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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 13, 1967)
MONDAY, MARCH 13, 1967 The Dally Nebraskan Page 3 C.S. In Vietnam . Saintly, Child-Like View Expressed By Chaplains (EDITOR'S NOTEs The following It one installment of a lerlet cf articles n the war in Vietnam written by How ard Moffett, Collegiate Press correspon dent in Saigon. The Dally Nebraskan has run two series and several articles by Moffett, who was former editor of the Yale Daily News.) SAIGON, South Vietnam (CPS)-One of Yale's great courses Is Edmund Mor gan's review of American colonial his tory. Beginning with the Puritan fathers, Professor Morgan teaches that our his tory has been deeply influenced by the early Americans' view of themselves as a morally pure and righteous people by contrast with the decadent, corrupt sons of Europe. Chaplains In Vietnam I didn't really appreciate what he was saying until I had been in Vietnam for several months. What finally brought the idea home and left me depressed and scared was a series of interviews with army and air force chaplains. There are over 430 American chap lains in Vietnam tome S20 protestants, more than 100 Catholics and three Jews. All are volunteer. I interviewed thirteen. Almost to a man, their consciences were aggressively clear about the moral rationale for the U.S military commitment. That might be expected of chaplains. But what surprised and depressed me were the glowing terms they used to de scribe what is basically agonizing, dirty business of making many people suffer in order to prove a political point. On the basis of these chaplains' in terviews, a disinterested observer would have to consider the American approach to war as (a) saintly and (b) child-like. Consider the following four assumptions: Save Vietnamese (1) We are here to save the Vietna mese people from the evils of Commun ism. This theme was sounded by at least ten of the thirteen chaplains. The follow ing quotes are representative, and in the complete contexts would not change their import: "How can you call this war immoral? You can't say life is more important than personal freedoms, honor, integrity and the dignity of human beings. The basic moral issue is: are these things worth defending?" Father Thomas D. Mc Grath, a Roman Catholic from Worces ter, Mass. "I see China as an emotionally dis turbed society." this from Chaplain Jack Keene, United Presbyterian, who believes the U.S. has an obligation to protect South Vietnam from foreign domination. "Tin not so concerned about the democratic process, but I think the clergy should be on the side of right. Maybe the majority of the Vietnamese people do support the Viet Cong: but, If so, they do it out of ignorance and fear . . . It's like our American race riots. The police at Watts weren't very popular, but they were right." Orville McCor mack, Assemblies of God, Oklahoma City. Good Intentions (2) We should be given credit for our good intentions, for sincerely wanting to help the Vietnamese people. Most American officials including the chaplains in Vietnam like to talk about how Ameri ca is helping the Vietnamese. GI's build orphanages, support poor families, put hundreds of kids through school, hand out chocolate bars the length and breadth of Vietnam, and often make considerable personal sacrifices in the process. But with child-like naivete and al most total ignorance of what a century of colonialism has taught the Vietnamese, they expect to be thanked. They expect the Vietnamese to take their good works and good intentions at face value. Viet Cong's Sneaky Tactics (3) The Viet Cong should not uses sneaky tricks to kill American soldiers. The thought caricatured here runs just below the surface of many American con versations. The implication is that war ought to be played by the rules, as defined in the U.S. Code of Chivalry. Chaplain Ross G. Wright, Conserva tive Baptist, from Los Angeles also showed me a UPI story of a Viet Cong atrocity. A young Amerioan captain had been killed trying to clean out an enemy cave In the Central Highlands. A North Viet namese soldier had come out of the cave, pushing a woman and child in front of him. Not wanting to hit the human shields, the American lowered his gun, whereup on the North Vietnamese shot him point blank in the head. It was a dirty thing to do, and I like it no better than the young American's mother would. But to suggest that it wasn't fair, and that the North Vietna mese soldier was an evil ogre because he took unfair advantage, is to make war into a child's game. Tit For Tat (Tit for tat: within minutes the cave had been blown with explosives and one GI estimated over 100 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese were buried alive in side.) With Americans complaining of sneaky tactics, Vietnamese say Americans should not be here in the first place, should not bomb and burn and loose their horrible instruments of death on Vietnamese villages, should not seek to Impose American solutions on a people whose problems Americans do not under stand. U.S.'s Benevolent Approach (4) The Vietnamese should be more responsive to our benevolent but firm approach to pacification. I depart from the chaplains' script at this point to discuss the American way of pacification, which refers to making hostile peasants friendly. The Marines have been pacifying vil lages in I Corps (Central Vietnam) for a year and a half now, and their example has been followed by many other Ameri can units engaged in civic action pro grams. The basic formula is to move into a village, maintain order by intensive pa trolling and hunt down any stray guer rillas with the left hand, while setting up medical aid programs, building dams and spillways, and giving out candy soap and toothpaste with the right. Affects Of Approach Often the GI's make friends, especial ly among the kids. But observers who live in I Corps say the hard facts are that most of these villages are less paci fied than when the leathernecks landed. There are many reasons for this, but one may be that the double offer of bullets to bad Vietnamese and candy to good ones suggests something of the father trying to discipline his child. To those Vietnamese who are weary of being treated as children by great white fathers, this approach misses the heart of the problem by about 180 de grees. The lessons we learn from the Ameri can experience in Vietnam will be largely conditioned by our view of ourselves. If the foregoing is at all to the point, it suggests there are a lot of psychological cobwebs that will have to be cleared away first 1 1 VN i'.,'g& IDCCs Final Meeting Set As IDA Begins Functions Fulfilled GIMMICKS USED FOR PARTY THEMES A fire engine was Just one of many gimmicks and different kinds of decora tions used for Basketball Tournament Earty themes at fraternities and Cather all Dormitory Saturday night. Other party accessories included go-go girls, a devil, a chug wagon and "crazy" LSD signs. The fire engine was located outside Chi Phi fraternity. Greek Week Set For April 4-9; Centennial Festivities Planned This year's Greek Week, complete with a Centennial Day and a Centennial Ball, will be held April 4-9, ac cording to Bob Bartee, chair man of the Interfraternity Council (IFC) affairs com mittee. With the exception of the Centennial festivites and an additional philan thropic project, this year's program will be very simi lar to past Greek Weeks, Bartee said. Ticmann To Speak The week-long program will begin with exchange dinners and a Greek convo cation on April 4, he said. Gov. Norbert Tiemann is slated to address the convo cation. The next two days will feature a group of sminars, involving Greek and dormi tory leaders, who will dis cuss issues pertinent to the student community. Other items planned include quiz bowl matches between IFC and Panhellenic representa tives and a housemothers' bridge party, Bartee said. Centennial Day April 7 will be designated Centennial Day, he said, and Greeks will canvass the city selling Centennial arti facts. The day will be cap ped by the Centennial Ball, featuring the Astronauts combo. Princess Athena will be crowned at the ball and winners will be selected in a beard-growing contest. The following morning fraternities will compete in the traditional Greek Games, highlighted by a "marathon" Greek relay from Crete. That afternoon fraternity and sorority lead ers will hear nationally prominent speakers at the annual Greek conference at the Nebraska Center. Awards Banquet Greek Week will conclude April 9 with an awards banquet and a philanthrop ic project, Bartee said. This project, a new innova tion, will involve the pre sentation of variety shows at five Lincoln orphanages by fraternity and sorority talent groups. Bartee said that Greek Week has a twofold pur pose: to show individual Greeks the benefits of the fraternity and sorority sys tems through working, playing and discussing problems together. to show the campus and the community that the Greek system is an impor tant and beneficial contri butor to society. With its duties and obli gations fulfilled after a one year existence, the Inter Dormitory Coordinat ing Committee (IDCC) will disband after its final meet ing at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the Cather Hall North Cafeteria. IDCC chairman Jim Lud wig said that all floor presi dents, dormitory represen tatives and residence hall executive officers would at tend the conference, and in vitations have been offered to various housing adminis trators to also attend the meeting. Strong Basis Looking back over the IDCC, Ludwig said, "We were able to develop a strong basis for all dormi tory governments and in the start, even this was questionable." He said the dormitory leader workshop, held last semester, proved that gov ernment can function in a coordinated unit. He added, "Now it remains to be proven how effectively and efficiently this unit will be operating." With the Inter-Dormitory Association (IDA) formed, Ludwig said that although the housing office has done a pretty good job of com municating with the resi dence halls, "it will now be a two-sided exchange in stead of them trying to feed information into the sep arate units. They will be able to deal with system as a whole and we (IDA) will be able to ask questions." Social Coordination The IDCC, which saw its first constitution defeated by the dorms six to four in an earlier residence hall vote, was formed from a committee originally started for the social coor dination of the dormitor ies." "With the formation of this committee, many peo ple saw that the time was right to further develop ,the idea into an all-dormitory government," Ludwig added. He credited Marv Almy, then Selleck president, as probably "most responsible for the development of IDA as he provided ideas and guidance." Developing Concepts "His attitudes stimulated active discussion in the de velopment of most of the concepts currently em bodied in the IDA," he said. He added that "I know John Fryar, IDA president elect will do his best to im plement the possibilities that lie within this organi zation." After its first constitution was rejected by the resi dence halls, the group re vised the bill and the halls voted to form the IDA on Feb. 21 and gave the con stitution approval two days later, fulfilling the IDCCs purpose. Job Openings For Graduates Are Increasing The demand for gradu ates of the University it mounting steadily in all fields as more employers look to the University to fill their employment oppor tunities, Frank M. HaD gren, placement director, said. Hallgren stated that there will probably be 700 com panies recruiting graduates at the University this year. He said that except for students with specific re gional or geographic pre ferences or with highly specialized Job interest, the average number of Jobs available for each gradu ate is seven or eight (AH meetings are at the Nebraska Union unless oth erwise noted) MONDAY Lunch- Academic Re Commitee, 3:30 3:30 Los Angeles DA Visits Law School The District Attorney of Los Angeles County and former Los Angeles Munici pal Judge, Evelle J. Younger will spend Monday with stu dents at the University Col lege of Law. He will conduct a discus sion on criminal law at 1:30 p.m. m the law college build ing. Younger is a 1940 graduate of the Nebraska College of Law. He later studied crim inal law at Northwestern University. He served with the FBI in Washington and New York for six years before moving to Los Angeles. PLACEMENT eon, 12:30 p.m., ASUN search p.m. PANHELLEN I C, p.m. UNION Film Committee, 3:45 p.m. TASSELS, 4:30 p.m. DELTA ZETA, 5:30 p.m. PI TAU SIGMA Smoker, 7 p.m. TAU KAPPA EPSILON, 7 p.m. DELTA ZETA, 7 p.m. UNICORNS, 7 p.m. UNIVERSITY THEATRE Rehearsal, 7 p.m. PHI MU, 7 p.m. ECONOMIC and Business Round Table, 7:30 p.m, MATH Counselors, 7:30 p.m. ZETA BETA TAU, 9 p.m. TUESDAY CAMPUS LIFE Commit tee. 4 p.m., East Union PEOPLE .TO PEOPLE, 4:30 p.m. SEMPER FIDELIS So ciety, 8 p.m., M&N Building THOUSANDS OF NEW & USED PAPERBACKS We have purchased a huge wholesale lot of quality paperback which will be on tale at H off cover price. Thit week only at Zieler's Stamps & Coins fust off campus at 1320 Que Street eW3 A SCIii m i 3 . ar QlauifisudL Column. IbM low-eaat ratae eavtr ander. rat al o per rat wi Te place illlilM d aik tor It Italia hi I num. The elaiaUM aaoUeloa I'leaae aitamat a ee roar M mM etoaMlia1 MhwrlMa to toe Da Or Netmtfa I ma aaaim ml Mr par elaaunea UnerUaa. 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