Democracy In ‘Difficult Period’ Ex-UI Professor Cites Militias, More Authoritarian Congress

Militia rhetoric and leanings toward more government control could be harbingers of dark days ahead for American-style democracy, says a former University of Idaho professor who helped draft the United Nations charter.

“America is going through one of its most trying periods in its history,” said Boyd D. Martin, emeritus director of the UI Peace Sciences Center.

“And the propaganda against the United Nations is just typical of this,” he said, referring to warnings that the organization is plotting world domination - a recurrent theme in literature from anti-government groups.

“We’re in a very, very difficult period, but I have hope,” Martin said. “Hope is eternal. Democracy is a hope. Nobody ever knew whether it would work or not.”

He scoffs at conspiracy theories that U.N. helicopters are spying on U.S. citizens in preparation for an invasion.

“That’s just based on ignorance,” Martin said in an interview.

“There’s always been an antiforeign feeling in America, even though we all are foreigners. We all came from someplace else.”

Martin contends the real danger comes from groups within the nation who interpret the Constitution to suit their own purposes.

“These militias are really a devastating bunch,” he said, and their rhetoric is “vicious propaganda.”

The U.S. Militia Association claims 5,000 members in 11 states, and estimates of the number of members in all U.S. paramilitary groups range up to 100,000.

Martin singled out retired Army Green Beret Col. James “Bo” Gritz for criticism. Gritz has established a constitutional-covenant community called Almost Heaven near Kamiah, Idaho, about 110 miles southeast of Spokane and 10 miles east of Martin’s home in Nezperce.

“I don’t know who his enemy is,” Martin said. “It may be Idaho County, eventually.”

Martin also expressed concern that Congress is moving toward a more authoritarian stance, citing a proposed crime bill that, for example, would ease search-and-seizure requirements for law officers.

‘It’s definitely against the Constitution,” Martin said. “It’s against both the Second Amendment and the Fourth Amendment.

“But it’s almost sure to pass. It’s a horrible bill. If that goes through, it will be a tremendous setback for democracy.”

Martin, 84, was honored for his work on the U.N. charter at the annual convention of the United Nations Association of the United States two weeks ago in San Francisco.

Now retired from teaching, he was a 34-year-old UI political science professor when then-President Harry S. Truman asked him to be part of the U.S. delegation to the drafting of the U.N. charter in San Francisco in 1944.

“I believed very strongly that we had to come up with some kind of an organization, a worldwide organization (dedicated) to peace,” Martin said. He helped draft much of the charter’s section governing the U.N. Security Council.

Martin said some changes in the organization are in order, including taking away the veto power of the Big Five: the United States, the former Soviet Union, France, Britain and China.

And he said more countries - including Brazil, Argentina and India - must be induced to join.

Eventually, the United Nations also must have its own troops, Martin said.