lesson in the capacity of the Pentagon's war propaganda to withstand serious examination.
Political effervescence of this kind on the American campus is unusual under any circumstances. To find a parallel it would be necessary to go back to the thirties. It is highly symptomatic of deep changes in’ the American consciousness, clearly pointing in the direction of a new wave of radicalization. a
To this should be added the results of the most recent Gallup poll of public opinion, released to the press April 23. Almost one-third of the public is in favor of an immediate end of the conflict, even if it means a general retreat. Another one-third, a surprisingly high figure, are undecided, While only twelve per cent favor Johnson's “escalation,”
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If these figures are compared with the vote in the presidential eleotion last November, when Johnson received the largest majority in history because of his stated opposition to Goldwater's pro= gram of escalating the war in Vietnam, it is clear that public ope ion has continued to shift still farther away from "Goldwaterism foreign policy and that Johnson's "popularity" has been most seriously undermined by his decision to launch a military.assault on North Vietnam,
Such facts show how completely wrong was the feeling of a. figure like Jean-Paul Sartre who cancelled a scheduled trip to the United States, giving as his reason "The policy of violence practiced in Vietnam by the government of the United States with the approval of the majority of the American people..."
Some additional indications of how the American people really feel are provided by the following facts: The State Department has received more than 20,000 letters -+ without taking into account — letters for or against U.S. involvement in Vietnam -- simply asking for information, Senator Wayne Morse filled sixty-six pages of fine print in the Congressional Record with samples of articles, petitions, letters and telegrams opposing continuation of the war in Vietnam, Senator Joseph Clark, a conservative Pennsylvania Demo~ crat, revealed April 23 that he had received 1,390 letters from his constituents demanding American withdrawal from Vietnam (withdrawal, it should be notéd) and only 16 letters supporting continuation of the war, He said that his mail showed support for negotiation or. any way to bring the war to a close,
One of the reasons for the swift rise in opposition inside the United States to the war is the sensitivity of the American people to public opinion abroad, Vigorous statements in other countries, vigorous actions, militant demonstrations, even mild criticisms of White House policy such as those that have come from the. Canadian, Japanese and French governments, resound in the United States, me
_ The concern among the more enlightened sectors of capitalist opinion in the United States over the escalation of world.opinion | against the Johnson administration was well expressed in a melancholy article (April 23) by Walter Lippmann, the dean of American commen= tators, whose loyalty to the powers that be has been proved - since the beginning of World War I.
“Why is it, it is time to ask, that our position in Asia has declined so sharply though we are widening and intensifying the war in Vietnam?" he begins. "According to the so-called domino theory, the United States would lose the respect and support of the peoples of Asia if, in confronting Chinese Communism, it showed itself to be a paper tiger and refrained from military action. For three months, since February, we have applied this theory ever more vigorously. - And what are the results? Quite contrary to what was predicted:
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today the United States is not only isolated but increasingly opposed “by every major power in Asia. . "With the exception of Japan, which has a government but not a people who..support our policy, all the Asian powers are against us on this issue -=- not only China and Indonesia, but the Soviet Union, India, and Pakistan,"
Lippmann, it is to be noted, made an exception of Japan. But since his article was written a change has occurred. The Japanese government, too, can be added to the list.
He notes that India, Pakistan, China and the Soviet Union are involved in one or another quarrel among themselves. "But they are united in condemning our February war."
He says that the puppet governments in Bangkok, Seoul, Taipei and Saigon are “aligned with us." But there is "the ominous, rising anti-Americanism in the Philippines. "
Then Lippmann comes to his paradox: .: "The dominoes are indeed falling, and they are falling away from us, a
What are the reasons? The root is the fact that the Asians “pegard our war in Vietnam asa war by'a rich, powerful, white, Western nation against a weak ard poor Asian nation, a war by white men from the West against nonwhite men in Asia." You can talk all you want, but the Asian peoples cannot be convinced otherwise,
"In my view the president is in grave trouble. He is in grave trouble because he has not taken to heart the historic fact that the ‘role of the Western white man as a nuler in Asia was ended forever in World War II. Against the Japanese the Western white powers were unable to defend their colonies and protectorates in Asia, That put an end to the white man's domination in Asia which had begun in the 15th century," : me, Lippmann believes that a purge is required == a purge of "old conceptions and prejudices." How this is to be brought about, he does ‘not indicate,
“The pressures are rising around the entire globe against