Reader Mail
Not So Hot
Calvin Coolidge’s Katrina. The left goes begging. Plus, Sinatra greatest hits and much more.
(Page 7 of 7)
IF MEMORY SERVES…
Re: Tom Bethell’s
The Good War? Maybe Not:
Mr. Bethell: While a case can be made that the alliance with Poland was a foolish exercise, it ignores the real issue: Poland should never have become the flashpoint of the War. Beginning in 1933, Hitler made it well known what his plans were and in fact began carrying out much of them. His speeches, published writings and actions all pointed to a determination to rebuild the German empire and seek revenge on the perpetrators of the Versailles Treaty. Yet every tangible step he took in open violation of treaties and international law was met with a wink and a nod giving him license to move further toward his goal. Even he was surprised by the lack of any tangible reaction to his moves.
The bottom line is he could have been stopped many years before Poland became an issue and in due course perhaps overthrown or defeated by the German people in an election. If we assume that England et al. should have ignored any alliance with Poland and allowed Hitler to conquer it unopposed then at what point and at what cost in the future would the western democracies confront the most powerful military power in the world armed perhaps with nuclear weapons and controlled by a madman?
It is quite easy to sit in comfort seventy years from the events
and view them through a prism of today but to those who died or
managed to survive the worst of the War the fault does not lie in
whether Poland should have been defended or foolish alliances
made, but why did those who had the power impose Versailles on
the German people and why did they not stop a madman from
fomenting a World War.irrelevant.
— Stephen J. McCann
Salisbury, Maryland
BOLTS OF INK FROM ABOVE
Re: Quin Hillyer’s Unsurprising
Bigotry:
I wonder if there exists a divine causality between decreased
religiosity and falling newspaper sales. Could the god of
newsprint be angry?
— David Govett
Davis, California
Letter to the Editor View all comments (21) | Leave a comment
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http://spectator.org/archives/2009/01/06/new-year-same-sinatra
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Alan Brooks| 1.6.09 @ 8:53PM
at least Coolidge wasnt a member of ANY chattering class.
Silence is not only golden-- it is platinum as well.
Jerry L. Wallace| 1.7.09 @ 11:19AM
Calvin Coolidge had three goals as president: first, reducing the great financial debt that had accumulate during the Great War; second, cutting tax rates and eliminating taxes on low wage earners; and three, maintaining tariff stability. He achieved all three of these goals. There were other goals, too, such as joining the World Court, national railroad reorganization, and reforming the Federal bureaucracy. However, Congressional opposition, particularly from the so-called radicals or western progressive in the Senate, blocked them to varying degrees….The depth of the depression of the 1930s was not due to the policies of the Coolidge Administration. Rather, it was the policies followed by his successor, Herbert Hoover, and the Federal Reserve Board that turned an ordinary economic slump into a disastrous worldwide depression. This situation was compounded later by Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal policies that extended the depression in the US long after most of the world had returned to prosperity….Calvin Coolidge was not a great president. He fought no great wars. He led no great social crusades. Essentially, he was XIXth Century in his political outlook. He thought that democratic government was best managed at the State and local level, rather than at the Federal, which, he saw, as having a very limited and specific charge. He believed that religious values were essential to the survival of our democracy and often made this point of this in his speeches. His philosophy of government in many ways was close to that of Grover Cleveland, who he much admired….As president, he set out his basic goals–and he achieved them. With this, the people were satisfied. When he left Washington for Northampton, MA, the country was more prosperous than it had ever been and peace smiled down upon this Republic. That is not such a bad record. Let me observe that the 1920's was the last decade when the America people were truly free to do their own thing without government interference and control….I might add also that Calvin Coolidge was our first radio president. He made skillful and pioneering use of the new media, which was even commented on favorably by The New York Times. Notably, he put in place the regulatory framework and basic policies that govern it to this day.
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