Press enter after choosing selection

Books

Books image Books image
Parent Issue
Day
17
Month
January
Year
1975
OCR Text

How Warren Hinkle Went On The Ramparts

Memoirs Of A Lunatic Decade

By David Goodman

IF YOU HAVE A LEMON, MAKF. .ƒ- MONADE; Memoirs of a lunatic Decade, Warren Hinkle, Putnam, $8.95.

 The close of the decade of the Sixties, saw the departure of many major radical institutions from the political landscape. One notable exception is Ramparts magazine. Founded in 1962 as a voice of liberal Catholic laity, it developed into one of the most influential publications of the amorphous movement known as the New Left. Today, Ramparts continues to provide a radical critique of the absurdities and injustices of our society, and remains one of the more widely read and respected journals of the American left.

The individual most responsible for Ramparts transition from a small, liberal Catholic quarterly with a circulation of a few thousand into a magazine selling over a quarter million monthly was Warren Hinkle. If You Have A Lemon, Make Lemonade, Hinkle tells the story of his education in the parochial school system in San Francisco, his college years under the Jesuits at the University of San Francisco, and of his seven turbulent years at Ramparts.

Hinkle's interest in journalism began early . and he served as editor of both his high school and the USF paper. He was reporting for the San Francisco Chronicle when approached by Edward Keating to take the position of promotional director at Ramparts. During his seven years with the magazine, Hinkle pushed Ramparts to national prominence with a style of aggressive investigative reporting that enabled it to score coup after journalistic coup in uncovering the abuses of many of America's most esteemed institutions.

Hinkle's delightful use of imagery and detail, as well as his omnipresent cynicism make the telling as entertaining as the story itself. The book also tells much about the author himself, and it reveals the ideosyncratic personal style which make working with and under him difficult.

The first target of Ramparts muckraking was the institution from which it had originally sprung -the Catholic Church. Some of the magazine's early jabs at the Church included a major critique of Catholic higher education; support for The Deputy, a play highly critical of the inaction of Pope Pius in the face of the extermination of the European Jewish community by the Nazis; and revelation of the important role played by the Catholic hierarchy in promoting U.S. intervention on behalf of the repressive Diem regime in South Vietnam. It was, in fact, the Church's support of Diem which put Ramparts on the scent of the story which was to be its central focus for the next eight years-the war in Vietnam.

Ramparts was an early, vocal, and consistent critic of American presence in Vietnam. Throughout the decade, it printed articles which revealed the roots of American involvement in the affairs of the South Vietnamese regime and laid bare the lies and distortions used by successive Washington administrations to justify increasing military intervention in that country. It must be remembered that in the mid-Sixties, the U.S. role in Vietnam was supported by virtually the whole political spectrum, from red-baiting Richard Nixon to Socialist Norman Thomas. At first, Ramparts was virtually a lone voice in opposition to the war, but its position was ultimately vindicated.

In late 1964, Ramparts published a story by Robert Scheer --later to become editor at the magazine--which examined the roots of American involvement in Vietnam. The article showed how the U.S., seeking a non-Communist alternative to Ho Chi Minh, had discovered Ngo Dinh Diem and set him in power. The piece also showed how the U.S. deliberately subverted the Geneva Accord provision tor free elections in Vietnam because it feared that Ho Chi Minh would be the victor.

The February, 1966 issue featured a cover story on Donald Duncan, a former Green Beret. Having experienced 18 months with the Special Forces in Vietnam, Duncan revealed the complete failure of the much-touted "Pacification Program" in attempting to win over the hearts of the Vietnamese to the Saigon government. Duncan's evaluation was amply borne out by the Viet Cong successes in the 1968 Tet Offensive, which finally convinced tens of millions of Americans that victory was impossible in the war.

In April of 1966, Ramparts printed a story which uncovered the role of Michigan State University in creating a democratic facade tor the Diem regime, while also providing training for the secret police which enabled Diem to suppress any dissent lo his government. Ramparts revealed that members of the faculty of MSU--under the direction of the CIA--had written the paper constitution whose democratic features were much quoted by proponents of U.S. support for Diem. However, at the same time MSU colleagues were providing the South Vietnamese dictator with the tools, which he used to make that document meaningless.

In 1968, Ramparts published a story implicating then President Ky and other high South Vietnamese officials in heroin smuggling for U.S. markets, a revelation which was instrumental in Ky's downfall.

The U.S. intelligence network was another target of Ramparts' muckraking. In 1967, the magazine printed an article which described how the CIA had provided substantial subsidies to the National Student Association so that NSA members could provide intelligence information on foreign students to the agency. The resulting scandal forced Congress to terminate the subsidy program.

Another Ramparts piece, published in 1970, revealed that American radio surveillance, of the Soviet Union, was so extensive, that the U.S. military was monitoring transmissions from Communist Party Chief Brezhnev's car, and could pinpoint the location of every taxi in Moscow. This carne out at a time when Defense officials were claiming that the U.S. was lagging behind the U.S.S.R. in intelligence capacity and asking for large funding increases for monitoring the Soviets.

While Ramparts was achieving great journalistic successes, its financial picture was much less bright. Continually operating at a deficit, and saddled with huge debts from its initial expansion, the magazine was forced to constantly seek out new investors to keep itself afloat. With traditional sources of capital unavailable to it because of the publication's uncompromising radical editorial stance, Ramparts' editors found it necessary to look for rich leftists willing to underwrite the magazine. When this source finally petered out in 1969, Ramparts filed for bankruptcy. At this point, Warren Hinkle left the magazine, and a new phase of Ramparts began.

To piece the story of Ramparts since 1969 together, I spoke with some current staffers at the magazine. Ramparts went through several years of directionless drifting following Hinkle's departure. Forced to operate with a reduced staff and sharply curtailed budget, Ramparts no longer had the resources to do the type of investigative reporting which had established its reputation. At this time other publications had taken over reporting which had been Ramparts exclusive province. It underwent several years of dropping circulation until it found itself in 1973 with less than a quarter of the readership that it had at its late Sixties peak. During this period, Ramparts under-

continued on page 18

Book Review continued from page 13

went a second bankruptcy proceeding and reorganization.

In the past year, however, the circulation has stabilized. The current editors feel that this is a result of a new sense of direction and purpose which the magazine has evolved.

One aspect of the new role which Ramparts is playing, according to current editors Patricia Shell and David Kolodney, is acting as a focal point, a "nexus" tor the varied struggles which make up the contemporary radical movement. This is particularly necessary, they point out, in a period when no single direction--such as opposition to the Vietnam War--unifies the left. Thus, Ramparts has done in-depth reporting on welfare rights organizing, the United Farm Workers the activities of environmentalists and alternative energy advocates, to give several examples. In its coverage, the magazine attempts to show how these diverse efforts have a unity of purpose and a common opponent.

This is seen by the staff as a matured vision. Where the Ramparts of the Sixties raised an outraged voice at the scandals of the Catholic Church, racism, and the War, the contemporary Ramparts operates with the understanding that, as stated in the staff motto, "The system is a scandal."

Beyond offering a critique of the American system, Ramparts is providing a forum tor ideas on how to cope with the serious problems which confront our society-- adjustment at the end of rapid economic growth. the need for new sources of energy, the effects of more equitable trade relations with the rest of the world, and the global food crisis, to name a few. "In the Sixties," says David Kolodney, "we were iconoclasts because we didn't believe. Now, we are iconoclasts because we believe (that solutions can be found)".

Having found a new direction, and possessing a revived sense of purpose, Ramparts should serve a purpose in coming years as vital as the one it served under Warren Hinkle in the "lunatic decade" of the Sixties.