    26

    been

    couldn't hurt at all.

    John F. Kennedy called this witch-hunt a supreme act of cowardice.

    He said of those who look for scapegoats, "They find treason in our churches,

    in our  highest court, in our treatment of water....  Unwilling to face up to the

    danger from without, [they] are convinced that the real danger is from with-

    in."55    Kennedy  knew  what  he  was  talking  about.    He  had  just  faced  the

    threat of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba.

    The search for scapegoats impels us to act like the alcoholic who has

    trouble at work.  The drunkard does not direct his anger at his boss or at

    himself.  Nor does he decide to stop drinking.  Instead, he beats his wife.  In

    1956, the Hungarians rebelled against the Soviets.  The Russians subdued the

    city with tanks and machine guns.  We could no more aid the Hungarians

    than the alcoholic husband could confront the boss at work.  Instead, we

    turned on our friends.

    Shortly before the Russians rolled into Budapest, Egyptian President

    Gamal Abdel Nasser seized the Suez Canal from the French and English.

    The French had built this engineering wonder in the 19th century with over

    $80 million of European funds--a gargantuan sum at the time.  The land for

    the project had been granted by Egypt's khedive, in exchange for nearly half

    of the action.56  Now Nasser's move threatened to cut off 80% of Europe's oil

    supply.  The British and the French enticed Israel into helping them retake

    the crucial passageway.57  They massed troops for an assault, confident we

    wouldn't stop them.  After all, when we had sent our soldiers into Guatemala

    and Korea, the British and French had backed us!58

    But we had a collective psychological need to snap at someone.  We

    needed to beat a wife back home.  On the morning of Tuesday, November 6,

    1956, the French took the Suez canal's eastern bank.  We turned our back on

    the Russian soldiers who by now were killing the citizens of

    Budapest--citizens who were calling pathetically on their radio stations for

    our aid.59  Instead, we scolded our allies for "colonialist aggression,"  and

       a painful experience.  But picking on unarmed fellow Americans

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