Editorial
Only time wi
“God forbid we should ever
be twenty years without...
a rebellion.”
—Thomas Jefferson, 1787
Taking an overview, has the
Vietnam Protest movement been
successful?
When Wayne Morse, in 1964,
stood alone in a Senate body of
one hundred and warned the
nation President Johnson plann
ed to use the Tonkin incident as
a pretext for massive escalation,
America looked the other way.
Now President Nixon chides the
demonstrators for not liking his
plan for troop withdrawal.
Millions frustrated
Indeed, the protest movement
—from April, 1965, to the Pen
tagon episode in October, 1967, to
Chicago, 1968, to Washington,
1969—has accelerated geometric
ally.
When between 300,000-400,000
citizens stage the largest demon
strations in the history of their
country, it is no small accomplish
ment. An increasing number of
communities have been brought
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directly into the dialogue over
the direction of U.S. foreign pol
icy.
But has the Vietnam protest
movement been successful?
America’s military efforts in
Indo-China have caused great
frustration in heartland America.
In a success culture where there
“always” is a solution, the fight
ing standoff and the rising death
figures frustrate millions across
the land. Such was the case fol
lowing American disengagement
from Korea, when the late Joseph
McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Karl
Mundt and others fostered an
hysterical anticommunism move
ment with highly destructive re
sults.
The Nixon-Agnew regime is
doing its best to malign the pro
test movement, equate it with
Hanoi, and thereby polarize the
nation and forge a consensus. And
there is a real danger that politi
cians who capitalize on mass frus
tration are creating a highly
charged atmosphere that could
breed an American version of a
totalitarian state.
Agnew blasts
Impossible? Anti-intellectual -
ism is crucial to the cultivation
of an authoritarian political cul
ture. Spiro Agnew, on key, blasts
administration critics as subver
sive, an “effete corps of intellec
tual snobs who characterize them
selves as liberal intellectuals.” He
attacks the television networks in
Des Moines, la., as “big city in
tellectuals.” In Louisiana, he talks
derisively of Eastern “liberals,”
thereby hoping to capture George
Wallace’s constituency and fash
ion a G.O.P. majority.
So at a time when social sores
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need treatment badly, some politi
cians prefer to aggravate the
wounds. America must not for
get, either, that conditions today
have a feint resemblance to those
in pre-war Germany. “The univer
sities are full of students rebell
ing and rioting. . . . Elect us
and we will restore law and or
der.” With these and emotional
appeals to the German people
over the loss in WWI, Hitler forg
ed a mass consensus.
John Wayne’s Flag?
The protest movement must
come closer to the vast Ameri
can middle class if it is to be a
success. When one speaker dur
ing last weekend’s San Francisco
march cried: “There are too
damn many American flags out
there,” Oregon’s Wayne Morse
countered: “I’m proud to see the
American flag in such prominence
here. I wouldn’t trade it for any
other.”
What counts here is the flag’s
function in symbolic identifica
tion.
Millions of citizens have been
systematically conditioned to
equate the flag with “liberty and
justice for all.” Why, then, should
such a symbol be the pet posses
sion of the Nixons, and the Bob
Hopes, and the John Waynes?
Until the majority of Americans
is able to identify with the protes
ters’ fundamental moral values,”
“power to the people” is an empty
slogan.
Protest vital
Organization and education are
indispensible to a mass movement.
There are historical traditions in
America justifying a change in
government. Loving one’s country
does not demand loving one’s gov
Letter
Unsilencing the majority
It is recognized in some cir
cles that what benefits American
democracy has produced haven’t
come about as the result of the
involvement of the middle class
man actively in politics, but
rather because of his very non
involvement.
This middle-class apathy has
served to clear the stage for the
educated reformist minority from
Jefferson to the Kennedys to ex
pand and protect the rights of
the individual.
It seems to us that the Vietnam
Moratorium has done more to
unsilence the silent majority by
forcing reaction than anything in
recent times or perhaps in Amer
ican history.
The demonstrations have thus
been unwise and tactically ill
advised to accomplish that to
ward which they were aimed.
They have lacked the subtlety
against which the relatively un
educated middle-class psyche has
no defense. They have given the
conservative element a focal
po;nt for their attacks, attacks
which will become even more
frequent and eventually could
lead to the emergence of a re
pressive state.
Russell Kerschmann
Senior, Psychology
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ernment. Americans must learn
that protest is vital to a national
dialogue. They must see that men
like Agnew who debase protest, do
so in a treasonous way. They
must see and feel that “brother
hood from sea to shining sea” is
still a myth in this country.
A successful protest movement
must reach the heart and souls
of the people. Dogma will
get nowhere.
Where are the people? In the
community. In church. In schools.
They must be touched, not over a
luminiscent TV tube, but per
sonally. On immediate grievances
—pollution, taxation, congested
traffic—as well as international
issues.
If the Washington’s Post’s Ni
cholas von Hoffman is correct in
saying: “Either these men under
stand the shame and reproach of
having tens of thousands of peo
ple implore them for life and
clemency on the streets, or the
youth will turn to other ways
of stopping the killing,” he might
project further and say that ex
ploitive politicians, with their in
flammatory tactics, are flirting
with a nascent American fascism.
Has the Vietnam protest move
ment been successful?
Only time will tell.
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