I’ve been moving myself through Gar Alperovitz’s stunning 1995 The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb and the Architecture of an American Myth for the past month or so. This 843 pager (48 chapters plus appendices) with more than 2,600 footnotes is a compelling historical detective work. I’ve completed the first 46 chapters and 588 pages.
The 2,600+ notes do not include additional author notes sprinkled every few pages. It was one of these that led me to check out yesterday The Price of Vision: The Diary of Henry A. Wallace 1942-46 (edited by John Morton Blum) and published in 1973. This is no lightweight volume either, coming in at 707 pages. One of the appendices that Blum adds is a speech, “The Way to Peace” that Wallace gave in September 1946 at Madison Square Garden that led to his firing by Truman. Wallace was by all accounts a unique and interesting figure. One can’t help but wonder what the world would look like now, had not Roosevelt substituted Truman for Wallace as VP in 1944.
I read that 1946 speech and then a few minutes later read a report in a defense industry post I receive each weekday morning about the addition of a U.S. joint aircraft carrier strike force into the South China Sea. Wallace might have been a bit too idealistic in 1946 about the Russian threat, but the analysis he offered then, seems strikingly similar to the forces at play today. My concerns that President Biden’s administration would continue the militarism of the previous administrations suggests we are on the same conveyor belt which Wallace objected to, which benefits primarily weapons manufacturers. Even Eisenhower who was critical of that same force as most forcefully demonstrated by his farewell address, was controlled by it.
Who in government is willing to call it out today, besides a few members of the Progressive Caucus (see the new Defense Spending Reduction Caucus)? Biden’s cabinet selections on the foreign/military policy side are no doubt loyal to him and have largely hawkish resumes. If they dare to publicly speak otherwise, they would no doubt suffer the same fate as did Wallace 75 years ago. We need some courageous souls within government to call this out.
Many of us have been pushed into defensive postures over the past four years by attempts to dismantle American democracy. It has drained the energy of many. We might be tempted to relax our postures with the election of a liberal to the executive branch, but some myths of American exceptionalism die hard. While we must defend against continued theft of our common wealth by the drivers of the corporate military-industrial complex, it is equally important that we offer real alternatives. As I have reflected in this blog frequently over the past, there are alternatives.
Let me offer one sterling example. The London School of Economics shared a wonderful webinar on Friday, featuring the amazing economist Kate Raworth, author of Doughnut Economics, which I have reviewed on more than one occasion. Listen attentively to her present a real alternative, now being adopted and applied in places around the world. She’s not a dogmatist. This is a framework that makes total sense with what we know about our world today. As we learn more, we may need to shift and adapt it, as she readily admits. But the possibility for a better world for all is there if we will look, reflect, and act to as Jean Luc Picard might say, “Make it so.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku4AV2Ummq0
