European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 1, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes thursday. September 1,19b8 William f. Buckley Quayle s conduct no different from Many others two perspectives on the Quayle question crystallize in the mind of the reflective. The first of these asks was in dishonourable Tor Young Dan Quayle. Age 22, to seek out service in the National guard when clearly to do so minimized the chantes thai he would find himself in combat in South Viet Nam when All is said and done at this Point it would seem natural to ask the question if service in inc National guard Al a time of draft and War is Dis honorable then Why is it countenanced by National polity during the civil Var a Young Man could stay out of the army by the simple expedient of coming up with $300. There was a creeping resentment of his purchasable immunity so that by inc time president Abraham Lincoln though to protect his own son from military service Lincoln feared forthe emotional Impact Robert Tadd s death could have had on his nervous wife he Csc Etc instead to put him on he staff of general cram. The evolution from inc comprehensive patriotism of world wars i and ii to inc contingent patriotism of today had much to do with two Phenomena. The first was raging anti colonialism. The second the appearance or the nuclear bomb. One argued that an anti Coloni Alist construction would be put on almost any venture too far offshore. The second inhibited inc combatant giving us the ambiguous War the Vietnam War the War we were for a while under the late Lyndon Johnson til permitted to lose and under the Early Richard Nixon not permitted to win. A corollary was the evolution of the idea of selective conscientious objection the theological notion accorded much respect by inc late and influential rather John Courtney Murray thai the individual had a right to decline 10 participate in his War. But not in that one. If such a right had been universally recognized one would have seen Many americans saying Dally no to Vietnam but a contingent yes to other wars. To justify themselves i hair arguments could have gone the full Range from taking exception to a War deemed imperialistic in motivation to resentment that the full Force of the . Arsenal was not engaged in winning that War. No doubt Young Quayle was influenced even if not consciously so by these Little and great mutations in the idea of Public duty. How else explain the figures for the period in question a correspondent passes along figures rounded up by former Secretary of the Navy James Webb they Tell a great Deal affirming and destroying popular ideas. The Walls at the colleges at Cambridge and Oxford record the astonishingly High casualty rates of 30 percent to 40 percent suffered by the classes graduating int world War i this was a society in 1m6etmy Lime White one which an elite look its responsibilities of leadership seriously. Arguing policy at the Oxford Union was All very Well As Long As you were prepared to serve on the cutting Edge Webb writes. Here Are some contrasting Fig ures for the behaviour of America s elite during Vietnam. From 1962 to 1972, Harvard graduated More than 12,000 men princ Clon 8.000, Mit 9,000 for a total of about 30,000. Combined deaths in Vietnam sixteen. By Way of contrast a single draft Board District in South bos ton handling a  of 2,000 draft Eliji blk men suffered 25 dead. On the other hand the obverse explanation that everyone who fought or dial in Vietnam was a reluctant Soldier with a disproportionate incidence of Blacks is also explains or. Webb in the washing Ion Post a delusion. Two thirds or those who fought in Vietnam Iverc volunteers. Seventy five percent of those who die were volunteers and Only 12.5 percent or those who died were Black out of an age group hat comprised 13.5 percent of the Black male population at the Lime. From which one ought to conclude thai Quayle was Cut from the attenuated end or the cloth we Van in our elite col Leges. There the Young men neither taught nor did service in the National guard they mane Vered in this direction and that direction and did so in most cases with parents tar less influential than Quayle s. Dan Quayle settled for a Compromise National guard duty during the Day and Law school at night. All of which is fair grist for investigative journalism but the franchise of inc journalists surely extend too far when we Are asked to Ponder whether Dan Quayle made a pass Al a libertine lobbyist whose most recent professional engagement is in the All outdoors pages of Playboy Magazine. Curiosity focuses less on whether Quayle made a tender offer than on Why she refused in Given her copious tendencies to oblige. Was she Al heart a hardened Democrat in Virata pious syn diem Flora Lewis . Has key role in reforming world Economy chateau de Ranisy France interest Rales Are up and the Dollar has bumped Down because of renewed fears of inflation. Still inc world Economy i muddling along despite repeated prophecies of doom Over the last decade. Both . Presidential candidates skip warily aside from hard questions of what the would do about the huge . Deficits and strains in the International Trade and finance system. Last october s Stock Market crash has come and gone without lasting  is a temptation to suppose that not looking is Good enough to keep trouble away that plodding on will confound the cassandras. That is not inc View of a group of senior experts Bankers and business men at an Aspen Institute meeting Here on the world Economy. Yet they Are far less pessimistic than they were when most of the same people met in Venice two years ago. Nobody sees roses coming up Ali Over. Do there ii a quiet new Confidence that things can be managed that govern ments could do what has to be done to Avert catastrophe. A major reason is precisely that some warnings were heeded and there is now a realization that no country can manage on its own. For these people from the United slates Europe and Japan full of Dis Putes the key is International cooperation. That requires political will always a Dicey matter because elections arc Only National. The leaders must win the Power to make decisions inevitably entailing sacrifice from Public opinions which Are not accustomed to looking very far ahead or very far afield. Among these people Al any rate nobody imagines any longer that one country or a limited group of coun tries can fend for itself or maintain Prosperity without making compromises with the. World beyond its Borders talk of . Decline is real in the sense thai the . Can no longer pull All the levers of command nor pay All the Bills. But the . Is still the critical weight in determining whether the global tides win Rise or fall America s Long spending spree has provided much of the momentum for the generally acceptable situation. There Are some huge worrisome disparities especially in latin America where living standards have fallen in some Case drastically. Latins say the 1980s have been the worst decade since the 1930s, and there is Lively concern that she revival of a Moc racy with give Way to new military dictatorships under pressures of desperation. Nobody wants the United Stales 10 Cut Back its lavish consumer habits too sharply or too quickly because Csc Rybut by s Trade would suffer everybody earnings would drop. But neither does anyone think that the United Stales can afford to go on living on borrowed Money and borrowed time As one High official put it spending More than it earns cheating the future not Only with mountainous debts but also the failure to invest for inc next generation. American savings ate far Tower than required lower than All major nations. The baby Boomer and the me generation arc turning 40 now but they Aren t changing habits to plan ahead. There is a notion that it is consumption that feeds Prosperity not production of wealth. The society is organized to encourage this with a phantasmagoric explosion of consumer credit and relatively Little incentive to save. It is gelling even harder to sustain inc idea that the United states has a stake another less successful parts of the world except perhaps in military terms. The big new markets we need Are gasping Tor goods but they have to be Able to earn Nouth in hip Whin we can sell. Investment in foreign Aid is even More unpopular than in urgently needed Domestic infrastructure. There Are no attractive bumper Slick ers in any of this especially for politicians who have Learned that making people feel Good is inc Way to win. Pay now Fly later in t enticing. This is True not Only in inc United  if leadership is to provide More than crisis management if a basis is to be shaped to sustain Prosperity and permit development people do have to i per. Shaded to think of Fth future. Some other countries have amassed the financial resources to share in Ameri Ca s postwar Rote of priming inc world Economy notably Japan and Germany now hat the decline in Jet Kolcum prices has righted the sudden list in favor of the Oil Rich in the 1970s. But the political leadership to pull in Al together first within the United Sites and then on the world scene still has to come from America. The Nett president s capacity to do that Job will be crucial to whether disaster has just Bee deferred or Confidence can be justified. Up not ipum0 a Eok Mew mtg Sirex rum