If I were to pick one word that characterizes today's world and will increasingly characterize the world just ahead, I would use the word "'imbalance." There is raw material scarcity in many areas, raw material surplus in others. There is enormousper capita consumption in some countries, very little in others. There is an abundance of technological capacity in a few countries, a virtual absence in most others. There is great wealth in some countries, gross poverty in others. There is capital accumulation in some countries, capital shortage in others.

The mix of this imbalance is also significant. We can no longer easily refer to "have" and "have not" nations. The USA has food, large but insufficient amounts of capital, highly advanced technology, but little or no tin, nickel, chrome, platinum, zinc (not to mention less than the oil it wishes).

As a result of nuclear proliferation, new weapons systems, and new strategic doctrines, the danger of nuclear war is increasing. The very modest "arms control" agreements negotiated or in prospect under SALT are totally inadequate to contain this danger. According to Herbert Scoville, "Arms control negotiations have become a mechanism for promoting the arms race rather than controlling it." Even by a less skeptical evaluation the negotiations can at best slow Soviet and American acquisition of new weapons systems. Disarmament in the realm of strategic nuclear arms is nowhere in sight. Other countries, which have long demanded some degree of Soviet-American nuclear disarmament as the price of an effective nonproliferation agreement, can plainly see that their price will not be met.

Jerry Rubin's "Yippie Manifesto" is hardly a watershed document. Most "of the young whom it celebrated seven years ago would now find its callow enthusiasms embarrassing and its view of the relations among the time categories in which we live worthy only of those seven-year-olds who, the Manifesto confidently predicted, would settle "the war between THEM and US." Nevertheless, it is still useful as a display piece, in which one can see in exaggerated definition the enduring popular conviction that the past, being "back there," is separable from the present and that therefore Utopia ("HEAVEN NOW") is a real possibility.

Korean intelligence agents operating in the United States have violated our laws with impunity. Such reprehensible actions merit serious scrutiny at any time. But in view of recent developments in Korea, it is even more urgent that our government be concerned about the intelligence activities of the South Korean Government in the United States.

The hearings held earlier this year before the appropriate subcommittee of the House are important for at least two reasons. First, they sought, at long last, to inquire publicly into serious allegations of illegal activity carried on in our country by agents or persons representing a foreign power. The fact that Korea has been a close ally of the United States is not in dispute; what is of concern is whether representatives of that government have violated American law and have attempted to deny the human rights of Koreans resident in this country.

Plitics is our national sport,'' a Puerto Rican lawyer warns, "but it sometimes gets too lively. That's why many bars post signs prohibiting discussions of politics or religion."

This sport is mirrored in another Island passion: music. In the Miami Beach-type hotels along San Juan's Condado strip, for example, a faceless continental music regales not only North American tourists but dolce vita from the present economic and social system. Behind the Folies Bergeres night club acts flashes the subliminal message: Things are fine as they are.

A few miles inland, past a boulevard with high-rise, air-conditioned buildings in the commercial section of Hato Rey, past a Sears and several shopping malls, the rooftops get lower and the housing denser and a wild and exciting beat rises from a street corner opposite the headquarters of the Puerto Rican Independence Party.

For years now Ecaterina and Serban Chelariu, my wife's mother and brother, have tried to leave Rumania, and we have tried various means to help them. When we moved from Switzerland to America, my homeland, we thought the free emigration provision of the 1974 Trade Act might be a source of leverage to influence Rumanian authorities. In line with the Trade Act the U.S.-Rumanian Trade Agreement of 1975 committed Rumania to freer emigration practices and to the principle of family reunification. It committed the United States Congress either to assure compliance with the emigration provision or to cancel Rumania's "Most Favored Nation" trade status.

The United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence concluded that the CIA was not responsible for the deaths of President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu on November 2, 1963. This conclusion only reaffirms a point that too few Americans understood—Vietnam's destiny lies ultimately with its own people.

Ngo Dinh Diem met his death at the hands of his fellow countrymen in a coup d'etat planned and executed by the Vietnamese Army to achieve political goals important to the Vietnamese people. The story of the coup against Diem has been told in English by Marguerite Higgins, David Halberstam, and Robert Shaplen.

My heroes are all either dead or dying, especially me. I am much older now than I was before. Somewhere within me are memories of past bravery inspired by my American flag marching in parade, flanked by a band's martial music; more important to me now is the fear I feel—despite my intelligence—of the noise of a roaring subway train through a lonely station at night.

In my past there were a few mornings—a very few and never close together—when, upon awakening, a nagging, inconsiderate conscience pestered me to consider if I truly knew anything at all about all the things I thought I knew. Now I have those kinds of mornings every day, all day, and late into the night.