To the Editor,
In Daniel Halper's Feb. 26 column ("Kristof's message: an 'uncomfortable' awakening") he wrote that "Roosevelt allowed Hitler to gain power and systematically murder over 11 million people." This is not only slander unworthy of the Daily's pages, it also makes little sense.
As President-elect of the United States during the final days of the Hoover Administration, Franklin D. Roosevelt was in no position to prevent Hitler from becoming Chancellor of Germany in January 1933. Nor could he have been rationally expected to prevent Hitler's (democratically approved) taking control of the German military the following year. Over the objections of right-wing isolationists, the United States began supplying the Allied powers with significant war aid in early 1941. By the end of the year, the Roosevelt-led armed forces were at war with the Axis powers. The bulk of Holocaust deaths, from which Mr. Halper derives his figure, was not assured until the following February, under the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question."
Again, at this time Roosevelt was not "allowing" Nazi murders, but was at war with their perpetrators. That the intention was to argue that the United States should have taken firmer action on the Axis problem sooner than it did does not excuse this overly casual phrasing. Finally, I would like to ask Mr. Halper if he thinks Roosevelt should have forcibly deposed Stalin as well as Hitler before the December 1941 declarations of war (and with what army?). Or perhaps Mr. Halper will concede that he employed the connotative horror of the Nazi tyrant for a cheap rhetorical slight against those he accuses of being contented to "sit around and light a candle" with regards to Darfur.
I agree with the main gist of the Feb. 26 column; territorial sovereignty should indeed be disregarded in cases of genocide. But I for one will not stand for wanton defamation of great Americans.
Sincerely,
Matthew Diamante, sophomore
