War, Politics and Intellectuals-Two Views Lament for the Teach-Ins
WEISSMAN, STEVE
War, Politics, and Intellectuals—Two Views Lament for the Teach-ins By Steve Weissman The teach-in movement is dead. But its ghost looms ever larger in the Review of the Week (Section Four) of...
...The pollsters overwhelm us with the salable generalities...
...In a recent issue of the New Republic, Hans Mor-genthau discussed the relationship between academic and political life...
...What is needed on the critics' part now is more awareness of their role and more attention to their methods...
...While I do not mean to offer any pat explanation, the fact is that the precipitous decline of the "Negotiate-With-draw" group between July and September does coincide with the unilateral withdrawal of the professors...
...It is not wild-eyed optimism to wonder: Was there a missed opportunity at that critical point in spring 1966...
...President: STOP THE BOMBING This appeal, signed by more than 5,000 college faculty members...
...Radical intellectuals have also trooped off to the universities...
...Certainly the summer of 1965 was a banner season for pro-war propaganda...
...According to Max Frankel of the New York Times, "There was some disagreement about how much political action was appropriate for the Teach-in movement . . . some apparently advocated little more than a permanent forum for discussion between the academic community and public officials...
...there is no movement which would give support or give prestige, not to speak of jobs, to the political intellectual...
...Does distrust come from general experience (the length of the war, the casualties) or purposeful interpretation (say, Harrison Salisbury's reports...
...This is Lipset's particular affliction...
...Before any serious attempt to answer these questions can be made, perhaps what we need most of all is a more accurate understanding of public opinion about the war...
...Professors, like most Americans, feel powerless to shape foreign policy...
...Is James Wechsler's "support" as unconditional as William Buckley's...
...These trends pre-dated the war, but they also pre-dated the National Teach-in...
...In March 1965, 38 per cent of the respondents to the Harris poll chose "Negotiate-Withdraw" over "Hold Line" and "Carry War to North Vietnam...
...Even the proponents of social change are inclined to ignore or reject the demands of action...
...All of which has spurred the division of the "thinkers" from the "activists...
...What are the considerations behind support or opposition, hawkishness or dovishness...
...Applied to Vietnam, and Harrington seems to make the application, this seems to be an unrealistic and ironic repudiation of "coalition politics...
...Behind these four types—academic man, radical ideologue, liberal humanist, and powerless citizen —which may merge in any given individual, stand the main social trends of our time...
...occasionally one even joins them...
...The anti-war professors marveled at "the surprising attention attracted for public debate on foreign affairs...
...Write or wire your President and your Senators...
...Obviously, general opinions about peace and Communism do not account for the switch...
...The radical as ideologue...
...An alternative political position is that of "critic of power...
...The liberalism of the '40s and '50s, shocked by the fallibility of the masses (totalitarianism, war, Mc-Carthyism), made the organized group the basis for political action...
...It seemed that the prestige of academics could be converted into political currency...
...This could be mimeographed locally in colleges, churches, and community centers, and could be distributed within the community by a vast army of college students, housewives, clergy, etc...
...It is a warm-hearted creed, urging increased spending in the domestic "public sector" (hospitals, schools, garbage collection) and nonviolent persuasion in international affairs...
...they were "guests" on television...
...What, precisely, are the forms that such a movement could take...
...became heavily engaged in Vietnam, less than half the population, 48 per cent, supported continuing the war, as compared with 35 per cent who were in favor of our taking our troops out...
...The few teach-ins that are held do not mobilize allies or reason with the uncommitted: they celebrate the ritual of a tiny cult...
...The Administration became concerned and launched a massive propaganda campaign...
...But is there not also a hazard to truth when intellectuals do not aspire to power...
...Among the antiwar professors, the politically minded are usually liberals...
...There is little detailed information, for example, on the "credibility gap...
...The powerless American...
...We therefore felt that our main task was to deal with Socialism in the realm of ideas, to make democratic radicalism seem relevant once again to at least part of the American intellectual community...
...We know from personal experience...
...For the public knows they do not know, and feel they must trust the President, for there is no one else on whom they can rely in the international field...
...Specific evaluations of the usefulness of continued fighting, the dedication of the "freedom-loving South Vietnamese," and the popularity or even tolerability of the Ky government seemed to be involved...
...Perhaps this reflected the frustrations of a long war and one more aspect of the credibility gap...
...Could a resuscitated teach-in movement arouse enough public support to turn one of the major parties toward peace...
...they had their views reported in the news weeklies...
...But no popular alternative to Johnson's policy has emerged...
...whether there is a monolithic Communist threat...
...But its ghost looms ever larger in the Review of the Week (Section Four) of the Sunday New York Times...
...This would provide sustained criticism, and debate would be joined...
...Since these attitudes are "difficult to reconcile," Lipset noted, "most Americans share with their leaders the sense that they are in a morass from which they do not yet see a way out...
...in August...
...the relative power of China...
...The Harris poll reported one-third of the American people for "Negotiate-Withdraw" over "Hold Line" and "Carry War to North Vietnam...
...Sometimes the press was unfair...
...In the all-important short run, the President can "escalate under the justification that this is the only way to prevent a 'Communist takeover' in Southeast Asia...
...American liberalism, though, is not the creed for those who would fire up the masses to political change...
...Those who hold close to the truth have set their own terms, and sometimes they have successfully manipulated governments...
...For instance, Harrington argued in the Partisan Review last summer that domestic change must precede international change: "If there were to be a new political majority, if tens of millions were to have a sense of shaping their own destiny, if the economic underpinnings of the military-industrial complex were being challenged, then one could look toward a mass movement for a democratic foreign policy and for peace...
...Of course, as Lipset said, "once the religious strife was terminated, the President could regain his hold on public opinion by the twin tactics of escalating the bombing raids and emphasizing the military defeats suffered by the Vietcong, and the presumed demoralization of the Ho government in Hanoi...
...Congressional "doves" took heart and flapped their wings more vigorously...
...One reason for this is that the older generation of radicals, to which most radical professors belong, sees its present task as basically ideological...
...Part, however, reflects the government's ability to get its message across...
...What, for instance, is the meaning of data on "Support for the President" when the President straddles the peace issue...
...Another poll serves as an extremely gross index of the eclipse of the academics' influence...
...The point is that very specific attitudes are involved, and these are sometimes susceptible to anti-war influence...
...he] can negotiate with the Vietcong for a coalition government if this policy is presented as one which will gain peace while avoiding such a presumed takeover...
...Today the professors speak largely to each other, and to the converted...
...The opposition is split between hawks and doves, with maybe an edge for the doves...
...The Academy as a style of life has congealed...
...Yet there is substantial evidence that the bottom of the iceberg is much more complex and problematic, and that a revival of academic political action would be worthwhile...
...As Irving Howe put it in his introduction to The Radical Papers: "The Socialist movement in America had reached its nadir and could rarely intervene as a significant force in our political or trade union life...
...For instance, after the National Teach-In, the future of the academic movement came up for discussion...
...What, if anything, influences them...
...Nevertheless, I do not think they preclude a more effective movement to stop the Vietnam war...
...The moment of splendor was brief...
...Lewis Coser has noted the decrease of unattached intellectuals in America...
...The view from the top is not, on the whole, very promising for opponents of the war...
...General Wheeler, Secretary of State Rusk or other government spokesmen...
...In the spring of 1966, the American people learned of opposition in the streets to General Ky's government...
...It should not be a historical or theoretical document...
...The liberal as Harvard humanist...
...The task is to institutionalize this opposition and formulate an effective presentation...
...In short, the polls constitute an exhaustive study of the top of an iceberg...
...But radical professors—and the magazines they edit or contribute to—have not called for political action from their academic colleagues...
...While discussing a group's ingrained habits is always a delicate matter, professors are especially devoted to rationality and dialogue—it is their very raison d'etre...
...In fact, is our democracy not based on the assumption that the people will judge between opposing versions of truth...
...The evidence, moreover, can be extracted from the polls themselves...
...The collapse of the teach-in movement was not fortuitous...
...It would be futile to try to argue these developments out of existence...
...The regular report would also serve as a basis for community discussions and press, radio and television interviews with local anti-war professors...
...Still, the liberal intellectual does not recruit masses against organized groups, partly because of his social position and partly because of his lingering fear...
...The anti-war professors should publish a weekly 2-3 page analysis of Administration statements and actions...
...They talk about the need to move on from 'mere' criticism to 'constructive suggestions,' as if they were groping toward a more acceptable posture than that of moral outrage, a posture which would not expose them to the charge of being fuzzy-minded idealists who know nothing of the complicated issues involved in Vietnam...
...Insofar as it presents a positive program for the future and a distinctive strategy for realizing it, this liberalism is the brainchild of a few Harvard professors, in particular John Kenneth Galbraith and Arthur Schlesinger...
...He assumes that the polls simply reflect "underlying beliefs about peace and Communism," as well as certain "larger objectives, peace without the expansion (or contraction) of Communism...
...All four relate somehow to the "affluent" or "post-industrial" society, with its politically satisfied masses and the "end of ideology...
...Of course, this description treads a fine line between history and nostalgia...
...Yet with all its imperfections, the teach-in movement contained the possibility and promise of a broad opposition to the Vietnam war...
...This encompasses a variety of tactics, including the call to conscience and reason of the abolitionists and Dreyfusards, the economic appeal of union organizers, and the present call for "black power" by militant Negroes...
...The anti-war professors did not capitalize on the rising withdrawal sentiment at that time and made little effort to push either of the major parties toward peace...
...there is no Left-wing press with which the average academic man in the course of his career would come into live contact...
...How firmly rooted are these considerations...
...The anti-war professors transmitted their concern and some disturbing ideas...
...They were quoted in the columns of daily newspapers...
...Again, the publicity given the Fulbright hearings shows that respectable opposition can be heard...
...And today the most extensive appeal made by anti-war professors is probably that which regularly invades Section Four of the Sunday Times...
...One way to prevent such missed opportunities in the future, and to surmount the Section Four syndrome, would be to institutionalize the teach-in movement...
...These advertisements are paid for by contributions from individual signers...
...Writing in Transaction, Seymour Martin Lipset offered the following analysis of the polls: "The dominant attitude seems to be not to let Vietnam 'go Communist' coupled with a desire to end the war as soon as possible, on the most minimal conditions which include a willingness to negotiate directly with the National Liberation Front (nlf...
...The intellectual as academic man...
...The television formats were bulky and not conducive to point-by-point analysis of opposing positions...
...On March 12, in fact, an advertisement opposing the Vietnam war, covering two-and-a-quarter pages, carried a record 6,700 signatures...
...in July, 30 per cent...
...I have been told by a famous social scientist and leader of the teach-in movement that intellectuals should not engage in political action because such action requires "specialized cadres" (n.b., organizers of the labor and civil rights movement...
...the city is uncomfortable and in decay...
...This may result in diluting details—such as Galbraith's willingness to raise money for the public sector through a regressive sales tax...
...At long last American policy in Vietnam appeared to be entering the realm of public debate...
...One addresses the men of power through the written word, personal contacts, advisory posts...
...Which items are disbelieved...
...What is more, academic man is increasingly separated from the sources of social change...
...We knew that for an indefinite time there could be no major Socialist movement in America, but as intellectuals we tried to retain a long-range perspective, to live for more than the immediate moment...
...Rather, it reflected several well-established, if little examined, factors of American intellectual and political life...
...Organizers of the teach-in, he noted, "give the impression of shrinking back from some of the implications of the position into which events have thrust them...
...In May, the figure was 31 per cent...
...In addition, the movement could hold a weekly news conference in Washington, setting up a committee of professors to discuss the report and answer questions...
...But after they dismantled their organization, the government spokesmen dominated the media...
...The media overexposed the tough-minded presentation of Hans Morgenthau and neglected the moral arguments against U.S...
...Today, the society of groups no longer offers a pleasing prospect for the cultivated liberal intellectual...
...The anti-war professors must go beyond criticism of pro-war professors...
...We do not form any major political force in this country, yet at times we can influence opinion and thereby action (as most notably in the case of Michael Harrington vis-a-vis poverty and Bayard Rustin vis-a-vis civil rights...
...The question of corruption by power relates to the terms of the relationship between academics and government...
...the academic community has few roots in labor circles...
...Concommitantly, the teach-in movement collapsed...
...One of them is to propose intellectual relations with the more independent sections of American liberalism, in order to find ways of establishing common ground for the extension of welfare legislation and human rights, the furtherance of the Negro movement, and the defense of civil liberties...
...But the polls do not justify the political retreat of Johnson's academic critics even though one may develop premature fatalism from an unsophisticated interpretation of the data...
...Once the anti-war professors spoke to millions...
...But is there any practical alternative to the present course...
...Several thousand additional signatures have been received and will be published in a forthcoming ad...
...Vietnam began to look more like some antiseptic academic "problem" and less like a question involving moral responsibility...
...It is true that anxiety over the trend of the war has been growing, and the party in charge has been suffering...
...young people need to have their idealism fulfilled...
...Coser traces their migration in the editorial boards of Partisan Review and Dissent...
...the university has become "the major locale for intellect...
...By organizing the Washington National Teach-in, they got the mass media to carry their message...
...25 per cent...
...More relevant to the academic critics of the war, this liberalism results in a style of political action which has been called "boring from within...
...This certainly impedes the transition from "concern" to action...
...The anti-war professors should follow suit...
...the uncollected writing of Bayard Rustin...
...A study of the proportion of academicians among the contributors to little magazines in the '20s and '50s shows that where only 9 per cent were teachers in the '20s, 40 per cent were academicians in the '50s...
...others said that the government had ample methods to disseminate its views and that teach-ins should retain their critical character...
...Not having planned beyond the National Teach-in, which established them as a legitimate opposition, the anti-war professors lived off their reflected glory for a few months, then retired from the field...
...While there is much that is sensible and realistic in this perspective, it has fortunately been disregarded by the civil rights movement...
...He presented, quite eloquently, the hazard to truth encountered when an intellectual aspires to power...
...policy (not that Morgenthau rejects such arguments—they are simply not prominent in his philosophical approach and rhetorical style...
...But it is still the creed of academics, not poor people in Harlem or peasants in Guatemala...
...Some months later, Christopher Lasch discussed a conference at Ann Arbor...
...So thought the Dreyfusards...
...Advertising is crude and irrational...
...While this approach is not useless, nor an inevitable sell-out, it contains inherent tensions and many important changes cannot be secured this way...
...The little magazines of the Left are filled with their interminable and increasingly worn-out conversation...
...Some looked forward to direct political action...
...But this merely shows that attitudes depend on particular events and the domestic information vacuum (only the President's cheerful interpretation was generally available...
...The teach-in movement has been divided from the start between those on the one hand who see themselves as protestants and who wish to broaden the base of protest by reaching out to the student community and the civil rights movement, and those on the other hand who see themselves essentially as expert advisors to the government...
...It should simply confront Administration myths and expose them promptly, point by point...
...I must have seen a dozen TV specials during July and August featuring McGeorge Bundy, Secretary of Defense Mc-Namara...
...Without the cover of respectability provided by the professors, the student movement became conscious of its impotence, turning more and more toward disaffiliation from the war (draft card burnings, plans for universal service) as the prospects for stopping it darkened...
...They could then test in the laboratory of social action some of the more dubious ideological luggage of the Left...
...Louis Harris believes the Administration "reassured moderate Republicans that its aim is not to precipitate a big war with China...
...As C. Wright Mills wrote: "Social scientists have had little or no real contact with such insurgent sections of the community as exist...
...Apparently the latter group has won out...
...Not quite a year ago, still another poll showed 56 per cent of the people favoring stronger peace efforts...
...The weekly analysis should emphasize the Mor-genthau-Kahin line of the National Teach-in...
...the prospects for a long war of attrition...
...As a result, Lipset pointed out, the Gallup poll in June showed "that for the first time since the U.S...
...the military wields too much power...
...They must have the courage to look into their own actions...
...Steve Weissman, a new contributor to these pages, is instructor in Political Science at Fordham University...
...We had—and have—still other intentions...
...a posture, moreover, more consistent with the academic self-image...
...As Dwight MacDonald has said, "Few people have the imagination or the moral sensitivity to get very excited about actions which they don't participate in themselves (and hence about which they feel no personal responsibility...
...As before, debate itself could be a form of protest...
...In his view, therefore, the bottom of the iceberg is merely the top writ large: There is a solid basis for support of the war...
...There, in limbo between the news summaries and the education advertisements, the teach-in movement has come to rest: Mr...
...The polls are fuzzy snapshots requiring much sharper focus...
...The largest group, approximately half of those offering an opinion, continues to support Johnson's policy...
...How does disbelief affect the content, intensity and stability of one's general attitude toward the war...
...in September, 11 per cent...
...The readers of Section Four include 12-year-olds who are precocious and/or have homework to do for "social studies," school teachers, college students, college professors, and housewives and professionals with strong political interests—in other words, the smallest and least influential segment of the middle class...
...In this spirit, I would like to suggest some sources of their political irrelevance...
...Part of this decrease may represent the backwash of patriotism released by a year of escalation...
...For a moment it was not absurd to imagine the academic community a surrogate legislature, and the teach-in a "New Force for the Times," as one of its founders, Arnold Kaufman, put it...
...Bereft of a proletariat, they elaborate doctrine, take pride in chance encounters of doctrine and power from which there is usually meager and somewhat illegitimate issue (e.g., Michael Harrington's The Other America and the War on Poverty), or become "strategists"—tough-sounding visionaries who are long on program and short on tactics (e.g...
...This gives the President "a relatively free hand" where the actual decision-making on whether to escalate or de-escalate the war is concerned, Lipset further observed...
...Other considerations affecting overall judgment surely include: how eager the South Vietnamese are to fight Communism...
...What international developments might advance or hinder such a teach-in movement...
...the extent of civilian casualties...
...make the next truce permanent Ad Hoc Faculty Committee on Vietnam We do not need a survey to figure out who reads Section Four...
Vol. 50 • March 1967 • No. 7
