THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, October 31, 1980 65
A P L
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WASHINGTON D C 20510
AN OPEN LETTER FROM CARL LEVIN
The issues in this campaign have been clearly drawn. And the images that drawing creates compels the
re-election of President Carter. From my role in the United States Senate, I see three primary concerns.
NATIONAL STRENGTH AND SECURITY
There has been a lot of talk about war and peace. You can dismiss it all as campaign rhetoric if you
want, but you cannot dismiss the record. Ronald Reagan has, over recent years, talked about the use of
military force in eight different international crises. And all eight have been resolved through negotiation
and diplomacy.
There has also been a lot of talk about nuclear weapons. As a member of the Armed Services
Committee, I study those weapons every day. While few doubt the need for them, no one should 'doubt the
need to reduce their, number. The SALT II agreement that President. Carter signed allows us to do just
that. It restrains the growth of Soviet forces and allows our military leaders to plan more effectively to deter
Soviet threats. That's why the Joint Chiefs of Staff support SALT II. Ronald Reagan opposes that Treaty.
He calls for "military superiority" and a new arms race. But there is no finish line in that race and there can
be no winner in that kind of competition. Reagan returns us to a point of no return. Bellicose rhetoric is not
what we and our children need. This isn't a gunfight in a grade B movie. This is a world which will soon
have 20,000 nuclear warheads.
THE MIDDLE EAST
Moshe Dayan has said,
"Carter has done more and gone farther than any former president in order
to bring peace between us and the Arabs. Not only involving himself at
Camp • Daivd, but also becoming a real partner, not only a mediator."
If a permanent peace comes to this region so central to our hopes and so critical to our heritage,
President Carter will be seen as one vital force which brought it about. President Carter has given more
than promises; he has helped provide Israel the strength to negotiate a peace, through a military and
economic assistance program which has provided more aid into Israel than all prior presidents combined.
He has not attached strings to that aid. He has specifically repudiated Nixon's "reassessment" of our
Israeli policy which sent shivers through Israel just a few years back.
We may fault the President, as I do, for some of the votes his administration has cast in the United
Nations. But we should — and must — view those votes within the context of his total policy and place
them on the scale where they are outweighed by Camp David, economic and military aid to Israel and an
energy policy which at last promises some independence from OPEC.
THE QUALITY OF LIFE
President Carter has a commitrrrent to human rights abroad and human dignity at home. He has
fought for the right of Russian Jews to emigrate — and a record number did so during his first term. He
supports the Equal Rights Amendment, stands for the separation of church and state and has appointed
more women and minorities to high Administration positions and judgeships than any other president.
When President Carter appoints members to the Supreme Court, those appointments will broadly
represent this nation — not just its right wing.
Ronald Reagan, on the other hand, has embraced the "Moral Majority." At that infamous meeting in
Dallas last August, where Rev. Bailey Smith said, "God Almight does not hear the prayer of a Jew," and
where Rev. James Robison said, "I'm sick and tired hearing about all the radicals and the perverts and the
liberals and the leftists and the Communists coming out of the closet. It's time for God's people to come
out of the closet, out of the churches and change America." Ronald Reagan said,
"I know that you can't endorse me. But I want you to know that I can endorse
you."
Ronald Reagan opposed aid to Crysler when it counted. His "morning and evening prayers"
contained the wish that New York City would be allowed to go bankrupt. He opposes the ERA. His
Kemp-Roth tax policy will feed inflation and disproportionately squeeze the middle class.
A PERSONAL VIEW
I have not always agreed with President Carter. But I have always found him open and accessible.
My effectiveness as your Senator is increased when I call the White House and talk to a President with
whom I have a personal relationship. And come 1982 and 1984, Don Riegle and I will benefit from having
a friend and supporter in the White House.
On the basis of his record and on The basis of that relationship, I am supporting President Carter. I
hope you will too.
Sincerely,
Paid for by the Michigan Democratic Party, 606 Townsend St., Lansing 48933/Michigan Democratic Campaign Comm.. 1300 E. Lafayette, Detroit 48207
Not authorized by any candidate or candidates committee