and the worker does all the work. The exciting
aspect of that period was all over that place.  People were beginning
to stand up and say "Hey, we want some control
over our lives."
Yes?
QUESTIONER: Could you say, that, okay, when
you're talking about the media shifting it's
attention from the, A bomb/H bomb, to Vietnam,
that one of the reasons primarily that the
shift to vietnam, was also in association
with Kennedy's assasination and without a
direct reason, would you think to why we got
more particularly involved in Vietnam, was because of Kennedy's assasination too or?
SANDERS: I mean as Rik indic…I am not a historian,
I don't really know the answer to that, uhm
but I think it's, it's not really an issue
of Vietnam is very similar to the issue of
Nicaragua, if you follow what goes on in Nicaragua
because, remember the domino theory and what
there was was a feeling which exists today,
you don't have to worry about reading the
60's, just watch president Reagan on the television
and you're seeing a rerun of the same thing,
there is an assumption that the United States
has the right to control a certain section
of the world and if poor people, often living
under oppression, rise up to demand dignity
in their lives to demand a revolution if you
like which is of course how this country was
founded. That by definition, those people
are communists and they're anti-American and
we must be opposed to that okay? The fear
in Nicaragua is that the Nicaraguan government
is able to provide well for it's people, there
will be other revolutions in Guatamala and
among hungry starving people. And what America's
role is supposed to be is to put down those
revolutions and to protect people like Ferdinand
Marcos because they're anti communist or (Indistinguishable Name of Foreign Leader) whose
country was starving to death while he ripped it
off to the tune of hundreds of millions of
dollars, but that's okay. That's okay. They're
anti communists. (Indistinguishable Name of Foreign Leader) was a fine man, he
was an anti communist and in 1973, Salvador
Allende because he was a socialist and now
we have a fascist government there that's
killed 30,000 people. That's okay they're
anti communist and really the truth of the
matter is to be honest with you, it hasn't
changed. The reason, the reason I think basically
that the United States was in Vietnam,  the reason that
the United States supported Chiang Kai-shek in China
for many years is that you have as Rik was indicating.
We have, we live under a capitalist system
which is dominated by very wealthy and powerful
corporations who see the underdeveloped world,
or the Third World as as source of raw materials
and as a source of cheap labor. And it's important
that those people stay poor and stay dominated
by wealthy forces and if Vietnam overthrew
it's ruling class, this idea could spread
and it's exactly the same phenomena that's
going on in Nicaragua. It really hasn't changed and it's really not really
complicated, go to your history books and
you find out, I mean I don't have to…I mean
that's for another subject, but you know the
United States has been involved in dozens
of countries in Latin America. Constantly.
The Marines are down there as soon as the
people begin to rise up and demand a better
life. Country after country. And the countries
are made poor, starvation exists. But, so
long as the government remains "anti-communist"
they're a friend of the United States. So I don't
think Kennedy's assasination had too much to do with it.
STUDENT: Do you think a large part of Reagan's
appeal is his willingness to make the decisions
for us that we wanted to make for ourselves
in the 60's?
SANDERS: Boy, that's a tough question and
I don't know what you're asking is, we went
through a period in the 60's and how did we
end up today and what is Reagan's appeal?
And, you know, that's a tough question, I
really don't know the answer. Uhm, I think
one thing that I can say, I think with some certainty
is that while all of this movement was taking
place, our kids in a sense were rebelling
against their parents. It was a very frightening
experience. People were losing control over
their own kids and you would have people clung
to something that was traditional and conservative.
When all kinds of crazy things are going on,
you want something that you can hang your
hat on and Reagan is certainly giving the
people of America something. It's, you know,
the same line that has existed for a hundred
years. America is, we believe in freedom,
we believe in God. The rest of the world is
not really where it's at and we have the right
to do this and it's pretty simplistic stuff.
And I think this, is some of that appeal.
But I think the phenomenon Reaganism would
be too long for now.
RIK: Maybe at the end of the course. I have
a sort of comment about that question which
is, there is another level of analysis that
you could look at it from. That would be a
more, economic level of analysis. America
came out of the depression into a second world
war and fueled it's economy on a war economy.
Constructed itself back up to a level where it functioned very well. And we, people got...
