It is not an easy charge to make. But the facts are there for all to see. They have been there for quite some time, however few may be disposed even now to acknowledge them, and they lend themselves to a sad conclusion: that the Christian churches of America—and this applies with special force to my own Roman Catholic communion—have permitted themselves to become fully responsible accomplices to war crimes and atrocities that have been committed by our nation and her allies in Vietnam.

Past ignorance and timidity masquerading as prudence may explain but can no longer justify a posture of Olympian detachment.

On November 27th, F.B.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover charged a group called The East Coast Conspiracy to Save Lives, which he alleged to be led by Philip and Daniel Berrigan, with a conspiracy to blow up heating units in Federal buildings and kidnap presidential advisor Henry Kissinger. From the beginning these charges evoked incredulity from those even faintly acquainted with the persons involved. It was apparent, for example, that Mr. Hoover did not know cither the number or the composition of the group which he named and was using it as an omnibus term for anyone related to the Catholic Resistance. Then, in mid-January, the indictments on this charge were handed down by a grand jury meeting in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

For a generation now, America has played a significant role in world affairs. Until Pearl Harbor a reluctant belligerent in World War II, this country was also slow to respond to the challenge of the Soviet Union in the immediate aftermath of that gigantic conflict. But for almost twenty-five years American Presidents have been more or less guided by the policy of “containment.” Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson all introduced variations on the multiple themes of the policy adopted by Harry Truman. Yet each concluded that the world situation allowed no reasonable alternative to an activist American foreign policy in most areas of the globe.

The Treaty on the Nonprolrferahon of Nuclear Weapons (N.P.T) has been in effect since March of 1970, the debate over its wisdom has quietly passed into history, and we seem to be living comfortably with the notion that its ratification was a significant step toward international peace. I want to suggest here that we have yet to face up to the problems which almost inevitably lie ahead.

The N.P.T. as Alliance. The N.P.T. concept dates from a time when most of us looked upon the nuclear world as truly bipolar. Both the U.S. and USSR felt that it would be better to deal with the certainties of this bipolarity than with the uncertainties of proliferation.

In a world of manifold and conflicting ideologies it seems safe to say that there are only two forces which are at once sufficiently universalist in their claims and sufficiently extensive in their influence to enlist the allegiance of vast segments of the world's population. Without attending to the manifest differences which divide them internally, we can recognize in each a unity of purpose and viewpoint which permits us to refer to them simply as Christianity and communism. Whatever one's view of the future of these two forces, they are at the present time the most significant forces which can—or will—address themselves to the major ills which plague our world.