Dershowitz on Leftists

If Dershowitz and his “associate” are as careless in doing research for his clients as he was in “researching” the left’s response to recent events in China, one can expect a marked increase in the population of Death Row.

For example, he mentions the National Lawyers Guild. As chairman of the International Committee of the NLG, I would expect to be contacted for such a survey--naturally I was not. So allow me to share with your readers what I will be telling our delegates.

The killings in Beijing were abominable. But who should be surprised by it? After all, for over a decade and a half Beijing has been backing the genocidal and murderous Khmer Rouge in Cambodia that killed 1 million to 3 million during its bloody history. Worse, since Nixon’s visit to China in the early 1970s, there has been a de facto alliance between Washington and Beijing that has caused many key opinion molders to look the other way or mute their voices when, e.g. millions were killed during the ill-fated Cultural Revolution. Because of this alliance, which has been based on anti-Sovietism, Beijing has backed the UNITA bandits in Angola, the Khomeni-ist forces in Afghanistan, U.S. bases in the Philippines--and just about every other cockeyed scheme the State Department could conjure up.

It was inevitable that after Gorbachev’s visit to Beijing this alliance would begin to crumble. The wonder is it happened so quickly.

Part of the problem in this country is misrepresentation and/or ignoring of the views of the left. This makes for less than comprehensive analysis and debacles. Dershowitz’s article both exemplifies and contributes to the confusion.

GERALD HORNE

UC Santa Barbara