REBEL

Introduction

xi The Sixties continue to be a battlefield in the struggle for the American soul. My hope is that the reissue of this book, originally written in 1988, may be a timely contribution of past memory to the present moment. I am proud of what the Sixties generation achieved, starting with destroying official segregation, the Jim Crow system perpetuated for a century after the Civil War. The same rebel energy of the early Sixties flowed into the anti-Vietnam movement, the most significant resistance to a war in American history. That very spark ignited the freedom spirit in women, in Latinos, in Asian and Pacific Islanders, in gays and lesbians, in native Americans.The vast cover-up which had passed for the school curriculum was revised to account for people and subjects long excluded. The fate of the environment became an overriding concern. The Congress reasserted its role in making national security policy by passing the war powers act and including human rights as a primary focus. Secrecy was pierced by the Freedom of Information Act and public disclosure became a commonplace requirement. In countless ways small and large, most American agreed with the New Left vision of a participatory democracy in which everyone had a voice in the decisions that affected their lives. But it also was a time of passion that affected us all as individuals, whether we engaged in social activism, became soldiers in Vietnam, or sat on the sidelines. It affected our families, and through that process, became grounded very deeply. My own father came from a generation whose goal was to be validated by achieving the American Dream. I was the first in our family to enroll in a university. Our turbulent Irish immigrant past–I was named for an important Irish rebel leader, but my parents knew nothing of him–was lost to me in the amnesia of the so-called melting pot of assimilation. My father was a World War II Marine who assumed that all our problems could be traced to foreign enemies, and that our government alwaystoldthetruth.WhenIbrokewiththisinheritance,Ibroketheirhearts. My father did not speak to me for 16 years. I carried this burden stoically, never knowing it was common in millions of American families.The Sixties were defined as a “youth rebellion,” but I think now that the era was about a failure of our elders. While Introduction Introduction xii Rebel today it is widely agreed that Vietnam was a “mistake”, majorities at the time favored the war, obedience to the draft, and punishment to “teach a lesson” to the those who resisted the government. In time, some of us healed; my father and I, for, example, reconciled personally. In addition, I was able to overcome strong public reservations and be elected to the California legislature–although three dozen members of the state Assembly voted against my election being certified–and served for 18 years. How incomparably difficult it must have been for families who supported the Vietnam war only to suffer the death or wounding of a son, and to learn that the Administration had been lying all along. That is why the Sixties reverberates in our personal lives, whether we experienced the time ourselves or are sons and daughters of those who did. This book is not quite history in an academic sense, nor is it just personal autobiography. It is a saga, an odyssey, viewed through personal experience . The voice of the authorities who represented my father’s generation is captured, dramatically but accurately I believe, in the captioned FBI memos throughout the book which I received through public disclosure laws in the Seventies. My personal file spanned 22,000 pages beginning with FBI investigations of my family background when I wrote a college editorial questioning the House Un-American Activities Committee. That is, long before I became a radical, before I became politically involved at all, I was the subject of official monitoring by government intelligence agencies because I thought for myself. The Sixties momentum was diluted in part by success. The Vietnam war and the draft were ended. Women and minorities were invited to the table. The 18 year old vote was adopted. The demands of the Sixties were incorporated in laws affecting voting rights, air and water pollution, endangered species laws, consumer safety, and war powers. It appeared to many that the scoundrels were routed at Watergate. While the sounds on the streets were being stilled, a conservative counterrevolution was underway. The Reagan era was...