During the 1964 Democratic National Convention,the American people waited while Lyndon Johnson met with the two senators, Thomas Dodd and Hubert Humphrey, between whom he would choose his vice-president. For those who were not confused by the superficial differences between them, the meeting of the three symbolized one of the major traditions in American politics. Johnson, Dodd, and Humphrey had one major common denominator: their consistent and unswerving support of American imperialism.

Volume 2, Number 1; Winter 1966

The case of David H. Mitchell, the young man who is challenging-the very basis of the conscription law, was treated in our previous issue (Conrad J. Lynn, “The Case of David Mitchell versus the United States.” LEFT AND RIGHT (Autumn. 1965)). On January 13, 1966, the United States Court of Appeals unanimously reversed David Mitchell’s conviction in the lower courts, and ordered a new trial on grounds of Mitchell’s having been deprived of enough time to obtain legal counsel. The case will now be retried in the lower courts.

Julian Bond, a brilliant young leader of SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee), having been duly elected to the Georgia state legislature from Atlanta, dared to endorse SNCC’s statement attacking conscription and the American war in Vietnam. In so doing, Mr. Bond indelibly stamped himself as a ‘bad” Negro in the eyes of his legislative colleagues, and was thus barred from his seat in the Georgia House by a vote of 184 to 12.

Volume 2, Number 1; Winter 1966

A prospectus is going the rounds heralding a new, slick fortnightly magazine, oddly entitled Future the Future referring not, as might be thought, to science-fiction Utopias, but to the Second Coming of Jesus. Judging by its editors and associates, Future will be National Review with the gloves off, stripped of all pretenses to old-fashioned libertarian rhetoric, stripped of glib Madison Avenue concessions to traditional American persuasions.

In the fall of 1965, National Review celebrated its 10th anniversary, and part of the record of its orgy of self-congratulation may be found in its November 30 issue. The magazine has, during its decade, even achieved the ultimate: for the issue contains the major part of a book in the process of publication, the bulk of which is solemnly devoted to the petty internal theoretical squabbles among the National Review editors and assorted contributors.

Mr. Murray Kempton, one of America’s most perceptive journalists, attended the annual December, 1965 convention of the National Association of Manufacturers at the Waldorf, and found himself unexpectedly wistful about the good old days when the NAM spent a good portion of its energies attacking governmental interference with the individual. Instead, he found the NAM praising Administration officials, and found himself disgruntled at the change, in short at the passing of the libertarian ‘Old Right” spirit that used to pervade that favorite whipping boy of the Old Left.

During America’s first great war, waged against Great Britain, the Madison Administration tried to introduce a conscription bill into Congress. This bill called forth one of Daniel Webster’s most eloquent efforts, in a powerful opposition to conscription.

Volume 1, Number 2; Autumn 1965

Within the past year, all the news media--not only the little magazines and journals of opinion, but even the mass magazines and radio-and-television, have devoted a great deal of attention to the phenomenon of the New Left. And deservedly so, for here indeed is a truly new force in American life.

David H. Mitchell is a young man charged, and now convicted, in Federal Court with failing to report for induction into the armed forces. Refusing to cooperate with the system by becoming an officially recognized conscientious objector, Mitchell decided to turn the court proceedings into an indictment of his accusers, the United States government. Hence, in a profound sense, this was a case of Mitchell versus the United States rather than vice versa.