Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.comment From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: David Ifshin accepted responsibility for his anti-war role Date: Wed, 4 Nov 92 16:16:30 EST Message-ID: \SE E;COMMENTARY;EDITORIAL;LETTERS \HD David Ifshin accepted responsibility for his anti-war role Your Oct. 29 Inside the Beltway column included an attack on David Ifshin, a senior member of the Clinton campaign staff. The attack is a familiar one, based on Mr. Ifshin's 1970 trip to Vietnam and his anti-war activities while a college student. We write as former and current members of the Reagan and Bush administrations and as committed conservatives. We do so in unambiguous defense of Mr. Ifshin. What the column failed to point out was that Mr. Ifshin is among the few anti-war activists who has assumed personal responsibility for the effect of his conduct on both the United States and the people of Vietnam. Over the past 15 years, he has been among the most committed supporters of pro-democracy policies around the world, specifically including Vietnam. He has actively supported, against many voices within his own party, strong American defense policies and capacities. He has organized conferences of former anti-war activists and has urged them to assume responsibility - as he has done - for the depredations visited on the people of Vietnam by its communist regime. Mr. Ifshin has also been a brave critic of the capture of his party by groups indifferent to free markets and hostile to genuine cultural freedom and diversity. No comment of The Washington Times about Mr. Ifshin, however critical, is likely to be more hostile than those made against him by the extreme left of the Democratic Party. As the campaign dust settles, we hope that The Times will take a more careful look at this remarkable man. We are confident that it will find that, while his views don't always track those of its editorial page, or ours, David Ifshin's balance, competence and integrity have served the country well. MICHAEL J. HOROWITZ Washington WENDELL L. WILLKIE II Washington This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM