SOURCE: “Chomsky Then and Now,” in The Nation, May 7, 1988, pp. 646-52.

In the following review of The Chomsky Reader and The Culture of Terrorism, Morton provides an overview of Chomsky's controversial political writings and activities and his largely unfavorable critical reception.

If only for the role he played during the Vietnam War, Noam Chomsky should be honored as a national hero. His later work requires delicate assessment … but let's begin at the beginning.

The antiwar movement was composed of several different strands. Many young people romanticized the National Liberation Front, cherishing visions of the gentle land Vietnam would become if the United States withdrew. Chomsky gave due weight to the fact that the N.L.F. and not the Saigon government represented Vietnamese nationalism, but he was never its partisan; he stressed that U.S. intervention in Vietnam was wrong in itself. “Just what might emerge from the...