Word: scheer
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
From my own experience in such movements and from Monday's demonstration, it seems apparent that due to the temperamental orientation of many of the opponents of the war it is impossible to have any meaningful dialogue in a context which involves a non-select audience. Even if Robert Scheer had debated McNamara it is doubtful that such a meeting could have occurred without a disruptive group insisting upon their dogma as the revealed truth. It is true that this is not a time to stress manners; but on the other hand a certain amount of that which we call...
...would like to suggest that one extremely important point was over-looked in the challenge for the Secretary of Defense to debate Mr. Scheer: Mr. McNamara is not a private citizen, but a public official, and a public official of sufficient importance that any public statement he makes is automatically regarded as a significant contribution to national policy. To expect the Secretary of Defense to engage in a public debate where polemic is the order of the day is thus naive...
Further causes determined the particular form of the confrontation. Richard Neustdat, head of the Kennedy Institute, turned down a petition signed by over 1600 students, 93 teaching fellows, and 52 faculty for McNamara to debate Robert Scheer, editor of Ramparts. He stated academic reasons for this decision, including the "difficulty" of attracting national figures to the Institute. That a public debate should "embarrass" or "upset" a cabinet member, can only demonstrate that he has some lapse of rationality in his record, which he would like to hide. This makes the decision not to debate a political one, motivated...
...this happened before the idea of a debate was broached publicly. It happened before SDS decided to make the challenge official and before petitions demanding a meeting between McNamara and Robert Scheer, editor of Ramparts magazine, were circulated throughout the College and Radcliffe. But once the petitions were distributed, they collected more than 1600 names, including those of some 50 Faculty members and more than 90 teaching fellows. This put some punch behind the proposal, and it also probably began the gradual alienation of SDS and the Institute. For, by going to the community, SDS had informed the Institute -- that...
...rationale for the use of force doesn't stand up to examination. McNamara's unwillingness--or the unwillingness of the Kennedy Institute of Politics--for a debate on Vietnam with Robert Scheer was the crux of SDS's justification. "When a public official reneges on a responsibility," one leader explained, "and when all other avenues are closed, it was necessary to do what...