Jeffrey Hert
THE NEW LEFT AND ITS FADING AURA
My involvement in the new left began in the fall of 1965
and ended in the spring of 1970. The ideas of those five years en–
dured much longer, but I gradually moved away from them to the
center or center right of the American political spectrum. I have very
fond memories of a period of intense intellectual, political, and moral
engagement, of friends made, and of a powerful sense of community
and purpose . But when I think about my political judgement then, I
come to the conclusion that it left much to be desired. Hence , these
reflections.
My first real contact with the new left was as a member of the
Students for a Democratic Society chapter at Grinnell College, attend–
ing the October 1965 anti-Vietnam demonstration in Washington .
Then I argued that the war was not in America's national interest–
I cared about
our
national interest - that we were not looking at the
possibility of a third force between the Saigon regime and the Com–
munists, and that the insurgency in the South was homegrown. I was
going through my arguments about how phony the State Depart–
ment White Paper was on aggression from the North , when a mem–
ber of something called the May 2d Movement from Columbia said
to me that of course the State Department White Paper was correct.
The real problem, he said, was that North Vietnam, and especially
the Soviet Union , were not doing enough to overthrow the Saigon
regime . Of course, it was a good idea to attack the credibility of the
State Department for propaganda reasons, but the new left should
make clear that it would be a good idea for the other side to win
the war.
I was a bit taken aback by this . Anti-anticommunism was not
yet part of my vocabulary . But at least there was an honesty to his
position I respected .
If
you called for an American withdrawal from
Vietnam, it was obvious that the Communists , not some vague third
force, would win. Many people in the antiwar movement either de–
nied that fact , or tried to convince themselves it wouldn't happen ,
but few, especially in 1965, thought it would be a good idea. When
people say that part of the appeal of the new left, as any radical polit-
