TIME'S first issue this year reported that 1968 "was a year of revolutionaries. Students and militants, black and white, neophyte radicals and New Leftists raised fists and hurled stones at the old order." So far, 1969 has seen fewer violent confrontations. Yet the would-be revolutionaries remain, and the year's greatest issue by far has been question and protest about the quality and direction of life in the richest, most advanced nation on earth. TIME'S job has been not only to report on the rush of events, but to analyze their deeper meanings and perhaps suggest what can be done to ameliorate the conditions that divide Americans.

The task has engaged virtually every section of the magazine. TIME'S Jan. 24 issue contained a 20-page special section, "To Heal a Nation," describing the priorities open to President Nixon on his Inauguration. The Viet Nam war--the bloody fighting, the futile peace talks in Paris, the mounting crescendo of protest at home--have occupied the NATION and WORLD sections. Other areas of protest led to NATION cover stories on the debate over the ABM and, indeed, the entire U.S. military-industrial complex, and told of the new militancy among Mexican-Americans led by Cesar Chavez. In its cover on the exploding drug culture, BEHAVIOR studied how the young increasingly tune out a world they cannot comprehend. Hardly a week has gone by without an EDUCATION story on student protest, including the cover story last spring on the strike at Harvard. The rebellion within the Roman Catholic Church, the demands by black militants for white reparations have been regular RELIGION topics. An entirely new section--ENVIRONMENT--was organized to cope with the tide of concern over mindless ravaging of our natural resources. TIME'S ESSAY section has examined the clamor over chemical warfare as well as the frustration among the blue-collar workers in "Forgotten America." Occasionally, TIME has registered its own protest--as in "The Danger of Playing at Revolution."

Our cover article this week describes the organization, objectives and gathering momentum of what seems bound to become the year's biggest single act of protest: the Oct. 15 Viet Nam Moratorium. Written by Keith Johnson, edited by Laurence Barrett and researched by Anne Constable, the story involved TIME correspondents in hundreds of interviews across the nation.

These are not tranquil times for the U.S. Protest on every hand makes depressing reading when autumn colors and football and the World Series beckon. Yet division and dissatisfaction are unalterable facts of life these days. Because they can--indeed must--be brought to light, they bear testimony to the essential strength of American society.

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