What Can We Do?-A Statement
McGovern, Senator
"... the new level of escalation marked by our bombing of the North Vietnamese airfields has brought us one step closer to World War III ... I do not intend to remain silent in the face of...
...We reject the notion that they are all TV-duped and brainwashed "mass men" inaccessible to the claim of reason or morality...
...If, indeed, it will be possible to move a significant portion of the electorate, roughly the liberal-center segment, to speak out against the war, then we may be able to reverse Johnson's disastrous course...
...Millions of ordinary Americans are disturbed...
...They can organize groups within the political parties against the war...
...some of them put their lives on the line in fighting for Negro rights in Mississippi and elsewhere...
...They can stir their trade unions...
...I do not intend to remain silent in the face of what I regard as a policy of madness...
...And we cannot ignore the danger that a protest of desperation, morally valid though it would be, might leave the bulk of our citizens indifferent or even hostile, thereby giving both the Administration and various local forces of reaction a new pretext or opportunity to unleash repressive acts...
...Let us speak to trade unionists and see if we can persuade them to throw their weight behind peace...
...Individual protests must be honored and protected...
...But we must try...
...the new level of escalation marked by our bombing of the North Vietnamese airfields has brought us one step closer to World War III...
...We must move beyond our accustomed circles and try to reach new communities of protest...
...Dramatic gestures can be useful...
...If this war lasts much longer, horror will be piled on horror and injustice upon injustice...
...We offer below a perspective, not because we have any sure-fire or magical answers, but because this seems to us a possible way of affecting American decision in the coming year...
...There is a humane and democratic tradition in this country which can be appealed to...
...The President's decision to escalate the Vietnam War destroys whatever small chance there was for negotiations in the near future and plunges the United States into a major crisis...
...Demonstrations are essential—they have helped stir people into action...
...Only a wave of popular sentiment, coming from the mainstream of American life, can prevent it...
...The whole political and social life of the country will be poisoned...
...Many will respond to what is the essential demand of the moment: Cease the bombing of North Vietnam as a prelude to a full-scale ceasefire and negotiations) This seems to us the key: can there be mobilized a sufficient number of nonpolitical people to shake the country into conscience...
...But the main job, we think, is to mobilize a large segment of the American people—those who stand politically at center or a bit left of center, those who have not yet joined in protests...
...We know they are not cowards...
...LEWIS COSER LENORE MARSHALL MICHAEL HARRINGTON SEYMOUR MELMAN RICHARD HOFSTADTER STANLEY PLASTRIK IRVING HOWE BERNARD ROSENBERG ARNOLD KAUFMAN MEYER SCHAPIRO JEREMY LARNER ALLARD LOWENSTEIN NORMAN THOMAS...
...What shall we, what can we do...
...They can show the Administration that its disastrous course leads to a steady erosion of popular support...
...Let us try to involve more community and church organizations...
...We are ready to aid them against prosecution and/or persecution...
...We respect the integrity of the young people who have decided that, as an act of witness and conscience, they cannot fight in this war...
...but they could act through other and equally—perhaps more—effective ways...
...But while respecting their moral stand, we do not believe the kind of action they are considering is likely, in the coming months, to lead to that large-scale outpouring of sentiment and action which can alone bring about a reversal of the President's course...
...Perhaps there is no strategy that can now stop the country from sinking deeper into its shameful course...
...This means that new actions are required, by those who sign this statement and those who read it...
...Among the growing number of Americans who see this war as unjust, inhumane, and reactionary, it provokes feelings of outrage and desperation...
...Let us approach the small band of senators that has begun to speak out more forcefully against the war and persuade them that it is their duty to move out of Washington, into the countryside, to barnstorm and rally support...
...These are people who might not respond to traditional devices of protest...
...We believe that where serious moral objection is held against a particular war, the procedures now governing conscientious objection on religious grounds should also apply...
...They can rouse the churches...
Vol. 14 • July 1967 • No. 4
