I reported recently after a trip abroad
that most Europeans understand and appreciate
our constructive involvement in the underdeveloped
countries of Asia.
For such a routine observation, I received
a flood of three letters taking me to task.
I am said to be (in order of severity) “hawkish,” “reactionary,” and “insane.”
It is interesting to note the inability
of U.S. citizens these days to differentiate
between opinion and reporting in the press.
But that is an article for another day.
“Is America
so rotted by the Vietnam War, so rent
by protest against most of the things
that the Nixon Government stands for
at home and abroad, as now to be no
match, in power or the will to use
it, for an imperialist Soviet Russia
or a resurgent China?
“If this were indeed so, the European
and other democracies, which now take American
protection as much for granted as the sun
and the rain, should be doing something
more constructive than self-righteously
deploring the presages of America’s
decay so eagerly served up by the media.
“Has the canker
eaten as deep into the American soul
as the television pictures suggest?
“About 300,000
demonstrated against the war in Washington
alone (one recent weekend.)
“Eight hundred youthful-looking ‘veterans’ from
Vietnam discharged their appointed
task of reflecting vocally and visually
the supposed demoralization of the American
Army.
“The climax was a well-organized
and well-photographed orgy in which the
various military decorations so prized
in the country’s history were
dishonored, thrown away, and trampled
underfoot.
“It was a
kind of antipatriotic black mass, calculated
to shock in the same way as the shouted
obscenities that are now a routine
part of demo techniques.
‘Senators
Kennedy, McGovern, and Muskie were
among those anxious to be associated
with such proceedings. In this atmosphere
the highest estimates of drug-addiction
and officer murder in Vietnam seemed
credible.
“And yet, President Nixon is resolutely
achieving his objectives -- contrary to
all indications when he took office, despite
organized malice of unprecedented scale
and intensity at home, and all the enemy’s
efforts to exploit America’s
self-inflicted wounds.
“More than
half of the troops have already been
withdrawn, and the reverse flow has
been increased. The South Vietnamese,
growing daily stronger, will soon be
carrying the entire burden of the land
fighting.
“The initiatives in Cambodia and
Laos, far from bringing China into the
war, as Mr. Nixon’s denigrators
predicted, must have played some part
in bringing China to the contemplation
of a settlement that is implied by
her overtures.
“In America
the economy is responding to treatment,
the racial scene, and even campuses
seem to be cooling.
“Abroad, Mr. Nixon - despite isolationists
of the Right and Left, and pandering by
the Democratic leaders to the pacifist
and protest movements - is showing that
he is able and determined to discharge
America’s responsibilities.
“He sometimes
has to trim a bit in dealings with
an awkward Senate, but in a showdown
it knows that he would have public
opinion behind him.
“He did not
withdraw troops from Europe.
“He stood
up to Russia in the Syria-Jordan crisis
last October, recently reinforced the
Sixth Fleet to compensate for Russian
moves and is evidently not going to
allow Russian expansion in the Indian
Ocean to go unanswered.
“While seeking
a missile agreement, he is telling
Russia firmly that he will not allow
her to steal marches or gain advantages,
and is taking practical dispositions
accordingly.
“Such things
do not make such good television programs
as veterans' protests, but in the present
context they are much, much more important.”
