European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 1, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday april 1, 1992 the stars and stripes a Page 13commentarywilliam Saf recount on voters to select the right centrist for the first time since 1932, a pair of centrists Are competing for the presidency of the United states. President Hoover was coming up with Radical ideas such As reconstruction finance for was soberly promising to balance the budget. We have polarized them in retrospect As George Bush and Bill Clinton blur ideology in a Mist of moderation we can expect the Rise of factions behind each sides lines. The Republican far right a John Bircher nativist the resentment movement a have their embryonic third party behind Patrick Buchanan. The democratic right a a Reagan democrats in the South and the suburbs a May have their embryonic fourth party behind techno populist Ross Perot. Jerry Brown now a useful punching bag for Clinton will see his protest vote divided Between Clinton Buchanan and Perot # to paraphrase Gertrude Stein there is no left left. But some Liberal Green amalgam must soon appear to assert left rights. The United states would then be in a political Stew pot similar to Canada which has five factions including its Quebec separatists. Our Northern neighbors conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney is Down to about 15 percent support in the polls. What would the United states be like if our fractionation continued a look at Canada Suju jests that it is possible for a National Leader to be vilified by factions during his term and yet be returned to office a if he has the ability to assert the National interest. Mulroney a que Becer who believes in a decentralized but cohesive Canada was 14 Points behind before his 1984 upset he was 25 Points Down before his 1988 comeback he seven further Down now with an election coming next year. Why does he come roaring Down the Homestretch like a horse named Silky Sullivan because he expends his popularity in a few big causes. Mulroney is not an authentic right Winger no Thatcher or first term Reagan. But because he is Only slightly right of Center does not mean he is unprincipled. Mulroney is proof that even a centrist can have a Core. One of his causes is real free Trade. Not a free and fair Trade a that oxymoron that candidates use to fudge the Issue in appealing to opposing consumer and labor groups. The prime minister wants to Complete the North american free Trade agreement breaking Down Tariff barriers among Canada the United states and Mexico and ultimately extending through latin America. Bush and Clinton sensitive to the a closing jobs charge of the Brown Buchanan set tiptoe around this at election time. Canada is a 10th of our size but is our largest trading partner. We recently kicked it in the Teeth on lumber and Canadian assembled Honda cars causing Mulroney to lament the a tin pot dictator action of his big neighbor. Another cause Mulroney stands for is the reduction of big government. Canadas Federal non military spending has dropped from nearly 20 percent to 16 percent of the Gross National product under Mulroney the opposite of the United states during the what a been happening in Reagan Bush years. Mulroney has slashed the deficit by half As a percentage of the Gnu which explains his Low poll standing a budget cutters draw anger. Centrist campaigning May bring temporary party fractionation on both sides of the Border. Not to worry. On election Day the people can Tell who a Best for the whole nation. C the now York time Harry g. Summers or. Film Juk influenced by careless scholarship one problem with movies especially those purporting to portray historical events is that they provide no listing of the sources upon which the film is based. With books the careful Reader first turns to the bibliography to Check the sources of evidence the author has chosen. If the protocols of Zion is listed As a primary source for a treatise on Israel for example once can reasonably assume the Book at hand has a built in Bias that will severely distort whatever a a truths it May reveal. Such built in Bias in films is harder to discover but sometimes it does come to Light. Other than his own fevered imagination where did film director Oliver Stone get the a a evidence for of Fol part of the answer is now at hand. A a breakthrough exploration of Kennedy and his generals a says Stone in his Book jacket Blurb for army maj. John m. Newman a recently released Juk Ana Vietnam. The Book a defines the 19611963 period in a Light i never understood before Kennedy As divided country As deceived a a breathtaking groundbreaking document of americans ongoing marriage with  breathtaking it is indeed but not for the reasons that Stone believes. What is truly breathtaking about new Many a Book is the degree to which mendacity has replaced scholarship in what is supposedly a historical account of Kennedy and Vietnam. In a time when a social science has replaced the study of geography civics and history in Many of our schools such deliberate historical distortion is especially dangerous. It is bad enough that most students reportedly cannot find Vietnam tin a world map and a significant number cannot find the United states either. And it is even worse that the leading democratic candidate for the presidency evidently did not know that it was Congress not the army that was responsible for the Vietnam War draft. But the last Straw is the ongoing attempt to turn history on its head regarding the origins of the Vietnam War As Newman and others have attempted to do. Americans too Young to remember either president Kennedy or Vietnam take such mendacity As whole cloth especially when powerfully portrayed in Oliver stones vivid cinematography. But those who know better have taken Newman severely to task. For example Marc Leepson Book review editor for the Vietnam veterans of americans Veteran Magazine says it As Well As it can be said a a a preconceived and simplistic ideas a John m. Newman says on the last Page of his troubling new Book. A most often does sic not hold up under careful  a True statement. A but a careful Reading of Newman a Book reveals that the author himself has based his very detailed and seemingly Well researched work on two preconceived if not simplistic ideas 1 that president John f. Kennedy never intended to Send american ground troops to fight in Vietnam and 2 that Juk planned to withdraw All american forces from Vietnam following his presumed reelection in 1964. A Newman accuses some of the wars top historians of a careless scholarship for failing to see Kennedy As Newman sees him. Based on his boo though it appears that Newman a who sets out to prove two preconceived ideas and either ignores or dismisses As fabrications or deceptions All evidence to the contrary a is the one who has been careless in his  you done to have to take Leepson sword for it. Newman himself provides All the evidence that is needed. In a recent letter to the editor of the Washington times Newman attacks my earlier column on Juk As an attack from the a far rights against his Book. But that column was in fact written in response to an Exchange of letters in the new York times Between Roger Hillsman and Wolf Lehmann and . Rostow. So much for Newman a scholarship. And so much for his thesis which he complains has been attacked from the a far left and a far  As Leepson a review proves Newman could have included the a far Middle As Well. That in itself is a hopeful note for As Newman himself has said Quot. Left to themselves americans who read history Are capable of sorting fact from  let us Hope that those who get their history from the movies Are equally As discerning. A lecturer in Atrat agy end it Tungul had fallow of the army War co Saga col. Summer i tha author olt tha recently Putta Halfon stat agy a critical Ana Fyala of tha Partlan qu0 War c to Angela time Syndicate the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United states government