Edward Snowden, the discloser of U.S. National Security Agency secrets, now has the New York Times and some other U.S. voices urging he be allowed to return to his home country. But will he be welcome? I once found myself in the same situation as he, and know something about the dilemma he faces.

I too was brought up in the post-Nurenberg belief that loyalty to one's principles outranked loyalty to one's nation-tribe. Wrongs and evils should be exposed, regardless. But somewhere along the line things changed. Our democratic nation-tribes were incapable of doing wrong; it was "the others" who were evil. To expose wrongdoings by one's own side was ipso facto to support the evil of the other side. You could be called a traitor, and there were strict punishments to prove it.

My dilemma was over Vietnam back in 1964. The war there was just getting underway and it was already clear that not only was our side breaking the Geneva peace agreements of 1954 but we were also intervening to support the wrong side in what was bound to be a very long and cruel civil war.