THE DETROIT JEWISH MEWS

Vietnam Novel Has Lesson for Israel

By BETTE ROTH
"The Last Ambassador"
by Bernard and Marvin
Kalb (Little, Brown), tells
the story of the last days of
the U.S. involvement in
' South Vietnam. It describes
the evacuation of Saigon as
we remember it, a scene of
panic and despair as South
Vietnamese, young and old,
with "clinging fingers,"
quite literally would not let
go of U.S. helicopters as
they rose from the ground
carrying U.S. military and
diplomatic personnel to
safety aboard transport
ships in the South China
Sea.
"Clinging Fingers" are
seen throughout the novel,
metaphor for the relation-
ship between the peoples of
South Vietnam and their
American protectors. And
the message of this terribly
pathetic but rather
mediocre novel is sobering
and simplistic. Unfortu-
nately it is most probably
true:
In using the almost unin-
terrupted dialogue among
the central characters of the
novel (the fictitious U.S.
Ambassador to South Viet-
nam, his daughter and her
lover who is head of the CIA
unit there, the fictitious
President of South Viet-
nam, the U.S. President and
Secretary of State, and a
cast of lesser characters),
the Kalbs tell us that
American political and

S ynagogue

military policy is based
upon public opinion and
political expediency.
They see the evacua-
tion of Saigon as utter
abandonment of a South
Vietnamese people to-
tally unable to defend it-
self against a North Viet-
namese Communist ad-
versary.
The novel defines the U.S.
"involvement" properly as a
civil war cascaded into an
international debacle. And
clearly, it is the novelists'
opinion that, once.commit-
ted or involved, the United
States should have stayed
with South Vietnam to the
bitter end.
This position gains a cer-
tain strength when we
realize that the Kalbs, at
least tacitly, agreed with
the major .networks for
whom they reported. They
presented the war in Viet-
nam as immoral, unreason-
able, and one which should
be ended with all due speed.
At no time were the Kalbs
seen as "hawks."
Their seemingly sudden
change of position, there-
fore, leads the reader to be-
lieve that the purpose of the
novel may extend beyond
the reaches of our episode in
Southeast Asia.
On the other hand, one
might assume. that the
novel was written for
commercial gain. It reads
like a made-for-television
movie, with all of the

Services

ADAT SHALOM SYNAGOGUE: Services 6 p.m. today
and 9 a.m. Saturday. Lara Willis, Bat Mitzva.
BIRMINGHAM TEMPLE: Services 8:30 p.m. today.
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in American Life Style."
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TEMPLE ISRAEL: Services 8:30 p.m. today. Rabbi Loss
will speak on "Build a Sukka: Let the Sun Shine In."
Michelle Kalt and Stephanie Taylor, Bnot Mitzva.
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Kaplan, Bnai Mitzva.
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8:45 a.m. Saturday. Kevin Lubin and Matthew Weber,
Bnai Mitzva.
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Young Israel of Greenfield, Young Israel of Oak-Woods and
Young Israel of Southfield.

O-W Cites Past Presidents

Eleven persons will be
honored when Young Israel
of Oak-Woods dedicates its
Presidents Walkway at a
special tribute dinner 6 p.m.
Nov. 4 in the synagogue.
Honorees are: Morrie
Novetsky, the late Max
Nusbaum, Erry Lowenthal,

Jack Ginsburg, Samuel W.
Platt, Wilbert Simkovitz,
Salek Lessman, Phillip
Stollman, the late David I.
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For reservations, call the
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necessary ingredients:
romance, suspense, mys-
tery, pathos, and a shock-
ing surprise ending.
Nevertheless, its value as
a novel lies precisely in
the fact that it was writ-
ten by two notable and
respected - journalists; it
will be noticed and read.
The importance of the
story is not that it reminds
us of a war we'd rather not
remember. Rather, "The
Last Ambassador" reminds
us that public opinion can
be a very fickle and a most
deadly adversary to any
given American ally, affect-
ing policy decisidns at the
highest levels. Public opin-
ion, according to the Kalbs,
forced the President of the
United States to "sell out,"
to abandon a particularly
vulnerable ally in an hour of
desparate need. And it is the
people of South Vietnam
upon whom this novel fo-
cuses, their fingers clinging
uselessly to both embassy
fences and broken promises.
It is both ironic and sig-
nificant that the human re-
fuse from that war, the
"boat people," have been
taken in by both the Jewish
community in the United
States and in Israel. For

Jews see the "boat people"
and remember the "St.
Louis" and restrictive im-
migration and "security
risks" and the British White
Paper of 1939 and U.S. Pub-
lic Opinion Polls in the
1930s and '40s and know
that the novel is a warning
to beware.
The United States is Is-
rael's only real ally. In read-
ing "The Last Ambassador"
we cannot help but draw
analogies for the future.
Will Israel suffer the same
fate, having offered the use
of military bases to U.S.
personnel?

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"The Last Ambas-
sador" doesn't really
"work" as a novel. In fic-
tionalizing key interna-
tional figures and placing
them in the context of
"accurate" current his-
tory, the Kalbs confuse
the reader. But in their
use of these characters to
present their polemic,
they convey the message
with unmistakable clar-
ity.

One would hope that this
then, is the purpose for two
such intelligent brothers in
writing such a pedestrian
novel.

TEL AVIV (JTA) — The tee, said it was not the first
kibutz movement is up in time that people who have
arms over remarks Premier not worked one day at man-
Menahem Begin made on - ual labor incite the Oriental
Rosh Hashana eve dis- community against kibut-
zim.
paraging kibutz members.
The kibutz society is a
Victor Shem Tov, secret-
ary general of Mapam, society of labor and sym-
charged that Begin was try- bolizes one of the more im-
ing to incite Israel's portant expressions of the
Sephardic community Zionist revolution, Shem
Toy said. A spokesman for
against the kibutzim.
' The premier made his Kibutz Hatzor said it had
remarks in one of a series of invited Begin to visit them
pre-holiday press inter- and see for himself that they
views. Questioned about the did not live like mil-
polarization between the lionaires.
He charged that Begin
Ashkenazic and Sephardic
communities in last spring's has not visited a kibutz
Knesset election campaign, since he became prime
Begin criticized kibutzim minister, although he has
for adopting a superior at- visited many border vil-
titude toward the neighbor- lages such as Kiryat
ing new immigrant centers, Shmona where he has
populated largely by Orien- supporters.
Meanwhile, Labor MK
tal Jews. He described
kibutz members as acting Menahem Cohen called on
"like millionaires lolling party chairman Shimon
around their swimming Peres to initiate a special
Knesset session to discuss
pools."
The Sephardic com- "the premier's incitement
munity has been the against kibutzim."
mainstay of Begin's polit-
--Scat support and its votes ■ IN
helped Likud eke out its
narrow victory over the
Labor Alignment in the
elections last June.
Shem Tov, speaking in
the Knesset's Foreign Af-
fairs and Security Commit-

JERUSALEM — The
World Zionist Organization
settlement department in-
tends to build 12 to 18 set-
tlements in Judaea and
Samaria in the next four
years, Matityahu Drobless,
head of the .settlement de-
partment, announced at a
press conference in the
Samaria settlement of
Kedumim Sunday.

Mon Tues.. Sal. 10-6
Wed . Thurs Fro 10-9
SUNDAY 12-5

855=3644

Begin Remarks Critical
of Kibutzim Draw Fire

Settlement Plan

Friday, October 9, 1981 25

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