Some Mid-1970s Plain Truth Articles

(Note: Aside from Dankenbring's article regarding child rearing all articles are only available within PDF copies of the Pain Truth issues.)

I decided to see the listing of Plain Truth articles during the time of the Vietnam War. I took note of these articles that for one reason or another took my fancy.

• Recent Events foretell The Destiny of SPAIN by Raymond McNair.

He says the following.

General Franco has named a successor - Prince Juan Carlos. Some expect his coronation may take place in April. Where is Spain headed from here? And what about the powerful, little known organization called Opus Dei, which is now beginning to exert an influence on the Spanish government?

Opus Dei? Wow. We can't even blame that historically inaccurate novel, The Da Vinci Code, for this piece of madness. This was written in 1973.

• Remember When?

HWA says here...

WHEN I WAS a boy, age 12, 10¢ worth of steak fed our family of six. ... In 1900, round steak was 13¢ per pound. In 1970, it is $1.25 and more. Remember when milk was 5¢ per quart in cities? Remember when you could enjoy lunch at the lunch counter for 15¢? 

It is called inflation, HWA. It is perfectly normal. There is nothing to worry about.

At the time this article was written there was great worry within the US about inflation. But this problem was eventually resolved well enough that irresponsible persons would devastate the world economy again in 2008.

• A FADED "HIPPIE" DREAM Haight-Ashbury five years later 

This could be intriguing.

• AT LAST - the Plain Truth About THE VIETNAM WAR!

HWA visits Saigon (allegedly) to understand the causes behind the Vietnam War.

• The Growing Tragedy of BATTERED CHILDREN by William Dankenbring.

Here Dankenbring condemns the abuse of children.

Most incidents of child abuse stem from crude and improper attempts at discipline. Parents become provoked by the child's apparent inability to follow orders, his misbehavior, or rebellion. They lose their tempers and punish their children in violent anger. To call this child rearing is a tragic misnomer.  

In a comprehensive survey of all child-abuse reports for 1967 and 1968, the United States Children's Bureau found that nearly 63 percent of the cases involved an adult response to a specific act of a child. Seventy-three percent involved "inadequately controlled anger of the perpetrator" (Gil, Violence Against Children, p. 126). ... 

Dr. Brandt F. Steele, one of Dr. Kempe's original colleagues, and Dr. Carl B. Pollock, in a study of 60 families with battered children, discovered a remarkable fact: All the parents who battered children were abused or neglected by their own parents! As children, all had experienced inhuman parental demands, constant criticism and abuse. 

It ends this way.

One of the major causes of "battered babies," today, is a general widespread lack of right instruction in child rearing.  

What can you do about it? If you take this problem seriously — if you feel a deep responsibility as a parent or parent-to-be — then take note.
 
Ambassador College has been deeply concerned about proper child rearing for many years. We have published a 143-page book on this vitally important subject. Some of the chapter titles are: "What Is a Child?" "Criminals Are Made, Not Born!" "You Can Punish Your Children — In Love!" "How to Get Results!" and "Your Children At Play."
 
No parent can afford to be without this vital instruction — it should be read in every home.
 
Here is a free copy of the book for you The Plain Truth About Child Rearing.

There are no words to say how disturbing this advice is. Most people remember that booklet with, to paraphrase Hunter S. Thompson, fear and loathing.

• THE SILENT EPIDEMIC 

• AN ARAB SPEAKS TO HIS PEOPLE  by Raouf el-Gammal.

A guest writer discusses the Arab-Israeli crisis from the Arab perspective.

• Beyond Vietnam

HWA's foreword article about the Vietnam War.

Here's my favorite line in the article.

General Suharto drove them [the Indonesian Communists] out of Indonesia, setting up his new military government over Indonesia, with himself as President.

The truth is Suharto did not drive then out, he killed them. Over 500,000 people were killed off in a military led, anti-Communist purge. It was not a battle, but a purge. No doubt many non-Communists were also killed off as well. It was one of the horrific blood lettings in the entire twentieth century. Even if a few Indonesian Communists were orchestrating an underhanded coup such atrocities cannot be justified.

But in this article HWA describes his meeting with Suharto and gives the reader no indication of the blood thirsty manner in which he seized power.

Alas Gerald Flurry's Philadelphia Church of God has since followed HWA's shameful example in minimizing the atrocities of those they favor.

• BLOOD MONEY the High Costs of War

This sounds like a spiritual article.

• WATERGATE AND THE VIETNAM DEBACLE by Stanley Rader.

Rader writes...

Now that the Watergate affair is behind us - President Nixon having resigned, the major and minor defendants in the various trials having been convicted or having submitted a plea of guilty - one might not immediately connect the fall of Cambodia, the collapse of South Vietnam, the failure of Mr. Kissinger's peace, mission in the Middle East, the concern of our allies throughout the world and the dismantling of the Nixon-Kissinger foreign policies with the events of Watergate. 

As a matter of fact many writers discussing the events of the war in Vietnam after the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in 1973 often mention that the Watergate scandal made it very difficult for Presidents Nixon and Ford to aid South Vietnam in those days. This is often noted.

While reading this article I was amused to see these two misprints.

the Congress was already doing battle with Mr. Nixon over Vietnam and the inclusions of ARVN [South Vietnam's army] into Cambodia.

Rader means incursions.

the domino theory, which had first been promulgated by President Eisenhower in 1964 ... 

He probably meant 1964.

Oh what fools these leaders of WCG were.