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"COME HOME AMERICA,"THE NEW WORLD ORDER, AND THE 1992 ELECTION George McGovern D,uring my acceptance speech at the 1972 Democratic presidential nominating convention in Miami, I gave prominence to the phrase "Come home, America." Since I had long opposed American involvement in the Vietnam War, it may have been assumed by some casual listeners or readers that this was nothing more than a call to bring American forces home from Southeast Asia. Still others may have seen it as the case of a politician from the supposedly isolationist Great Plains calling the Nation away from international affairs. With the passage of time, others equated my message with the "America First" declaration of earlier conservative movements opposing American involvement in World War II. With the emergence ofconservative columnist Patrick Buchanan as a presidential challenger running on what appeared to be an "America First" platform, several commentators have written or spoken about a "McGovern-Buchanan" axis. All of this has led me to accept an invitation from the editor ofthis journal to clarify this misconception, and to address myself in a larger sense to America's role in the post-Cold War World. Since I delivered my acceptance address of 1972 at 3:00 A.M., it may not be surprising that the closing peroration containing the "Come home America" lines was heard only dimly by some listeners. With my campaign battle cry, I was, as I then emphasized, calling America "home to the ideals that nourished us in the beginning." This was not a plea for George McGovern is President of the Middle East Policy Council, a former U.S. Senator from South Dakota, and the 1972 Democratic Presidential Nominee. 141 142 SAISREVIEW isolationism; it was a plea for America to live by its founding ideals at home and abroad. Then as now, I saw myself as a patriot and as an internationalist. Then as now I believed that our leaders had departed from the ideals and principles ofthe Declaration ofIndependence and the Constitution both in domestic policy and foreign affairs. Calling America home meant to me calling the Nation to live by the precepts of its founding documents—by the ideals of Jefferson and Lincoln, Wilson and Roosevelt. These four presidents have been political models for me—especially Franklin Roosevelt, who dominated the years of my boyhood and youth. I was thrilled by the New Deal. I supported FDR's internationalist leadership in World War II, the Four Freedoms, and the United Nations. I am still proud of my service as a volunteer bomber pilot against the Nazis. I do not know how Mr. Buchanan views American participation in World War II, but I am somewhat sympathetic to Studs Terkel's description of it as "The Good War." It demolished Hitler and the Nazis, Mussolini and his fascist state, and the ruthless imperialism of Japan. It also launched the UN, which I have always supported, and always wished that it would play the stronger role envisioned for it by Franklin Roosevelt and its other founders. But the wars involving the U.S. since World War II have not held my admiration and approval. This has been true even of most of the Cold War, which we are said to have won. I have always questioned the basic assumptions of the Cold War. The competition between Soviet communism and American democracy and capitalism need not have been viewed as a national security threat to the other side. The Soviet—more particularly the Stalinist—fear of democracy was a tragedy for the people of the Soviet Union, but it was not a major security threat to the United States. During the Second World War, political leaders in Moscow and Washington cooperated with each other in destroying the fascist war machines of Germany, Japan, and Italy. Without that cooperation, the western powers, including the United States, might very well have been conquered by the fascist alliance. But with the end of the common front against Hitler, Tojo, and Mussolini, friction developed in the western alliance. Old stereotypes and mutual fears were revived to produce a needless but enormously costly arms race of unprecedented dimensions. Each side went far beyond any reasonable...

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