PAGE 2
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, 1969
Atmosph
ere
of
ai-gon
has ' changet
Tlie birth
of power?
By Flora Lewis
Saigon '-There's a lot less barbed wire in
the streets and a lot fewer young men f Iralt
age caroming around town on motor scooter? The
newspaper ails for irothels are a little .nore
discreet. The tawdry bars are open again, though
a year ago President Thieu promised 'hey would
not be permitted. But they are dispirited and not
crowded.
Saigon has changed in the year since the
devastating Tet offensive of 1968. And the surface
impression of general improvement is solidly borne
out in all the offices and camps where Vietnamese
and Americans follow the progress of the -var.
The campaign to root out covert Viet Cong
agents who've been operating all over he place
for years is netting more and more ligh-level
underground personnel, the ones who matter. In
Binh Dinh province, for example, the ?hief v'lel
Cong tax collector was caught. The fact that ha
was informed upon reflects directly that local
business men no longer feel they must buy protec
tion from the Viet Cong as well as from ihe Saigon
government.
Student power is struggling to be born this
week;
The labor pains began over a week ago, when
the University Board of Regents turned down
graduate and foreign student coed visitation.
Pushing against the walls of the womb of apathy,
student power may finally have in this the issue
it needs.
Several students have initiated a petition to
ask, and perhaps force, the Regents to reconsider
their rather stupid move. And the Unicameral's
acknowledgement of the 20 majority age, though
still short of recognizing the real value of
Nebraska's youth, should give Incentive to the
movement.
If the Regents fail to reconsider, if they con
tinue to treat the students as children without
maturity, then they may well provide the last straw.
Eventually, the students will recognize the
paternalistic, strangling attitute the Regents prac
tiee. And they will lash out. The unorganized stu-
dent body will unite to fight its way to personal
freedoms.
Student power, in its most active sense, will
be bornr
Edlcenogle
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t
Domestic politics stimulate ABM controversy
i tv yn an Ami
by Rowland" Evans and Robert Novak
Washington There was pleasure, though
carefully concealed, in the White House when
Lyndon B. Johnson reacted gruffly to a private
preview of President Nixon's anti-ballistic missile
(ABM) decision.
A Nixon aide telephoned the former President
at the LBJ Ranch to brief him, one day in advance,
on Nixon's decision: j u n k 1 n g the old LBJ plan
of ABM deployment to protect major population
centers and replacing it with a threadbare thin
system of protecting only offensive missile installations-Johnson's
snap reaction, somewhat peevish,
was that he would have to answer press queries
by saying the Nixon administration was leaving
the cities undefended.
In contrast to the usual White House ritual
of seeking approbation from former Presidents for
great decisions, the Nixon White House could not
havelteen more delighted. Such a public LBJ stand,
they felt, would emphasize that Nixon's ABM plans
represent a marked scaling down.
This points up just how intimately the entire
ABM. question is linked with domestic politics.
Realing that the Johnson system of deployment
around major cities would evoke a disruptive na
tional debate, Nixon men were eager to 3J10W that
the new President's plans had little in common
with his predecessors.
INDEED, WHAT Mr. Nixon was agonizing over
the past week before reaching his decision was
essentially a problem of politics. He wanted to
reconcile the insistence by Secretary of Defense
Melvtja Laird and the uniformed military hat some
ABM deployment is essential as a deterrent to
rising Soviet offensive might, on the one hand,
with rising popular opposition to the ABM on the
other hand.
Nixon's reconciliation wus a partial success.
The Impression given of a system thin to the point
of anemia, anti-ABM Senators ruefully admit,
makes their chances of defeating it in the Senate
fur more difficult.
But lust as Nixon administration n f f I r I n J s
were slow to perceive the grass-roots worry about
nuclear-tipped defensive missiles In the backyard,
so they miscalculated badly in . feeling tnat the
thinness of the announced deployment would fully
appease the Senate's anti-ABM bloc.
At a White House reception on on the eve of
the President's announcement, Laird and his Depu
ty Secretary of Defense, David Packard, were Dusy
telling anti-ABM Senators that the Nixon decision,
then still unannounced, would please them. Multi
millionaire Packard was even willing to wager
with one such Senator that he would approve of
what the President said the next morning.
ONE REASON why Packard lost his bet is
the Senator's realization that the thin Initial
deployment, limited to two sites in Montana and
North Dakota, can grow quickly. Depending on
possible negotiations with the Soviets and the
President's decisions, these Senators realized mat
an ABM system not much smaller than Mr.
Johnson's proposal may be constructed by the 1970s.
But what really saddens i.ublican foes ol
the ABM are the political migm-have-beens. "I
think Nixon Just passed up a hell of an opportunity
for the Republican party," one Republican member
of the Senate Armed Services Committee told us.
According to his view, Mr. Nixon has sacrificed
the chance to ingratiate himself with liberals and
intellectuals at no real cost, either In terms of
politics or national security.
JUST SUCH ARGUMENTS were pressed upon
Mr. Nixon as his day of decision neared. Three
Republican foes of the ABM Sens. John Sherman
Cooper of Kentucky, Charles H. Percy of Illinois,
and Jacob Javits of New York presented the
politcal arguments a week before the decision to
White House national security advisor Henry Kiss
inger (after they had failed to get an interview
with Mr. Nixon himself).
Percy, in particular, was eloquent in explaining
what was at stake in ABM deployment: the
possibility of tumultous national debate aborting
the fragile spirit of unity Mr. Nixon has sought
since Jan. 20 and the elimination of any possible
gains among youth, intellectuals, and a great many
liberal-leaning voters.
The President's characteristically cautious
decision probably avoided the pitfalls described
by Percy but also surrendered the opportunities
he had suggested. His plan seems modest enough
to bypass a truly rancorous controversy in the
Senate and the country. But it will win no hurrahs
from those voters who opposed him last fall and
were Just beginning to wonder whether they might
have been mistaken.
(cl It, Publlihart-Hall Synd.
Com pus opinion . . .
An answer to Carte Blanche
"Housrlwating Is great, Mrs President
, . . but, haven't we drifted long
taoujhf"
Dear Editor:
I want to reply to Larry Grossman's interesting
article published as "Carte Blanche" in the Dally
Nebraskan on Friday, March 14. As usual I think
he hit the point and presented the right arguments
About the foreign students and their feelings against
tea United States. I agree with all the facts he
presented, but not with his interpretation of them.
Friendliness is not the solution. Foreign
students get a number of psychological scars due
to many factors, mainly to the different culture.
He has been in Europe and in Latin America,
and has very well the meaning of being different,
and foreign.
HOWEVER MANY more "Doctors T.S." will
come in the future, that is for sure. Many U.S..
trained people get a feeling of resentment against
North Americans and their behavior, and when
they go back to their home countries they take
Important roles; sometimes they even become
presidents (as T.S., as the president of Ghana,
and many others), or Influential Intellectual
leaders; the U.S. as he knows, is the only "anti-intellectual"
country in today's world, in which to
call somebody an "egghead'r is very insulting.
However, even tie most friendly and well-ad-
Justed foreign student leaves the U.S. full of anti
forth American feelings. Why? I could write a
SCO page book explaining why, but I will lave
you the worry of reading it!
Voltaire said that the best way of being enemy
of the Catholic church was to study with the
Jesuits. And the best way of getting a realtistic
idea of the United States of North America is
studying in Nebraska, Kansas or Wisconsin.
Foreign students do not like the U.S. because
they know it, very well. They expected to find
a broad minded society, because of aU that Junk
concerning democracy, individual freedom, and
ftnut;'Wr) towards the future, They expected to
find a "wonderland", like Alice's, because of all
the advertisements and the slogans repeated, and
repeated and repealed.
THERE IS no solution, let's txt it
Friendliness makes tilings even worse. Foreign
students attempt to communicate with North
Americans during the first stage of their adaptation
to the University. But they find Ignorance, lack
of Interest, and an offensive feeling of arrogance.
He said in his article that no graduate lnstitu
tit.ns existed in the Third World (meaning outside
of the U.S., the USSR and Western Europe). That
is not true. The exist, and they have high quality.
And from that affirmation In a very well-informed
person if Is just a matter of degree to ask whether
there are medical schools, psychology departments,
or art studios, outside of your Golden Pardlse.
People have asked me many times whether
it was possible to study m e d 1 c i n e in Colombia,
whether we have TV, cars, and movie houses.
The first times I found that relatively funny, but
after the tenth time it was very offensive.
FOREIGN STUDENTS are not going to talk
with "gringos" who just want to make ridiculous
comparisons, aud to convince themselves that tha
United States ("America", as some of them say,
ignoring that America is a continent that goes
from Alaska to Argentina) is the most wonderful
product of the human Intelligence, and that those
foreigners do not have the same "Income per
capita", 1969 cars, or color TV that they do.
Why communicate with them? One gets tired
of repeating over and over the saaie story. There
Is a terrible ignorance in the U.S. student population
concerning the world, and conversation for con
vcrsation's sake Is a wash of time and energy.
The majority of the "gringos" who are friendly
with tho foreign 3tudents (and that is his solution,
If I understood his "Carte Blanche") do not do
It on equal grounds. They have a protective attitude
that is very offensive to the majority of the
foreigners.
They do not want to know about Nigeria, Egypt
or Holland, but they want to feel "better, mora
civillxed, richer," etc. Friendliness Is not tha
solution. One can attempt to give more Information,
better attitudes, and so forth to the North American
population. But I am sure that many mora T.S.
will appear, in spite of everything.
FOREIGN STUDENTS when they are getting
used to the United States repeat that old statement
of the famous German philosopher: "The better
1 know men, the most I love my dog."
Ruben Ardlta
The campaign to open roads and assert the gov
ernment's presence is bringing more and more areas
into the category of "relatively secure." It's possible
for Americans to drive, by day, to places that have
been on "the other side" for years.
The campaign to rally defectors from the
Vie. Cong to accept the government's amnesty
offer is bringing in more people than ever before.
Village elections are being held though, for security
reasons, election dates are not announced until
the last minute.
For the first time, there is good coordination
of all the intelligence about the Viet Cong that
trickles into the many different nerve endings of
government and seldom used to be passed along.
For the first time, there is an impressive plan
to give security, local authority and usable help
to the villagers who are the base of the nation.
In short, it is true that the military situation
in Vietnam has turned very considerably in the
allies' favor during the past year.
"TET really helped us a lot," the Viet
namese say now. They do not mean, as U.S. of
ficlals claimed at the time, that it was any kind
of allied success. It was a palpable disaster, fhey
mean that the shock of disaster finally stirred
this apathetic, selfish capital to some efforts at
defense.
The second salutary shock was President
Johnson's decision not to run for reelection and
to end the bombing In the North. For fhe first
time since this became an American war, people
here realized that the Americans who came well
after it started might leave before it really ends.
Perhaps the greatest Improvement in Saigon
is in the degree of candor and realism of itj
politicians.
"WE'VE GOT TO do something to save
ourselves," they say. "We see now that the
Americans aren't going to do all the saving."
Everybody, down to waiters and newspaper ven
dors, understood the real message brought by
Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird here when he
lavished praise on Vietnamese armed forces. It
meant that the U.S. is going to start withdrawing
troops, probably in late summer, and turn more
and more of the job of fighting back to the Viet
namese. Practically everybody welcomes that, providing
it isn't too abrupt. Some even say thev wish the
U.S. would cut down to 50,000 men so that they
would really depend on their own sons 'or their
own survival.
And yet there is an overwhelming mood
of cynicism, helplessness, hopelessness. Nothing
good is expected from the Paris talks. Few believe
South Vietnam can hold its own against the Com
munists when the battlefields are growing rice
again.
In the same breath that speaks with great
optimism, Vietnamese leaders say frankly they are
pessimistic: "We are too divided. We need
leadership. When the war ends, it will be 1954
all over again and the same disastrous cycle will
lie ahead."
Looking backwards, things are better here. So
people avoid looking forward.
(c) 1H, Newt Day, Inc.
It was bound to happen. With campus disruption
an everyday occurrence it was only a matter of
time until the moguls of the television industry
began churning out dramas to capitalize on public
Interest and curiosity about student rebels
Several weeks ago on "Adam 12" (Jack Webb's
blue collar version of "Dragnett") the L.A. Police
gently evicted a group that had taken over the
Administration Building. "Many of vour grievances
I can sympathize with." said the chancellor liber
ally, as he placed a phone call to the police, "but
not your methods."
THAT PARTICULAR group of students was
redeemed when a part-time student policeman sav.
ed their sinister leader's life from a bomb that
the latter had planted.
Two recent dramas both deal with situations
In which a more modest leftist was betrayed bv
a revo uUonary side-kick In the hope that a martyr
would Inspire general upheaval.
In "Judd for the Defense" a black graduate
student secretly gives out false Information framing
a loveable professor (played by loveable Dennis
Weaver, who should stick with "Gentle Ben")
s ?.r .c--n-point was NBC's two-hour
travesty "The Whole World Is Watching" which,
we are threatened, will become "a bold new
dramatic series in the fall." An activity leader,
the kind who Initiates petitions for everything from
Diam!n! .5 ?orm ,rter RUckey Bitko 'o outlawing
girls drill teams, is on trial for murdering a cam
pus cop.
ACTUALLY, HE killed the cop In self-defense,
(Mercy ) and has one witness who promises to
les, V,!u" .ena'- But Ut toess it a long
SlyS.PuW' IP ho pl.ni to burn the
defendant with his testimony and ignite the campus.
U of th", ramas- th lnlter plans of
the radicals are foiled; they are censured and
Ki.' "voluUon Isn't nice, that change must
come through normal channels.
So why all the rhetoric about these tubular
turkeys? Because the public will swallow them
hook, line, and fisherman. Such programs serva
only to confirm the doubts and prejudices ot
America s vast non-academlc TV audience. Tha
dissidents they see are "good kids" but one or
astray gtxlless 8i,alwr cn e"Hy lead them
Of course, the programs also noted that soma
student grievances are legitimate but none
bothered to delve into Just what those grievance
military-industrial complex on campuses are not
even given lip-service. Only the "Judd" episode
had sufficient fortitude to chastise unconcerned
faculty and administration personnel.
Tht problems of the nation's campuses are
;.K.X?,0K1V8,.t0 llo.w crude tereotypes and half
truths to be showered upon the public.
television industry really wants t
enlighten Americans about campus problems they
should present every aspect of college life as ex.
perlsnced by different students rather than depic
ting a crew of shaggy malcontents who parade
about, reefer-ln-mouth, with a copy of Mao in one
a.v8uit,ar ,B..tili other "w vl ok
dlngi i lings PCke1, duping naive youn
CONTRARY TO the television myth, radicals
are not the sole cause of campus disorder; that
Name also rests with deeply-rooted oppressive
conditions both on and off campus, and those who
serve to perpetuate them.