The Danger sf Extr&mism Senator Goldwater bas said that a political platform

ils typically a packet of lies and misimfomation. Had he e n wilhTg to ,go &e limit. in cclmdor, he could h v e ad,ded ,that-national conventions, i n toto, lase out- standing examples of the ,art of sowing confusion in order !to reap bhe votes ,of the thou&,fl,es,s. Since most adult Americans axe peltfectly ,mvaTe of this, litde Zast- ing harm is normally done by platform claptrap.

The fight over extkemism at 8 , a n Fmncislco was a n exception, and liberals Ishodd beware of its pos- sJble reIsu1,ts. The contest was sone phase of ihe con- quest af the Republican Party by ,a cohlition which includbs s0,rn.e Talft-type fnoderates-George Mi Hum- plrey, fm instance-but also embmcee the -genocidIal lunatics ,wheo would Eke to have seen Barny drop the bomb ion tihe- Soviets ,at [the climax ,of h,s inaugural speech,. the white backlashens, Uhe impeach-Earl-War- ren molb, et al. The majority of Republican moderates -aEe not.reconcile% to- tliis transition, hence !&e Scran- ,ton-Ro.clrefeller-R~~ey attack on extremisks. But there is a pb,tential ,double Idaiger in t h i s excodation of the fa1 Right ,and the far Left (,the latter included more out of culstom 8han because- it represents any present domestx h e a t ) . h~ ,the &st place, ~dhe word ex- tremist is undesirably vague and c#an he made to in- chde anyone of whom bhe !speaker lstrongly disap- proves: And m the second place, t l ~ e anxiety to ha*n;ish m c h elements from the party can readily be pemer,ted into #a move ,to exclude Ithem from ;the American forum of ideas. Exbemist vlews a ~ not only inevitable ja a. fsee wciety, their mhobibled dissemination is els- sential to its healtrh. ,

111 Ms valiant attetmpt to secure con,demnation of the John Birch crowd at the c.onvention, Governor Rockefeller Issaid the right .things, but ahe later effects may be o,ther than what he intended. Exfmnlism per se is not wrong; there are times when i t ils necessary. 111 the eyeis of the Tories, the Founding Fathem were extremirsts. T,08day, we cannot become a middleclass monolith. The entire spectrum, from Birchites to Mao- type Communists, must be free to press , t h e i ~ cause by such argument as they can muster. All fmu8st obey the law, all must be equal before it.

By direction of the Preisident, the Federal Bureau of Investigation sent more ( & a n 100 agents into Missis- sippi. Simulltamously wibh (this influx of his minions, J. Edgar Hoover flew to Jackson, #there t o open a new FBI field office, which occupies mom & u l l f loox in the First Felderd Savings and Loam Bdllding. Where nor- m,dy perhaps fifteen agents might b e active in %he state, about 153 are now ithere. Some lare Jcro8kjng for &e murderens of ,the :three civil ajghts workers ,who

disappeared ,on J,une 21; othem .are trying .to prevent fmther acts of murder, a s o n land assault.

As fo;r Mr. Hoover himself, he cannot Ibe accused of excessive zeal in carrying out this ,assignment. When he is in bhe South, or ,engage8d in :a civil dghts mis- sion anywhere, he is almost modbidly colnsci,ous of the statutory limits on FBI authority. We mos,t catmainly do not ,and vvill not give protection lto civil righbs work- ers, he ,declared at .a news confezence on July 10. The FBI is not a police ,organization. It is purely an invee.tigative organization. The protection of in- dividual citizens, &her natives lof .tihis sfate or cotning .intos,the state, is a matter !fox Jocd ~aubhurities.

This forthright. sltatement ovedocals the fact ahat, in Mississippi today, .an ever present Idanger to a civil .rights Worker is that b e will be 8dletain,eqd by the IocaZ police o n a trdfic lchauge #and releaseld, 8a;irectly or in- ,direc.tly, to a lynch mob.

Despite Mr. ,Hoovers m&sclainlers, reports indicate ,ohat Mr. .Johnsons ,di~spatclhing 04 8dYhe;FiB;I to Missis- -sippi lhas :ha8d a saluta~y elffelct. The local police officer does not Icnow when #an FBI lagent may be &serving h i s acltions; Even thaugh the agent may virtuously ab)stain froam interference with 1awlessne8ss, he may later appear as a wi,heas, mor MI ~sorne cother way dis- commomde those ivho are ldoing their ;best to up$old Soubhern tradlition. Imt is said, further, ,tihalt communi- cation facilitiee now in Nopeaation which make it mucili more difficult for civil rights workers IXI &is- appear without a irace. That ,and no more. As, Mr. Hoover spolke, a rabbi and mo lother civil rights work- ers were )beaten in Hattiesburg, some 180 mile& from Jackson. Since ithe pevent im of smch incidents is no,t Mr. Hloovers problem, i t is dearly Mr. Johnsons. He has, at least, made la first moye towlard assuming it.

The Multilateral Force (MLF), is a visionary sahmne cooked up by American war pllanners to keep NATO fmm disintegrating. The chief land force in the NATO complex is )the German a m y . An amy without nuclear weapons is, however, very deprerssing tmth to the German generals and bo the statesmen ,who, fo r the present, give the genesals their oxders. To make the Germans happy is one aim of MLF. It is t o consist olf twenty-five surface ships jointly rnmne8d by crews f r o m el& nations: the United S.tates, Gep- many, Britain, Italy, Belgium, Ithe Nebherllands, Greece and Turkey. Each (ship will CZIY oight Polasis-type I I

I I

missiles. The ships will be owned jointly by tihe NATO members. Germany and the U.6. will each foot 40 per cent ,of the bill, Britain only 10 per cent. The Ger- mans will have a substantial e'qui'ty in a nutclear force; Ithis, it is hoped, will satisfy lthe(m for ihe time being.

By all indications the Germans will not be satis- fied $or long. Have trhey ever been, military mat- tem? Their immediate hope is ,to get their fingens on the nuclear trigger. Bat this expectation runs con- t rary t o lanother tenet , o f American policy, which is to arrive at some sort of modus vivendi with Ithe Rus- sians and substitute 'hhe Chinese Reds *as the chid cold-war bogey. The Russians are not 'apt to accept German nudear ,armament. MLF, Dherefore, lies abhwart any US.-Soviet Itmce.

From the professional military viewpoht, the multi- laterd congl'omeratim $a+ just about the faults a strilcing force can have. 1.t ,is a prime example of d i s k unity of command and complexity (of openation. All but the Germans are going into it reluctaptlyb under U.S. pressure. Two of #%he allies, Turkey and Greece, are on bhe verge of war. They cod'd fight each other

. 011 the MLF ships, but that would scarcely compor,t with the American design. If Labour w k s the corning eleotion, Britain may not participate ,at all.

Europe does not need more armaments. I t is al- ready saturated with them. There me s ~ d to ;be 50,- 000 tactical nuclear weapons 'deployed on ,&he NATO front. For their part, the Russians have 700 or 800 medium-range rockelts h e l d at 'clves,tern Europe. There is overkill here, as in EOBMs. Until the elections are over; there can, of course, be no khougiht of modifi- cation. Not eveh Harold Wilson can afford to give the appe,armce of being s d t Ion c80mmunism. But if La- bour wins in England, and if the election here goes Demometic, as it h c w t certainly will, a corollary ben- efit might be !the timely dscwriage of MLF.

T

Bayonet Drill A reader ,who is working df his military abligations

by summer sessions with the New York N~etional Guard, has wxitten us of a nkw maneuver Ithat has been added eo the c u ~ ~ c u l u k &his pear at Camp Drum. On the morning of. June 13, Ithe 11,000 men of the

' Rainbow Division, to which our cmxespondent be- , masks. Then each b'attery of 1appzoximately 100 men

was brolk'en into :two groups, me of which was ordered to put (aside its military gear jmd assemble as a ,mob - or, as the executive lieutenant mlore 'specifically , ,defined it; a simtdown dehmonstretion. The other fjlfty men ' o f (each bahtery w e formed into la wedge and" advanckd dowly on Ibheir Icomades, .wgwd f m m d by suuh cries as "Uke y m bayonets Ito move them, men," and "Don% yound ,&em, .kill bhm. A wlounded man is dmgenous."

A first sergeant was ovenhead asking what had be- come of the only Negro in .the battery. "He's out among the mob," was, :he mswex. The eer-gemt sho.ok his bead and said: "Well, I hope he 1doe~m'~t mind." ,h international ~ t m ' s , the kind of ww bhey teaoh

l longs, were called 'out with rifles, blayonets and gas

22

at places Eke Camp Drum 5s pretty well outdated by the atmom bomb, bu.t for cerbain situ,ations it is still relevant. For example, American boys clan ,still be ef-

, fectively 'taught bow to kill other American boys with rifle and (bayonet. The long, hot summer begm early for Nmew York's National Guard,

De Gaulle in Oceania General )de Gaulle's bud,ding Force de Dissuasion is

ostensibly a' nuclear detesrent against %he Soviets, Autually, de Gaulle's mmotive i's (to elbow Ws way inbo the nuclear club far purpoIse,s of diplcmatic prestige land bl,ad~rnail. Once in, he will still nolt be the peer , of: Britain, much le5s of the United State.s, whose Gar- gantuan nuclex arsenal d8warfs anything ,tha,t Framce can hope to mus'ter. But n o n~cl~ean: striking fmce ils oonternpt5ble. Starting with small. Mirage tvodbers de- signed hr l'ow4evel sdalsh under l~ enemy's radar screen, with ibombs of about triple-Hiroshim8a ,size, the French ,wirlrl eventually have mediummnge missiles and thermonuclear w-ar heads. Them will be no non-

'sense ab0u.t camtevfonce Ito ,the enerny'cs nditaicy 3n- atallatims-the Gaullist g dissuasion is fr,mldy aimed at citi0s.

Regardless of Ithe targeets, this is bad new,s. To de- vel'op lhis bigger bombs, 'de 'Gaulle needs a test program and a test site. Jnst as he ~s~coms @e no-ci7tie,s dochine, , he makes n o bones about his intention .to test, ad libi- tum, in bhe atmosphere. Long 'before %he French pro- gram is scojmrpleted, rhe international Iteat-lban ,treaty, which France refuseld to sign, may be iiaild in ruins.

Mbhough 'by treaty with Algeria 'de Gaulle could continue to use the Sahlara, African (and UN) q p o - sition has made it ,expedient 40 move lthe test site to the Soiubh Pacific. The menvied blase %or Ithe explosions is Mururoa, Ian island in French Pdynesila, about 750 miles southeast 04 T,ahiti. De GauWs intentions have arloused ,opposition among tihe Polynesians who, con- trary ltio Wes,tern notions, me not all a bunch of hun- loving oM,drm. Ctde ,to Ithe east, and Austrralia and New Zeldand to the west, bave al~su, shown concern. Although .&he distances in lahese oases are considerable "abmt 3,150 miles to Nelw Zealand, 4,200 to Aus-

'tralia and the same t,o Chile-Iall can expect to share in bhe radioactive fallout.

Muah to the (annoyance of the French, the Aus- trali'an, New Zealand ,md IChiIean Governments have ppotes,tetd 'officially. In New Zedand, la C o n i t t e e far N'on-Violent A,ctiom Against Frmcih Nucle'az Tests has been -formed to sail boats into lthe 'testing area, md other lagitation h.as taken place or is planned. The Territorial Asslsernlbly in Tahiti bas &odgsd dbjectims. ,The French kave lossused lt$ie Tahiltians &tat French science would contrive to have @he radioactive debris I fall elsewhere than on Tahiti. At &he s l m e time tihey have extolled .the commercial admmtagea which m d d 'accrue: tomage at Ithe gmt Os Farpeete is 60 increase by 50 per cemt, 1,000 new .houses will be built, etc. TIES bait has not been taken. Accordkg 'to reports, 'd'e Gaulle has found it nece8ssaxy it0 mtlaw W o po- litical pactiee in Firm& Polynesia by decree, land some

The N&TXON

rn8mberi of Ithe T,en-ltokial Assembly have been placed under house arrest.

But even if bhe .Taihitiaxs pmve less snscep,tible to atomic bribetry ,than Cd~olmians or Texans, they can ha-vdy be ,expected by themsehvs to ,bhwa,rt de GauUes designs. If iihhis can be tdone )at all, ilt will require con- certed actlon to make the entire Southern Hemisphere a nu,clelar-hee zone. And that, &or all of de Gaulles un-

popularity in Washington, would step on Axrteriican toes as well. As the foremost nuclear power, ~khe United &ales is averse t,o nu,clear-$ree zones. Once staxted, they would he a l l too likely ,to spread, wibh fa msulting &minution of American i,dluence~ in the w80rld. A great power strives to increase its power, not diminish it, De Gaulle Itnoiw,s this, and the prospects for stop- ping (his teslts are currespondmgly poor.

Last week the GOP became the GP - cthalt is, , t i h e Goldwater Pqty - and i t w,iU aemain so h r quite some time., H,ow the take-over was engineered is lesls important &an what it means. I To Jeese Unrwh, Cihomias lead- ing politico, Goldwaters nomina- tion could presage the destruction .and the end of the two-pmty, non- class-based po l i t i ca l system in. the Unit,ed States. It is - uniderskmd- able to Umuh bhat Ithe Lef,t .should seek a cclassydividred qoliMcal sys- tem - because the classess ordinar- ily ildentifmd as left of center o n domestic eomomic issues are clear- ly superior i n num~ber - but he finds it puzzling that rightwingers should consciously ,seek to polarize the Itwopnty systkm along socio- economic tor class Ems. Yet that is what .qo18dwLaters nomination has accmplished. Negroes have been exclud,eld fmm the hew party as effectively as though they had been barred en masse - all 18 million of them. Labor will n m be more closely identifie,d with the Demo- cratic Parrty than in the past. The pl.atform of the new party is pure, raw Gol~dwaterism. Sections of it - $or examplse, those on immigration and prayeSs in the schods - seem dehberately designed to offend Jews and other minorities. O n the face of it, Unruh is right: a genera1 polarization of social forces on clasts lianes is implioit in Goldwaters nomination. But does this mean the end of the two-;party, non-class- based political system, qr ldoee it cretate new opportunities for realign- ment of the party system o n a more realisttc and rational basis?

RealiFment seems implicit in Goldwaters ivilctory. Theze is noth- ing consused or b2med about #&he h a g e that (he m d b i s new pwky pmj.ect. The liberal Republicans have ,been cu5fe.d Nand hmiliateld.

. .Many af Ithem swill ei~her not vote ..>J?Lty 27, ,1864

&r vote $or President Johnson; some will become infdependent Republi- cans. 0th~~ may eventually f,ollow Wayne Morses path *to, the Demo- cratic Party. But thfey will not form .a third. party, and Goldw,a!ter has no .intention ,of )permitting them to run ~hls campaign in Neiw York or Pennsylvania or. )anywhere ease.

Goldwater believes his views to be closer ,to the rnainstjream of Reipub~iiLicantsm - polls +o the con- trary-than those of the Liberal %- publicans. He could be rilEht. But he also assumels lthat a national polarization is .taking phce and that Ms nomination will accelerate it. He wants .the Iiberds out of the party the beltter to get the coniservative Democrats in. On balance, he feels that he would gain by the exchange, but he also $eels that undisputed national control cof the Repubkan Pwty would in any case .be la tacti- cal advantage worth the price. One needs bifocals - several sebs, in fact - to !t%temp?pnet the Goldwater operation. Tthere is methold in $he apparent madnelss. Almost every phase of it has dual aspects: sur- face and sub,sul-face, short-term m d long-term, conventional and apo- calyptic. Above all, it must be men against the hackground of what Governor George Romney refers to as the onrushing national clisbs.

It is important, 8 first of all, to undemtmd why Goldwater and company will not be easily dis-, lod,ged from control of the Repuhli-. can IParty. A smashing electoral de- feat will n,ot necessaxily ,make it possible 5or the $orrner leaders to regain ~com~mmd. If Gohdwater polls a lmge poipula vote - as he well may - his $ollowens will off,er that as proof that ultimate victory is close at hand. If &is popular vote is less &an j!mpres,sive, they will at- tribute 6he ,disappointment to the defactmn o$ the liberd B-qublioan,~.

In either case they win fi