F���� K. K���� L������ �� H�������’� F�����

The Frank K. Kelly Lecture on Humanity’s Future was established by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation in 2002. The lecture series honors Frank Kelly, a founder and senior vice president of the Foundation, whose vision and compassion are perpetuated through this series. The lecture is presented annually by a distinguished individual to explore the contours of humanity’s future and what we can do today to help shape a more positive and promising future for our planet and all its inhabitants.

The lecture presented in this booklet is the fourth Frank K. Kelly Lecture on Humanity’s Future. It was presented by Dr. Robert Jay Li�on at the University of California at Santa Barbara on February 16, 2005.

The 2004 lecture in this series was presented by Dame Anita Roddick on “Kindness as a Key to Humanity’s Future.” Professor Rich- ard Falk presented the 2003 lecture on “Amer- ican Civil Liberties and Human Rights Under Siege.” Frank Kelly, for whom the lecture se- ries is named, gave the inaugural lecture in 2002 on “Glorious Beings: What We Are and What We May Become.”

Frank Kelly has had a remarkable life. He has been a science-fiction writer (later induct- ed into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame), a journalist, a soldier in World War II, a Nieman Fellow at , a speechwriter for Harry Truman, the assistant to the US Senate Majority Leader, vice president of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institu- tions and a leader in the campaign to create the US Institute for Peace. He co-founded the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation in 1982. He is the author of nine books and uncounted articles.

Beyond all of his achievements, Frank has a remarkable faith in humanity and its future. He has lived with a spirit of optimism and hope. He has been a visionary advocate for humanity and has inspired many people through his writing and teaching to take action on behalf of humanity.

The lecture series is endowed to carry forward Frank’s vision. If you would like to help support the lecture by adding to the endowment, please let us know. We also invite you to learn more about the Frank K. Kelly Lecture series and about the work of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation by visiting our website. Prior lectures in this series are available through the Foundation.

Cover image © Shodo Harada Roshi, abbot of Sogenji monastery in Okayama, Japan. The enso is one of the most prevalent themes in Zen calligraphy and represents the oneness of life and connectedness of existence. AMERICA AND THE HUMAN FUTURE: SURVIVING VIETNAM, 9/11, AND IRAQ o

Robert Jay Lifton

4th Annual Frank K. Kelly Lecture on Humanity’s Future

A Project of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Introduction By Richard Falk Chair, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

The Nuclear Age Peace his book on survivors, Death in Foundation has annu- Life, which won the coveted National Book ally recognized in- Award in 1969, Dr. Li�on has been carrying dividuals who have on a struggle against the most severe forms made outstanding of human wrongs that afflict the peoples of contributions in the the world. He has wri�en notable books on form of dedicated and a range of issues that chronicle the extremi- courageous leadership ties of human wrongdoing, including the in the cause of peace. psychic ordeal of war endured by American Over the course of the G.I.s in Vietnam, the perverse professional- last 20 years, many extraordinary individu- ism of Nazi doctors, the genocidal mental- als have been acknowledged for their roles ity associated with any contemplated reli- in this regard, most recently Walter Cronk- ance on nuclear weapons, and the historical ite and Jonathan Schell. On rare occasions emergence of what he has insightfully been the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation has pre- calling apocalyptic . In these stud- sented a Lifetime Achievement Award to an ies, Dr. Li�on has also forged new methods individual who has exhibited a particular of research and interpretation that have ex- dedication to the goals of the Foundation. I erted a very wide influence here and abroad. have two happy tasks tonight: to introduce He has combined the knowledge and ap- the lecture and to make the presentation to proaches of psychiatry with a sophisticated our guest. use of social science inquiry relying on in- depth interviews and an interpretive ap- I should say in the spirit of full disclosure proach to his subject ma�er that is informed that Robert Li�on has been a close friend for by a deep sense of historical and cultural more than 30 years. We have shared many context. The combination of these approach- courts, including tennis courts, but also es has given his writing a unique quality of courts of law, and have even spent time in depth and richness that has made it so valu- jail together. Given the circumstances, I con- able to many of us over the years as an intel- sider that experience a positive credential. lectual resource for understanding the most We have twice collaborated as co-authors of perplexing and disturbing issues associated books and, in the spirit of fearlessness, are with outbreaks of mass violence and collec- about to embark on a third such venture. tive evil.

In my view, no one on the planet be�er ex- But Dr. Li�on has done more than achieve emplifies the goals of the Nuclear Age Peace an enviable record as a distinguished schol- Foundation than Robert Jay Li�on.Ever since ar with a worldwide reputation. He has act-

2 Nuclear Age Peace Foundation ed as an exemplary citizen, expressing his receipt of a Nobel Peace Prize in the middle views on the most controversial issues of the of the 1980s. day, from the atomic a�acks on Hiroshima to the ongoing current torment arising from the And so, from the perspective of the Nuclear American presence in Iraq. His own words, Age Peace Foundation, Robert Li�on is an expressed in an interview just prior to the ideal recipient of its Lifetime Achievement invasion of Iraq in 2003, convey powerfully Award. In giving Robert this award, we are the wide arc of his personal and political en- certainly not intending to signal the end of gagement. He said then, “I feel a mixture of Dr. Li�on’s lifetime of achievement. Indeed, fear, rage and deep absurdity. This war we as we will shortly witness, we count on him are about to embark upon seems to me to be continuing to achieve for a long, long time. both illegitimate and self-defeating, harmful I want to just say a few words to introduce not just for the world but for ourselves.” Dr. Robert Li�on as the fourth Kelly lecturer. It Li�on, while being a chronicler of the most is wonderful that we have Frank Kelly with extreme evils in our world, is personally us tonight. He is a prominent and much be- engaged in the full spectrum of life experi- loved local presence in the Santa Barbara ence. Again in his illuminating words, “You community. He inaugurated this lecture se- look into the abyss, but you don’t want to ries with a lecture of his own in 2002. In some be stuck there. So you want to look beyond ways Frank and Robert seem to be contrary

“In giving Robert this award, we are certainly not intending to signal the end of Dr. Lifton’s lifetime of achievement. Indeed, as we will shortly witness, we count on him continuing to achieve for a long, long time. ” it to other human possibilities.” And so he personality types, Frank continuously im- has done throughout his life, revealing his mersed in a virtual ocean of bright-eyed op- worldview in an important scholarly contri- timism, while Robert seemingly habituates bution, The Protean Self that is full of hope the darkest of human landscapes. But on and potentiality, a guidebook to a fulfilling closer inspection, I think these two citizens and satisfying life carried forward in the face of the world are engaged in the same strug- of dispiriting gathering forces. gle to improve the human condition. Rob- ert Li�on likes to quote the poet Theodore Dr. Li�on played a leading role in the organ- Roethke, especially the line, “In a dark time ization Physicians for Social Responsibility the eye begins to see,” while Frank always that was so active during the 1980s in oppos- seems happily comfortable in the light and ing the nuclear arms race. This organization never has trouble seeing the silver lining. then became the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and its sin- Robert Li�on was trained as a psychiatrist, gular contributions were recognized by the a�ending medical school and had as his

Frank K. Kelly Lecture on Humanity’s Future 3 mentor the famed and innovative follower bear on the lecture theme of the evening and of , . He spent provide us all with essential tools for under- time in the air force during the standing some of what is happening in the working as a psychiatrist and produced world around us. an important book on thought control as a technique of warfare and an instrument of For a precursor of the 9/11 experience and rule in totalitarian societies. For some 25 the al Qaeda organization, I would com- years, Robert Li�on was a research profes- mend Robert’s truly prophetic study of the sor on the medical faculty of . Japanese terrorist organization, Aum Shin- Since the mid-1960s, Robert, together with rikyo, with the revealing title, Destroying his wife, have hosted an annual psychohis- the World To Save It, published in 1999. The tory seminar at their summer home in Cape book at once recognized the extremism and Cod that has brought together many of the absurdity of this dedicated to unleash- best minds in America to discuss the most ing massive violence in order to purify the pressing issues of the day. In 1978, he moved world. But Robert Li�on also acknowledges, to New York City where he founded and “something closer and more dangerous to all established the Center on Violence and Hu- of us. The extremist leader of the cult, Shoko man Survival that, although renamed a�er Asahara, now seems to me to have been a his departure for Cambridge, remains part caricature of present day leaders of normal of the City University of New York (CUNY). countries who deal with ultimate weaponry This Center became an important gathering and must thereby struggle with or surrender place for all those concerned with the forces to a psychological mix of fear, control and endangering the future of the human species fantasy that could annihilate us all.” In this and what constructive steps might be taken sense, the message of the book, and Robert to meet these challenges by bringing about Li�on’s insistent plea, is to mobilize the ac- desirable change. tion needed to rid the planet of the dreaded weaponry of mass destruction before it rids In 2001, Robert made a further move to Cam- the planet of the human species. bridge, Massachuse�s, where he now lives and is associated with the Harvard Medi- The other book I would mention is Super- cal School as a lecturer and runs a faculty power Syndrome: America’s Apocalyptic seminar on mass violence. Robert has been Confrontation With The World, published in celebrated for his achievements during his 2003, warning us all that meeting terror with long and continuously productive career, terror is the surest path to self-annihilation, winning prizes for his books and receiving but also informing us that change is possi- a large number of honorary degrees from ble and that a hopeful future is within our important universities. It is obvious that I reach, if we take advantage of transforming could extend this introduction unbearably if inner and outer potentialities present in our I were to enumerate the high points of Rob- individual and societal circumstances. ert Li�on’s career. I only want, in closing, to call a�ention to two of his recent books that

4 Nuclear Age Peace Foundation A������ ��� ��� H���� F�����: S�������� V������, 9/11, ��� I���

By Robert Jay Lifton

I’m deeply moved by that generous, indeed close friends for close to four decades. Rich- overly generous introduction, and I appreci- ard and I were young men when we began ate this award very much, especially in light our collaboration, and we seem to still be at of its source and tradition. However, one it. We are graying a bit, but we remain rebels needs ways of preventing oneself from be- with a cause. lieving all these excessive things that are said about one, and my way of doing that is to We Are All Survivors draw bird cartoons. I don’t have any artistic talent, but I can have these li�le stick figures We meet here tonight as survivors, one of birds say things more directly than I can in might say as historical survivors, not only my other writings, and I’ve even published a of American wars but of a recent presiden- couple of collections of them. The particular tial election. My argument this evening is bird cartoon that’s relevant for this moment, that the way we survive, the meaning we as and which I’d like to consider my existential Americans give to the survivals that we are classic, goes this way: A small, young, en- in the process of experiencing, has much to thusiastic bird looks up and says excitedly, do with the future we create. “All of a sudden I had this wonderful feel- ing I am me.” And an older, bigger, more Richard mentioned Erik Erikson, the gi�ed jaundiced, more skeptical bird looks down psychoanalyst whom I worked closely with at him and says, “You were wrong.” On that and who was a kind of informal mentor to note I begin. me for many years. Erikson described how

“My argument this evening is that the way we survive... has much to do with the future we create. ”

I’m very grateful to the Nuclear Age Peace his young-adult patients had to hit “rock bot- Foundation for this award and for its hospi- tom” before they could show signs of health tality and sponsorship of the event. It means and recovery. We may be in the process of a great deal to me to be joining Richard Falk hi�ing rock bo�om as a nation, given the on this occasion. You heard from him about dangerous directions our leaders are taking the length and closeness of our friendship. us. We may also be hi�ing rock bo�om in Really we’ve been peace colleagues and ourselves as passionate opponents of these

Frank K. Kelly Lecture on Humanity’s Future 5 policies. Perhaps, like Erikson’s patients, on the worldwide epidemic of apocalyptic we first have to allow ourselves to experi- violence, and what I call superpower syndrome; ence that pain and foreboding and then to and a reexamination—and this is the theme emerge from that state in order to reassert of my talk—of the state of the psychology of our efforts at personal and national health. the survivor in this country. I will look not But to do that we need to confront our his- just at Holocaust survivors or survivors of torical and psychological actuality. We can’t Hiroshima but at ourselves as Americans. do it without that confrontation. By doing that, we can finally move toward

“I will look not just at Holocaust survivors or survivors of Hiroshima but at ourselves as Americans. By doing that, we can finally move toward directions of hope....”

I sometimes feel, given the draconian sub- directions of hope—modest ones, but hav- jects I’ve worked on, that when I’m in de- ing some importance. mand the world is in trouble. Richard men- tioned the metaphor of the abyss, which I Psycho-historical Method continue to return to. We must always look into the abyss in order to see beyond it, and My method is psycho-historical, which the present abyss is our war in Iraq and the means nothing more than applying psycho- policies that brought it about. This was nei- logical perspectives to historical questions. ther a defensive nor a preemptive war. It The recent psychohistorical approach dates was a preventive war, and we must be par- back to the work of Erikson, who studied ticularly cognizant in the nuclear age of the the great man or great person in history. My dangers of preventive wars. Some of you work has been to interview people involved may be old enough to remember the talk of in significant historical events, either as act- preventive war in the 1950s and early 1960s ed upon by these events or as having con- when it was learned that the Soviet Union tributed to them, or some combination of the was acquiring nuclear weapons and testing two. What I call shared themes encountered them. There were many voices advocating a in these people tell us much about them, preventive war before the Soviets could get but also about their time and era, and about more weapons and endanger us. Had we lis- our present era in this case. This approach tened to those voices, millions or tens of mil- requires looking not just at the ni�y-gri�y lions of people, or more, would have been of human behavior but also at an ultimate killed. There’s nothing more dangerous than level of larger human connectedness. As preventive war in the nuclear age. creatures who know that we die, we have a need to live on in, and feel connected with, I want to take you on a bit of a journey that forces that began prior to and that will con- will include a brief look at past work I’ve tinue a�er what we know to be our limited done in terms of its bearing on our present lifespan: whether biologically or biosocially, entrapments and dilemmas; some remarks through families and communities; through

6 Nuclear Age Peace Foundation some religious vision of an a�erlife; through This impulse toward what I called ownership “eternal nature”; or through creative modes of the mind has been expressed elsewhere; I in our influence as teachers, writers, or or- related it then to McCarthyism in the United dinary human beings. This ultimate level is States, and we can see parallels to it now as part of a model of symbolization of life and well. We don’t have systematic thought re- death, a departure from the classical Freud- form in our country at this time, but under ian model of instinct and defense. It is from the Bush administration we see an a�empt this model of the continuity of life that all of at controlling information, and not just spin my work has evolved. but direct reversals of reality, which are con- structed and acted upon. In that sense, the In telling you something about the relevance thought-reform process has considerable of my past work to our present entrapments, bearing on what we’re in the middle of right let me say that there’s something about the now. present situation that’s different from the subjects of my other studies. It has to do But there’s hope in this despite its dark side. with the fact that we are still in 9/11—it’s The Chinese turned out to have over-re- not over. Li�le happens in this country that formed and did much to turn the population doesn’t have some connection or association against them by that overcontrol. Some of with 9/11. And of course those associations that is going on in this country, too. Freud are shamelessly manipulated by the Bush memorably stated that “The voice of the in- administration. Other events that I’ve stud- tellect is a so� one, but it will not rest until ied, like the bombing of Hiroshima, the Vi- it has had its hearing.” We can say that the etnam War, and Nazi doctors’ involvement voice of reality is a so� one, but it will not in genocide, were grave and had reverbera- rest until it has had its hearing. tions, but I was studying them in retrospect. I’m now studying events, and you’re consid- The Prism of Hiroshima ering them, as participants in a process that continues to affect all of us. I continue to see the world through the prism of Hiroshima. From my study of Hiroshima I studied Chinese thought reform in the mid- survivors in 1962, I learned a lot about sur- 1950s in Hong Kong, interviewing people vivors in general and began to think about who were coming out of China. This work the psychology of survivors. I also began to raised for me the problem of totalism, of all- think about the impact of this revolutionary or-none belief systems, which has haunted weaponry and how, just by its dimensions, all of my subsequent work. In retrospect, nuclear weaponry is apocalyptic in its es- I realized that both the totalism and the sence. We tend to bring religious symbols thought-reform process represented what to the weaponry in justifying its use, to sac- could be called an apocalyptic revolution- ralize it to the point of worship. We know ary impulse to destroy the existing Chinese something about what nuclear weapons can mental or spiritual world in order to recreate do, and that knowledge inhabits us and af- it with a complete new purity. I didn’t take fects every kind of conflict and interaction that to be something unique to the Chinese. in this world.

Frank K. Kelly Lecture on Humanity’s Future 7 My study of Vietnam veterans in the 1970s In my study of Nazi doctors during the late revealed the phenomenon of what I came to 1970s and early 1980s, I found a reversal of call the atrocity-producing situation—an envi- healing and killing, a kind of apocalyptic ronment so structured, militarily and psy- biology. There was perverse idealism to the chologically, that ordinary people, no be�er effect that if you could get rid of all of the or worse than you or me, can enter it and bad genes you could also get rid of not only commit atrocities. This socialization to atroc- mental illness but all wrong behavior in the ity has to do with military policies and with world. It had an absurdity, but elements of

“We tend to bring religious symbols to the weaponry in justifying its use, to sacralize it to the point of worship.”

psychological reactions. In the case of Viet- it were believed. Most Nazi doctors whom nam, there were free-fire zones and body I interviewed weren’t ideologues; they had counts, along with the angry grief of soldiers been socialized to atrocity. In a phenomenon who were losing buddies in very dangerous I call doubling, there was the formation of situations without being able to identify the what was functionally a second self, so that enemy. The apocalyptic phrase “destroying a Nazi doctor could be killing people from a village to save it” came from Vietnam, and nine to five, six days a week, at Auschwitz, it inspired the title of my subsequent book and then go back to Germany on weekends about Aum Shinrikyo, Destroying the World or while on leave and be an ordinary hus- to Save It. band and father. Doubling can occur in rela- tion to any killing process, and I’m sure it is Also in relation to Vietnam, we saw the pervasive in Iraq. The idea of killing to heal emergence of the phenomenon of veterans is an overall theme of all apocalyptic phe- and soldiers opposing their own war while nomena, of all efforts to destroy on a large it was in the process of being fought. That scale in order to spiritually purify. opposition had a tremendous impact on the country and contributed greatly to ending It has been my sad recent observation that the war. We now see a similar process operat- American physicians have colluded in tor- ing in a small but highly influential number ture at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. In a short of Israeli reserve officers and soldiers who piece published recently in the New England are refusing to fight in the Occupied Ter- Journal of Medicine, I described the failure of ritories. Some have told me that they were American medical personnel to report in- much influenced by antiwar Vietnam vet- juries that could only have been caused by erans, and by those of us who wrote about torture. They also turned over records to in- them. So this process of opposing one’s war terrogators and cooperated with them, and or opposing war-making, when one is being they falsified and delayed death certificates. called on to fight that war or a�erward, can This behavior should not be equated with be contagious in the struggle for peace. that of Nazi doctors. But the extremity of the

8 Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Nazi example can help us to uncover less ex- more vivid by the contemporary technology treme but nonetheless unacceptable medical of destruction, particularly nuclear destruc- violations. tion.

My study of Aum Shinrikyo in the late 1990s Throughout my work, I’ve been concerned became all too relevant in connection with with alternatives and have wri�en about the 9/11. Here was this relatively small Japanese protean self—the many-sided contemporary cult, with less than 10,000 members and only self characterized by fluidity, flexibility, and 1,400 so-called monks close to the guru, who the capacity for transformation and change. not only killed about 100 people but also I’ve addressed that protean self’s struggles planned to initiate mass violence through to emerge, and the conflicts between it and the release of sarin gas in the Tokyo subway what can be called the fundamentalist self system (they had unsuccessfully sought with an antithetical impulse toward totalism nuclear weaponry) in order to bring about and a potential for apocalyptic violence. World War III. They hoped to involve Japan, America, and other countries in a planetary Apocalyptic Violence struggle that would culminate in a biblical Armageddon. This was, of course, wild fan- I’ll say a word about the larger question of tasy, but it was fantasy accompanied by the apocalyptic violence and then turn to the production of biological and chemical weap- psychology of the survivor. Apocalyptic ons, even if in impure and limited form. The violence involves imagining the end of the cult had a vision of apocalyptic purification world, or a large piece of it, in order to bring based on a long-standing but li�le com- about total purification and spiritual renew- mented on phenomenon that the ancient al. I see a kind of epidemic of apocalyptic vio- rabbis called “forcing the end.” Gershom lence throughout the world, and have found Scholem, the noted scholar of Jewish mys- it in many disparate places: in connection ticism, described great debates among the with Timothy McVeigh and his bombing of rabbis about whether, in order to facilitate the federal building in Oklahoma City, in the the coming of the messiah, it was permissi- Middle East among both Israelis and Pales- ble to engage in violence, since it was known tinians, and in relation to American policies that violence had to precede his return. For- and behavior.

“It has been my sad recent observation that American physicians have colluded in torture at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere.” tunately, they decided that it was heretical If one asks what bin Laden wants and what to do this, because only God could take such al Qaeda stands for, there’s a political dimen- actions. Groups like Aum Shinrikyo are less sion, which has been increasingly evident in restrained and feel free to enter into the the effort to bring down America and get it process of bringing about Armageddon, the out of the Middle East. But there’s also an image and vision of which have been made apocalyptic and more amorphous aspect in

Frank K. Kelly Lecture on Humanity’s Future 9 which they seek to destroy all that is not suf- carrying out a grand design—what author ficiently Islamist in order to create a perfect Bob Woodward described as “God’s master and pure Islamist state and world. In terms plan.” There are many indications of an im- of the terrorist dynamic, clearly there can be pulse to destroy much of the world that we real grievances associated with an apoca- find unsatisfactory in order to reconstitute it lyptic project of this kind. The apocalyptic in our own image. And there is the polariza- project must be opposed, but the grievances tion of the world and the “axis of evil”—that should be recognized. They include a couple kind of language and approach. of centuries of imperialism, the carving up of the Middle East, and certain aggressive Superpower Vulnerability American policies which fed the agendas of radical Islamist groups, so that there is mu- There is also the issue of superpower vul- tual participation in an apocalyptic process. nerability—the strongest military power in the world is probably the most fearful. In In connection with recent American behav- this kind of apocalyptic projection, we seek ior—and with what I have called superpower absolute security, which is impossible—that syndrome—one can look at the “- quest is part of superpower omnipotence— ism” and its apocalyptic dimensions—that and any threat to that security renders us is, our responding to apocalyptic violence fearful. Moreover, we’re on a project or mis- with apocalyptic tendencies of our own. sion or even a crusade to carry through our The war on terrorism has no limits in time policies and control much of the world. This or place—it’s an endless process, imparting is based on a certain degree of fantasy and is a sense of continuous war. This kind of defi- also impossible to achieve; it is therefore a nition of the war on terrorism was put for- constant source of frustration and enormous ward from the beginning, and it has a lot to fear. The nuclear issue enters greatly into do with superpower humiliation—the sense that fear, because our policies, especially of superpower omnipotence punctured by those in relation to nuclear weapons, stimu- 9/11. The issue of humiliation looms large in late nuclearism in other countries, which we

“The apocalyptic project must be opposed, but the grievances should be recognized.”

the American experience. What results is a in turn feel threatened by. Nuclear prolifera- back-and-forth process, a duty dance with tion remains an overwhelming problem for death into which both sides enter. the world, but it cannot be dealt with by re- lying on military threats, which may, in fact, In our own country, we also see a kind of have the opposite effect. military fundamentalism combined with Christian apocalypticism, and its influence All this is part of what I call fluid world con- on the administration. Our leadership, in- trol. Our empire is different from previous cluding the president himself, has a sense of ones. We don’t systematically install bureau-

10 Nuclear Age Peace Foundation crats on the ground to establish enduring tendency for survivor emotions to blend is institutions, as the British did. Rather, we one reason why the Bush administration has move in and out in our efforts to control his- been able to perpetuate certain falsehoods, tory, while maintaining our military bases, such as the claim that Iraq was in some way in Iraq and elsewhere. The National Security involved in 9/11. It’s our task to distinguish Strategy document of September 2002 refers between these various survivor emotions, as to the control of various regions of the world I’m a�empting to do in this talk.

“ Two large violent events have affected Americans since the middle of the twentieth century: the and 9/11. Now we have a third such event, the war in Iraq.” and to a form of military dominance that en- If one undergoes a direct survival, there’s sures that no nation will imagine itself capa- a threat to the entire psychic structure, in ble of challenging us. A superpower on this which mental forms tend to break down. kind of mission must be haunted by a fear Survivor psychology in that sense includes of weakness, because fluid world control— an indelible death imprint. But what I want the control of history—can never really be to emphasize is the profound requirement of achieved. survivors to find meaning in what they have survived and, based on that, to o�en embark In order to look toward the future with the on some kind of mission. It is a form of debt hope of extricating ourselves from the situa- to the dead. The dead have ultimate authori- tion I’m describing, it’s useful to turn to the ty, and survivors try in some way to respond collective psychology of survivors, and, spe- to it. Survivors feel that the dead must not be cifically, that of Americans as survivors. Two allowed to have “died in vain.” large violent events have affected Americans since the middle of the twentieth century: Levels of Survivors the Vietnam war and 9/11. Now we have a third such event, the war in Iraq, which may There are levels of survivors. Direct, or im- come to be known as the centerpiece of the mediate, survivors include those who fought George W. Bush era. How we survive those in Vietnam or Iraq or who were trapped events—the meanings we give them—are in the Twin Towers on 9/11. Other Ameri- major questions confronting us. cans, in contrast, are survivors from a dis- tance who nonetheless can feel these events All of us have ordinary survivals in our lives, strongly. Direct survivors experience things of deaths of people close to us and other loss- viscerally, whereas distant survivors tend to es, and our emotions about these events in- experience them more ideologically or intel- termingle with our feelings about surviving lectually. Nonetheless, distant survivors of- Vietnam, 9/11, and Iraq. Our feelings about ten are the ones who lay out the meaning those individual events intermingle as well; structures that society embraces. Reactions that is the way our psyches function. This to these events are invested with a life-death

Frank K. Kelly Lecture on Humanity’s Future 11 intensity, but the events themselves have war: “By god, we’ve kicked the Vietnam syn- no inherent meaning. Rather, meaning is drome once and for all!” And James Mann, constructed by survivors and others. The in his fine book The Rise of the Vulcans― interaction between immediate and distant who included Dick Cheney, Donald Rums- survivors is always evident. During the lat- feld, Colin Powell, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard ter part of the Vietnam War, for instance, Armitage, and Condoleezza Rice―tells us the favorite song of many American soldiers that these influential advisers to George W. fighting there was the “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ Bush embraced a survivor mission of bellig- to Die Rag,” by Country Joe and the Fish, erence in relation to the Vietnam War. The the most bi�erly powerful antiwar song of impact of that debacle was similar for all of that era. There was increasing interaction them, whether they had fought in that war between the peace movement in the U.S. or not. (Most didn’t.) According to Mann, and the soldiers who were beginning to turn “The defeat in Vietnam led to a preoccupa- against their war, between distant and im- tion with regaining and then maintaining mediate survivors of the war. That kind of American military power.” In other words, interaction is now going on in connection their survivor mission was to reassert Amer- with the as well. ican military might all the more powerfully as a response to Vietnam. It’s something like Looking at Vietnam, 9/11, and Iraq, we find fighting the war over again and winning it, polarized meanings given to each of these but in a new war. In that sense, both Gulf events. And that’s where we have to articu- wars can be seen as connected to survivor late our own stand. In the case of Vietnam, missions stemming from Vietnam.

“Looking at Vietnam, 9/11, and Iraq, we find polarized meanings given to each of these events. And that’s where we have to articulate our own stand.”

a crucial survivor meaning and mission Survivor Missions took shape over the course of the war and a�erward. Mainstream opposition and the If you look at 9/11, there are also different American defeat led to a survivor meaning survivor missions. The war on terrorism, and mission of showing restraint to avoid which I mentioned earlier, was the survi- wars with dubious purposes, fought in fara- vor mission of the Bush administration. It way places against nonwhite populations. was apocalyptic and all-enveloping. So you have this tandem relationship between the Less visible then was a survivor mission at apocalyptic perpetrators of 9/11 and the re- the opposite pole of policy, which grew out sponders. But there was an alternative sur- of a feeling that any such restraint was part vivor mission that many of us tried to ex- of a syndrome of American weakness. You plore, which was to limit the use of force to may recall the ringing words of President that necessary for bringing the perpetrators George H.W. Bush at the end of the first Gulf to justice. This alternative survivor mission

12 Nuclear Age Peace Foundation also required examining the sources of apoc- tion of the war and of all of the killing and alyptic violence and the kind of historical dying. The only way that the deaths would dynamic that sustains it, in order to dimin- not have been in vain, according to that al- ish such violence or prevent it from recur- ternative survivor mission, is if they taught ring. Many Americans have felt themselves us the futility of such war-making. Polls to be caught between these two responses, suggest that a majority of Americans are af- but the administration has been able to draw fected by this alternative survivor mean- upon a reservoir of belligerence from 9/11, in ing, and the country as a whole is struggling pursuing its aggressive version, the war on with these two versions of the Iraq war. Dur- terrorism. ing the 2004 presidential campaign, John Kerry had a great opportunity to bring forth Nonetheless, family members of some of the powerful alternative survivor mission he those killed in the 9/11 a�acks undertook an had expressed in connection with Vietnam, alternative survivor mission. Through their when he had so eloquently asked, before a efforts, the commission investigating 9/11 Congressional subcommi�ee, “How can we came into being and had its work extended. ask a man to be the last man to die for a mis- take?” Unfortunately, he did not bring that Turning to the war in Iraq, we know it was clarity to addressing the war in Iraq. planned at least a decade ago. In a way, 9/11 was a release for that war. In any case, it be- Looking at events in Abu Ghraib and else- came a survivor mission of 9/11, and it was where in Iraq, you have an atrocity-produc- also a survivor mission of Vietnam in the ing situation parallel to the kind that I de- way that I have mentioned―the Vulcans’ scribed in connection with Vietnam. Iraq is embrace of an aggressive policy to reverse also a counterinsurgency war, fought in al- the outcome of that earlier war. ien, hostile territory against a nonwhite en- emy who is both everywhere and nowhere Once embarked on, the Iraq war created sur- and can’t be pinned down. There’s a kind vivor missions of its own. The traditional of fantasy that if we just do enough interro- survivor mission in wartime is to emphasize gation and break down enough people and that soldiers must not be allowed to have get them to confess, we’ll somehow extract died in vain and that their work must there- truths that would justify what is an unjustifi- fore be completed by pursuing the war ever able war. more vigorously. That’s the a�itude of the administration in connection with the Iraq There are encouraging signs, though. Con- war. stant comparisons are now being made, not just by outspoken critics like me but by But despite administration claims of achiev- mainstream journalists, between Iraq and ing stability and democracy there, images Vietnam. And there’s an important new of extreme chaos and extensive killing have development that has received li�le a�en- made their way to the American people. tion―the emergence of antiwar Iraq veter- These have contributed to an alternative sur- ans, some of them in collaboration with an- vivor mission, which questions the justifica- tiwar Vietnam veterans. They’ve formed a

Frank K. Kelly Lecture on Humanity’s Future 13 new organization, Iraq Veterans Against the create from his death encounter, and derive War, modeled on the similar Vietnam anti- a certain wisdom from it. In our present war organization. This is another expression world, our hope, and our possibility, is that of the alternative survivor mission that I’ve we can do the same. been describing. We’re capable of wiser, more measured An Alternative Tradition approaches, of more humane applications of our considerable power. We can remain Of course, this alternative survivor meaning strong without having to delude ourselves has a noble tradition. Even in Homer’s Iliad, about being an omnipotent superpower. along with the glorification of the heroic By reclaiming our moral compass, we warrior, you findan undercurrent of sadness, would also be liberating ourselves from the loss, and meaninglessness in reference to extraordinary pressures connected with this the Trojan War, and that’s been true of just illusory project. about any war fought subsequently. World War I spawned a vast literature out of an Lord Acton famously said that “power alternative survivor mission about the war corrupts and absolute power corrupts being wrong and unjust, and this also has absolutely.” But what really corrupts is occurred in connection with Vietnam. the quest for absolute power. The vision or fantasy of absolute power is totally The possibility of what can be called survivor corrupting. We’ve become Sisyphus with illumination must constantly be kept in bombs, trying to climb the hill of Hades but mind. Garry Wills, in his powerful book never quite ge�ing to the top. This happens Lincoln at Ge�ysburg, describes a kind of at a time when there’s a decline in the nation- survivor illumination that Lincoln extricated state and we seek to fill the vacuum with from that dreadful ba�lefield when he called American control, which is not recognized for the meaning of that survival being a new as legitimate but rather the opposite. birth of freedom. And there is a rich post- Everything that we do to oppose this futile

“ But what really corrupts is the quest for absolute power. The vision or fantasy of absolute power is totally corrupting.”

World World II literature; writers such as project counts; even the most modest action Albert Camus, Kurt Vonnegut, and Günter enters into the collective consciousness. Grass brought great illumination from On one of my trips back to Hiroshima, I was having been direct survivors of the horrors very moved to hear survivors’ reflections of that war. As the talented postwar German on what they called exaggerated victim novelist Heinrich Böll put it, “The artist consciousness. They said that this could carries death within him like a good priest be a real danger because people could his breviary.” The artist-as-survivor can become obsessed and lose their balance.

14 Nuclear Age Peace Foundation One way they tried to overcome this was Survivor Choices to meet with other survivors, including Holocaust survivors, in order to share Survivors can close down, numb them- experiences with various forms of suffering. selves, and be preoccupied with fantasies of We must overcome our exaggerated victim revenge. Or they can open themselves to the consciousness in connection with 9/11. It pain they are undergoing, and to that of oth- was a dreadful event, even, in Nuremberg ers, and in the process learn more about life language, a crime against humanity. But it and death. The same can be said about our has to be viewed in terms of preventing the own experience as survivors now. We can occurrence not only of similar events but close down our collective imaginations and of various forms of violence in which we stay fixed in our polarization of good and ourselves are immersed. Islamist extremist evil. Or we can open our psyches and our groups such as al Qaeda also see themselves collective imaginations to probe the sources as victimized and humiliated, and again we of our pain and the origins of our crises, and have this back-and-forth dance in relation to take steps toward diminishing rather than victimization. increasing the world’s violence.

We need to surrender the claim to certainty I close with two quotations. The first is from or ownership of truth. Nobody owns truth. Seneca, who, more than 2,000 years ago, said, In his book Plurality and Ambiguity, David “Power over life and death—don’t be proud Tracy, the brilliant Jesuit philosopher, of it. Whatever they fear from you, you’ll be describes how great visionaries have always threatened with.” And the second is that had elements of ambiguity and doubt in line from Theodore Roethke that Richard pu�ing forward their faith. There may be mentioned, which has to be put forward more tolerance for ambiguity than we realize, again and again: “In a dark time the eye begins as I have tried to illustrate in connection with to see.” the protean self. Recognizing ambiguity means also recognizing vulnerability. Vulnerability is an aspect of the human condition—we can’t rid ourselves of it—and it has to do with accepting the fact that we die. It means rejecting immortality projects on the part of people who require the destruction of others. We do well to heed the advice of Albert Camus, who wrote: “To live and die as human beings we need to refuse to be a god” and to embrace “thought which recognizes limits.” Camus also said, “He who does not know everything cannot kill everyone.” There’s a lot of survivor wisdom in that.

Frank K. Kelly Lecture on Humanity’s Future 15 Robert Jay Li�on

Robert Jay Li�on is Lecturer in Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School and the Cambridge Health Alliance, and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Psychology, The City University of New York. He was formerly Director of The Center on Violence and Human Survival at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He had previously held the Foundations’ Fund Research Professorship of Psychiatry at Yale University for more than two decades. The overall themes of Dr. Li�on’s work have been holocaust and transformation. He has studied many of the most destructive events of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and has played an important role in the development of the field of psychohistory. His books include Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima (which won a National Book Award), The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide (awarded a Los Angeles Times book prize), Home from the War: Learning from Vietnam Veterans (finalist for a National Book Award), Destroying the World to Save It (about the fanatical Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo), and The Protean Self: Human Resilience in an Age of Fragmentation. He has applied these studies to the contemporary world in his most recent book, Superpower Syndrome: America’s Apocalyptic Confrontation with the World. He was a founding member of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (from 1980), which was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He has received many awards and honorary degrees, and has sought always to combine scholarship and social activism.

16 Nuclear Age Peace Foundation N������ A�� P���� F���������

Innovative thinking, Broad public education, Committed action

About the Foundation

The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation is a non-profit, non-partisan international organization. Since 1982, it has initiated and supported worldwide efforts to enhance both global and human security and is a voice for millions of people concerned about the fate of the planet. The Foundation has consultative status to the United Nations Economic and Social Council and is recognized by the UN as a Peace Messenger Organization.

Vision

Our vision is a world at peace, free of the threat of war and free of weapons of mass destruction.

Mission

To advance initiatives to eliminate the nuclear weapons threat to all life, to foster the global rule of law, and to build an enduring legacy of peace through education and advocacy.

Web Presence

We invite you to learn more about the Foundation’s programs by visiting our websites.

www.wagingpeace.org | www.nuclearfiles.org

Headquarters: Washington, DC office:

PMB 121, 1187 Coast Village Road, Suite 1 322 Fourth Street NE Santa Barbara, CA 93108-2794 Washington, DC 20002 Tel: (805) 965-3443 Tel: (202) 543-4100, ext. 105 Fax: (805) 568-0466 Fax: (202) 546-5142 Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

Innovative thinking, Broad public education, Commi�ed action

WWW.WAGINGPEACE.ORG

Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Non-Profit Organization PMB 121 • 1187 Coast Village Rd, Suite 1 U.S. Postage Santa Barbara, CA 93108 -2794 PAID Santa Barbara, CA Change Service Requested Permit No. 553