FEEDBACK

Jon Wiener’s insightful review of “Underground” took an odd turn in its last sentence. (“His Bold Forecast Was Wrong,” March 29) Are the lessons of Mark Rudd’s candid reappraisal of the Weatherman’s call for violent revolution really “irrelevant for our time”?

I was at Columbia Law School when Rudd emerged as a leader of the antiwar movement. I chose to protest in the streets rather than to take over buildings. I chose to help organize with the National Lawyers Guild to defend protesters who got arrested. At the time, I agonized over whether peaceful, nonviolent tactics were enough to stop the illegal war in Vietnam or whether the war machine could be stopped only by embracing the Weatherman’s violent agenda.

The lessons I learned in those years, which now appear to be reinforced by Rudd himself, are that if you want peace you yourself must be peaceful.

As we urge President Obama to seek diplomatic and economic solutions in Afghanistan and Pakistan instead of escalating that war, we have much to learn from people like Mark Rudd who regret using violence to end violence.

Stephen F. Rohde

Los Angeles