TODAY'S YOUTH: A HOPEFUL GENERATION

...This article is adapted from Senator Hatfield's forthcoming book, Not Quite So Simple, copyright © 1968 by Mark Or Hatfield, and it is published with the permission of Harper & Row, Publishers.—The Editors...

...Whether or not a tribunal is ever actually convened to try Americans upon charges of war crimes or crimes against humanity in Vietnam, every man is tried in balance against his own values...

...Draft-card burning is not only a technique used to protest the war, but it is also used to express the rapidly growing dissatisfaction with the draft system itself...

...To a man, we marched down to the recruiting office to sign up, and we sincerely pitied those unable to join a service...

...If there is any information that we have that would aid in your fight against this mess we are in over there, we will send photocopies or help in any way we can...

...And all the reports on his conduct agree / That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint...

...Was he free...

...When hearings were held to explore suggested changes in the Selective Service System, there were no young men asking to testify and protest the inequities of the draft...

...During my ten years in the state capitol I could always look out my office windows, across State Street, to the magnificent trees and historic buildings of the Willamette campus...

...I cannot condone discourtesy to the President of the United States, or the Vice President of the United States, or the Secretary of Defense, or anyone...

...And their fellow Americans must not be hasty to condemn the choice these young men—who genuinely face this dilemma—make...

...They resent a paternalistic government that assigns its citizens a number, categorizes them into groups, and then promises to provide for their corporate needs...

...Was he happy...

...The question is absurd: j Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard...

...It helps to know men of your stature and position care enough to write...

...There were so many things that a normal army makes sure its men have...

...To me, the resentment that the war in Vietnam has bred into these young people is one of its most alarming effects...

...Many young people reject the traditional authority of religious faith...

...He must choose either to move to Canada, to declare himself a conscientious objec"To today's young people the conventional forms of authority are shams...

...It is not easy for them to go to Vietnam and aid a policy they feel harms their country...

...To today's young people the conventional forms of authority are shams...

...It began: "He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be j One against whom there was no official complaint...

...We knew what we were fighting for...

...Instead of receiving a fair hearing they had received boos, hisses, and jeers...

...Out of feelings of guilt, frustration, and resentment, young men are sometimes prompted to burn draft cards, boo public speakers, and join in other forms of public protest that not only harm their cause in opposing the war but incite others to question their motives and discredit the legitimacy of the dilemma they face...

...Instead of setting fire to pieces of paper, draft protestors should "set fire" to, in the sense of energizing, legislation before Congress that would eliminate the Selective Service System and return military personnel recruitment to a volunteer basis...

...They view the purposes of the war as unjust...

...for persons of any maturity whatever, the old moral soporific that "I was ordered to do it" has never been effective—one cannot contradict one's own conscience without trauma and I, for one, do not intend to do so...

...Unfortunately, and unjustifiably, their reluctance to go to Vietnam is interpreted by an older generation— who fought with pride in Korea or World War II—as a lack of patriotism...

...The Nuremberg Principle existed, in fact, long before the Allies codified it at the end of the last war...

...I schedule as many speaking engagements with students as possible in an effort to help maintain a dialogue between their generation and mine...

...In office jargon, we often refer to my appearances before student audiences as "confrontations...

...Unfortunately, this decision does not always remain the private problem that it should be...

...This was a convention hall dominated by extremists who were then in full cry against Governor Nelson Rockefeller...

...This approach was based on the premise that there are few absolutes, no final authorities to cite with which to crush the opposition, but instead room for interpolation and debate...

...Instead of making an effort to communicate with the younger generation they often retire to nurse the wounds inflicted upon their egos by irreverent youth...

...The hardest part to take in this whole affair is the fact that he died in a war that he thought was wrong...

...An educator, he was formerly an associate professor of political science and dean of students at Willamette University...

...I only hope that the symptoms are temporary and that the causes are corrected...

...Perhaps most important of all, young people resent the imperson-alization of a government more preoccupied with producing institutional efficiency than with protecting human individuality...

...They reject the various justifications given by the Administration for our involvement in Vietnam as an inadequate and an insufficient basis on which to kill other men...

...when there was war, he went...

...Early in 1968, I received a copy of a very moving letter written by a young man who had volunteered for service in the Army and had already served two Of his four years...

...Youth, more than any other age group, has suffered the disillusionment of discovering that its government and its highest elected officials are not believable...

...The shouting-down of speakers representing the Administration is not a reasonable way to oppose the President's Vietnam policies...

...It is with deepest respect that we thank you for what you have done and will continue to do to stop this needless and futile war...

...Senate was a bill designed to upgrade the opportunities and rewards of military service in order to make this a career possibility attractive enough to generate the necessary number of volunteers...

...This and other forms of public protest often generate more anger than sympathy...

...Youth's alienation and rejection of traditional forms of authority have been magnified by the Vietnam war...

...But an even more important reason behind my preference for this speaking format over a declarative speech with no possibility for rebuttal is the opportunity it provides for the exchange of ideas...

...they alienate more people than they persuade and are therefore counter-productive...

...I also tried to make as many trips as possible back across that street to talk with the students—sometimes in political science classes, sometimes in their residences, and occasionally before a more formal gathering of the whole student body...

...Following is a representative letter: Dear Sir: First I wish to thank you for your letter of March 5, 1968, expressing sympathy for the death of our son in Vietnam...

...young people resent the imper-sonalization of a government more preoccupied with institutional efficiency than with protecting human individuality...

...I am concerned that their frustration may lead some to despair and finally to withdrawal from productive roles in a society that does not share their values...

...As in the classroom, I want the stimulus of that challenge for the students as well as for myself...

...And the subject is not always different...

...On my many visits to college campuses, I have found this subject uppermost in the minds of students...

...This leads them to propose simplistic solutions that are doomed to failure...

...and I am humbled by your idealism...

...Even more tragic are the letters I receive from parents of the young men who have given their lives in this confused and mixed-up war...

...Tell Dad don't do it...

...I will, instead, hope for peace in Vietnam which circumvents your military solutions, and then perhaps I can find something to be proud of...

...And they are prone to opt for dramatic action in search for these solutions rather than undertake the slower, more arduous task of seeking them through accepted political processes...

...Our researchers into Public Opinion are content / That he held the proper opinions for the time of year...

...He stated in his letters, "These people don't want us here...

...There is no difference in denying one man or another the right to be heard, I told the students...

...I also received correspondence from another American serviceman who had just returned from a year in Vietnam...

...My heart aches for the other young men who face the agony of choosing between their duty to their country and their duty to their consciences...

...The first piece of legislation I sponsored in the U.S...

...If we hadn't sent them, he would have done without...

...They are extremely concerned with the morality and legitimacy of our involvement in Vietnam...

...if he does not measure up, he is lost—he could not even live with himself...

...Either they become resentful of the attitudes and "antics of alienated youth" or they rather indifferently assume that young people will one day outgrow this "rebelliousness" and everything will be all right again...

...The burning of draft cards, for instance, is a rather simplistic reaction to the Vietnam war and announces a despair about other possible approaches...

...I know that nothing will assuage that guilt...

...We knew that the survival of the United States was at stake...

...Just like many other forms of protest, it is impotent to bring a solution of this conflict and betrays a sense of defeat that is not justified...

...This idea was captured by a placard carried in a recent student demonstration which read, "Christ yes, Christianity no...

...I am encouraged by your determination...

...Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare / He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Installment Plan / And had every thing necessary to the Modern Man, j A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire...

...And we knew that taking up arms was the only way to save our country...

...I spoke on the Harvard and Stanford campuses within* a short time after Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (at Harvard) and Vice President Hubert Humphrey (at Stanford) had made attempts to present the Administration's Vietnam position...

...The word gets back here and they make it rough on us...

...My generation also rejected authority, but, as one analyst, Lewis Yablon-sky, put it, "The pre-World War II students . . . simply wanted a 'piece of the action.' " Today's students often reject "the action" entirely...

...Isuppose, technically, I left the classroom in 1956 when I resigned my position as dean of students at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, to campaign for the office of Secretary of State...

...But I was never very far from the campus—physically or mentally...

...They are repulsed by the inadvertent but persistent killing and maiming of civilians by indiscriminant bombing of populated areas and by the use of such cruel and terrifying weapons as napalm...

...Whenever the speaking format permits, I pattern my speeches after the approach I used in the classroom...

...But today the young man often pitied by his peers is the young man who has been drafted to fight in Vietnam...

...There are many symptoms and causes of the alienation of young people today...

...I would estimate the cost to us at over $50 a month...

...They feel helpless and frustrated in attempting to influence governmental Institutions effectively insulated from the desires of the people by a moat of bureaucratic red tape...

...The medal represents the insult and degradation I have received...

...I cannot accept it...

...Young people are understandably impatient...

...This, on the whole, is not true...

...As I told the 1967 graduating class during a commencement address at Willamette University: "I want to congratulate you on an excellent beginning as one of the most hopeful generations our nation has produced...

...They may disassociate themselves from society altogether and withdraw into apathy, or they may set out to alter society drastically and transform its values and priorities...

...This is the first war where the parents are forced to send their sons food, rain gear, razor blades, toothbrushes, toothpaste, insect repellent, prescriptions for medicine to kill mites...

...He continued: The above-requested action represents the only means by which I can simultaneously fulfill my responsibilities as a member of the armed forces and my responsibilities to my own conscience...

...To them a personal relationship with God has been suffocated by "the institutionalized church...

...It is a very personal dilemma that each man must privately resolve on the basis of his own values, and the torment of this decision should not be heightened by the harsh judgment of someone who would have chosen a different course...

...I wanted to write to you last fall, but when Bobby heard about it he wrote, "Mom...

...It is also extremely difficult for them to participate in a policy they believe to be morally wrong...

...I am both concerned and encouraged by youth's questioning of the values of the world they are about to inherit...

...In his letter to me this young man confessed: "I have felt guilty about my participation in the war...

...as a human, thinking being who was told not to question any part of my value system, which has . . . been smashed by my participation in the wrecking of Vietnam...

...Because of his outstanding service to his country in this conflict, he had been awarded the Bronze Star Medal...

...I once had a student point out to me a poem by W. H. Auden titled "The Unknown Citizen (To JS/07/M/ 378 This Marble Monument Is Erected by the State...

...I am excited about your enthusiasm...

...There have been many perceptive analyses of the causes of this alienation of young people...

...Respectfully, {names withheld) I can't help contrasting the bitterness of many of today's young men about to be sent to Vietnam with the exhilaration my generation felt at the privilege of serving in World War II...

...Many also view the methods used in Vietnam as immoral...

...Now when I appear before a student audience, I make a statement of my views on a given issue and then submit this view to the challenge of a question-and-answer period...

...By constantly exposing myself to this challenge I hope to help assure myself against the pitfall of positivism—the slide into arrogant self-assurance that never questions basic premises and that is never modified by changing events and circumstances...

...I came away from this experience with a greater appreciation for the democratic right, and necessity, for every man—whatever his views—to be heard...

...They can't make it rough on him any more...

...They don't do us any favors...

...There were no movements on college campuses supporting legislation designed to correct these inequities...

...In the classroom I would make as convincing an argument as I could in support of some political analysis and then immediately subject it to review by the students...

...From then on my hands were tied...

...They reject the tyranny of the pay check, the job-house-mortgage-suburbia complex which they sum up as the "rat race...

...Those bonds were cut by a Vietcong bullet on February 18...

...They find it impossible morally to condone our "scorched earth" policies of leveling villages and chemically destroying vegetation and food crops—perhaps for generations to come...

...They honestly believe that the war in Vietnam does not serve the best interests of this nation and that it betrays its principles...

...But I believe it goes much deeper than this...

...He sent me a copy of a letter he had written to his commanding officer in Vietnam rejecting this award: I recognize that the Army considers the medal a high honor, but to me it is a worthless memento, a scrap of ribbon, an object which stands for two years in the military where I was reduced to a common criminal and a participant in a war that- lacks all reason...

...Your medal is worthless and insulting...

...I had never before witnessed such intolerance and viciousness...

...In the eyes of many people the burning of a draft card is a symbolic renunciation of the United States and the duty to serve one's country rather than an expression of frustration at being forced to compromise either this duty or the duty to one's conscience...

...When I appeared on these campuses shortly after those incidents, I opened my remarks by sharing with the students an experience I had had on the platform of the Republican National Convention in 1964...

...tor, or go to jail, or he must choose to kill men he does not hate, in a war he cannot justify, for a cause he does not believe in...

...Nearly every day my mail includes a letter from some young man who must reconcile his duty to serve his conscience...

...When there was peace, he was for peace...

...These young men who question our commitment in Vietnam are often motivated by the highest form of love for their country and the principles upon which it was founded...

...I have no doubt that, if you retain these qualities, you will be the match for any burdens you inherit...

...These are the words not of "unpatriotic shirkers" but of highly idealistic and sensitive young men who are deeply tormented by the sacrifice of values that is demanded of them by their participation in a war they believe to be immoral...

...I don't anticipate this as the general pattern, however, but believe that the idealism of today's younger generation will serve as the catalyst for change, for the remolding and redirection of our society to conform with the needs and values of individuals...

...Their loss of faith has been matched by their growing cynicism—not just toward the current Administration but toward our entire governmental system...

...they want immediate solutions...

...This is exactly what I hope they will be, for it is in the clash of ideas, the face-to-face collision of various points of view, that dogma is modified by tolerance and both the students and I are forced to maintain our perspective and to accommodate divergent views...

...Students have always been my favorite audience, and I have found that addressing them as a political figure is little different from facing them as a political science teacher...

...Some people see it as basically an exaggeration of youth's traditional rebellion against symbols of authority...

...Students, and the faculty members who are usually present at such gatherings, are able skillfully to analyze and articulate views that oppose those I accept...

...In the face of being transferred to Vietnam he had written to his commanding officer requesting that he be reduced to E-l rank and "that all salaries, bonuses, and privileges, monetary or otherwise, granted to those serving in Vietnam be denied me...

...For instance, when students boo Administration officials and prevent them from speaking, public sympathy lies with the speaker who was denied the right to be heard...

...Effective debate and persuasion in the political arena require that the spokesmen of various views present these views honestly, but in their strongest and most convincing form...

...Too often, I feel, adults make an insufficient effort to bridge the "generation gap...

...I sympathize deeply with his torment...

...I was a student at Willamette when Pearl Harbor came and I remember, vividly, hearing President Roosevelt's war message to Congress on the radio in our fraternity house...

...They seriously question the validity of political processes that allow them few opportunities to make their views felt...

...The poem represented the final entry on the government's record of this unnamed citizen, listing numerous agencies' evaluation of his life...

...Such conduct, I finished quietly, was particularly reprehensible on academic campuses, the traditional guardians of our libertarian principles...

...Many of our nation's most idealistic young men are torn between their recognition of their duty to serve their country and their duty to apply an individual moral standard to the actions they perform...

...Adults, to whose wisdom youth is expected to defer, seem to have produced a dangerous and hate-filled world obsessed with goals and values youth finds repugnant...

...Whatever course he chooses, he resents being forced to make such a decision...

...The protagonists, however, must not delude themselves with the smug assumption that they have a monopoly on the "truth...

...They are repulsed by an adult world that reveres material possessions, that is motivated by the search for status and the unrelenting compulsion to succeed...

...They resent the hypocrisy of an older generation that presents idealistic guideposts for the young at the same time it rejects them for itself, that self-righteously denies prejudice at the same time it votes down open-housing laws...

...Finally, the authority of government has fallen into the chasm created by its own credibility gap...

...They moved against him with the full force of their venom, booing, and hooting, deriding him as he attempted to defend his civil rights position...