TO: PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON, D.C.

WE, THE UNDERSIGNED, EARNESTLY REQUEST THAT THE BOMBING OF NORTH VIETNAM NOT BE RESUMED AFTER THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE. WE ALSO SUGGEST THAT THE ADMINISTRATION CONSIDER THE POSSIBILITY OF INVITING THE SECRETARY GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS OR HIS REPRESENTATIVE, TO JOIN THE PARIS PEACE TALKS IN HOPES THAT A WAY TO PEACE MAY BE FOUND IN 1973.

Signatures: Daniel D. Allen
Kenneth Allen
Don Naegeli
Marty Allen
Janet Allen
Ruth D. Allen
Harvey L. Stallings
Mr. & Mrs. Guy L. Vaughn
Mr. & Mrs. Conrad Williams
Mr. & Mrs. Harry Grindle & Son Warren
James Hutsenpiller
Edward W. Bancroft
Mrs. Robert Boutin
Vinson D. Naegeli
Mrs. Vinson D. Naegeli
Elizabeth S. Allen

We appreciate your efforts for peace thus far. Please
don't give up - for humanity's sake.

267 So. Aldine Avenue
Elgin, Illinois 60120

January 9, 1973

Dr. Henry Kissinger
The White House
Washington, D. C. 20510

Dear Dr. Kissinger:

We are appalled beyond words at President Nixon's resumption of bombing North Viet Nam. This bombing like the previous punishment our nation has inflicted on that poverty ridden country during the last decade has killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of civilians - innocent men, women and children. In addition, we have devastated their homes, hospitals, schools, railroad stations, airports and other vital facilities. We have destroyed the countryside and vegetation. The Viet Namese will not be able to grow crops on much of their land for many years to come.

All this we have done in the name of democracy. We have failed terribly. We have protected one unwanted dictator after another including the present Mr. Thieu. Our involvement has fattened the pocket books of dishonest South Viet Namese generals some of whom have reportedly been involved in drug traffic to the United States. Our men in the armed forces are completely demoralized and many of them have become drug addicts.

In the name of humanity, we appeal to you to end this conflict. The only precondition we should have is the release of the P.O.W.'s. We fail to understand how we can expect North Viet Nam to return our P.O.W.'s before we stop the war and above all stop killing them. We have attacked North Viet Nam, they did not attack the United States.

We were very disappointed that your "peace around the corner" announcement did not come to be true. It is high time the United States stop killing people of other lands. Let us pull out from all over the world. There is no need for our influence or presence in any other country except in our own. Likewise we do not want the influence or military presence of any other country in the United States. Only aid we would consider giving other countries is economic aid, food and technical assistance.

Again, we appeal to you to pull out of Viet Nam immediately and let them handle their own affair. Thank you very much.

From
Mrs. Else Askim,
President Harbitzgt. 25a,
Oslo 2.
Norway.

Oslo, December 20, 1972.

Dr. Henry A. Kissinger,
Special Advisor to President Nixon,
The White House,
Washington, D.C.

Sir:

I don't expect it is of any interest - but I cannot help
expressing my views concerning the new turn in the war in Vietnam.
I cannot understand the reaction of so many Americans and other
people around the world - apart from the Communists, their
intentions are obvious enough - as I see it, you have been doing
your utmost and had an inhuman task trying to establish an agree-
ment and cease-fire with the North Vietnamese representatives in
Paris. I must confess that I never trusted them, they did not
intend to find a common solution and to agree to a cease-fire.
They just want to continue the war and spend America's resources
and thus win in the long run. It is terrible, both the war and
the danger, there and everywhere where the Communists penetrate
all over the world.

I want to express my deep admiration to you for the untiring
patience you have shown during the many, many difficult conferences
you have had in Paris. I can very well understand your deep
disappointment when your hopeful expectations for Peace did not
come true. And I can imagine how the North Vietnamese repre-
sentatives - smiling - presented many new difficulties for every
one solved.

I - and many with me here in Norway - also understand the
President's reaction now. He cannot leave the South Vietnamese
in the lurch and he has to establish the strength and might of
the United States, in the hope that that may lead to Peace - which
otherwise seems unattainable. I don't agree in the accusations
against you and the President that the promise for Peace was just
a means to win the election - as things were then, there seemed
to be hope of a speedy solution. Miss Jane Fonda seems to me a

I think it is a shame to express criticism the way we see and
hear Mr. Kennedy and many with him do - they should rather
support this enormous effort of the Americans to stem the
flow of dangerous and evil influences and power.

Once more:- I support you and agree with you, - although I
of course feel that this war is terrible, not least for America.

I have been translating for the NATO in Brussels
for several years and follow the international
affairs rather closely.

p.t.o.

[LC]

BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY
WALTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS 02154

December 22, 1972

Albert S. Axelrad
Rabbi

Office of the Jewish Chaplain
and Adviser to Hillel

Professor Henry Kissinger
2527 Waterside Drive
Washington, D.C.

Dear Professor Kissinger,

For God's sake, speak out now! Tell the people how Richard Nixon has betrayed you and your peace initiatives. Expose his war designs. We offer our pledge that you will be treated seriously on all our campuses.

Signed,

Rabbi Albert S. Axelrad, Brandeis University
Theodore G. Falcon, C.S.U. Northridge
Rabbi Juda H. Mintz, Queen's U. Ont.
Ronald Roness, Hofstra U.
Steven Shaw, Rutgers University
Basil Herring, Bernard Baruch, CUNY
Martin Kowal, U. Of Mass., Amherst
Aaron Leventhal, Ohio State University
Laurence D. Lauer, Univ. of Mo., Columbia
Marc A. Gellman, Northwestern University
Norberg Samualson, Princeton University
Michael Monson, U. Of Pennsylvania
Richard A. Marker, Brown University
Rabbi Moshe Adler, Los Angeles Valley College
Mel Granatstein, University of Manitoba
Earl Vinecour, So. Illinois University
Hillel A. Fine, Tulane
Henry Rabin, Los Angeles Hillel Foundations
Jerrold Goldstein, Los Angeles City College
Ray Abramovitz, U. of Iowa
Joseph Levine, U. of Rochester
Elinore Levine, Univ. of Rochester
Ben Zion Levin, Rochester Institute of Technology
Max D. Ticktin, Washington, D.C.
Ben Mayer, Univ. of Toronto
Stanley A. Ringler, U. of Miami, Florida
Nat Rosen, Brown Univ.
Gerald Goldman, U. of Michigan
Arthur A. Jacobovitz, Univ. of Washington
Stanley H. Bard, Univ. of Illinois
Larry S. Moses, Indiana University
Barton Lee, Arizona State University
Jim Kessler, U. of Texas at Austin

Evanston, Ill., January 1, 1973

Dear Dr. Kissinger:

I am an 18-year-old voter and strongly opposed to President Nixon's
Vietnam policy. I urge you to use your influence as his adviser
to implement an immediate withdrawal.

I regard with abhorrence the hypocrisy with which the means of
attaining a "just and honorable" peace is being attempted. America's
reputation is being smeared and all feelings of good will establiished
by the President's historic visits to the Soviet Union and the People's
Republic of China are being lost. Is this the way to establish a
"generation of peace" ?

Vietnam is a senseless mistake that goes beyond description; let's
get out NOW!

[10]

Mrs. Noel F. Busch
South Road, Millbrook, New York 12545

Dear Mr. Kissinger:

We would like to add our voices to the multitude of protest against the renewed savagery against North Vietnam and to urge you to bend every effort to persuade President Nixon to end his ego trip and go back to the peace table so that Americans need no longer be ashamed of their leader and their country in the eyes of the world.

December 25, 1972

Kissinger: a tragic cowboy

[LC]

By MARTIN F. NOLAN

WASHINGTON—The faceless victims always seem the most poignant in a political tragedy. In the umpteenth resumption of American bombing in North Vietnam, it still seems so, even though the war has now produced a new VIP victim, another noble tragedian.

The suffering of Henry Kissinger is not akin to that of the families of 39 American airmen now made suddenly fatherless and uncertain.

Henry Kissinger does not feel the physical pain that hundreds of North Vietnamese civilians have suffered at the hands of B-52 ordnance.

But Kissinger, in the twinkling of these sudden weeks, has made that dramatic denouement. He was at first faintly frivolous and amusing, as successful at being "a secret swinger" as he was at secret diplomacy.

THIS TOUCH OF buffoonishness nonethe-
less didn't wreck his reputation during the se-
cret talks. It may have seemed on those transat-
lantic flights that he was a marionette being jerked by either
Richard Nixon, Nguyen Van Thieu or Le Duc Tho, or all three.
But there was hope.

Nolan

But now, in failure, he turns out to be not only a lady killer but a killer of hope as well. He is on the road from being popular to being pitiable.

In a remarkable interview with Oriana Fallaci of the Italian magazine L'Europeo, he boasted of his solitary qualities, of acting alone in contempt of public opinion:

"I've always acted aloof. Americans admire that enormously. Americans admire the cowboy leading the caravan alone aside his horse, the cowboy entering a village or city alone on his horse.

"SOME BELIEVE THAT I carefully plan whatever conse-

quences on the public one of my Initiatives or efforts may have.
They believe that this is a constant preoccupation of mine. Or
the contrary, the consequences of my action, I mean public
opinion's verdict, have never worried me. I'm not asking for
popularity. I'm not seeking it."

Such a comparison, such a statement, could be a psychological case study. Here is a former bookish don with no experience in political life acting at the peak of extraconstitutional power all the while enjoying playboy celebrity status, and what does he think of his clients, the American people? He thinks they're cowboy-worshippers.

KISSINGER SEEMS also edging towards a defense mechanism against failure in his emulation of that Nixonian favorite, John Wayne. But the interview, conducted Nov. 4 in the White House and reprinted in the Dec. 16 New Republic, also shows massive and tragic vanity?

"There will be peace. We're determined to obtain it and we shall have it. It will come within a few weeks or even less ... we've been conducting these negotiations for months, and you newspaper people wouldn't take them seriously. You kept on saying they wouldn't end in anything concrete ... Peace, I repeat, will come within a matter of weeks after talks are resumed."

THIS SENSE OF EGO, this self-assurance, surpasses Kissinger's predecessors as White House Svengalis, McGeorge Bundy and Walt Rostow. They had all the answers, too, on how to end the Vietnam War.

"I'm certain of finding a worthwhile job. I don't want to think about it now," Kissinger told Fallaci. Indeed, people in New York still fawn over Bundy because he is president of the Ford Foundation. Rostow, who advised a less-fashioable President, charms people at cocktail parties in Austin Texas.

Kissinger may find elegant exile in Whittier College, perhaps or as curator of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library. Out there he will at least find company. Hollywood is filled with tragic, ex-cowboys.

* * *

* * *

a Washingtonian born and bred
social connections.

However, that Anne does all her
shopping, cleaning, laundry, elec-
and plumbing besides taking care
skey daughters, Lisa Slobhan, 7,
ylor, 6.

ACTIVITIES

takes weekly lesson in piano, ice-
tennis, golfs with Bob whenever
me, does all her own landscaping
ing, works daily on her fluent
nds time to be active in the Chevy
Board.

She do it?

ay I was brought up," Anne says.
were strict disciplinarians and so
parents gave me iron discipline
ove. That's what my girls get. I'm
my, believe me, and I'm sick to
issiveness."

ked for a long time in the ghetto on
projects and learned a lesson then
get: "Those little kids in Head
better behaved than most children
middle class homes. I'm constantly
the way parents today let their chil-
ly with anything."

the McCloskey home in nearby
confirms that Lisa, A dainty little
Andre, a dark-haired sprite, are
. They brought home hand-made
esents for mommy from the pub-
attend, curtsied politely to the
Sam, the white cat, and Rouge,
German Shepherd.

ERS INSISTED

the car-fixing business because
older brothers," Anne explained.
I learn how to change a tire be-

MOSES CAMMER

91 WEST GARDEN ROAD • LARCHMONT • NEW YORK

10538

December 20, 1972

Dr. Henry A. Kissinger
The White House
Washington, D. C.

Dear Dr. Kissinger:

I write to you as a fellow American and Jew. Monday evening I heard, with anguish and shame, that the U.S. has resumed bombing of North Viet Nam.

We surely have long ago fulfilled whatever "commitment" we had made in Viet Nam. Thousands of American lives lost and billions of dollars expended insure that no one could now question our resolution. At this time we can gain honor all over the world if we at once unilaterally cease-fire and pull out all our armed forces from Viet Nam, and arrange--which should be easy--for a simultaneous release of our P.O.W's.

Only a brave and strong nation could dare do that! Let us now win whatever glory or honor can be salvaged from this tragic war by acting like the brave and strong nation that we can be.

Our present course is so shameful! And for a Jew (who knew of and felt Hitler's oppression) to be so closely connected with the most intensive rain of bombs and death in history--this is especially horrible. We are a people of humanity, learning and peace! You have no place--no one does--among the merchants of death!

MC:EK

Los Angeles Times

HARRISON GRAY OTIS, 1881-1917

HARRY CHANDLER, 1917-1944

NORMAN CHANDLER, 1944-1960

OTIS CHANDLER, Publisher

ROBERT D. NELSON
Executive Vice President and General Manager

WILLIAM F. THOMAS
Executive Vice President and Editor

CHARLES C. CHASE, Vice President—Production

ROBERT C. LOBDELL, Vice President—Administration—General Counsel

RICHARD S. ROBINSON, Vice President—Assistant to the Publisher

VANCE L. STICKELL, Vice President—Sales

JAMES BASSETT, Associate Editor

JAMES BELLOWS, Associate Editor

ANTHONY DAY, Editor of the Editorial Pages

ROBERT J. DONOVAN, Associate Editor

FRANK P. HAVEN, Managing Editor

6-Part II

THURSDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 28, 1972

Beyond All Reason

There in his splendid isolation sits the President, consulting with few, explaining to none, directing against a small Asian country a rain of death and terror that to the whole world makes the United States of America appear a barbarian gone mad.

No hope of marginal advantage in further negotiations with the North Vietnamese can justify such terrible retribution for the breakdown in negotiations. No hope of slight improvement in the fortunes of the South Vietnamese government can justify the blackening of our good name, the searing of our self-respect, that this murderous bombing inflicts upon this nation. No presidential anger at the slipperiness of the North Vietnamese can justify the damage done by this massive assault to the people's confidence in the Presidency and in this President.

The President is trying to obtain the unobtainable. He is trying to secure through negotiations a guarantee for the future of South Vietnam that a decade of heavy American fighting has not been able to obtain.

It cannot be done. The United States has for a decade prevented the collapse of South Vietnam. The United States has for a decade poured military aid into South Vietnam to enable it to prevent its own collapse. The one thing the United States has not been able to do, because it cannot, is to breathe into the South Vietnamese that sense of nationhood, that fiber of the will, that will in the end make the difference between an independent South Vietnam and a South Vietnam influenced or controlled by North Vietnam.

There are no guarantees in Vietnam. There are only possibilities; at best, probabilities. A negotiat-

ed settlement that would bring peace to all Indochina has always been the preferred resolution of the war, even though no one has ever thought that a negotiated peace would ever be anything but uneasy and inconclusive, would ever be much more than a pause in the long struggle over the future of Indochina. But at least a negotiated settlement would bring about an end to the killing that has devastated the peninsula for a generation.

That kind of settlement slipped from our grasp in October, in large part, apparently, because the President believed that the guarantees for South Vietnam were too weak, and the threats to South Vietnam too great.

Now the President, once again, is trying to bring about the solution he desires by the use of enormous military force, by an aerial bombardment more fearful than any the world has ever seen. This in the face of all the evidence in this war and others that the bombs will not achieve the ends sought. This in the face of the deaths of yet more American airmen, in the face of the taking of yet more of those very prisoners whose release is one of the few legitimate aims the United States has left in the war.

Of all the errors made in the war, of all the confusions of illusion and reality, of all the willful uses of arbitrary power, this is one of the most shocking, because the means used are so grossly disproportionate to the ends sought. If a negotiated settlement is still possible, then let us quit the bombing and find out; let us be willing to take the risks for peace necessary to end American involvement and bring the American prisoners home. If a negotiated settlement is not possible, then let us quit Indochina, with the reasonable expectation that the release of the prisoners will follow.

RD #2
Ilion, New York 13357

January 5, 1973

To Messers Nixon, Kissinger, Javits, Buckley, and Mitchell

Re: the renewed bombing

I wish someone would explain the military necessity for massive B-52 bomber strikes on Hanoi. What is there that threatens us militarily that justifies such massive destruction? Unless, of course, one counts little boys who might otherwise grow up to carry guns. I wish to go on record as being horrified that such a thing is going on in my name and financed by my taxes. I confess to relying upon second-hand information. However, men like Ramsey Clark and Telford Taylor are people of integrity, thoughtful, intelligent, and with years of public service behind them. One has to give weight to what they say, whether or not one is overjoyed in the hearing.

(Does anyone remember the story of David and Goliath? Is it possible that we don't recognise which one we are?)

There is so much talk about 'peace with honor'. How is it to come from a war that has no honor? And what, exactly, does that phrase 'peace with honor' mean? Does it mean that we will have peace when President Thieu's job is guaranteed? The man, so dedicated to the principles of democracy, who threw the man who ran second to him in the last election in prison, where that luckless soul still sits so far as I know. The man whose regime is so involved in black market activities, at the expense of the American taxpayer, and heroin traffic, at an even greater and more tragic expense to American young people. Can this be the 'peace with honor' that we seek?

Honor used to be one of the finest words in our language. I should hate to see it debased further. When people debase their language, they debase themselves, sometimes irrevocably. It is important, if not mandatory, to say what one means and to mean what one says. To do otherwise has become suicidal.

Perhaps it is not possible to be sane and honorable in a world apparently gone mad and wallowing in corruption, but shouldn't we at least try? I pledge moral followership---who is going to provide moral leadership?

MRS. ALFRED R. CRAWFORD
BULLS HEAD ROAD
CLINTON CORNERS, NEW YORK 12514

DEC. 1, 1972.

DR. HENRY KISSINGER

IS THE PENTAGON REALLY SMARTER THAN YOU ARE?

I DO NOT KNOW ANY GENERALS.

I DO KNOW A GREAT MANY AMERICAN CITIZENS, HOWEVER,
AND I BELIEVE THAT EVERYONE OF THEM JOINS ME IN
SAYING***STOP THE USELESS AND CRIMINAL BOMBING,
AND GET OUT OF VIETNAM NOW.

SINCERELY,

THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
HUDSON EAST DISTRICT

December 30, 1972

GEORGE CZAR
DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT

4 ROSALIND ROAD
POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y. 12601
(914) 452-1524

Dr. Henry Kissinger
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington, D.C. 20000

Dear Dr. Kissinger:

As the year comes to a close without the peace that was
promised us over two months ago, I feel a great sense of despair
for my country and its leadership.

I hoped and prayed along with millions of others that
peace was truly at hand in late October, and that this promise
was not merely an election eve ploy to neutralize the "peace
vote" which might have gone to Mr. McGovern. What happened
in November is history -- what has happened since is insane!

How can our President closet himself behind a wall of
silence at a time like this? How can he be allowed to act
so irresponsibly and not have to account to the American people,
let alone to the world? How could he undercut your hard work
over so many months by literally bombing the Vietnamese, both
north and south, back "into the Stone Age"?

I am enclosing copies of a few documents which you
might like to share with others in and around the White House.
I am addressing them to you, hoping that they will have a better
chance of reaching the right person than if I addressed them to
Mr. Nixon, who seems to be well insulated from what many of
his constituents are thinking or feeling.

Please do all that you can to halt this mad bombing and
get back to the business of serious negotiations for peace.
For us, as a Christian nation, professing to believe in the
Prince of Peace, to celebrate His birth in the manner that we
have this year is more than sinful.

God forgive us all -- for we who are the people share
fully in the folly of our government. We are equally guilty,
and equally shamed.

Our honor, our greatness, our moral leadership has been
sullied as never before in our history. Help us regain what
we have left of it, and I for one pledge to do all that I can
to help our nation regain its sense of rightness and righteous-
ness in the eyes of the world.

[10]

MESSAGE OF HTS HOLINESS
POPE PAUL VI
FOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE

DAY OF PEACE
January 1st, 1973

You upon whose shoulders rests the responsibility for guiding the vital interests of mankind: statesmen and diplomats; and you, representatives of the nations of the world; men of philosophy, science and letters, industrialists, trade unionists, military men and artists, all you whose work influences the relations among peoples, states, tribes, classes and among the families of the human race; and you, citizens of the world; young people of this rising generation, students, teachers, workers, men and women; you who know what it means to search, to hope, to despair, to suffer; and you who are poor, who are orphans or victims of the hatred, selfishness and injustice that still exist in our world -- do not be surprised if again you hear our voice. It is a voice that is weak but yet strong, like the voice of a prophet of the Word standing over us and filling us. We are your advocate who seeks not his own interest, for we are the brother of every man of good will, a Samaritan to whoever is weary and waits for help, a Servant -- as we call ourself -- of the servants of God, of truth, freedom, justice, development and hope. In the year 1973 we raise our voice to speak to you again of Peace. Yes, of Peace! Do not refuse to listen to us even though Peace is a theme about which you may be fully informed.

Our message is as simple as an axiom: peace is possible! A chorus of voices assails us: we know it. Indeed it besets us and stifles us -- peace is not just possible, it is real. Peace is already established, we are told. We still must grieve for the numberless victims of war whose blood has stained this century more than all centuries past, this century which is the highpoint of progress; the horrible scars of recent wars and civil strife still mark the faces of our adult generation; and even the still open wounds renew in the limbs of the new population a shudder of fear at the thought of the mere hypothesis of a new war.

But wisdom has finally triumphed; weapons are still and are rusting in the armories, useless instruments of a madness which has been overcome; worldwide and serious institutions guarantee safety and independence to all; international life is organized by now undisputed documents and instruments which immediately work to solve, through a listing of rights and justice, every possible controversy; dialogue between peoples is continuous and sincere; and, in addition, an immense intertwining of common interests brings about solidarity among peoples. Peace has now come to civilization. Do not disturb that peace, we are told, by calling it into question. We have other new and original questions which need to be treated: peace is a fact, peace is secure; it is no longer a matter for discussion!

Really? Would that it were so!

But then the voice of these spokesmen of peace victorious over every contrary reality becomes more timid and uncertain, and admits that there are truly unfortunate situations here and there, where war continues to rage fiercely even yet. Alas! It is not a question of wars buried in the sands of history; it is a question of wars here and now. Nor is it a question of passing episodes, but of wars which have been going on for years; nor is it a matter of superficial disturbances, because these wars weigh heavily upon the ranks of well-armed men and upon the unarmed masses of the civilian population. Nor are they easy to solve; they have exhausted and rendered impotent all the skills of negotiation and mediation. Nor is the general equilibrium of the world left undisturbed, since they breed an ever growing amount of injured prestige, of unrelenting desire for revenge and of endemic and organized disorder. They are not something that can be ignored, as though they will solve themselves with time, because their poison seeps into souls, corroding humanitarian ideologies, becoming contagious and transmitting itself to the youngest generation and carrying with it a fatal inherited commitment to revenge. Violence becomes fashionable again, and even clothes itself in the breastplate of justice. It becomes a way of life, abetted by all the ingredients of treacherous evildoing and by all the wiles of cowardice, of extortion and of complicity, and finally presents itself as an apocalyptic spectre armed with the unheard of instruments of murderous destruction. Collective selfishness comes to life again in the family, society, tribe, nation and race. Crime no longer horrifies. Cruelty becomes fatal, like the surgery of hate, declared legal. Genocide is seen as the possible monster of a radical solution. And behind all these horrible visions there grows through cold-blooded and unerring calculations the huge economy of arms, with its hunger-producing markets. And so politics resumes its unrenounceable program of power.

And peace?

Yes, peace! Peace, it is said, can survive equally in and to some extent exist side by side with the most unfavorable conditions of the world. Even in the front-line trenches, or in the lulls in warfare or amid the ruins of all normal order there are quiet corners, quiet moments. Peace immediately adapts itself to them and, in its own way, flourishes. But is this vestige of vitality, which we can speak of as true

STATEMENT

As laity and clergy of several religious congregations of Dutchess County, we are stricken by the renewed massive bombing in Vietnam and the silence of the President in revealing his purposes. We cannot comprehend nor support these latest actions of the administration.

On Thursday morning, December 28, we discussed personally our concerns with our Congressman, Mr. Hamilton Fish, Jr., and we have taken steps to communicate further with other responsible authorities in government. We also are initiating action to communicate with our religious congregations, asking that they devote themselves to fervent prayer and other actions to marshall those forces which may bring an end to this terrible conflict.

We perceive a sense of demoralization and despair within us and those around us that is of great danger to our country and to the world. The war in South East Asia has passed beyond the realm of the defensible and comprehensible. There is no dignity nor honor left for a people when basic decency and conscience are so disrupted.

We call for a cessation of massive bombing, a return to the Paris talks, and the speedy signing of a ceasefire agreement.

We believe with Pope Paul in his New Year's statement that "Peace is Possible." We are convinced that peace is necessary. The time for peace has come.

Dr. B. Haggott Beckhart
Unitarian Fellowship

Rabbi Morris Bekritsky
Congregation Schomre Israel

Rev. Raymond Cunningham, Jr.
Church of the Regeneration
Pine Plains (Episcopal)

Rev. George Czar, District
Superintendent, Hudson East
District, New York Conference,
United Methodist Church

Mrs. Frances Dowling
First Presbyterian Church

Rev. Ernest R. Falardeau, S.S.S.
Eymard Seminary, Hyde Park

Mrs. Polly Gage
St. James Episcopal
Church, Hyde Park

Rev. Walter R. Henderson
Ebenezer Baptist Church

Rev. Arthur E. King, Jr.
First Presbyterian Church

Robert H. Lipschutz
Vassar Temple

Rev. Petty D.W. McKinney
Smith St.A.M.E.Zion Church

Mrs. Martha S. Miller
First Baptist Church

Rev. Richard S. Parker
Trinity United Methodist
Church

The Most Rev. Joseph M.
Pernicone
Episcopal Vicar of Dutchess
County

Rev. Paul H. Rutgers
First Presbyterian Church

December 28, 1972
Poughkeepsie, New York

December 28, 1972

Dear Friends:

On Thursday morning, December 28, 1972, we gathered informally for a meeting with Congressman Hamilton Fish, Jr. in Poughkeepsie.

We met to express to Mr. Fish our very great concern over the breakdown of peace negotiations and the renewed destruction in Southeast Asia.

As a result of that meeting, we felt morally committed to communicating our concern and urging individuals and members of the religious communities of our area to respond in their own appropriate ways.

We are including with this letter a statement which attempts to express our own individual feelings.

Our statement and our concern is but one of many. We call your attention, for example, to the pastoral letter issued by national religious leaders last week, and to the special message of Pope Paul VI for the celebration of the Day of Peace, January 1, 1973, which we have excerpted to accompany this letter.

We call your attention, too, to the national "Religious Convocation for Peace" to be held in Washington, D.C. January 3 and 4. Details of that gathering are as follows: Headquarters church: New York Ave. Presbyterian Church, 1313 New York Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. Registration, Jan. 3, 6 - 8 p.m. ($5.00). 8:00 p.m., evening service. Jan. 4: 8:00 - 8:30 a.m., coffee and donuts. Briefing at the church until 10:00 a.m., followed by visitation on Capitol Hill, each to make his own appointments with legislators.

We are all fighting back the feeling that there is nothing that individuals can do that can change the course of affairs, but the fact remains that ultimately it will only be individual action that will be effective. We must believe that it is still possible for communications to the President, to the Congress, and to other officials, such as Dr. Henry Kissinger, to play a significant role.

Sincerely,

Dr. B. Haggott Beckhart
Rabbi Morris Bekritsky
Rev. Raymond Cunningham, Jr.
Rev. George Czar
Mrs. Frances Dowling
Rev. Ernest R. Falardeau, S.S.S.
Mrs. Polly Gage
Rev. Walter R. Henderson
Rev. Arthur E. King, Jr.

Robert H. Lipschutz
Rev. Petty D. W. McKinney
Mrs. Martha S. Miller
Rev. Richard S. Parker
The Most Rev. Joseph M. Pernicone, J.C.D.
Rev. Paul H. Rutgers