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March 1971
answer to our deepest problems of the
spirit.
But it's much, much later than you
think.
The measure of a nation's greatness
is not its industrial capacity, not its
natural resources, not its GNP.
It
is
the quality of the character of its
people.
America is losing character.
O ur Sick Society
We!re sick, and we don't like to
admit it, or even hear the symptoms
diagnosed. Our cities are great centers of
crime, pollution, sickness, joblessness,
urban blight, racial tensions and stif!ing
traffic jams. Many of them are virtually
uninhabitable, if you consider the true
state of daily life for those large major–
ities unendowed with sufficient income
to escape the worst a city has to offer by
enjoying its best.
Our colleges and universities begin to
appear as much like centers for the
fomenting of violence and revolution as
tradition-bound, honor-dad institutions
of study and research.
Our youth turns inward upon itself,
seeking escape from a frightening,
unacceptable world by addling its
mind with weed or chemically induced
daydreams.
Our homes and families disintegrate,
and while tens of millions deplore it,
the
elfects
of broken homes, crime,
juvenile delinquency, drug abuse,
venereal disease growing epidemic, and
the explosive growth of violent revolu–
tionary groups grow faster than ever
before.
Our aged and poor look about in
bewilderment at rising costs and taxes.
Unemployment soars. Morals plunge.
We're sick.
But oh, how we hate to look at the
thermometer. We seem smitten with a
nearly obsessive, hypnotic belief that if
we can somehow avoid mentioning our
myriad problems, they'll automatically
go away.
If
we can just talk about "what's
right about America," say sorne of the
"Super-Patriots," maybe the problems
will grow less and less.
It would seem incongruous for a can–
cer patient to accuse his doctor of "bad-
The
PLAIN TRUTH
mouthing" him for patiently diagnosing
his disease and informing him of his
most likely chances for survival.
There are those who scream "bad–
mouthing" when America's great prob–
lems are mentioned.
Today, Americans disagree over
America.
Millions are not sure what she once
was, or what she is, or what she should
bccome. They don't know what her
place in the world should be. And they
don't know where America is going.
We Woo the War, and Lost
the Peace
After September 1945, Americans
could get back to tbe business of their
own prívate lives. That global conf!ict,
which had called upon Americans for
the highest kind of sacrifice, was over.
The world had been made safe for
democracy, we thought .
Americans had fought against the
very embodiment of evil - and they
had, together with their Allies, won.
With the last enemy vanquisbed, and
the documents of total surrender signed,
it remained the task of a few profes–
sionals to clean up the loose ends of
war. For the majority, it was time for a
transition into an era of peace ani:l
prosperity.
The technology of war had promised
heady new breakthroughs in business
and commerce. Soon, each citizen
would buy a new Jeep for about $100
and be fiying about in his own prívate
helicopter. Travel, education, sports, lit–
erature, the arts - these could be
picked up like forgotten friends, and
thc tiresome business of defeating arch
enemies could be abandoned.
But there were sti ll t igers in thc
world.
Almost
immediately,
Americans
sensed something had gone wrong
with the plans for world peace. Almost
from its inception, the United Nations
seemed to falter. Russian vetoes made
headlines, while a bewildered public
wondered about Yalta, Potsdam, and
the beginning of the "cold war."
The men who could well have met
their Russian Allics in the cities of
Poland, or along the Oder had been
ordered to wait, instead, for half of
41
Germany to be swallowed up, and half
the capital city of Berlín to be occupied.
Later, the free world wondered why.
Prom the quickly squelched attempt
of Soviet power to subdue Grcece in
1946 until the beginning of the Korean
conflict and the growing tcnsions in
Europe, Americans soon began receiving
an insistent and obvious message.
The world had not been made safe,
after all, for democracy. World War JI
was not, after al!, the war to end all
wars. Suddenly, the specter of all-out
nuclear war loomed large.
The Cold War Begins
Words like "ground zero," "fallout"
and "radioactivity" were f requent fod–
der for fear, along with Communism
and the Cold War.
The "cold war" changed America.
Korea changed America.
Few have realized how drastically.
The cruelest thing one human being
can inflict upon another human being is
to take away bis confidence - his
pride. To strip the manhood, the moral
courage, the volition from another is to
subject him, utterly, to the cruelest sort
of torment. It kills his spirit.
The unsatisfactory conclusion to the
Korean war was a cruel blow to the
manhood of America. Millions would
never understand. A little time had
been bought, at enormous cost. Perhaps
it is good few Americans realized, in
1952, how tcrribly soon another uselcss
conllict, for the same limited objectives,
with the same inevitable outcome,
would be joined - and perhaps it is
good that, in 1952, Americans could
know nothing of the stifling futility
which awaited them in the late 1960's.
To
have known, in the early 50's, that
the same agonizing task was to be
attempted all over again might have
been even more disastrous to American
will and resolve than the actual
occurrence.
President Trumao succinctly stated
U. S. goals in Korea for General
Douglas MacArthur in his wire of Jan–
uary 13, 195L.
Goals in Korea
He said, "... This present telegram
is not to be taken in any sense as a
directive. Its purpose is to givc you