ARTICLES
THE GOVERNING OF AMERICA
by JAMES RESTON WASHINGTON, May 31 - Watching President Carter try to juggle all the contradictory foreign and domestic problems of the nation during a Presidential election and an economic recession, you have to wonder who can do it and who can govern America. In the last few days, Jimmy Carter has been a cat on a hot tin roof. The Chinese Vice Premier, Geng Biao, has been in Washington wanting more money to modernize his country, and getting it. The French Foreign Minister, Jean Fran...
June 01, 1980, SundayNO' ON SANTA CLAUS?
by TOM WICKER SAN FRANCISCO - A family of four with an income of only $15,000 a year is up against it economically, here in California as much as in any state. And a state income-tax bite of $225.80 doesn't help. So on the face of it, the registered voters in that family should go to the polls on June 3 and vote for Proposition 9, which would cut California income taxes by more than half - in the case of the family cited, by 69.5 percent to only $68.90, a fat savings of $156.90.
June 01, 1980, SundayA BOUQUET OF WINDS
shock of forsythia, a gold brilliance against the drab of a skeletal branch-and-twig world, is wildly acclaimed, like the lead performer in a neighborhood high school play. Certainly not the best, or the most talented. Probably never to be heard of in later years, but at this moment, with bright vivacity, transforming the colorless, bare wood gymnasium, and delighting an uncritical audience with a dazzling solo. And while the applause is still echoing, May rockets in. May is overwhelmin...
June 01, 1980, SundayCHINA'S '4 BIG RIGHTS'
by John Wang The proposal made last month by the Chinese National People's Congress, the nominal national legislature, to delete the ''four big democratic rights'' from the nation's Constitution has suggested to some in the West that the Chinese Government, after a period of liberalization, is once again curtailing freedom of expression. However, I believe Americans have viewed this change only through eyes used to judging political events against their own history and, in this case, have gat...
June 01, 1980, SundayTHE JORDANIAN CONNECTION
By Abba Eban JERUSALEM - Diplomatic convention requires governments to deal with each other and with nobody else. That is the orthodox doctrine, and like many orthodoxies, it is now under challenge. The pretense that existing governments are the only actors in the international system is now giving way, under the influence of public opinion, to a more diverse appraisal of the forces at work. The Israeli Labor Party is now in opposition, but it has been central in Israel's history and ma...
June 01, 1980, Sundayby James Reston; WASHINGTON; Reflections On the Primaries
Now that the Presidential primary elections are over, there are two questions: Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, and Representative John Anderson of Illinois. Should they continue their fight against Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, the clear winners in the primaries, struggling on against almost hopeless odds into the summer nominating conventions and the final vote in November? A hard question; both are arguing for the unity of the nation, and running against Carter and Reagan...
June 04, 1980, Wednesdayby Russell Baker
Vincent Van Gogh used to cut off his ear and send it to ladyfriends as a gift. Afterward he would paint a picture of himself without his ear on. Everybody said he was a loser and possibly crazy. That was before paintings began fetching $5 million per canvas and sometimes $6.4 million at auctions. If people had known Van Gogh was doing such valuable work, they would have spoken better of him. It's wonderful how $5 million in a man's pocket improves the public's estimate of his character...
June 04, 1980, Wednesdayby Edward Koch
Ever since the Mayor's Health Policy Task Force recommended, in 1979, the closing of Sydenham Hospital, in West Harlem, there has been a continuing, and increasingly heated, debate. I am not troubled that elected officials, community representatives, and union officials have disagreed with the decision. After all, as a member of Congress I opposed hospital closings in my district. What does trouble me is the intensity and divisiveness of the rhetoric. I have been accused of ''genocide,'' likene...
June 04, 1980, Wednesdayby Robert Dobrow
The task of building socialism in a small country 90 miles from the largest and most powerful capitalist power in the the world has long been a formidable problem for the 10 million people of Cuba and their revolutionary leaders. The departure of thousands of Cubans to the United States is above all a reflection of this difficulty. While the United States news media have seized upon the refugees as proof of the ''failure'' of Cuban socialism, the recent pro-Castro demonstrations by mill...
June 04, 1980, Wednesdayby Claudia Wright
At a meeting of Arab League foreign and economic ministers in Amman, Jordan, on July 5, Iraq will propose a new offensive, aimed at Western European governments, for achieving Palestinian statehood. Iraq takes the view that there is no longer any possibility at this stage of history for a negotiated settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Negotiation, Iraq believes, cannot be effective so long as the Israelis enjoy military superiority and America's unquestioned backing and assistanc...
June 05, 1980, Thursdayby William Safire
Harangues in this space and elsewhere calling for an official inquiry into the reasons for the failure of the mission to rescue the American hostages in Iran have been answered - in part - by the appointment of a Pentagon commission headed by a retired old salt, Adm. James Holloway 3d. The Holloway commission will limit its study to shortcomings in planning and hopes to tell the Joint Chiefs that all concerned did a grand job, but that next time somebody should check the weather and s...
June 05, 1980, ThursdayWhy Is This Man Smiling?
In the last days of the primary campaign, Senator Edward Kennedy flew around the country in what seemed the most hopeless of ventures. Mathematically, it was all over: President Carter was sure of a delegate majority. Yet those who saw Kennedy saw a man enjoying himself hugely. Early one morning he was on the docks in Newark, at 6:30 the next at an aircraft plant gate in Burbank, Calif. Along with serious talk there were easy jokes, often self-mocking. Looking at an old adobe building ...
June 05, 1980, Thursdayby Jesse H.
Oppenheimer 086,2,675,0SAN ANTONIO - Maybe it is just Presidential fever that is imposing a national inferiority complex on this country. We are barraged daily by declarations of our national weakness and impending demise. Bombarded by politicians, columnists and the defense lobby, we are convinced (the polls show it) that America is a weak, pitiful giant and that the Russians are taking over the world. But if we examine Soviet advances, we note that gains in recent years have been mad...
June 05, 1980, Thursdayby Michael L. Pesce
Mayor Koch's recommendation in his 1981 budget to abolish the Department of Ports and Terminals, transferring its functions to various other agencies and providing a savings of $916,000, may be well-intentioned but in the long run may be a costly, damaging blow to recent efforts to revive New York City's side of the port. The Mayor's efforts to save money should be applauded. However, any proposal to eliminate a department that is part of a vital economic sector generating thousands of...
June 06, 1980, FridayFOREIGN AFFAIRS ARMS AND DETENTE FOR FRANCE
The 40th anniversary of the British Army's evacuation through Dunkirk and of the subsequent fall of France has been receiving unusual attention here. It probably is not entirely a coincidence that there is also an intense debate on defense policy, paralleling in a number of ways the debate in the United States, despite important differences in assumptions and capacities. The decision to attend the Moscow Olympics and President Valery Giscard d'Estaing's chat with Leonid Brezhnev are on...
June 06, 1980, Fridayby Philip K. Howard
New York City should not submit to threats by real estate interests and meekly hand over an East Side playground in a swap in order to prevent destruction of two small parks in the middle of the private Tudor City development. Tudor City, 12 apartment houses with 5,000 tenants, between 41st and 43d Streets and First and Second Avenues, has two private parks, north and south of 42d St. A simmering controversy over construction of apartment towers on the park sites erupted over the Memor...
June 06, 1980, FridayUnhappy Warriors
The final primary round on Super Tuesday confirmed what has been apparent for weeks - that Democrats are profoundly unhappy about nominating Jimmy Carter or Edward Kennedy, so much so that many threaten to bolt either candidate in the fall. But if the nomination of either thus risks a divided party, so does the only alternative, the ''dumping'' of Mr. Carter for some as yet unidentified third contender. Any such effort would have to rely mostly on Mr. Kennedy's considerable delegate st...
June 06, 1980, FridayNEW, PUBLIC USES FOR HISTORY
The discipline of history in the United States made a crucial error about 40 years ago. It tragically narrowed its audience to students and other academics. Though the research that historians have been writing for each other since then has often been excellent and truly innovative, a larger public audience, which had been addressed by good historians in the 19th and early 20th centuries, has been neglected. As a result, the public's historical sense has dwindled. Thus, the reading p...
June 07, 1980, SaturdayThe Electronic Cadger
I went to a mail-order store to order a tire-pressure gauge. ''I want to order a tire-pressure gauge,'' I said to a woman at a computer terminal. ''What is your telephone number?'' she asked. ''218-2676,'' I said. She played the phone number on the keyboard, then studied the results on the computer screen. ''Your name is Herman Irving,'' she said. ''How did you know that?'' I cried. ''You live at 723 Elm Street,'' she replied. ''Astonishing,'' I said. She looked pleased. ''I'll ...
June 07, 1980, SaturdayLOST AND FOUND
My phone rang at 2 A.M. I did the only sensible thing: I unplugged it. The doorbell woke me early the next morning. Two cops were standing in the hallway. In almost 20 years as a reporter, I'd never seen cops look more disgusted. ''You Bernard Lefkowitz?'' one said. I nodded. ''Call your mother,'' the other said. My mother is 69 years old and I had visions of her in a hospital, gravely ill. Or worse. ''Is she alive?'' I asked. ''She's sick,'' one cop said. The other shook his head. ...
June 07, 1980, SaturdaySEARCH 33388 ARTICLES:
‘Focus’
The filmmaker Jeff Scher presents an abstract celebration of the New York City Marathon.
‘The Silent Majority’: Directors’ Statement
In the first video of the Op-Docs series, a film by Penny Lane and Brian L. Frye revisits Nixon’s speech from Nov. 3, 1969.
Multimedia
9/11: A Decade Later
For the tenth anniversary of 9/11, Op-Ed contributors reflect on what they wrote after the attacks.
A Month of ...
“A Month of...” is a series about life’s minor notes and quotidian details.
The Journey to Europe
The cartoonist Patrick Chappatte journeys to La Chebba, a Tunisian port town, where an exodus is about to start.
Op-Eds About Osama bin Laden
A sampling of Op-Eds about Osama bin Laden shows how perceptions of the man evolved as he transformed from an obscure fundamentalist to the embodiment of global terrorism and hatred for the United States.
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