AMERICA
31
must be elimina ted, for such violence solves no problems, says the Presi–
dent in the very same speech calling for a greater effort made to destroy
the foreign enemy. And the white Communists of the world become our
allies against the yellow ones; together, the white Communists and cap–
italists treat with contempt the few brown cohorts they have and the
black nations who remain outside the conflict.
The war in Vietnam has brought about other possible parallels, too:
on an island off the coast of South America, an ex-Nazi who admits re–
sponsibility for the death of thousands of Jews explains to a TV inter–
viewer that
if
he were tried now as a war criminal in the U.S., he would
be
acquitted for now the Americans would understand better what he
had done since their soldiers are doing somewhat the same kinds of
things, too.
The analogy is one which, obviously, isn't accurate and yet a gnaw–
ing doubt remains, for in South Africa the liberals always deplored
Apartheid but ended by choosing
it
as the lesser evil over black rule.
And in Germany, many decent people deplored how the Nazis behaved
but believed they had no choice but to support their country against
its
"enemies."
What might happen in America, also,
if
we lost the war in Asia?
Most of us never think of that possibility, always assuming it will just
drag on and on until we win and a compromise peace is arranged. We
have never lost a war yet but perhaps we will this time, perhaps this is a
war we cannot win. Then? How would the country take such a defeat?
Would it turn on those inside for whom there is such a deep hate?
I am deeply pessimistic about the U .S. today. Partly, this pessimism
has been brought on by what I have been learning about how inter–
nalized and institutionalized are racism and contempt for the poor. But
while I am politically pessimistic, for I believe the will to change is
missing, I am personally optimistic about the youth: I believe the young
are healthy and hopeful despite their lack of ideology, despite their ar–
rogance as they come
de nova
to the world of politics, despite their rude–
ness, despite their romanticizing of the poor and the Negro. And if they
have done nothing else, they have been a constant reminder to their elders
about the need to consider and make moral decisions, and some of their
elders, including me, needed such reminders.
