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lished order (rather disorder), that is, they involve undemocratic policies
and actions.
3. I venture to add that the continued existence of Communism
may well stimulate the continued growth of capitalism (hasn't it already
done so?) in competitive coexistence-competitive in the war against
poverty, toil and inequality.
David Riesman
1. Having been in England during the teach-ins, I can testify
that their existence and that of other fonns of criticism and questioning
helped belie the impression, common in much of the world, that an
aroused and indiscriminate nationalism possesses our country. Quite con–
servative Englishmen, not habitually anti-American, had felt, especially
after the Dominican Republic invasion, that an anti-Communist mania
was growing; they would ask wheiher massive aid
to
India was not a
better way of providing the non-white world with alternative models of
development than bombing both Vietnams, coupled with bits of village
aid. Indeed, it iS' not only in South America but even among our friends
in
Japan and in Europe that the United ' States has seemed to confinn
the image of growing militarism. The teach-ins have served to connect
parts of America ,with parts of the rest of the world at a time when the
gap is very wide.
2.
It
is conceivable that the teach-ins and other protests, while main–
taining valuable international links and even possibly influencing the
degrees of restraint exercised in escalating the war, have also in some
small measure been encouraging to the Vietcong and its supporters,
especially the Chinese. Some escalation may even reflect the Administra–
tion's desire to counter any message of divided opinion in the United
States. (How terrible at this point, as before, is our lack of direct diplo–
matic contact and journalistic and academic contact with Mainland
China and with North Vietnam; and how shortsighted our refusal to
offer direct negotiations to the National Liberation Front of the Viet–
cong, whose interests may not be wholly cotenninous with those of North
Vietnam, let alone China.) The idea that bombing of North Vietnam
would facilitate not so much negotiations as concessions shows contempt
for our adversaries and ignorance not only of their character but of the
experience in World War II that bombings actually strengthened morale
and the detennination of the enemy and damaged war-making ability
far less than Air Force strategists had promised. Moreover, with the
