February 4, 1991 $1.75 U.S./$2.

25 Canada

EDITORIAL

THE WIDER WAR

The twenty-four weeks crisis,from the expedition of U.S. forces

to the Persian Gulf right up to the eve of destruction, had an
extraordinary impacton American history, more emphatic and
precise, perhaps, than any suchshort spanof events sincethe runup to Pearl Harbor. The fury, anxiety and vengefulness of the
war itself dramatically changedthe scenery on view since summer, but ithas not altered the context. As we go to press with the
first bombs still bursting over Baghdad, it is impossible to peer
far into the dark future
of the conflict. The exultant triumphalism
of the American media,the bizarre confidenceof Saddam Hussein,
the gyrationsof the stock marketand the price ofoil and gold make
the war worldparticularly opaque. But it is clear that thefirst act
of this crisis has already introducednew patterns of power, categories of thought andpossibilities for politics that together form
the basis of a textbook of gulf war lessons to be learned.
The most startling piece of news on the home front during
the period of phony war wasthat theold coldwar consensus,
which automatically provided support for American military
thrusts around the
world, had comeapart andwas for all practi05
cal purposesbroken beyond repair.Thats not tosay
that this and future administrations
will refrain from
(Continued on Page 111)
377535
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February 4, 1991

CONTENTS.
LETTERS
110

EDITORIALS
109 The Wider War
113
to What Do
130 Death in Vilnius

The Nation since 1865.

Volume 252, Number 4

119 Nursery Geopolitics:
Ann Crillenden
Nations Are Like Children
123 Industry Cover-ups:
Hazards
Health
Hidden
of CFCs R. Dennis Hayes
Andrew Kopkind
128 Drug Wars Over There:
Europes Kinder, Gentler Approach Diana R. Godon
Daniel Singer

BOOKS & THE ARTS

COLUMNS

113 On the Return of the Fuller Figure

Calvin Trillin
114 Beat the Devil
Alexander
Cockburn
116 Beltway Bandits
David Corn

ARTICLES

117 Remember Korematsu:

A Precedent for Arab-Americans?

111

Jamin
B.

Raskin

131 Constantine, ed.: Letters of

Eugene V. Debs
133 Nelkin and Tancredi: Dangerous
Diagnostics: The Social Power
Of Biological Information
Duster: Backdoor to Eugenics
136 Art
139 Book Note

Maurice Iserman

Alice Wexler
Arthur C Danto
Gene Sanlom

Illustrations by Randall Enos

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EDITORIALS.

Wider War
(Contrnued From Front Cover)
new aggresslons, costly overreaction and spurious globalpolice missions. Indeed, the success of the first days air
war coupled with the famous victories over Grenada and Panama make tempting precedents for any President faced with
domestic problems to foray into theThird World in search of
pride and booty.
But from top to bottom, from the board rooms and war
rooms to the coffee shop on Main Street, the compact that
allowed Presldents to invade at will and get rubber-stamp ap-

proval isno longer routinely in force.The division in the country that developed before one bomb was dropped on Iraq was
deep and wide and real, and it presages a shift in the way future policy willbe declded and how opposition can be built.
The first evidence of the changewas the deepsplit between
the national security crisis managers and the foreign policy
elite strategists over the advisability of war. The crisis managers-President Bushs small coterie of military and political
fixers who are paidto respond to world events-instantaneously assumed a warmaking posture for all the old reasons:
to grab an important resource, to establish long-sought bases,
to police a regional conflict in a strategically sensitive area
and to projectpower and credibility as theworlds number-

112

The Nation.

February 4, 1991

one military state. But for the first timesince the consensus
and particularlythe Democrats therein,became the antiwar
was formed after World War 11,the foreign policy wise men, movements favorite villains. It seemed likethe mid-sixties all
those out-of-office strategists in the top corporate and aca- over again. TheCongressional leadership was cowardly and
deceitful. The war should have been debated months before
demic echelons, did not agree.
January, and if it had, the Administration might have been
Both liberal and conservative members of that elite refused
to join the
consensus. Former Secretary of State Cyrus
Vance
more constrained. The message Congress sent was not to Sadand former NationalSecurity Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski,
dam Hussein but toGeorge Bush: Do what you like, werebehind you.
who fought each other
over cold war issues in the CarterAdministration, both opposed Bushs war in the gulf, as did
But then, in one weekend, it seemedto change. As the clock
James Schlesinger and Paul Nitze, longtime advisers and misran out on Bushs January 15 deadhne, the antiwar movement
sionaries for Presidents of all political persuasions. In fact the
moved, for a few heady hours, from thecampuses and streets
old right, the paleolithic pre-Reagan Republicans who had
into the Capitol. Sam Nunn, George Mitchell
and Tom Foleystaked their lives on unremitting anticommunism, were the
all architects of militarism throughout the1980s-were workfirst to revive the Sam Goldwyn imperative: Include me out.
ing into the nightto keep America out of thewar, weeks beNone of them cared a whit for Saddam Hussein or treasfore the first major grass-roots demonstrations were to be held.
ured Arab nationalism, none opposed
the prudentextension
As for those rallies, still scheduled for successive January
of American imperial sway, and they all had backed the use of
Saturdays in Washington, they illustrated the weakness and
American soldiers as cannon fodderagainst communism in
disunity of progressives and theleft as much asthey showed
earlier conflicts, so their change of mind had nothing to do
resolve. In the early days of the Vietnam War, Students for
with moral or political ideology. Rather, they understood that
a Democratic Society gained legitimacyas an umbrella organthe gulf war-and probably every major U.S. military underization that could authoritativelycall rallies and antiwar actions because of Its clear analysis of the politics of the contaking in the foreseeable future-would be aprescription for
economic disasterand imperial decline. They dont fear deflict and its inclusiveness and tolerance or allies of a l l ideofeat; they believethat America cannot win such a war and still
logical stripes. The major conflict within the movement in
compete in the worldwide intracapitalist sweepstakes. BUSIthose days was the old red versus red-baiter dispute; nowaness people and Republican boosters may support war for padays, the fights within coalitions are aboutrace, multiculturtriotic or party reasons, but the grand strategistsare dead sure,
alism, gender, sexual orientation, class, Marxist revisionism
and everything else in the bookof sectarian autodestruction.
beyond the shadow of a doubt, that war-even the quick,
decisive, overwhelming victory that Bush promises-will be
Later, when S.D.S.3 analysis became murky andits various
hell on the empire.
factions became exclusive, a grand coalition of antiwar forces
On the otherside of the social structure, ordinary Ameri- took over as therecognized authority for the movement. This
cans alsorefused to join the usual
consensus formed to wage
time, no group or coalition has instant legitimacy. Most of
wars of glory. For many, the memory of Vietnam persisted
the hundredsor thousands of rallies and protests that prolifdespite Bushs repeated attempts todeclare this war differerated in the weeks before January 15 and after the war had
ent from the other. (Was all the firepower, the killing and
begun were locally inspired and organized.
the devastation of Indochina evidence only of Americans
fighting with one handtied behind their back? Will anyhe antiwar movement facesnew realities, just as the war
one challenge Bushs absurd revisionism?) Many more Amermovement of Bush & Co. does. The remarkable outicans simply couldnt see the point of a potentially deadly
pouring of opposition before the war started indicates that
conflict undertaken for no good reason. Families of reserva cortege of body bags is not necessary to induce significant
ists who had joined up for the educational or career breaks
protest. Neither is a draft required to concentrate the conwere especially traumatized and moved to action. After all
sciousness of the country againstwar; an all-volunteer Army
Bushs rationalizations, oil still seemed to drive war policy,
provokes its own political openings. Because so much sentiand No blood for oil was a perfectly sincere slogan.
ment for peace already exists, the movement can be much
The leftists and liberals who created and crafted antiwar
bolder in building coalitlons without regard to ideological
movements all during thecold war period were put off by the
tests. At the same time, it should be clear that antiwar feelchanges taking place in this instance. Like Bushs advisers,
ings are notevenly distributed throughout thecountry. A late
they were planning for old battles, when a small group of
CBS/New York Tlmes poll on January11-13 showed that most
idealists and ideologues slowly and painfully builtan oppowomen, African-Americans, poor and working people opsition based on thehorrors of war (the body bag syndrome)
posed war. Increasingly, as the possibility of a draft looms,
and targeted at everyone else inthe country-from nght-wing
young people are moved to protest. Onlyamong white malesRepublicans to liberal Democrats, from labor hard hats to
especially in the South and theSunbelt-is war clearly popureturning vets.
lar. Leadership of the movement must reflect such soundings.
Suddenly, many of the peace organizers traditional eneThe antiwar movement has persisted in many forms since
mies emerged among the firstto oppose awar, without havthe end of the Vietnam era, from antinuclear campaigns to
ing been organized by the activists. Sectors, classes and conCentral America solidaritywork. But in many ways the varistituencies shiftedcrazily, without regard to the old rules of
ous forces taken as a whole were unprepared for the gulf cripolitical behavior. From autumn to early winter, Congress,
sis. There is no widely recognized analysis of the American

The Nation.

February 4, 1991

political economy today to supplant the outdated modelof

thirty years ago. The divisions among thenations managers,
strategists and rulers are similarly under-appreciated and thus
cannot be exploited in time of crisis. The emergence ofa small
but energetic group of progressive politicians, organizers and
on the inner margin of the Demoactivists, both outside and
cratic Party, is a development that must change old ideasof
action. And for too long the movement (again, like the Administration) has been wholly reactive.A really effective peace
movement has to address the bases of conflicts before they
erupt-in this case energy policy and relations between developed and developing nations-and work for the creation
of authentic international organizations with peacekeeping
powers and permanent political presence, perhaps in the form
of a party or independent caucus.
Many of the demands and the slogans of the first act of
this conflict are utterly outdated. The focus on Congress is
over. The Capitol hasfolded into the war ethic, with the notable exception of Representative Henry Gonzalez of Texas,
who offered five searing articles of impeachment, charging
Bush with criminal and immoral conduct.
Obsolete too is the
either/or formulation of war and sanctions. On the street,as
the Middle East reporters like to say, the cry will still be No
blood for oil, no matter what the various antiwarsects and
coalitions comeup with. Within theorganized movement, if
there is to be a semblance of unity, the overriding demand
must be for peace and pullout.
I f Bush does get his quick victory, the wider war will still
be far from finished. The costs
of victory are staggering, not
only economically but in domesticand internatlonalpolitical and moral costs. The restoration of a despised and degenerate emirate in Kuwait willnot produce the stability the
generals predict. The further militarization of America will
not construct a stable
society. Standards of living have been
declining for twenty years; the structuralflaws in the system
have nothing to do with Saddam Hussein.
Part of the purpose of Bushs action was to destroy the
post-Vietnam syndrome, to show Americans that war need
not be costly, either in lives or treasure. The jobof the peace
movement now is to expose all the expenses of the military/
imperial project: not only for ourselves but for billions of
people struggling and suffering, in confused and imperfect
ways, to get some controlover their lives and destiny. What
we can call for now is talking, not bombing, disengagement,
not confrontation,peacemaking rather thanwarmaking, and
above all, respect for those whowould be truIy independent
of the great power with the most hardware.
ANDREW
KOPKIND

WHAT TO DO
Weve received many calls and requests from readers asking
how they can stop thewar and the trend toward militarization. As a service we publish the following list-by no means
comprehensive-of organizations that in various ways are
working for those ends. We need their help; they need yours.
American Friends Service Committee
1501Cherry St., Philadelphia, PA 19102 (215) 241-7165
Mob~llzeschaptersnatlonwlde;advocatesreclaumng
peace dlvldend
through Gulf Alternat~veCampalgn

113

Arab-American Anti-DiscriminationCommittee
4201 Connecticut Ave, N.W., Suite 500, Ufrshington, DC ZOO08
(202) 244-2990
Works to oppose antl-Arab wolence and F.B.1. harassment of Arabs.
Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors
2208 South St., Philadelphia. PA 19146 (215) 5
4
5
4
2
6
hbllshes handbooks. counsels registrants, reservists, enllsted people.
Clergy and Laity Concerned
17 North State St., Room 1530, Chiago, IL 60602 (312) 899-1800
Provldes mllltary counseling and public education on peace Issues
Coalition lo Stop U.S. loteneation in the Middle East
36 East 12th St., New York. NY 10003 (212) 777-1246
National network sponsoring rallies, teach-ins, petmon drive. January 19
demonstration in Washmgton
Dnllns Coalition lor Middle East Peace
c/o The Peace Center, 3100 Martin Luther King Blvd., Dollas, TX 75215
(214) 421-4082
Holds daly peace ralhes
Fellowship of Reroodlintion
Box 271, Nynck, NY 10960 (914) 358-4601
Organizes people-to-people delegations to Iraq; appeals to Congress, the
Whlte House, through Its No Blood for 0 1 1 Campalgn.
Gulf Peace Action Team
Box 598, Putney, VT 05346 (802) 387oo
Operates peace camp between hostile forces in the lraql desert.
Hands Off!
111 East 14th St., Room 132, New York, NY 10003 (212) 353-2445
Advocates polltlcally on behalf of mllltary resnters
Los Angela Coalition Against U.S. Intervention in the MiddleEast
8124 West 3rd St., L o s Angeles, CA 90048 (213) 655-3728
Provldes educational materials, counsehng referrals; organizes protests
Middle East Peace Action
2140 Sbattuck Avo. mO7, Berkeley, CA 94704 (415) 548-0542
Holds candlehght vigils wery Monday at 5 30 P.M
Military Families Supporl Network
Box 11098, Milwaukee, WI 53211 (414) 964-5794
Organizes protests, reslster counseling, community support
Mobilization to Bring the h o p s Home Now
c/o ILGWU. 255 9th St.. San RPncisco, CA 94103 (415) 616-8053
Offers speakers, educatlonal material; organlzrng local demo wlth labor,
others for January 26.
National Association of Black Veterans
Box 432, Mtlwnukee, WI 53211 ( 8 0 0 ) 8424597
Combmes support for veterans rlghts wlth antiwaraction.
Natlonal Campaign for Peace in the Middle East
104 Fultoa St., Room 303. New York, NY 10038 (212) 227-0221
Network sponsonng rakes,teach-ins, m a i m campaup. January 26 march
on Washlngton

(Confinued on Page Z30)

RETURNOF
THEFULLER
FIGURE
O N THE

A womans shape again is cause for joy:

Shes not a boy!

The hourglass is back, and fmhion groans
At skin and bones.
So If your w,$e hm grown a little plumper,
You shouldnt dump her.
And lfyourgut rests softly on your desk
Youre Rubenesque.
Calvin Trillin

I
I

130

The Nation.

some mystery about what happenedon the weekend of January 12-13, when a delegation of the Federation Council, the
new highest executive organ of the Soviet Union, was sent to
the Lithuanian capitalto negotiate and Soviet troops simultaneously stormed thetelevision tower, killing fifteen people
and wounding more than hundred.
a
Gorbachev may not have
ordered the armedintervention himself but merely accepted
the fait accompli. Inany event, he is now in a position from
which he will find it difficult to extricate himself.
The analogy with 1956, when Russiatook advantage of the
Suez crisis to invade Hungary, should notbe overdrawn. The
Soviet Union is now a very different place. Gorbachevs advocates can plead that any republic may now secede if it respects the rules of the new constitution. They can claim that
Lithuanian PresidentVytautas Landsbergis is no great lover
of compromise and thatsome people around him are no angels. They can arguethat theproblem of non-natives-about
a quarter of the population in Lithuania, more than a third
In Estonia and nearly half in Latvia-must be tackled seriously and fairly. But the plain truth remains that you dont
spread democracy, let alonesocialist democracy, by sending
(Continued From Page113)
tanks against the people.
Natlonal Student and Youth Campaign for Peace in the Middle East
Of all leaders, Gorbachev seemed to have learned that lesc/o USSA, 1012 14th
St.. N.W.,Suite 200, Washington. D C 20005
son. After his glorious beginning with glasnost, he got bogged
(202) 462-1801
Coordlnatlng natlonal student meetlng in Washmgton, January 27
down. As the Soviet Union has moved from crisis to crisis,
New England War Tax Resistance
he has displayed an extraordinary talent for brinkmanship.
Box 174,M.I.T. Branch Post Office, Cambridge, MA 02139 (617) 859-0662
Like one of thoseRussian dolls called VQf?ka-StQn&a,
he alHolds monthly tax reslstance sem~nars,provldes counsel~ng
ways recovered his balance.Indeed, he seemedto emerge from
New Jewish Agenda
64 Fulton St. #1100, New York, NY 10038 (212) 227-5885
each crisis with greater nominal powers. The snag is that this
Organlzes natlonally and through local chapters, supports two-state solution,
increase in legal prerogatives has been coupled with a loss in
~nternat~onal
conference
Operation Real Security
popularity. Thus, when this winters discontent reached an
2076 East Alameda Dr., Tempe, A Z 85282 (602) 921-3090
explosive
point, forcing him to act, he found himself rather
Provldes speakers, videocassettes, ~nformat~on
for local groups
lonely.
Deserted
bythe so-called radicals of thepriviligentsia,
Palestine Solidarity Committee
Box 372, Peck Slip Station, New York, NY 10272 (212) 964-7299
for whomhe is too slow in his drive to the capitalist market,
Works In support of Palest~n~an
self-determmatlon
he has not yet built an alternative constituency, notably among
Paper Tiger/Gulf Crisis T V Project
the
workers. Paradoxically, Gorbachev the reformer found
339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 (212) 2284370
Produces, dlstrlbutes v~deotapesrecording reslstance work natlonwlde
himself increasingly reliant on the army, the police and the
Seattle Coalition for Peace In the Middle East
half-broken Communist Party.
4554 12th A v N.E.,
~
S d l k , WA 98105 (206) 632-7207
Did the logic of that alliance drive him to the confrontaOrganlzes marches, mass CIVIIdlsobedlence, publlc education
Southern Rainbow Education Project
tion in the Baltics, or did he himself assume that he could
46 East h t t o n A v c , Montgomery, AL 36105 (205) 288-5754
teach a cheap lesson in the Baltics, warning the Geolgians,
Comblnes work for soclal Justlce wlth antlwar actlv~tles
the Moldavians and, above all, the Ukrainians that he must
War Resisters League
339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 (212) 228-0450
now betaken in earnest? Whatever his reasons, he clearly did
Provldes legal referrals, counsehng. outreach to reservlsts
not bargain for the conflictbeing so bloody or having such
Wnshlngtoo Area Labor Committee Against War in the Middle East
wide international repercussions. This is not the placeto disc/o SEIU Local 722, 1673
Columbla Rd., N.W., Washington, DC 20009
(202) 483-6221
cuss Gorbachevs evolution. For today, it is important to
Conducts worker education, rnob~hzat~on;
aims to bulld offlcial labor support
condemn the use of tanks against the people and to warn Goraga~nstthe war.
bachev of the political consequences.
At the big January 12 demonstration in Paris against war
in the gulf, among the 100,OOO or so marchers the most frequently seen poster quoted a phrasefrom the poet Jacques
t stake In the drama now unfolding in Vilnius is
Prkvert: Quelle connerie la guerre-What fucking folly war
not Just the
fate of Lithuania or the Baltic States
is. Amidthe clamor of condemnation of the bloodshed in Vilbut the destinies of Mikhail Gorbachevandpernius only those who categorically reject the much bigger midof progressive
estrorka and the immediate future
winter madness in the gulf haveearned the right, and theduty,
change in the Soviet Union. Eduard Shevardnadze knew
to condemn the Soviet intervention.
DANIEL
SINGER
what he was talking about when he warned just before Christmas of the imminent danger of dictatorship. There is still
Damel Singer IS The Nations Europe correspondent.
druggies are more desperate and dangerous individuals,that
the insatiable demand for better livmg through chemicals is
unique to this country. But such conclusions-though they
are probably, at the simplest factual level, true-beg the real
question, which iswhy we havebecome sucha drug-dependent
society. The Europeancountries that are trying more nuanced
drug policles than ours are not only less bedeviledby drug excesses than we are; they are also not gun cultures, and they
provide more social and medical supports to their citizens.
Harm reduction and normalization may indeed not be
meaningful in an American context. If so, however, it is not
because our drug users and sellers are beyond the reach ofthe
forgiveness and succor implied by these concepts. Instead, it
is because they know that the life into which many would be
normalized yields only the minimal rewards ofdead-end jobs,
atomized social relationships and emptyconsumerism. That
may sound
bleak,
but
welcome to the 1990s.
0

EDITORIALS.

February 4, 2991

Death in Vilnius