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MICHAEL HARRINGTON AND THE VIETNAM WAR: THE FAILURE OF ANTI‐STALINISM IN THE 1960S
Author(s) -
Isserman Maurice
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
peace and change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1468-0130
pISSN - 0149-0508
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0130.1996.tb00279.x
Subject(s) - sectarianism , politics , vietnam war , law , perspective (graphical) , sociology , political science , art , visual arts
Michael Harrington criticized the antiwar movement of the 1960s for failing to adopt an “anti‐Stalinist” perspective regarding the Vietnam War, i.e., a viewpoint that would be equally critical of both sides in the conflict. The fact that Harrington's perspective won few adherents in the antiwar struggle was a product in significant measure of the failures of the anti‐Stalinists themselves. The dogmatic and inflexible sectarianism of the dominant faction within the Socialist Party left it isolated and irrelevant, as some of its own supporters, and eventually Harrington himself, realized. In the aftermath of the 1960s, Harrington came to be a critic of the very politics he had espoused during the Vietnam War. However, by then, it was too late for him to recapture the position of political and moral authority he had enjoyed in the left at the start of the sixties.