In 1942 Ben Ames Williams wrote a novel, “Time of Peace.” This is a very thoughtful work that discusses the isolationism of the 1930s. It is based in New England.

I grew up in this era. About two years ago I was disturbed by the direction our country’s foreign and military policy was going and re-read this book. I concluded that we had to have a strong foreign policy backed by a military adequate to our needs, and that we should not be pushed around by the political or financial interest of other countries.

Move forward to today, and this need is more evident. However, we are hearing the same isolationist arguments put forward as we heard in the 1930s. We see the same peace marches, heavily covered by television that we saw in the newsreels. We hear the same “authorities” condemning the administration for the approach they are taking. We see France, whom we rescued from their self-interest in two wars, playing the same game in blocking action in the United Nations. Unfortunately, some of our own candidates for office also have this isolationist view.

The book ends on Dec. 7 with “We interrupt the program for an important news bulletin…” Fifteen million of us went into the service.

Richard A. Hale

Orono