Letters to the Editor

by the Readers

War Cries

Lyndon Johnson apparently had a great desire to find a justification to declare war on North Vietnam [Cover story, "Doomed to Repeat," David S. Barry, July 29, 2004]. The second attack on our vessels seemed to provide that opportunity. They really did rush to war and lied about whether we tried to provoke the attacks. When the second attack was revealed to be just the fears of an apprehensive sonar operator, the administration lied about it. All that is probably true.

Vietnam created a cynical America, distrustful of any action our government might take. It has done a great deal to color the debate about the current conflict. Yet there are far more differences than similarities. Johnson asked for and got war powers almost immediately after the Tonkin Gulf incident. After an unprovoked attack on our soil, George Bush got war powers pretty quickly too. It is clearly the City Paper's position that the war in Iraq is wrong, and that is an opinion you are entitled to hold, but trying to make a comparison to Vietnam is nakedly dishonest.
Herbert L. Shallcross
Philadelphia

Woodrow Wilson based his campaign on the slogan "He Kept Us Out of War!" FDR campaigned for a third term by pledging to keep America out of "the European war." Dean Acheson, Harry Truman's secretary of state, said that Korea was outside the defensive perimeter of the United States --while Kim Il-sung's troops were massing at the 38th Parallel. LBJ said in his acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention in 1964 that "We seek no wider war" in Vietnam. April Glaspie, U.S. ambassador under George H.W. Bush, told Saddam Hussein that "We have no opinion on your Arab-Arab conflicts, such as your dispute with Kuwait. [T]he Kuwaiti issue is not associated with America."

And finally George W. Bush, while he was sending U.S. troops to the Middle East, told America that war was "the last resort." Am I crazy, or is there a frighteningly clear pattern here?
Mark F. Walker
Philadelphia

Can You Hear Us Now?

In your neighborhood guide to rentals ["Neighborhood Knowledge," July 29, 2004], you left out Kensington. We are tired of being short-changed. There are those of us who are trying to gentrify this area like Fishtown did, but Kensington is not even listed as a neighborhood. We deserve high home prices too, so stop the discrimination.
Barry Brown
Kensington

For Bella Vista culture, you should have included the Mario Lanza Museum and the Mariani Italian American and Institute. Also, St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi Church, the oldest Italian church in the U.S.
Domenick Lazzaro Jr.
Bella Vista

Correction

In "Here's One to Grow On" [News, July 29, 2004], it was incorrectly stated that people who've served time in a penal institution for a felony within the last five years are ineligible to vote. They are eligible to vote in this year's presidential election, provided they're not incarcerated for a felony on Election Day. City Paper apologizes for the error.