Peace Betrayed?

In his highly controversial 1988 book Peace and Revolution, political scientist Guenter Lewy charged that since the Vietnam era the four major American pacifist organizations-American Friends Service Committee, Fellowship of Reconciliation, War Resisters League, and Women's International League for Peace and Freedom-have moved from singlehanded devotion to the principles of nonviolence and reconciliation to a defense of 'the moral legitimacy of armed struggle and guerrilla warfare.' This provocative collection begins with a summary of Lewy's argument. The fifteen respondents-pacifists and non-pacifists-join the discussion. Some decry Lewy's account as prejudiced and incomplete; others applaud it as a long overdue exposure of the subversions of a noble purpose. In a final chapter, Lewy responds to his critics.