◆ SpookStack

: whe . oo : *. ; “ - ye ae vga tag em sper ne A YEE sacopP + ercememarer ny _ ’ tefight in any war, and it spread around é ' the world. Students in the United States and elsewhere conducted brief strikes to-ramatize their desire to end all ‘war, J. Edgar Hoover is W rong The depression in the United States brought a powerful growth of student ‘organizations conscious of the plight of the poor, : Influenced by Marxist ideas, the American Youth Congress asked more’ vigorous action by President Roosevelt to help the unemployed, to grant equal rights to the Negro in the South, and to end segregation in the Armed Forces, | _ Student radicalism today, however,. 4s different in a crucial way from that of the 30s, At that time, many of the, leaders of the movement were com-' .Mitted to one or another Socialist or Communist group, and many students! felt about the Soviet Union as the jour’ nalist Lincoln, Steffens did, when he re: turned from the new Bolshevii state, : saying: “I have seen the futuré—and it: works.” . — ; Today, student-radicals are a new breed. They have no commitment to: any other country,-no passion for any ; existing sqcial system, no adherence to > any Yigid doctrine. =. ee da oe ere ye wan Pa ard be + Re Mareen peneemanme wee 4 aed om . * “ re ti t.Edgar Hoover may look for “Com-* munist” infiltration in the Viet Nam _* protest, and congressmen may deliver angry speeches about “subversive in- ". fluence,” but they have completely mis- read the nature of the eurrent move- ment, . No Illusion About Reds: | Most college radicals of this generae ° tion have no illusion about the purity of any nation, any system. They have seen. Stalinism unmasked, by Khrushchev. ‘himself. They have watched aggression, subversion and double-dealing engaged in by all sides, West as well as East, “free world” as well as “Communist - world.” They are very much aware of Rus- ” gian aggression in Hungary, Chinese re- pression in Tibet, and the desire of - + Communists everywhere to support rev- olution in the world. But they also know that the Amer- ican CIA overthrew a government in Guatemala, that the United States se-: 4 eretly conspired in the invasion of Cuba, ' that our Marines invaded the Dominican Republie in violation of the Rio Pact, These students are convinced that the ' _ Communists will use any means to gain ». their-ends, Yet, when they see Amer- . ' dean planes bombing Vietnamese vil- lages, and Marines throwing grenades” down tunnelg_in which crouch helpless women and children, they are driven to - conclude that the United States too will "use any means to gain its ends, ~ '" Here is a new radicalism, tied to a . ? continuing American tradition of stu- i dent protest, yet different, ‘ . The difference is in the absence of ' fixed loyalties to any dogma. In a world where force and deception are found on all ‘sides, this disposition to “call the shote_as you see them,-no matter who looks bad” -is a healthy one. =< 7), 1G