Dissecting Chomsky and Anti-Americanism

American Conservative ^ | 9-6-04 | George Shadroui

[headsonpikes]

Socialism is THE modern religion - never forget that.

Chomsky is an exceptionally minor prophet.

[montag813]

Why dissect Chomsky? Just ignore him.

[montag813]

Every week I go to my local Barnes and Noble and move every single one of Chomsky's books to sections wehere they are likely to sit undetected for a long time. If I can keep even one young mind full of mush from being exposed to this evil piece of excrement it is well worth it.

[Ptarmigan]

Noam Chomsky is a friend of Robert Faurisson, a prominent Holocaust denier. I notice Holocaust deniers are actually hard core leftists and Communists. They are often in academia, like Arthur Butz, Norman Finkelstein, and Roger Gauraudy.

[JasonC]

Of course. Chomsky is not complicated, he is just an unreconstructed Marxist. The US is the leader of world capitalism, capitalism is the root of all evil, therefore whatever attacks the US is good and whatever the US does is just an attempt to perpetuate its own unjust nature and existence and is therefore evil. There is nothing complicated about it. As for playing up the power of propaganda, it was and is the Marxist's left stock explanation of every failure of revolution to arrive since 1917. It is also a disguised wish - they wish they could run the world through their own propaganda, that its power were limitless and in their hands.

[Fedora]

Thanks for the ping. Interesting--I was just reading an interview with Chomsky the other day where he mentions, "I had been closely involved with VVAW and the groups that became VVAW before they became that." (Interview, Noam Chomsky, March 7, 1992 (pdf file))

[Donna Lee Nardo]

"His career underscores John Diggins' observation on the academic left: "Having lost the confrontation on the streets in the sixties, they could later, as English professors in the eighties, continue it in the classroom." (The Rise and Fall of the American Left, p. 356.)"

So darn true about chomsky and the entire left.

[risk]

I wonder if Chomsky was around when they were talking about hunting down pro-war congressional members?

INT: In fact the Lexington thing, it was much smaller scale than any of
the things that you talked about before. Did you then get involved in it
because it was there? You––it just happened to be something that you got
involved in?
NC: Well, I was spending a huge amount of time in things of this kind.
I was in and out of jail. I could easily give seven talks a day. I was very
much involved. I had been closely involved with VVAW and the groups
LEXINGTON ORAL HISTORY PROJECTS, INC.
Noam Chomsky, Interviewed 3/7/1992, Page 11
that became VVAW before they became that. Around that time, 1970,
veterans' groups were beginning to organize around the country.
INT: Did you know the leaders of them?
NC: I knew a lot of them, yes. And remember that the people who are
called leaders are usually not the leaders. What I just described is typical.
Every popular movement, as far as I know that ever existed, the people who
actually did it are mostly unknown, and the people who are known are the
people who sort of floated to the surface because, it needed someone visible.
Take the Civil Rights movement. If you asked who was a leader of the
Civil Rights movement, everyone will say Martin Luther King. And Martin
Luther King certainly performed very valuable services. But the people
who actually organized and led and ran the Civil Rights movement are
SNCC [Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee] workers whose
names nobody knows. They were the ones who were in the front lines every
day, and they did all the work and set up a situation in which Martin Luther
King could come to town and be very visible. And it's not that he was…you
know, everyone understood this inside and appreciated it, and everyone
thought that's a fine service. But that's not what it means to lead a
movement.
It was the same with the VVAW. The actual organizers are people with
many of whom I'm still in contact. They were doing things like organizing
war crimes trials around the country and other activities, which led finally to
the formation of the VVAW, Veterans Against the War. I think this must
have been one of the early organized activities as a group.
INT: Had you known about what their plans were and what this was part
of, what it meant to demonstrate?
NC: I wouldn't swear that I knew this particular thing. But it's very
likely because I had pretty close contacts with a lot…I was giving talks for
LEXINGTON ORAL HISTORY PROJECTS, INC.
Noam Chomsky, Interviewed 3/7/1992, Page 12
them and appearing at their affairs and doing all sorts of things, and had
been for some time.
INT: Did you know any of the organizers who came to Lexington?
NC: Well, my memory is hazy on that. I'm sure I was in contact with
them, but I don't really remember the details. I should stress again that this
was just one of hundreds of things that I was doing of the same nature at the
same time. It was constant, absolutely constant.
INT: When did you actually stumble onto this? Exactly what…at what
part of the weekend did you…?
NC: Did I get involved?
INT: …find yourself on the Green?
NC: I knew––as soon as I knew that there was going to be any
problem––I knew that I was going to be there. Because I always was. And
so whenever it turned out that there was going to be an…whenever it was
discovered that there was going to be an encampment and that the Selectmen
didn't agree to it, of course I just went as I did to all such things.
INT2: Now normally––can I jump in here?––normally Carol, your wife,
probably wasn't at many of the things?
NC: That's right.
INT: And then this one she was. So that would be…?
NC: That was different, yes.
INT2: How did that work?

[Fedora]

I don't know if Chomksy was involved in the assassination discussions. I did learn he travelled to Hanoi in 1970 and met with the premier. His activity went beyond just writing.

[risk]

I wouldn't be surprised if some of his rhetoric inflamed their passions enough to get them on the subject.

[Fedora]

I found a few more details on the VVAW-Chomsky relationship. Gerald Nicosia, "Home to War", 39-40 and 75 mention that Chomsky was the academic advisor to the VVAW's Larry Rottmann, spoke alongside Rottmann at antiwar events, and spoke at an event where what became the Winter Soldier Investigation was being planned by the Citizens Commission of Inquiry into U.S. War Crimes in Indochina (CCI) on behalf of the Bertrand Russell Foundation.

[risk]

I found a few more details on the VVAW-Chomsky relationship.

The latest Fedora finds are here at #31. He links the VVAW's Larry Rottmann to Noam Chomsky, who advised the VVAW.

[nopardons]

WOW...OH WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now,how are we to get this info out there,besides E-mailing it to EVERYONE all of us know?

[nopardons]

bttt

[nopardons]

bttt

[nopardons]

bttt

[Fedora]

Thanks for helping distribute the info. A clarification just to make sure I'm being clear on this part, as I see the way I worded it may have been a bit imprecise:

"Chomsky was the academic advisor to the VVAW's Larry Rottmann"

What I meant here is that Chomsky was Rottmann's academic advisor at the same time Rottmann was in the VVAW--in other words, he was advising Rottmann as a student, at a time when Rottmann happened to be in the VVAW, not advising the VVAW per se (though as the other information indicates he was indeed in contact with the VVAW). Here is the exact quote from Gerald Nicosia, Home to War, 39, with my explanatory comments inserted in brackets:

"[Rottmann's] perception of the 'madness' in Vietnam propelled him to join the Vietnam Veterans for McCarthy [the faction of the VVAW that was supporting McCarthy in the '68 campaign], but it also had a good deal to do with his beginning graduate studies in education at the Cambridge-Goddard School Graduate School Program at about the same time--where, fortuitously, antiwar activist Noam Chomsky was his advisor."

While I'm at it, here are the quotes on the other information I mentioned:

Nicosia, 40: "Following Chicago [i.e., the Chicago 1968 Democratic National Convetion riots], Rottmann started speaking at high schools with Jeremy Rifkin, one of the founders of the Citizens' Commission of Inquiry into U.S. War Crimes (CCI), and later ended up participating in two of the International War Crimes Tribunals in Oslo, Norway. As part of VVAW delegations he traveled to Canada and to Paris to meet with the North Vietnamese and to offer his insights to negotiators on both sides in the Paris Peace Talks. He also made a tour, partly at his own expense, through Italy, Germany, England, France, Norway, Finland, and the Soviet Union, speaking to civic groups, schools, and peace organizations. At various times, he spoke and debated alongside major peace movement activists, including Noam Chomsky."

Nicosia, 75: "[Bertrand Russell's secretary] Ralph Schoenman aimed to set up a war crimes tribunal in the United States. Rifkin and Ensign offered Schoenman their services, and together they organized a meeting to discuss My Lai at Town Hall in New York. Appearing were a number of excellent speakers, including Jonathan Schell, who had written 'The Village of Ben Suc' (about a Vietnamese village that was completely razed in an American effort to 'save' it); and Noam Chomsky, the brilliant linguistic theorist from MIT, who told the audience that 'once yo create a free fire zone [areas designated by the U.S. military where any Vietnamese might be killed], that is ipso facto a genocidal plan."

Regarding that last quote, I'll add a note that the time frame on that meeting was January 1970; Chomsky's visit to Hanoi which I mentioned in a previous post was about this same time, as reported in a May 1970 article in the MIT journal The Tech [Note: The text which follows was apparently scanned in and there were some "scan typos" which I've made minor corrections to; I may have missed some so if something looks weird that's why, LOL! Bolding is also mine, not in the original]:

Harvey Baker, "Chomsky: A Journal to North Vietnam", The Tech, VOLUME 90, NO. 23 MIT, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS TUESDAY, MAY 5, 1970

(Editor's note: Professor Noam Chomsky, of the Department of For- eign Literatures and Linguistics, a noted radical scholar, recently visited North Vietnam, making him one of a few select Americans to have visited that country during the last five years.

With his two colleagues, Cornell professor Douglas Dowd and Richard Fernandez, head of the Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Viet Nam, Prof. Chaomsky spent a week in Laos --having missed his first plane to North Viet Nam. In Laos, his many conferences included an audience with the leader of that country, Prince Souvanna Phouma. When Prof Chomsky reached North Viet Nam, he was received by the premier of that country, Pharn Van Dong, and allowed to travel unaccompanied wherever he chose in Hanoi and the countryside.

On May 1, 1970, Prof. Chomsky graciously consented to give The Tech this interview detailing his experiences in the countries he visited, and explaining his position on the future of South East Asia. The following is part of that interview, as the complete text was too long to reproduce in its entirety.)

The Tech: Prof. Chomsky, could you tell us where you went, who you saw, and what the purpose of ,your South East Asian trip was?

Prof. Chomsky: Yes. I have had an invitation from the government of North Viet Nam to visit that country for a long time, but I wasn't able to accept it until just recently. I went directly to Hanoi, though on the way, I stayed over for about 8 days in Laos.

When I got to Hanoi, I spoke to premier Pham Van Dong, to the editor of the party newspaper Hoang Tung, and to other officials of the government. I also met with the mathematicians and linguists in North Viet Nam's Polytechnic University. In fact I spent several hours lec- turing there. Later, I travelled to an agricultural province, Thanh Hoa, south of Hanoi, and spent a few days there, during which I visited agricultural cooperatives and factories, and talked to some people working there.

The Tech: Who accompanied you on the trip, Prof. Chomsky?

Chomsky: I travelled with Douglas Dowd, a professor at Cornell, and Richard Fernandez, head of the Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam. Dick Fernandez was particularly concerned about the question of American prisoners being held in North Viet Nam. He did in fact communicate with some of them, bring them letters from home, take their letters back, etc.

The Tech: Did your group return withames of any American prisoners whose fate was hitherto unknown in this country?

Chomsky: Yes we did. I've forgotten the exact number, but there were perhaps about 80 new names. There are now a total of about 350-400 names that have come through in this fashion, and that is apparently just about, the total list.

The Tech: We have heard though that there were upwards of about' 1400 Americans missing and unaccounted for, not just 400.

Chomsky: Well, the United States government gave a figure of 1400, but they were unclear about that. In fact, you see, this is the total of all Americans missing or lost anywhere in Indochina. This includes, of course, lots of people who were lost in action in Laos. If you check, you find the American command says 200 Americans are listed as missing in Laos alone, and so that, for example, has to come out of the 1400, and there are any number missing in action in South Viet Nam. It's not unreasonable that out of 1400 missing in action in the entire Indochinese theater that only 400 are living as North Viet Namese prisoners.

[SNIP]

[nopardons]

FYI...David Horowitz was,at one time,Bertand Russell's confidant,dog'sbody,secretary,whatever.

[Fedora]

I didn't know that--interesting. I see he talks about that here:

Spies Like Us

As I described in my book "Radical Son," I had my own encounters with a KGB agent in London in the mid-'60s, when I shared the New Left faith. I was wined and dined at London's fanciest restaurants, my gracious host plying me with questions about my employer, the philosopher Bertrand Russell. Russell was a leader of Britain's "peace movement" but something of a thorn in the Soviets' side, having demanded, in one of his more noteworthy news conferences, that Moscow send MiG fighters to North Vietnam to shoot down American planes. An odd position for a self-described pacifist, but in those days Russell was being guided by an American radical named Ralph Schoenman, who was not about to let such small inconsistencies stand in the way of his revolutionary agenda.

Russell was also at one time a close associate of Ludwig Wittgenstein, whom a recent controversial book has argued was the head of the KGB spy ring at Cambridge that Kim Philby, etc. belonged to--not sure if that thesis holds up or not but it's a theory worth investigating, IMO.

This is also interesting:

The Bertrand Russell Peace Lectures

The Bertrand Russell Peace Lectures

The Russell Peace Lectures are a prestigious annual lecture series, sponsored by the Centre for Peace Studies at McMaster University. The series, which began in 1985, focuses on issues related to the maintenance of world peace based on respect for human rights, democracy and justice. Past lecturers are:

• E.P. Thompson
• Mary Kaldor
• Sir Shridath Ramphal
• Randall S. Forsberg
• Richard Falk
• Elena Bonner
• Edward W. Said
• Vandana Shiva
• Ursula Franklin
• Ramsey Clark
• Ken Coates
• Joseph Rotblat
• Janice Gross Stein
• Johan Galtung
• Cynthia Enloe
• Noam Chomsky

[nopardons]

You also need to highlight Said,who is the radical Islamonazi,who "teaches" at Columbia;or did,I'm not certain of his present status.

I'm glad that I can add a few factual bits to the research.:-)