IRRITATED OVER CAMPUS FERMENT AGAINST VIETNAM WAR
At a press conference in Detroit, Michigan, September 21, U.S. .Ambassador~at-Large W. Averell Harriman expressed his irritation over the ferment on college campuses in the United States opposing the war in Vietnam, .
The former governor of New York and ambassador to the Soviet Union, who is a member of Americats inner ruling circle of sixty multibillionaire families, made it clear that he did not think a revolution is developing in the United States at present. In fact, he tried to brush aside the domestic political importance of the ferment. "I dontt think," he said, "it has very serious implications internally, but it does abroad.* § ~ . ;
In the colossally wealthy ambassador's opinion, the campus ferment in the United States has encouraged and inspired the freedom fighters in Vietnam,
Their heightened morale has made them less willing to bow to Johnson's escalation of the war and to the massive use of high explosives, napalm and frightful new instruments of mass murder being tested out in Vietnam by the Pentagon.
"Harriman," reported the Detroit News, "said he talked to a veteran reporter who had interviewed a Viet Cong leader who was com= pletely familiar with the status of campus opposition to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war. Harriman indicated the Viet Cong leader felt the American people would not support a lengthy fight for Vietnam, citing the unrest among students and the academic community."
Exactly what this representative of America's ruling families proposes to do about campus unrest was not very clear. For the record he stated: "I'm the last one to ask that inhibitions be placed on free speech in this country."
Nevertheless his unhappiness over the results of student. and teacher exercise of “free speech" was only too evident. When genuine defenders of democratic rights stretch hands across the sea, American imperialism only stands to lose,
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WELL-KNOWN TROTSKYIST