JMK, RIP (cont.)

[Michael Pugliese]

That press release from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. reminds me of that
oft-quoted, Richard Nixon sound-bite, "We are all Keynesians, now..." Was
that from a speech, a press conference, or what? And being only 10 when he
instituted wage and price controls (under what economic model? who was on
his CEA? Just found the names with a search with Google-Herbert Stein,
William Fellner, Alan Greenspan, Paul MacAvoy, and Burton Malkiel. (Who were
Fellner, MacAvoy, and Malkiel? Sounds like a law firm!) How effective were
wage and price controls anyway? What level of resistance was there by
unionized workers (wildcat strikes esp.) to this attempt to hold down wage
increases? Was the White House reading those Monthly Review pieces at the
time by James Crotty(???) on inflation being
a measure of the strength of the working class vis. a vis. capital, balance
of class forces... (what was that thesis called-wage-push or some such?).
Not an economist, moi, but, wouldn't the higher prices for that proverbial
basket of goods hurt the pocketbook until the next COLA took hold (and how
much do/did those match the overall rate of inflation anyway? Since the
wages of the w/c have been stagnant or declining since 1973 anyway, and
benefit packages have been ruthlessly whittled away, was Nixon's first term
the last Presidency
that, at least in the material sense (Guns and Butter, yum, cf. Irving
Bernstein book on LBJ economics or is it Diane Kunz, Basic Books, 1999?)
that the woikers had it good? Final question, what with Nixon going to
China, and
wage and price controls, wasn't the right-wing up in arms over the betrayal?
(and not just the right, how about the Maoist sectors of the left?yesterday
looking for another piece, I happened upon an article in Socialist
Revolution/Review, issue # 10, July-August 1972, "China and the Left, "by a
Gianni Sofri, a writer for Les Temps Moderne, Sartre's rag, instructive
reading- as was reading the letters in the back from a prisoner at Attica,
and a letter from some academics in New Jersey wanting to estalish a
"Marxist Intellectual Commune" in the Pacific Northwest are worth a look!
Unfortunately the Pacific Northwest communes now are the Aryan Nations loons
Cf.In God's country :the patriot movement and the Pacific Northwest
by Neiwert, David. Published by Washington State University Press,c1999) Pat
Buchanan musta been pretty busy explaining his bosses
actions (and Henry K musta locked his door if Pat walked toward the NSC
offices).
One last citation before I go, anybody read Joan Hoff's book on Nixon's
presidency? Hoff was a New Left historian, and from my skim of the preface
she comes to not unsympathetic view of Nixon's domestic policies. Also have
seen a newer book edited by Melvin Small on the RMN years. Small has also
done interesting work on the the LBJ White House vis. a vis. the antiwar
movement- Johnson and the Doves I think is the title. Also more generally
see Tom Wells, "The War Within, U.C. Press, 1994 also see , "An American
Ordeal: The Antiwar Movement Of The Vietnam Era, " By: Debenedetti, Charles
// Chatfield, Charles // With Chatfield, Cheryl A. ,1990,Syracuse University
Press .
And if one can stomach it Robert Strange McNamara newish book of his
meetings with the Vietnamese with the great picture of a Vietnamese official
giving Bob hell! BTW, Mac George Bundy and some of the other poobahs like
MacNamara had kids who were and are still
lefties. An article in Mother Jones back in the 80's on the kids of the
Hawks said that Mac had a kid in DSA- and I can dig up an article in
Socialist Review where, Jay Mandle, I think if memory serves, thanks either
Bundy or Walt Whitman Rostow (brother of Eugene Victor Debs Rostow, cf.
Halberstam's Best and the Brightest) for reviewing and commenting on the MS.

                              Michael Pugliese