Statement in Support of James Kutcher
Mailer's statement for the souvenir program of a 23 July 1949 Los Angeles banquet honoring James Kutcher, a legless World War II veteran dismissed from the Veterans' Administration for his Socialist Workers Party affiliations. Mailer served on the national committee defending Kutcher and may have attended the banquet, which was held during his summer in Hollywood.
Statement by Mailer in support of James Kutcher. Civil Rights at the Crossroads: The Case of the Legless Veteran. Souvenir Program for a 23 July 1949 banquet in Los Angeles honoring Kutcher — who lost both legs in the 1943 Battle of San Pietro, Italy, and was later dismissed from his clerk’s post at the Veterans’ Administration for his leftist affiliations.
Mailer served on the national committee to defend Kutcher, and provided the following statement for the program (which Mailer may have attended, as he was living in Hollywood that summer; see 1949):
The attack and persecution of men of any left-wing political persuasion, Communist, Socialist workers, Socialist or Anarchist, is a direct indication of the strength of fascism in America. It is part of a larger process which is designed to silence finally even the mildest liberal conceptions in American thought today. The facts in Kutcher’s persecution are hideous.