In 1978, Senator George McGovern, a man whose opposition to the war in Vietnam was second to none, stunned the nation by proposing that the United States invade Cambodia as part of an international military coalition to put an end to the genocide taking place in that country.
Senator McGovern’s critics saw his proposal as a reversal of his opposition to our involvement in Southeast Asia. But what they could not understand was that what the Khmer Rouge was doing in Cambodia, under the ruthless leadership of dictator Pol Pot, was quite different from the legitimate civil war that had taken place in Vietnam a few years earlier. While war is never an ideal option — and, in fact, should be the last resort in any situation — it does occasionally serve a noble purpose.
The proof is that, while McGovern was being ridiculed in this country for his apparent change of mind, it was an independent Vietnam, after having thrown Americans out of its territory, that put an end to the mass killings in Cambodia, one of the worst cases of genocide in history. (It is estimated that as many as three million people — roughly one-third of the population of Cambodia — were killed during Pol Pot’s reign of terror.)
Yes, sometimes war serves a noble purpose. I can think of no greater example than the invasion of the European continent by the United States that put an end to the great Holocaust of Jews, homosexuals and other minorities. Without the American Civil War, it might have taken centuries to bring an end to slavery in the Southern States. In those historical cases, both Roosevelt and Lincoln recognized the horrible necessity of military action to bring about the ideal result to save human beings. Their greatness was to understand that they had no choice but to stand firm and guide a reluctant people to do the right thing.
Reserving the option of war for only cases where it is morally compelling is compulsory in understanding and applying this “noble purpose” concept. A government that goes to war all too frequently for dubious purposes will have difficulty getting its people to support the next war, no matter how noble the purpose may be. So it was for Roosevelt, who had to wait for the attack on Pearl Harbor to seize the opportunity to enter the struggle for freedom in 1942.
Today, we face a similar situation. Having exhausted the resources of our military — most importantly, the lives of the finest of this nation’s servicemen — in ill-conceived recent wars, the American People are weary of any new military involvement.
Yet, all the signs of a crisis that would call for intervention are beginning to be apparent. Most symbolically, the Russian Duma is likely to pass a law that will require all HIV patients to be fingerprinted. The parallel to the pink triangles that homosexuals were forced to wear under Nazi occupation is very apparent. We may as well extend that comparison to the numbers that were tattooed on the arms of concentration camp prisoners. What does the Russian government intend to do with a database of fingerprints of HIV positive individuals who live and visit their country? It can’t be anything good.
Just as disconcerting is the report of flyers being distributed in Eastern Europe demanding that all Jews identify themselves. Nothing good can come from that either.
As if the recent laws essentially making homosexuality illegal in Russia (if not in fact, then in implication) weren’t enough, we hear reports of the persecution and execution of such individuals by organized thugs with the blessing of the Russian government. This trend is rapidly spreading to other countries surrounding Russia. The message is, “It’s OK to bash gays.” In most of the former Soviet satellite states, there are reports of persecution of LGBT individuals and official laws being passed to discriminate against homosexuals. These things, we are told, are being influenced by the Russian example and by Vladimir Putin himself. Some of the groups that are active in the persecution proudly admit to being neo-Nazis. And so it seems that history has a way of repeating itself.
While it is premature to advocate — or even predict — war, it’s wise to learn the lessons of history and to be open to the possibility that it may again come to that. I certainly don’t wish for any kind of military action. But it’s the duty of our government to be prepared for such a possibility.
In the meantime, we can put pressure on the Obama Administration to adopt a polity of asylum for all homosexuals who live in areas such as Russia, Crimea, Georgia and the Ukraine — in fact, wherever LGBT individuals may be in danger throughout the world. That, at least, would be a start and may be the thing that allows us to avoid war altogether.
Note: At press time, the Pentagon has announced that the United States is sending 600 troops to Eastern Europe. The troops will be deployed to Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
