New York, Jan. 4—The outburst against the renewal of the bombing of North Vietnam was of course to be expected. It is depressing just the same, and particularly depressing that Mr. Nixon receives so little of the vociferous support to which he is entitled not only here, but in those many foreign countries that are hostage to American constancy. In an ordered world, the protests abroad would issue against an American President who turned over a little ally, after years of struggle, to a well-oiled aggressor. The headlines suggest the contrary, and it is time I think to pay attention to, and profess our respect for, the Communist propaganda machine. It is quite remarkable what it succeeds in doing—in inducing others to do. And of course the pay-off is in such crises as the current one, in which one reads and hears only denunciations of American policy, nothing about the actions of the government against which that policy is directed.
To judge the lengths of Communist propaganda success, consider in cameo a recent venture by Pastor Ralph D. Abernathy. He is, of course, President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the chosen successor to the towering Martin Luther King. Dr. Abernathy understands himself as speaking for the black people of America, and for all Christian Americans.
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