The Form and Content of Recent Riots

The Report of the National Advisory Committee on Civil Disorders, Tom Wicker has written, "derives its most devastating validity from the fact that it was drawn by representatives of the moderate and 'responsible' establishment-not by black radicals, militant youth or even academic leftists." 1 No doubt Wicker is right, but, despite its laudable desire to "tell it like it is," the Commission was not insensitive to presumed political constraints.In the analytic parts of the Report the war in Vietnam, as a contributory factor to unrest in the nation and as a diversion of national resources, was all but ignored.Similarly, there was no discussion of the fiscal problems involved in implementing the Commission's recommendations for social change. 2