Dr. Spock on war and peace

Dr . Spock has a somewhat different attitude toward peace. He cares less and less, apparently, for what passes in the world as legality. In his speech accepting the Gandhi Award, he urged those present to become more aggressive in their efforts for peace. "We must stop wringing our hands and become active," he declared. All those left of center tend, in his estimation, to be hypercritical of one another, while the rightists-the hawks-"keep their eyes right on the ball," which means power and money.

Dr. Spock entered the war-and-peace business officially in 1962 when he joined the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy. Before that, he had achieved great fame as a pediatrician. His book, "Baby and Child Care," has sold over 20 million copies, and rivals The Bible as the all-time American bestseller. It has gone into twenty-six foreign language editions, and has made Spock the almost unquestioned authority on the subject of child-raising in the Western World, as well as much of the East.

Spock's concern for children led him naturally to consider the world in which they have to live, and he has found the prospects none too bright. He has said: "I think it's no longer sufficient to protect children from just the familiar physical diseases and the usual emotional stresses. Now the greatest danger to life-by far-is from nuclear disaster."

Of his decision to engage actively in the peace movement, the Doctor has commented: "Kennedy said the United States had to resume testing to stay ahead. And obviously you can't stop testing if you're behind. It seemed clear that the buildup would continue until there was a nuclear war or a nuclear accident. It made me realize that there wouldn't be peace and disarmament unless people demanded it."

Demanding peace has now become Spock's primary business. He has twice been arrested for his agitation, and in the more recent instance has been convicted of conspiracy to aid and abet U.S. draft resistors. As he has not scrupled to break the law, he has likewise not scrupled to work with any and everyone who will strive for peace. In replying to criticisms of his seeming lack of discrimination, he has said: "My usefulness to the peace movement is in recruiting people from the middle of the road … I'm willing to cooperate with anyone who's halfway responsible and wants to end this terrible war."

The "terrible war," of course, is Vietnam, America's most excruciating blunder in a long, long time, wherein the "military-industrial elite" sought to establish a base for American forces on communist China's southern flank-and neglected to consider that the people who live in that region might object.

Dr. Spock said, however, in his speech at the Community Church, that Vietnam "is not an exception or an aberration. It's only one example of the increasingly imperialistic tendency of the United States," extending into the military, economic and industrial affairs of the world. Actually, he might quite as accurately have added that Vietnam represents only a single episode in the vast drama of exploitation and brutality which has marked as much of mankind's history as modern researchers have been able to reveal.