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∂AIL Senator George McGovern↓Senate Office Bldg.↓Washington, D.C.∞

Dear Senator McGovern:

	I welcome your call for considering more vigorous action
against Iran including naval blockade and selective air strikes.
I think I recall that you proposed something similar some months
ago as well as military action to rescue Cambodians.

	I think it is just as well that Carter has waited as long
as he did, and maybe he should wait even longer.  This is not for
an external reason; we might have our hostages back now, and the
Russians might have refrained from invading Afghanistan had we
blockaded Iran immediately after the embassy was invaded.  The
problem is American public opinion.

	Suppose a blockade doesn't
bring immediate results.  Within a few months, American visitors to
Tehran will come back with hints that if only we lift the blockade
or make some other unilateral concession, the atmosphere will
improve and we'll get our hostages back.  At first most Americans
will reject this automatically, but if media and political figures
get behind the idea, it may gain force.  Our only chance of
sustaining an effort, even one that has little cost like a blockade,
is if almost everyone is sick of inaction before it starts.  Waiting
until after the new year to do anything significant may be needed.
Many college students are still saying that the only
beneficiary from military action would be Exxon.

	You are in a unique position to speed up this evolution
of American public opinion, but it would be difficult.  If you
could bring yourself to say that it was a mistake not to enforce
the Vietnam truce agreement, the air might clear enough to
determine whether the American people will support a sustained
action in the Middle East of the kind you have suggested.

.sgn