The New Republic

TODAY CHILE IS careening, quietly and in a carefully planned way, toward the greatest political catastrophe of its history. Within the next year or so, its people will be permitted to decide by plebiscite whether or not to accept a president proposed to them by their ruling military junta. READ MORE >>

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A dyspeptic friend, who earnestly dislikes The  New Yorker for its smug insularity, its tiny dada conceits passing as wit, its whimsy presented as serious politics, and its deadpan narratives masquerading as serious journalism, writes:I have had my suspicions about the vaunted New Yorker fact-checking department ever since I met a New Yorker fact checker at a dinner party several years ago. This fellow—a real individual, not a composite—regaled the gathering with tales of chartering airplanes to measure the distance between obscure Asian capitals, sending battalions of Sarah Lawrence girls to count the grains of sand on a particular beach referred to in an Ann Beattie story, and suchlike tales of heroic valor in the pursuit of perfect accuracy. After several hours of this (actually, one hour, 17 minutes, and 53 seconds), he turned to me with a polite smile and said, “Tell us about your fact-checking system at The New Republic.”I was editor of The New Republic at the time. I replied, “You’re looking at it.” READ MORE >>

Be a craftsman in speech, for the tongue is a sword to a man, and speech is more valorous than fighting. --Akhtoy III READ MORE >>

It has begun to occur to our leaders, at last, that the Western nations are helping to finance the international terrorism of which they are the victims. Recent steps by the Carter administration, prodded by Congress, to use America’s economic muscle in the battle against terrorism are long overdue. READ MORE >>

Madrid—The Spanish armed forces, no longer a military monolith, may become the arbiter of Spain’s political future in the crisis following Generalissimo Francisco Franco’s latest serious illness and probable disappearance from the national scene. Until recently, it was generally assumed that the military, acting together, would guarantee a reasonably smooth transition from Franco to Prince Juan Carlos, his 37- year-old designated successor, under the provisions of the Succession Law, which calls for the restoration of a monarchy upon Franco’s death or retirement. READ MORE >>

On October 2 the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a public hearing on former White House aide Peter Flanigan's nomination by President Ford to be US ambassador to Spain. Even before it was officially announced the Flanigan nomination had stirred up opposition among Senate Democrats such as Majority Whip Robert Byrd and Thomas Eagleton. Byrd was bothered by Flanigan's role in the unusual settlement of the ITT antitrust case, and Eagleton had encountered Flanigan while investigating White House pressures on the Environmental Protection Agency. READ MORE >>

MUCH THINKING on the nature and methods of our economic system has been stirred up by recent events. The spectacle of the most advanced industrial country in the world suddenly hurled from the heights of prosperity into depression was a shock even to the firm believers in the providential working of natural economic law. Most people have been aroused to a sense of humiliation at the sight of an economically sound country unable to use its resources and to direct its economic destinies. READ MORE >>

FRANCO-ITALIAN relations are in the center of the European limelight once again. Just as France and Spain were about to renew their endless discussion of the question of Tangier, Mussolini sent a division of the Italian fleet there, to help the large Italian community celebrate the fifth anniversary of Fascism. READ MORE >>