COMMENTS ON "WHAT'S HA PPENIN G
TO AMERICA"
Conor Cruise O'Brien
We're sorry w.e have space only for some of the comments
we've received on "What's Happening to America?"
(PR,
Winter 1967).
Also, we're able to print only excerpts from some of them. (It should
now be clear from the variety of opinions, both in this issue and the
last, that all of the contributions could not possible reflect the editors'
views.)
5. Trotsky, in the twenties, "predicted emphatically the
emergence of the United States as the leading world power bound to
involve itself in the affairs of all continents and to spread out its net–
works of military and naval bases over all oceans" (Deutscher,
The
Prophet Unarmed).
Whether or not we accept the reasoning behind
Trotsky's "bound to"- the view that "the urge for expansion was in–
herent in its [America's] own economy"-we must accept the fact that
the prophecy itself was amply fulfilled. We must accept also that some
kind of involvement in the affairs of all continents is likely to continue.
But
the forms of the involvement can change, and some forms are less
dangerous than others. The key question is whether it is in America's
national interest to intervene with her own military forces to stop take–
overs by
native
communists-as distinct from Russian or Chinese incur–
sions--in cases where America has failed to prevent such take-overs
through diplomatic, financial and intelligence pressures? There is an
"anti-communist-but-liberal" position which likes to suggest that such
cases never arise; the communists are always aggressing, directly or in-
