"mike maghakian" wrote in
:

In 1999, my wife and I drove across canada (basically coast to coast)
for several weeks and we were impressed with several things.


I sure most of you have seen this before, but Gordon Sinclair as Toronto
newsman had this to say about Americans:

LET'S BE PERSONAL" Broadcast June 5, 1973 CFRB, Toronto, Ontario

Topic: "The Americans"



The United States dollar took another pounding on German, French and
British exchanges this morning, hitting the lowest point ever known in
West Germany. It has declined there by 41% since 1971 and this Canadian
thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and
possibly the least-appreciated people in all the earth.

As long as sixty years ago, when I first started to read newspapers, I
read of floods on the Yellow River and the Yangtze. Who rushed in with men
and money to help? The Americans did.

They have helped control floods on the Nile, the Amazon, the Ganges and
the Niger. Today, the rich bottom land of the Mississippi is under water
and no foreign land has sent a dollar to help. Germany, Japan and, to a
lesser extent, Britain and Italy, were lifted out of the debris of war by
the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions
in debts. None of those countries is today paying even the interest on its
remaining debts to the United States.

When the franc was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans
who propped it up and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the
streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.

When distant cities are hit by earthquakes, it is the United States that
hurries into help... Managua Nicaragua is one of the most recent examples.
So far this spring, 59 American communities have been flattened by
tornadoes. Nobody has helped.

The Marshall Plan .. the Truman Policy .. all pumped billions upon
billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now, newspapers in those
countries are writing about the decadent war-mongering Americans.

I'd like to see one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion
of the United States dollar build its own airplanes.

Come on... let's hear it! Does any other country in the world have a plane
to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tristar or the Douglas 107? If
so, why don't they fly them? Why do all international lines except Russia
fly American planes? Why does no other land on earth even consider putting
a man or women on the moon?

You talk about Japanese technocracy and you get radios. You talk about
German technocracy and you get automobiles. You talk about American
technocracy and you find men on the moon, not once, but several times ...
and safely home again. You talk about scandals and the Americans put
theirs right in the store window for everyone to look at. Even the draft
dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here on our streets, most of
them ... unless they are breaking Canadian laws .. are getting American
dollars from Ma and Pa at home to spend here.

When the Americans get out of this bind ... as they will... who could
blame them if they said 'the hell with the rest of the world'. Let someone
else buy the Israel bonds, Let someone else build or repair foreign dams
or design foreign buildings that won't shake apart in earthquakes.

When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down through
age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad
and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose.
Both are still broke. I can name to you 5,000 times when the Americans
raced to the help of other people in trouble.

Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in
trouble? I don't think there was outside help even during the San
Francisco earthquake.

Our neighbours have faced it alone and I am one Canadian who is damned
tired of hearing them kicked around. They will come out of this thing with
their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their nose
at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles.

I hope Canada is not one of these. But there are many smug, self-righteous
Canadians. And finally, the American Red Cross was told at its 48th Annual
meeting in New Orleans this morning that it was broke.

This year's disasters .. with the year less than half-over. has taken it
all and nobody...but nobody... has helped.



BACKGROUND

On June 5, 1973, Gordon Sinclair sat up in bed in Toronto and turned on
his TV set. The United States had just pulled out of the Vietnamese War
which had ended in a stalemate - a war fought daily on TV, over the radio
and in the press. The aftermath of that war resulted in a world-wide sell-
off of American investments, prices tumbled, the United States economy was
in trouble. The war had also divided the American people, and at home and
abroad it seemed everyone was lambasting the United States.

He turned on his radio, twisted the dial and turned it off. He picked up
the morning paper. In print, he saw in headlines what he had found on TV
and radio - the Americans were taking a verbal beating from nations around
the world. Disgusted with what he saw and heard, he was outraged!


At 10:30, on his arrival at CFRB to prepare his two pre-noon broadcasts,
he strode into his office and "dashed-off" two pages in 20 minutes for
LET'S BE PERSONAL at 11:45 am, and then turned to writing his 11:50
newscast that was to follow. At 12:01 pm, the script for LET'S BE PERSONAL
was dropped on the desk of his secretary who scanned the pages for a
suitable heading and then wrote "Americans"" across the top and filed it
away. The phones were already ringing.


Gordon Sinclair could not have written a book that could have had a
greater impact in the world than his two-page script for THE AMERICANS. A
book should have been written on the events that followed. But, no one at
CFRB, including Sinclair himself, could have envisioned the reaction of
the people of the United States - from presidents - state governors -
Congress - the Senate - all media including TV, radio, newspapers,
magazines - and from the "ordinary" American on the street. Nor, could
have the Canadian government - stunned by the response to what has come to
be regarded as one of Canada's greatest public relations feats in the
history of our relations with the United States of America.


But, how did Sinclair's tribute to Americans reach them? It had been swept
across the United States at the speed of a prairie fire by American radio
stations - first, a station in Buffalo called and asked to be fed a tape
copy of the broadcast with permission to use - both freely given. Nearby
American stations obtained copies from Buffalo or called direct. By the
time it reached the Washington, DC area, a station had superimposed Sinc's
broadcast over an instrumental version of BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER, and
was repeating it at fixed times several times-a-day.


Congressmen and Senators heard it. It was read several times into the
Congressional Record. Assuming that it was on a phono (33 1/3 rpm),
Americans started a search for a copy. CFRB was contacted. To satisfy the
demand, CFRB started to make arrangements with AVCO, an American record
company, to manufacture and distribute it as a "single".


As they were finalizing a contract that would see all royalties which
would normally be due Gordon Sinclair be paid (at his request) to the
American Red Cross. Word was received that an unauthorized record, using
Sinclair's script but read by another broadcaster, was already flooding
the US market. (Subsequently, on learning that this broadcaster had agreed
to turn over his royalties to the Red Cross, no legal action was taken).

Sinclair's recording of his own work (to which Avco had added a stirring
rendition of THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC) did finally reach record
stores, and sold hundreds of thousands of copies, but the potential
numbers were depressed by the sale of the infringing record. Other record
producers and performers (including Tex Ritter) obtained legal permission
to make their own versions. In Ritter's case, because of the first-person
style of the script, Tex preceded his performance with a proper credit to
Sinclair as the author. The American Red Cross received millions of
dollars in royalties, and Gordon Sinclair was present at a special
ceremony acknowledging his donation.


Advertisers using print media contacted CFRB for permission to publish the
text in a non-commercial manner; industrial plants asked for the right to
print the script in leaflet form to handout to their employees.


Gordon Sinclair received invitations to attend and be honoured at many
functions in the United States which, by number and due to family health
problems at the time, he had to decline. However, CFRB newscaster Charles
Doering, was flown to Washington to give a public reading of THE AMERICANS
to the 28th National Convention of the United States Air Force
Association, held September 18, 1974 at the Sheraton Park Hotel. His
presentation was performed with the on-stage backing of the U.S. Air Force
Concert Band, joined by the 100-voice Singing Sergeants in a special
arrangement of The Battle Hymn of the Republic.


8 years after the first broadcast of THE AMERICANS, U.S. President Ronald
Reagan made his first official visit to Canada. At the welcoming
ceremonies on Parliament Hill, the new President praised "the Canadian
journalist who wrote that (tribute)" to the United States when it needed a
friend. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau had Sinclair flown to Ottawa to be
his guest at the reception that evening.


Sinc had a long and pleasant conversation with Mr. Reagan. The President
told him that he had a copy of the record of THE AMERICANS at his
California ranch home when he was governor of the state, and played it
from time to time when things looked gloomy.


On the evening of May 15th, 1984, following a regular day's broadcasting,
Gordon Sinclair suffered a heart attack. He died on May 17th. As the word
of his illness spread throughout the United States, calls inquiring about
his condition had been received from as far away as Texas. The editorial
in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune of May 28th was typical of the reaction of
the United States news media - A GOOD FRIEND PASSES ON.


U.S. President Ronald Reagan: "I know I speak for all Americans in saying
the radio editorial Gordon wrote in 1973 praising the accomplishments of
the United States was a wonderful inspiration. It was not only critics
abroad who forgot this nation's many great achievements, but even critics
here at home. Gordon Sinclair reminded us to take pride in our nation's
fundamental values."


Former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau: "Gordon Sinclair's death ends one of
the longest and most remarkable careers in Canadian Journalism. His wit,
irreverence, bluntness and off-beat views have been part of the media
landscape for so long that many Canadians had come to believe he would
always be there."

Following a private family service, two thousand people from all walks of
life filled Nathan Phillips Square in front of Toronto's City Hall for a
public service of remembrance organized by Mayor Art Eggleton. Dignitaries
joining him on the platform were Ontario Lieutenant-Governor, John Black
Aird; the Premier of Ontario, William Davis; and Metro Chairman Paul
Godfrey. Tens of thousands more joined them through CFRB's live broadcast
of the service which began symbolically at 11:45 - the regular time of
Sinc's daily broadcast of LET'S BE PERSONAL.



To All of which I agreed then and still do.


--
Panzer