Much of the public backing for the peacenicks came from student groups
in official and private high schools, colleges and universities.
Nationalist liberation movements were active in settled communities such
as Ireland and Canada's Province of Quebec. There were less established
movements in newly liberated restless ex-colonies and remaining colonies
of the chief European empires, of Japan and of the United States. The
widely advertised World Peace Council turned more and more from general
advocacy of peace, such as the Stockholm Peace Petition, to the support
of liberation movements among colonials and supressed minor
nationalities.
Preparations for another general war were expanded and intensified as
the competitive struggle for oil and other natural resources mounted. By
the end of the 1960's total arms expenditures of the chief powers were
running at $200 billion per year. In 1973 the total reached $225
billion.
There was much general talk about peace, but the most insistent note
sounded for a high level of spending on armaments. Britain's Prime
Minister Heath voiced a sentiment vigorously promulgated by every
representative of national security "British interests come first".
Confusion was heightened by the presence of men who faced all three
ways: talking peace, waging small wars and preparing for the next big
one. In February, 1974 in his State of the Union message to the U.
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