Peace and Revolution: The Moral Crisis of American Pacifism

Charging that American pacifism since the Vietnam War has lost its conscience by abandoning the principle of nonviolence, Lewy, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts, critiques four leading pacifist organizations: the American Friends Service Committee, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the War Resisters League and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. He contends that these groups are experiencing the same basic conflict between the ideal of nonviolence and that of liberating the oppressed, especially in the Third World. He accuses them of supporting Communist-dominated movements in Vietnam and Central and South America to the exclusion of such struggles as the Afghans' revolt against the Soviet Union. Lewy (America in Vietnam) further warns that the alliance of pacifists with New Left and antiwar groups gives them political and religious clout""peace at any price''that could endanger American interests. (April)