T 11 Daily f
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Tuesday, March 9, 1982
Vol. 109 No. 41
Lincoln, Nebraska
Copyright 1982 Daily Nebraskan
Survivors of Laos' 'forgotten war'
beset with bombs, economic problems
By Bill Allen
, One of the biggest problems facing the survivors of the
"forgotten war" in Laos is only about the size of a tennis
ball.
Small bombs pepper the countryside of this small
Indochincsc nation and spread fear among farmers try
ing to reconstruct their lives after the war. This is accord
ing to Roger Rumpf and his wife, Jaqui Chagnon, who
have spent the last Vi years living in Laos as field direc
tors for the American Friends Service Committee (Quak
ers), and who are now on a nationwide speaking tour re
counting their experiences.
;. At a Monday press conference, the couple said the rea
son for their trip to Laos was two-fold. They went to help
the Laotian people and also to educate Americans about
conditions in Laos once they returned to the United
States.
Chagnon said that since 1964, in the Xicng Khouang
Province alone, more than 4,700 people have been killed
by the small "bomblets."
According to Rumpf, these bombs were not meant to
have enough power to even blow a hole in a truck tire, yet
they were very effective for their main purpose - maim
ing humans.
The couple said apathy of the U.S. government is a ma
jor problem in Indochina. Rumpf said the U.S. Congress
has banned sending direct government aid to Indochina
and has even made it difficult for private humanitarian
groups to aid the people.
As an example, Rumpf said AFSC has asked the gov
ernment to give information on how to set off the small
bombs.
In response, the government cordoned, or enclosed,
the danger area and denied access to it.
If done properly, Rumpf said, that would mean cor
doning a third of the country.
The couple passed around several pictures of farmers
and children with missing limbs or other injuries received
when they stepped on the bombs.
Rumpf said the bombs are just one of the factors that
create a "push-pull" effect that brings many of the coun
try's refugees to the United States.
Economic problems also tend to push the Laotians out
of their country, Chagnon said. She said many of the
younger people recognize the better opportunities else
where. Rumpf estimated that between 5 percent and 8 percent
of the pre-1970 population of Laos has resettled in the
United States.
Both Rumpf and Chagnon said this emigration is a
major problem for Laos because it drains the country of
much-needed technical personnel.
"Our contention is many of them would stay if the
U.S. would help the people of Laos," Rumpf said.
The couple's program covers other areas of concern in
Indochina and also is meant to educate the people of the
United States about the war.
Rumpf said Americans knew little about the war in
Indochina, especially in Laos. He described it as a "se
cret war run by the CIA."
Rumpf and Chagnon said they also hope to provide
some basic information about the country, such as its cul
ture, foods and art.
Chagnon is the co-editor of two anthologies of Viet
namese poetry, and has had articles published recently in
the Bangkok Post and the S.E.Asian Chronicle.
Competitors pawns for chess champ
By Eric Peterson
Nebraska's college chess champion has been playing
the game since he was 8 years old. Mike Matthews said
a neighbor lady taught him how to play chess, and then
he taught his own parents how to play the game. Since
then Matthew has devoted a lot of time to chess, play
ing in tournaments and organizing them. He entered
his first tournament in high school. By his third tourna
ment, he won first place.
"It was only $10, when the entry fee was something
like $15, but I was really proud of it anyway," Mat
thews said, grinning. Matthews attended Lincoln East
High School and was president of the chess club there.
Matthews has gone to tournaments in New York
and Atlanta, among other places.
"The summer after I was an undergrad at Wesleyan,
I just kind of bummed around, going from tournament
to tournament," Matthews said. He will graduate from
UNL with a master's degree in educational administra
tion this spring. He graduated from Wesleyan in 1978
with a bachelor of science degree.
Matthews said he wants to be a media specialist in
a public school. It is possible to play chess for a living,
but the lifestyle is somewhat unusual, he said.
Chess brotherhood
"Tournament chess players are definitely kind of a
brotherhood," Matthews said. It's customary to let
out-of-town chess players stay in a host's house during
a tournament in that town, he said. The typical chess
player is in the mid-20s.
An actual chess tournament is physically demand
ing, Matthews said.
"It's very draining," he said. "You have to be in
good physical condition." Matthews usually prepares
himself by reviewing some of his own favorite game
openings and reviewing some of his opponent's past
games.
"I work to get myself in a chess frame of mind," he
said. Concentration is the most important quality in
tournament play, Matthews said. He was playing in a
Lincoln tournament once when a fight broke out and a
table was overturned, yet he didn't know about it until
the game was finished.
Matthews looks at chess as an art rather than a sci
ence. "I'm more of an instinct player," he said. "I don't
just play a game, but I play my opponent." Matthews
said he once beat a player in eight moves who had won
every other game in the tournament.
gathers to watch," he said.
Matthews said some world tournament players carry
the drama too far; for example, by hiring hypnotists to
confuse the opponent. Nevertheless, ethics at chess
tournaments are generally good, and there is a kind of
camaraderie," he said.
"U.S. and Soviet (chess) federation relations are a
lot better than relations between the governments, I
bet," Matthews said.
Matthews sometimes plays simultaneous games with
as many as 20 people.
"The idea is that I would have five to 10 seconds to
decide on a move, and the others would have quite a
lot longer," he said.
Matthews also directs three or four chess tourna
ments a year. Commissioned by the UJS. Chess Feder
ation as an official tournament director, he is hired by
local chess groups to run tournaments. He said he has
directed about 40 Lincoln tournaments but has given
directing up until he gets his master's degree.
Nebraska has had quite a few talented chess play
ers, Matthews said. This includes an international chess
master, John Watson, and three candidate masters -himself;
Douglas J.Greenwalt, the current Lincoln city
chess champion; and Kent Nelson. Being a candidate
master means you should be in the top 3 percent of
chess players in the country, he said.
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Crowd appeal
"I love it when a crowd
a fairly quiet crowd -
Photo by D. Eric Kircher
Mike Mathews
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Photo by Dave Bentz
Phil Crane
Speaker addresses
foreign policy, says
budget on right track
By Pat Higgins
If the government of El Salvador falls, communist
subversion could spread through the rest of Central Am
erica and Mexico, Rep. Phil. Crane, R-Ill., said.
Crane, a candidate for the Republican presidential
nomination in 1980, was invited to speak at UNL's East
Campus Union by the Young Americans for Freedom.
Crane spoke to about 50 people Sunday night, primar
ily about U.S. involvement in foreign countries.
Jimmy Carter's policies encouraged de-stabilization in
El Salvador, Crane said, adding that the long term policy
should be endorcement of the Monroe Doctrine.
The Monroe Doctrine, passed in 1823, was President
James Madison's mandate prohibiting colonization of Am
erican land by European powers.
"President Reagan should consider a quarantine against
Cuba similar to what John Kennedy did in 1962," Crane
said.
In that year, Kennedy ordered U.S. warships to con
front Soviet vessels that surrounded Cuba in protest of
Soviet missiles stationed in Cuba. Kennedy's move pro
mpted the Soviets to remove the missiles.
Crane said the U.S. policy concerning Nicaragua should
have been to support the Somoza government despite the
fact that he was a dictator because Somoza was more
friendly to the United States than the current Sandinista
government is. The government of Anastasio Somoza was
overthrown in 1979.
"What is worse to have," Crane asked: "Somoza, who
was someone we could possibly influence for the better,
or a communist dictatorship?"
Crane praised Reagan's emphasis on the Soviet threat.
The Soviet military build-up is the biggest since Nazi
Germany days, he said, adding that agreements with the
Soviets are unreliable. Crane said the U.S. defense budget
in 1980 was 23 percent of the total budget and should be
increased to one-third of the budget to match the Soviet
build-up.
Crane also praised the Reagan administration's econ
omic policy. He said the inflation rate is coming under
control as the 1980 rate of 13 percent will be cut to 7
percent this year.
The proposed Reagan budget of $100 billion is man
ageable, Crane said. But he said he will not vote for a
deficit budget.
"The media draws comparisons to the Depression, but
they ignore what would have happened if the trends of
the Carter years would have continued," Crane said.
Interest rates are still disturbingly high but the tax
cut will improve matters, he said. The U.S. government
and American people have been living beyond their means
for the last 50 years, Crane said.
"The traditional virtue of saving has been made a vice
by Keynesian economic policy," Crane said.
The tax cut has created positive rewards for saving,
Crane said.
"The IRA (Individual Retirement Account) savings
plan provide the most significant incentives for saving in
my lifetime," Crane said. Increased saving lays the founda
tion for economic growth, he said.