The Low Countries. Jaargang 5
(1997-1998)– [tijdschrift] The Low Countries[p. 88] | |
Extract from Letter to Baudouin
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[p. 89] | |
Eisenhower shouldn't be so spineless; he certainly knew the Russians from the war! He had to know what those Russkies had in mind for Western Europe! Castro shouldn't slag off when it came to the United States like that; he would pay dearly for it one day. And then what would happen to all those world famous Havana cigars - three of which he would like to be sent in return for his good advice. Khrushchev should stop playing with fire. Hadn't his people suffered enough during the Second World War? It was the height of imprudence to so recklessly provoke America, which had the most powerful army in the whole world, by banging on conference tables with his shoes! And Lyndon Johnson should finally put an end to that business there in Vietnam. It could be done in a jiffy if he were only willing to take that topsecret laser gun they were talking about in the Reader's Digest out of the deep freeze. And so on. This was clearly a substitute for taking real social action, but nobody would be able to reproach him later with having done nothing to try and improve the state of the world. That my mother, fearing complications that might prove too much to bear for a working man's family, threw most of these letters in the fire is of little consequence. I have briefly brought all this to your attention in order to prove to your majesty that my complaint is not based merely upon a whim2.. And yet at the same time, I would like to make this distinction: it is not my intention to appeal to you to intervene personally in repairing an error of administration nor to provide you with any political or military advice. From Letter to Baudouin (Brief aan Boudewijn. Antwerpen / Amsterdam: Elsevier Manteau, 1980, pp. 5-7). |
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