OPEN LETTER TO FORD

In spite of my strong opposition to your appointment as Vice President and action since becoming President, I wish you well. My opposition to the acts of your five immediate predecessors, and yours since becoming President, was and is, based upon my deep concern for our people's welfare and that of future American generations.

Up to the time of the Presidency of Mr. Richard Nixon, I considered that of Mr. Harry Truman the worst ever. Now I consider that of Nixon the worst. So far as I can see, you as President have changed nothing of substance from that of Nixon. True, you have introduced a ready smile, as did Mr. Eisenhower, and as with Henry Kissinger, your Secretary of State, you seem to have limitless physical endurance.

But your pardon of Nixon, who was, in my opinion, the worst enemy the American people have ever had, and your refusal to restore full citizenship to our real Heroes: those who refused to murder, maim and wound countless millions of Asian men, women and children, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of our own Boys, who suffered a similar fate, seem to be typical of your first year as President. This I deeply deplore. The above Asian people of whom I write, Sir, have never harmed, or threatened to harm in any way our people. They could not have done so even if they wished, which they did not. You have, God willing, Mr. President, a little more than a year in this office, which at one time was considered the highest and finest in the land.

Therefore, I urge you as strongly as I can to undertake the following one year program: (1) issue a proclamation restoring full citizenship to all those who opposed or refused to participate in the illegal, immoral and genocidal wars of naked and raw aggression by our government since WWII, whatever their reasons for doing so (they are our real Heroes not the so-called POWs); (2) propose the immediate reduction of our monstrous military budget by at least 25%, suggest a gradual yearly reduction of that budget to $25 billion annually and military forces to 500,000, composed of highly trained professionals, capable of servicing our sophisticated weapons of national defense (this would give us all the international security possible through military means alone); (3) propose the abolition of the CIA as it now exists--a monster as evil as Hitler's Gestapo and far more dangerous--and substitute therefore a small highly trained intelligence group of experts for the analysis of the reports of U.S. government regular agencies, such as the State Department, Army, Navy and Air Force (a hundred people with a $10 million annual budget should be adequate). This would and must eliminate all the present subversive and clandestine activities of this highly dangerous and monstrous agency; (4) propose the creation of a large public works and training program for all those able to work (those refusing to participate should be denied public aid); (5) propose the appropriation of adequate funds for food, shelter, clothing and medical care for the aged, sick and generally helpless (savings from the greatly bloated Pentagon and preposterous CIA budgets could and would supply adequate funds for these purposes); and finally, propose the creation of a top level group of educational experts for preparing a universal educational system, based upon individual talents and national need.

You cannot, of course, be expected to achieve all the above recommendations in one year, but even one or two would help. In addition, you would at least have them on record for later use by you and/or other presidents. The above, I believe, would give you an excellent blueprint of the needs of our nation which would greatly honor you and materially help our people.

Again we wish you and your family well. Hugh B. Hester   Brig. Gen., U.S. Army [Ret.]