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159441125
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Exceprt from The Commonweal from Leon Sullivan
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159441125
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Exceprt from The Commonweal from Leon Sullivan
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President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)
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159441125
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1952-11-01
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1952
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From The Commonweal, November 14, 1952
MCCARTHYISM
Lake Village, Arkansas
To the Editors: One thing that has appalled me since my
return from the Far East a year ago is the indecent haste
with which so many of the clergy run to embrace and canonize
any one who is "anti-Communist". I would rather return to my
Chinese Communist prison cell than avail myself of Senator
McCarthy's "Protection". He is as great--if not a greater--
threat to American freedom than the military might of the
Kremlin, and, believe me, I do not underestimate either the
Kremlin's might or its cleverness.
My missionary career in China ended in a Communist court in
which accusations were taken as facts, charges as proofs, and
in which the police announced that "defense is not necessary;
we never make a mistake; when we arrest you, you're guilty; a
defense is only necessary in corrupt bourgeois society where
they have corrupt officials."
As a result of that experience, I cling desperately to a
principle that is one of the foundation stones of our democratic
way of life, the principle that man is innocent until he is
proven guilty, and that includes people like Alger Hiss, too.
God help all of us if we ever abandon that principle. If you
must betray democracy in order to save it, why bother?
(Rev.) Leon Sullivan, O.F.M.