AMERICA
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second, to interpret communism, revolution and America's "interests"
in a new, more realistic light than the bitter and dangerous right-wing
interpretations which are sure to accompany an American loss.
But in addition to developing wider opposition to the war, I think
we must also build up pressure for solutions to domestic problems. The
demand of domestic priorities will in fact be one of the major con–
siderations of those who decide the war must be ended.
If
the pressure
for domestic reform is great enough, it can help to bring many Amer–
icans out of the quite likely postwar trauma. We should demand that
America rely more on the force of
example
than the force of arms in
foreign policy and, with that, turn to democratic construction at home.
5. There is the possibility that an American nuclear attack might
somehow subdue the Vietnamese while not drawing the Chinese into the
war. In that case, American arrogance would be unbearable and jail
would be perhaps the only honorable place to go. There is also the
possibility that, rather than face a political-military defeat, the American
leadership will follow the last-ditch route of General Custer and try to
kill as many of "them" as possible before losing. That would turn
protest into a permanent nausea. The most desirable solution, an Amer–
ican withdrawal based on a reluctant change of attitude, is only possible
if we continue and step up protest on domestic and foreign policy issues,
so that we keep open the possibilities of enlightenment of American
attitudes while adding to the pressures that make change imperative.
Nat Hentoff
1.
To begin with, what is "the system?" A particularly relevant
description is Joseph Lyford's in
The Airtight Cage:
If
the two circles of power, public and private, once functioned as
countervailing forces against each other, they are now in important
respects each other's agents. The corporation on one hand has be–
come to a greater and greater degree a producer for government,
and as part of the arrangement it professes a new sense of responsi–
bility for the public welfare. On the other hand, the government
agency has adopted the organization and technical innovations of
