The Best Defense...Is A Good Offense

To the Editors of the Crimson:

While ostensibly protesting Harvard's acceptance of a South Korean grant, the December 14 letter by Robina Fraser of the Spartacus Youth League reflects the the same deviousness and dishonesty that it attributes to the University. Regardless of the political and moral considerations involving South Korea's gift to the East Asian Studies Department, the abundance of empty slogans and pseudo-intellectual phrases in Ms. Fraser's letter only succeeds in further obscuring these issues.

The letter immediately hints at the subtle but inflammatory language it will employ to continue its audience of Harvard's moral wantonness. Ms. Fraser refers to the "miserably impoverished lives of the workers and peasants of South Korea," and to the Park regime's supposed repression of South Korean dissidents. Besides relying on the intentionally vague but emotionally arousing word "regime," this statement clarifies neither the living conditions of South Korean citizens nor the nature of their protests against the government. The letter then refers to "Harvard's long history as a bulwark of U.S. imperialism," another blatant example of verbal deceit. Such a comment makes no relevant point about either Harvard or American history, and it has no function other than to incite the uninformed passions that the League seeks to exploit.

Following this auspicious beginning, Ms. Fraser's letter degenerates into a wasteland of cliche and propaganda. Spewing out such terms as "class conscious protest," the "Imperialist puppet regime," and "the Stalinist deformed workers state," the author fights to disguise her letter's basic implausibility. Reading like a typical showpiece for any sort of disreputable organization, the letter struggles for legitimacy by using technical jargon and meaningless prose. Appropriately enough, the letter closes with further allusions to "imperialist spies," "imperialist research," and "imperialist butchery."

What does all this mean? I would say to the League, if you have a point then state it. But don't try to deceive me with your beguiling language, specious arguments and vacuous phrases. Your spokesman has managed to write a stirring tirade against nothing, and in her zeal she has destroyed whatever honesty she started out with. More importantly, your group once again has justified Orwell's famous statement that political language is the defense of the indefensible. MichaelKorn'80