26
H. STUART HUGHES
of the young at least are sensitized to public lies. The question now is the
degree to which they can politicalize their revulsion. And the degree
to
which we can.
H. Stuart Hughes
In thirty years of concern with American politics and Ameri–
can society, I have never been so close as I am now to despairing of my
country. The war in Vietnam has brought to the surface the latent ugliness
in American life-the scorn for the weak and racially diverse, the accept–
ance of violence as something normal, the lack of imagination about the
suffering of others-in short, a profound emotional and ethical insensi–
tivity. When pressed, nearly every American of discernment will admit
that the war is wrong; but he will add that there is nothing that can be
done about it. Our people seem to be settling into a protracted neocolonial
conflict as though it were their natural habitat.
Which is not to say that the war in Vietnam cannot be defended in
rational terms. The Johnson-Rusk line of reasoning makes perfect sense
if one grants its assumptions. And by these I do not mean the dubious
analogy with Munich or the domino theory of subversion. I mean, rather,
the idea that there must be a leader of the world and that this position,
by right of both power and virtue, belongs to the United States. Now
that the Soviet Union has fallen behind in the armaments race-and has
simultaneously turned toward moderation in its foreign dealings- China
remains as the only challenger. In the Administration's reasoning the real
point of the Vietnam struggle is not the defense of a small people against
Communism; for the President and his advisers are quite prepared to
see that people sacrificed in the process. The real point is that Vietnam
marks the first round in a contest with China for world leadership.
In such a perspective, major reform at home has to be slowed
down-as it has been in our country during all four of our twentieth–
century wars. In the name of national unity, the existing system of eco–
nomic power must be endorsed; the "Great Society" (if the goal indeed
still exists) must slip as best it can into the interstices of a going concern;
