States has changed. When Kennedy attacked South Vietnam, there was no protest, virtually none. That was in the early 1960s when Kennedy began the direct military acts against South Vietnam. When Johnson escalated the attack against South Vietnam to a full scale land invasion, there was also very little protest. In fact, protests reached a significant scale only when several hundred thousand American troops were directly engaged in the war against South Vietnam, a war which by then extended well beyond. In contrast, Reagan’s attempt to escalate the war in El Salvador has met with considerable popular opposition here. And that's significant. In fact, that’s one of the most significant facts of contemporary history. As recently as 1982, polls indicate that about 70 percent of the American population regard the Vietnam war not as a “mistake,” but as “fundamentally wrong and immoral.” Many fewer opinion leaders expressed that view, and virtually none of the really educated class or articulate intelligentsia ever took that position. That incidentally is quite typical. It’s typical for educated classes to be more effectively controlled by the indoctrination system to which they are directly exposed, and in which they play a sort of social role as its purveyors, hence coming to internalize it. So this degree of servility to the party line is not unique to this example. But the point is there’s a split, a very substantial split, between much of the population and those who regard themselves as its national leaders. That is even given a technical name—it’s called the “Vietnam Syndrome.” Notice the term “syndrome,” as applied to a disease. The disease is that there’s just a lot of people are opposed to massacre, aggression and torture, and feel solidarity with the victims. Therefore, something has to be done about that. It was assumed in the early 1980s that the disease had been cured, and by reading the productions of the educated classes, you would certainly have believed that. But, in fact, the disease was never very widespread and it’s a problem—it impedes, it inhibits direct intervention and dggression. Whether this opposition, which is quite real, can become sufficiently organized and effective to block further escalation—I don’t know. It could be that the current level of attack on the population of Central America will suffice to achieve the major American military ends. What is clear, however, is that we’re living through another chapter in a sordid and shameful history of violence and terror and oppression. Unless we can muster the moral courage and the honesty to understand all of this, and to act to change it, as we indeed can, then it’s going to continue and there will be many millions of additional victims who will face starvation and torture, or outright massacre, in what we will call “a crusade for freedom.” Noam Chomsky is a professor of philosophy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was early a critic of U.S. policy in Vietnam. This is Mr. Chomsky’s excerpt of a speech he delivered at Harvard University in March. Carel Moiseiwitsch is an artist living in Vancouver, B.C. In the first third, of this century, the U.S. sent military forces to Cuba, Panama, Mexico, and Honduras and occupied Haiti for twenty years. There, under Wilson, we reinstituted slavery, burned villages, destroyed, tortured, and left a legacy which still remains. OREGON BEACHES SAN FRANCISCO The Big Blue Victorian Breathe in New Energy . . .everv time you wear your new Breathe! T-shirt. Beautiful white calligraphy on fresh, long-wearing 50% poly/50% cotton blend, $12.00 postpaid. Crew neck: green, hot pink, purple, turquoise. S, M, L, XL. Please specify two color choices. Handy Breathe! reminder stickers ( l ’/4"x 1%"), 7 for $1.25 postpaid, and friendly oversized postcards (5"x8"), 12 for $9.00 postpaid, have cobalt calligraphy on glossy white stock. Allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery. Send check or money order to: Breathe! T-shirt 600 S.W. 10th, Suite 542 Portland, OR 97205 A Charming Inn, in the Bed & Breakfast Tradition Private Baths Color T.V. 208 N. Holladay Dr. Seaside, OR (503) 738-9055 BRIGHT • CHEERFUL • BED & BREAKFAST • IN CHINATOWN/NORTH BEACH BASQUE CUISINE • ROOMS FROM $30 • 1208 STOCKTON ST. • SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 94133 • (415)989-3960 • OBRERO HOTEL & RESTAURANT IN THE BASQUE TRADITION 46 Clinton St. Quarterly
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