Lies on Che Guevara
Like most readers of the Militant, I had never heard of
Daniel M. Collier or his "book on revolution" until I read
his letter to the New York Times challenging the response
by Mary-Alice Waters to the latest round of lies published
in the Times claiming that a political division existed
between Che Guevara and Fidel Castro.
On the basis of third-hand knowledge, allegedly from a discussion with a Bolivian army officer, Collier tried to back up what the Times sees fit to print on this question (see "Lies in the Times on Che Guevara and the Cuban revolution" in the Dec. 18, 1995, Militant; and "The New York Times, Che Guevara, and the Cuban revolution: a further exchange" in the Dec. 25, 1995, Militant).
The university catalogue here in Pittsburgh lists a single item by Daniel M. Collier, a slim book entitled Revolutionism, co-authored with Abdul A. Said and published in Boston (Abdul A. Said and Daniel M. Collier, Revolutionism, Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Inc., 1971).
Readers may be interested in the following sentences from the book's introduction: "Daniel Collier has coauthored this book not in his capacity as an officer in the Armed Forces or as a member of the faculty of the United States Military Academy, but as an individual concerned with the contemporary nature of revolution. His views are his own and do not necessarily reflect his official affiliations."
According to the University of Pittsburgh catalogue this is the only thing Collier ever published. There is no other biographical information on him or his coauthor.
Curious about what kind of take a U.S. Military Academy employee would have on revolution, I began to read the book. But I had to give up after a dozen pages of total gibberish.
It's illuminating to see the kind of "sources" the big- business press unearths to raise a hullabaloo and keep on reiterating lies on the off-chance that something may stick.
Matilde Zimmermann
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Internment of Japanese
I enjoyed reading the article about "How Roosevelt
provoked Tokyo's attack," in the December 11 Militant. It
may be purely subjective on my part but there is more
debate about how that war [started] than ever before. I
noticed it during the anniversary memorials around the
bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Recently I came across a section in Ronald Takaki's book about migrants in California, Strangers from a Different Shore, which looks at the Asian migration to the United States and is worthwhile reading.
In the chapter on "The Watershed of World War II," Takaki footnotes Peter Irons's book Justice at War: The Story of the Japanese Internment Cases (New York, 1983), p. 20 and says:
President Roosevelt was willing to make a tremendous hole in the Constitution. In fact, he had been considering the internment of Japanese Americans for a long time.On August 10, 1936, President Roosevelt had written a memorandum to the Chief of Naval Operations: "One obvious thought occurs to me - that every Japanese citizen or non- citizen on the island of Oahu who meets these Japanese ships or has any connection with their officers or men should be secretly but definitely identified and his or her name placed on a special list of those who would be the first to be placed in a concentration camp in the event of trouble."
Thus, five years before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt was already devising a plan for the imprisonment of Japanese aliens and citizens in a "concentration camp" without due process of law P. 390.
Takaki does not pursue the reasons for Roosevelt's thinking. World War II is mythologized as the last popular war in the U.S. because it fought the fascists.
Too little is said about the U.S. capitalist support to fascists in Spain, and in Germany. I still recall arguments about how Mussolini in Italy made the trains run on time.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, like his uncle Teddy Roosevelt, was a conscious builder of the American empire. C. Frank Glass was right on the mark 50 years ago when he pointed out the war guilt of the Wall Street brigands and their government in Washington.
I must also say that it's been a real treat to get news about Puerto Rico from Ron Richards's reports to the Militant. Right on!
Catarino Garza
Modesto, California
U.S. entry into WWII
Thanks to the Militant for the timely article, "How
Roosevelt provoked Tokyo's attack on Pearl Harbor," in the
issue dated Dec. 11, 1995.
On page 134 of the Pathfinder book Labor's Giant Step author Art Preis makes a reference to a book entitled, President Roosevelt and the Coming of the War; a Study in Appearances and Reality.
This book by author Charles Beard goes into extreme detail on war preparations by Washington preceding its entry into World War II. The strategy of the U.S. policy was "maneuvering the Japanese into firing the first shot" - as it became known in the Roosevelt cabinet.
Other issues in Mr. Beard's book include:
1) The anti-war rhetoric of the Democratic Party platform of 1940.
2) How the once powerful isolationist and anti-war groups were manipulated into supporting the war effort.
3) U.S. aggression toward Japan including the freezing of all Japanese assets, denunciation of the Japanese trade treaty of 1911 and the embargo on export of numerous strategic materials like scrap iron.
4) The rejection of a Pacific conference with the Japanese Premier in August 1941.
5) The secret conference held between Roosevelt and Churchill in August 1941 which demanded equal access to raw materials in Asia (specifically rubber from Malaysia and chromium from Manchuria).
6) Through the interception of messages, such as the famous "winds message," the U.S. government realized that Japanese proposals were a last ditch effort before aggression and in fact knew that Pearl Harbor was coming.
Much of the material in the book is taken from the Congressional Joint Committee at war's end. Those interested in the Militant article of 12/11/95 will find this book by Mr. Beard to be most illuminating.
Combining the Beard book with Art Preis's work, documenting the role of the Stalinists in the U.S. labor movement at that time, one can have no trouble understanding how the U.S. working class was dragged into fighting the war.
Robert Kissinger
Chicago, Illinois
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