TURN OR TWIST
Wechsler, James A.
Turn or Twist by JAMES A. WECHSLER ALMOST OVERNIGHT the notion that the Goldwater-Buckley rightist "war corps" is sweeping the college campuses has been rudely shattered. The recent "Turn Toward...
...It is this kind of thinking that so sharply alienates these young men and women who have enlisted in "Turn Toward Peace...
...Fortunately Mr...
...Kennedy's plea for a "peace race" a symptom of softness...
...They found live minds at the White House and intellectual rigor mortis at State...
...Roosevelt, Walter Reuther, The New York Post and Americans for Democratic Action have given them...
...Some, even many, of their positions may be questionable, such as their call for prompt withdrawal of U.S...
...This mood of self-appraisal does not, however, render them credulous about self-righteous Russian dogma...
...Kennedy's White House spokesmen — McGeorge Bundy, Ted Sorehsen, Mark Raskin, and Jerome Wiesner— who met with leaders of the group...
...Somehow we must dwell on two levels...
...It lamented the sympathy Mrs...
...They refuse to accept the view that everything has been done that could be done to break the world impasse...
...But surely their cynicism about the civil defense hoopla, their concern about resumption of atmospheric blasts, above all their pleas for diplomatic novelty and daring in Germany and other places are not...
...It was suggested to them that now was the time for patriots to affirm their confidence in our diplomats who "have the facts and the know-how...
...This dreary document charged, among other things, that they "seek to build sentiment for unilateral nuclear disarmament"— which happens to be exactly what most of these groups have explicitly repudiated...
...Was Mr...
...Who is to say that any move for a great breakthrough abets Soviet policy...
...Condensed from a column by the Editor of the New York Post...
...But both their seriousness and realism merit respect...
...the marks of babes-in-the-woods...
...Talking to two Harvard leaders of the march—Kenneth Porter and Peter Goldmark—one had the sense that they felt there were two governments in Washington, one headed by Mr...
...It is generally agreed that they conducted themselves with remarkable dignity and responsibility...
...It has stirred wide echoes in many sheltered places...
...There they felt their efforts were welcomed, if only as a counterpoint to the truculent H-Bomb squad...
...What matters is that many of those who do feel a sense of involvement, and who reject the simple-minded slogans of both the Right-wing nuclear warriors and the faded Communist fellow-travelers, have finally been heard from...
...At the White House they received sane, careful, perhaps enlightening, adult comment about the ordeal of an Administration which must deal simultaneously with the unpredictable Soviet leaders and the unregenerate Congressional know-nothings...
...The recent "Turn Toward Peace" demonstration in Washington has dramatically altered the portrait...
...It is hardly my contention that these students have all the answers...
...Conceding that "for the most part, these groups are not Communist-run," the bulletin proclaimed: "They could not, however, be more welcome to the Reds just now, since their aims happen to serve Soviet policy...
...At the White House, Porter and Goldmark said, the students were treated seriously, as fellowcountrymen rather than as aliens, as participants—even as partners—in the desperate quest for a way out of man's deadlock...
...One of them remarked sadly that there were only two major occasions in Washington where they encountered simplistic cliche responses—in their interview at the Soviet Embassy and in the lectures at the State Department...
...A recent issue of the bulletin of the Research Institute of America, headed by Leo Cherne, took a dark view of "anti-nuclear groups...
...For would not such moves confirm the Chinese thesis that there can be no semblance ol truce...
...One wishes the same could be said for the State Department team which—with the exception of Jacob Beame and perhaps one or two others—succeeded in offending and exasperating nearly all of those who attended the "briefing" that turned into a stricture...
...At the State Department they were astounded to discover that they were viewed as "unilateralists," perhaps subversive, deserving only a lecture on their own deficiencies of spirit and character...
...That, I think, is what most of the students were saying, and they deserve something better than exile or condescension...
...Reading all the signs of conflict between Moscow and Peking, one might by the same poor logic contend that those who demand quick renewal of tests and other "hard" measures are dangerous because "their aims happen to serve Chinese Communist policy...
...Kennedy got the point, if others did not...
...These are essentially the answers of trie young to the weary slogans of their elders, a scorning of the view that the best that man can do for himself is to remain poised over a brink...
...Kennedy and his White House staff and the other composed of veteran State Department bureaucrats who believe young men should be seen only on orders from above and certainly not heard...
...we must also resist the proposition that the human intelligence must forever remain paralyzed in a time of final peril to man...
...Admittedly there are still multitudes of students who care more about the Twist than about the Turn...
...The chance for all of us may be poor, but let it never be said that we missed even a small gleam of light...
...bases in Turkey and Italy as a "basis" for negotiation with Moscow...
...At the State Department they were solemnly warned their deeds might be gravely "misread" in Moscow...
...So did Mr...
...We must let the Communists know there can be no cheap victories in Berlin or elsewhere...
Vol. 26 • April 1962 • No. 4
