A Haunting Reminder. (Letters to the editor).

Jennifer Gritt's article on Nuremberg ("The Nuremberg Precedent," August 27th issue) prompted me to remember some of J. Reuben Clark's prescient statements he made during that time period right after the war, concerning threats to our nation's sovereignty. Not only did he warn about the consequences of the UN Charter taking "from us the power to declare" war, "to choose the side on which we shall fight ... and to control and command our sons who do the fighting," he specifically warned that Nuremberg will come back to haunt us if we allow our nation's leaders to keep us entangled in the United Nations. On November 22, 1947, he said: "How far indeed have we traveled from the gentle spirit, the humanity, indeed the brotherly love of Grant at Appomattox, and of Lincoln in the Cabinet meeting ... [versus the spirit at Nuremberg where] men were tried and convicted for acts which, when committed, were not contrary to the law of nations, but declared so after they were committed, thus violating one of our fundamental constitutional concepts that ex post facto laws are not tolerable. If we shall ever be the underdog, which pray God we never shall be, Nuremberg will rise to condemn us, and to argue justification for the same procedure against us...."

In light of that statement, we should make no mistake about the real purposes of the International Criminal Court. If Americans do not want to be hauled off before an ICC sham tribunal at The Hague for vague "crimes against humanity" (i.e. pollution, genocide, etc.), then the U.S. had better get out of the UN, and then get the UN Out of the U.S.

CHRIS BENTLEY

El Paso, Texas