ON VIETNAM AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
We do not think that the present or past policies of the
Unite~
States in Vietnam are good ones, and we lament the in–
creasing and often self-defeating military involvements which those
policies require. We have not heard of any alternative policy, however,
which would actually lead to a negotiated peace in Vietnam or
promote the interests of the people of Southeast
Asia.
This
is
not
to say that the critics of American actions in Vietnam are therefore
required to propose a specific policy. But it is not unfair to ask that
their criticism be based on more than the apolitical assumption that
power politics, the Cold War, and Communists are merely American
inventions. Most of the criticism of Administration policy at the teach–
ins and in the various petitions we have been asked to sign has
simply taken for granted that everything would be fine if only the
Yanks would go home. It is not clear whether these critics think
Asia will not go Communist if American troops are withdrawn or
whether they don't care. Nor is it clear whether they really care
what happens to the people of Southeast Asia so long as America
gets
out.
The creation of a world in which free societies can exist should
be the goal of any international policy. Our policies in Vietnam do
not promote that end, even though it is claimed that they are justified
because the United States is preventing a Communist take-over. Nor
do the policies of North Vietnam, Communist China or the Vietcong,
however they are explained.
As
for our policies in the Dominican
Republic, they cannot be justified even on the grounds that the
United States
is
preventing a Communist coup. They are a disastrous
violation of any democratic principle, a violation likely to alienate the
people of South America, especially the youth, or even drive them
into an alliance with precisely those Communist forces our govern–
ment
c1;Ums
to be combatting.
