Strike success
Whether the three-day voluntary strike
succeeds in showing student dissatisfaction
with Nixon's Southeast Asian policy or not
does not hinge on the number of students who
boycott classes. The success of the protest
must be measured in the number of students
who work for peace by canvassing, writing
letters and organizing Saturday's peace rally.
Even more important in judging the three-day
peace, is the reaction of citizens outside the
University community, in Lincoln and out
state. By all indications, Wednesday's activity
got the strike off to a positive start. By mid
afternoon over 1,000 students had canvassed
the Lincoln community. Some individuals had
spoken to off-campus civic groups, and over
2,700 letters were sent to Congress. If you
don't want to boycott classes, use your free
time to help in these activities.
Furthermore, don't limit your activities
to Lincoln. Send the ASUN "Why Strike?"
letter explaining the reasons for the activities
of the strike to your home town newspaper,
parents and friends. Unfortunately, out-state
media coverage has at times been incomplete
and occasionally misleading. If you go home
for the weekend, canvass in your hometown
and surrounding area.
The creation of a student strike coordi
nating committee should provide adequate
leadership and organization for much of the
activity. Work for peace, but keep the protest
positive and constructive.
Jim Pedersen
WUrWW
" 'Peace' Is when nobody's shooting. A 'just peace'
is when our side gets what it wants."
6c Worth of feeling
U.S. '
Whitest se
Washington, D.C.
Mr. President,
I have lived in Nebraska for
the full 21 years of my life. I
am a senior at the University of
Nebr. and a student teacher of
world history at Lincoln High
School, Lincoln, Nebr. .
I do not deceive myself Into
believing that I have as much
information at my disposal as
you, nor do I feel that I am
more qualified to . make
decisions than you. I have
observed statements and
decisions you have made on
various issues and would like to
take this opportunity to discuss
with you the morality of those
decisions.
I FEEL' that the central
statement of my own personal
philosophy is to take no action
that would cause pain to any
other human. I try to judge
myself and others on the basis
of this statement.
You did indeed Inherit the
Vietnam war. The actions you
have taken to disentangle the
U.S. from that war have been
greatly appreciated by the
American people. Your Bpeech
of April 30 authorizing
defensive action in Cambodia
came as a great and disap
pointing shock to me. You have
extended the war into Cam
bodia. Whether it be for 6 to 8
weeks or 6 to 8 years there is
combat today where there was
none 30 days ago. Your actions
in the direction of the Vietnam
war are immoral. Political ex
pediency and adverse foreign
policy ramafications are little
solace to the thousands of
Vietnamese and Americans
who have lost their lives during
your term as president.
You mentioned in your
speech that there was a danger
of the U.S. becoming a second
rate power. At the present time
I feel that there is only one
moral justification for being a
first rate power. That country
must become a power . for
peace. Historical precedent has
illustrated the tragic mistake of
"fighting for peace."
The United States has a long
history of imperialism. Today it
takes the form of economic
imperialism in some areas and
political and miltary im
perialism in other areas. The
maintenance of the U.S. as a
first rate imperialistic power
is immoral.
THE POSITION of the United
States . as the defender of
democracy and freedom in the
world as first advanced by
Woodrow Wilson, is equally
immoral. The concepts of
"democracy" and "freedom"
are defined in terms of degree.
I am happy and proud to live in
a country where the degree of
democracy and feeedom are
great enough to allow me to
write this letter and to main
tain hope that it will hear
results. I do not feel that it is
the moral position of a free,
democratic, first rate power to
pressure any other society to
establish a government and-or
economy after our example.
Before closing, I wish to
make one last point. I feel that
your administration has pro
duced a vast credibility gap,
one that will not be easily
closed. You, Mr. President and
your representatives, " have
often criticized violence in the
ghettos and campuses as being
immoral. You have said that
such violence is tearing the
country apart. The gap appears :
when an observer compares
domestic violence to the sane--i
tioned violence of the Vietnam
war. We have proven ourselves
to be one of, if not, the most
war like countries in the
history of mankind. How can
such a country condemn rock
throwing and . burning of
buildings as immoral?
Mr. President I wish to thank
you for reading this letter; I
know your are a busy man. I
hope you will consider the ideas
I have brought up. I hope a
historian will someday be able.
to entitle a blographyj,
"Richard Nixon: The Moral ;
President." r,
i t
Sincerely, i
James Edwin ,
Larsen
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Cambodia joins the free world
by FRANK MANKIEWICZ and TOM BRADEN
At the end of the second day of the Cambodian invasion,
the U.S. Command in Saigon reported "at least" 634 North
Vietnamese and Viet Cong killed, but only seven weapons
captured. This kind of discrepancy suggests that Cambodians
may be discovering the price of membership in the Free
World.
It also suggests that the President is trying to do
what cannot be done. Mr. Nixon advances two objectives.
First, to destroy the "Central Communist Headquarters"
which our generals have decided is called COSVN ("Central
Office for South Vietnam") and from which, as Mr. Nixon
solemnly assured us, the whole enemy operation is run.
Once this headquarters is overrun, the theory goes, U.S.
troops can go back to Vietnam, Vietnamization can proceed
and so can U.S. troop withdrawals.
But it is only Americans who think in terms of little
Pentagons to fight guerrilla wars. We will find some bunkers
and capture some weapons, some documents will turn up
predicting a summer offensive and a few tons of rice
will be destroyed. The U.S. Command will measure the
rice in pounds they would count the grains if there
were time.
But the enemy will have melted away. Does anybody
seriously believe he will not come back, as he has in
all the other places where Americans have died for the
proposition that there .are headquarters and strongholds and
road centers and we can win if only we take them away
from the Viet Cong?
IT MAY be that John Mitchell does; the President
consulted him throughout the decision-making process. But
if the American people are to rely on a man whose entire
career has been spent in the narrow area of municipal
bonds as their expert on the Far East and guerrilla warfare,
then the President really needs the prayers for which he
has called.
What our generals, including our attorney general, do
not appear to understand and apparently never will under
stand is that in guerrilla war the guerrilla survives as
long as the people are on his side. The Cambodian
"sanctuaries" are not the marshaling yards of the Ruhr
nor the oil fields of Ploesti, nor as Mr. Nixon tried
to make them seem the Berlin bunkers. They are stopping
places for Asians who have convinced other Asians that
they are driving out American aggressors. Nothing in our
behavior this woek is calculated to counter that impression.
The Daily Ncbraskan
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34 Nebraska Union
University o Nebraska
Lincoln, Nebraska esMt
Second, the President believes that this show of force
will make the enemy "negotiate." But they did not negotiate
when we were bombing their cities, when we had more
'. than half a million men searching and destroying and when
the President had the passive support of the American
people. Why should they quit now when there are less
than 400,000 American troops and the President has rising
opposition? That is a question to which perhaps only Mitchell
has the answer.
THIS RISING opposition is is what Mr. Nixon appears
to have ignored. The war wa3 off page one and student
protest had turned to the environment because people really
Relieved he meant to get out and that Vietnamization could
somehow be made to work. In his speech, he did not
bother to explain what ' 'e are doing in Vietnam, and
that is what the opposition is about.
The President will not have much respite. Student protest,
a plunging stock market, ' rebellion on Capitol Hill and
hostility in the business community await him. It is now
Mr. Nixon's theory that there will be no denouncement
in Cambodia; the troops will be out in eight weeks; the
American Command will say the operation was successful;
and Hanoi will have been "taught a lesson."
What he does not understand is that the American
people will also have been taught a lesson namely,
that their government intends to go on trying to win an
unwinnable war. "Gen." Mitchell may not have counted
os that
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you help remov blacKheads, dry up pimples and oil
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PAGE 4
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
THURSDAY, MAY 1, 1970
THURSDAY, AMY 1, 1970
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
PAGE 5