Letter
to the editor
Chomsky did not deny holocaust
Gerry
Wachovsky states in his April 8 column that
Noam Chomsky “has publicly denied the Holocaust.”
What really happened is that Chomsky defended
the right of free speech of Robert Faurisson,
a French holocaust denier, and attacked
censorship of Faurisson’s works in France.
Chomsky wrote an essay in which he said,
“Faurisson’s conclusions [about the holocaust]
are diametrically opposed to views I hold
and have frequently expressed. But it is
elementary that freedom of expression is
not to be restricted to views of which one
approves.”
Without defending Chomsky or discussing
the merits of his often outrageously provocative
statements on this subject, the record is
clear that he is not a holocaust denier,
and Mr. Wachovsky’s statement is simply
untrue.
Anyway, what relevance does this have to
the war in Iraq? There are plenty of right-wing
loonies who are strong supporters of the
war, but that fact doesn’t mean that everyone
who supports the war is a right-wing loony.
Nor does the fact that Mr. Wachovsky can
find some outrageous statements by certain
anti-war spokesmen have any bearing on the
validity of arguments against the war.
—
Jeffrey A. Cohlberg, Professor
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
CSULB
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