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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday, December 12, 1967
Salsich, ROTC heads debate military
Marines to return: opinion swells
"ROTC has no business on this campus!"
When Hamilton Salsich, assistant instructor of English, said that almost two weeks ago in McColum Hall, a ROTC cadet walked away from the Association of University Residence Halls culture and education lecture.
Wednesday, Salsich is expected to say the U.S. Marines have no business recruiting on this campus, when he speaks as a representative of Students for a Democratic Society in the Union.
ROTC won't debate
ROTC chiefs of staff will not debate with the New Leftists, and have said the Marine representatives do not feel it is their business to do so either.
"They are doing just the same as IBM or anyone else does," Marine Corps Col. John P. Lanigan, head of Naval ROTC, said of the recruiters. "They are looking for hard workers with an educational background.
To challenge ROTC
"On this campus, we have a department that is just opposite to our way of thinking," Salsich said at McCollum, comparing ROTC "indoctrination" to the "progressive education" he advocates as coordinator of the free university.
"I don't think they'd deny that indoctrination is basic," the concientious objector said of ROTC staff chiefs.
They don't deny it.
"There are certain principles we believe in," said Army ROTC's head, Col. William H. Brinkerhoff, "and if there is any other way of imparting these principles, I have yet to find it."
"Isn't everything indoctrination?" Lanigan asked. "Anything you get into from first grade on is background and preparation for things to come and that's all this is."
ROTC is preparation
He said that like prerequisites for courses, "ROTC is attempting to give cadets a feel for what they will encounter when they go on duty as commissioned officers."
"We don't conduct any indoctrination classes," said the head of Air Force ROTC, Lt. Col. Charles H. Brown. "We discuss what you do when captured, the difference between democracy and communism, and why we believe in democracy."
Salsich criticized the "ROTC theory," which he said is "to go against everything education is."
Brinkerhoff outlined what he considers the "military viewpoint —"fundamental to life within and without the military establishment."
"First, there are others who have rights we ourselves may not enjoy at the moment," he said, "second, we have an irrevocable belief in rule of law."
"Have to react"
"You can't think," Salsich said, "you've got to react. "It's absolutely demoralizing and dehumanizing."
"The Navy is quite interested in
getting boys with as much education as they can get," Lanigan said. "In Naval ROTC, all the men have four-year majors, and can take five-year programs with a leave of absence from the service."
He said service academies are valuable, but that their fields of study "are pretty narrow."
Duty vs. wants
"I would imagine that some don't have a chance to follow certain educational areas in the service," Lanigan said. "There are a multitude of duties and any of these can affect the way an individual feels when he comes out. More come out than ever stay in."
"To me it's absolutely incredible that a man will let himself be pushed around," Salsich said. "If a man really believes in it, he got my confidence; he's got my respect. But on this campus we've got men who are pushed into it."
"I took ROTC in a school where the basic military course was mandatory," Brinkerhoff said. "It was filled with rebels who worked harder at rebelling than was necessary. In a voluntary program, if they don't like it, they are free to go."
"Have to believe"
"When a boy joins on a voluntary basis, he must believe in some of the things this country stands for," Brown said. "We have individuals in the Air Force, but
the people you come in contact with have similar ideas. Everyone presents their own ideas and image, but they have the same goals."
Salsich said he particularly objects to sacrificing individual freedom to the dictates of an employer, and that students would do better to create their own businesses.
"Want first-class citizens"
"Very few large organizations can get by without discipline," Brown said. "It's a very important part of the Air Force and of the job."
"Any Army officer on duty here has one goal in mind for his cadets," Brinkerhoff said. "They should be first-class citizens oriented toward the good of the country."
"We need revolutionaries!" Salsich has said in disagreement with that concept. "This country and these kids are never gonna be the same and I'm glad of it!"
"It's the same old lunatic fringe given a new label," Brinkerhoff said of Salsich and his New Left affiliations. "People who are strongest for a 'democratic society' are strong in denying democratic processes."
Service matures?
Brinkerhoff was asked if service in the armed forces could induce maturity in a youth.
"If society can't, it's small hope that the service could," he said. "You've got to have something to work with."
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"The service only matures people who want to be matured." Lanigan said. "The boy with responsibility in Vietnam will probably attain maturity a little quicker, but he wouldn't be put in that position if he didn't show capability to assume it."
"ROTC is part of the university environment that changes the cadets into adults." Brown said. "We do demand respect and courtesy, and it does tend to make them more polite."
"This is a problem for the individual student," Salsich said. "It would be a strange paradox, but maybe he'd learn something in the military."
Beech engineer speaks for AIAA
Ronald D. Neal, chief engineer for advanced design aerodynamics at Beech Aircraft Corporation, Wichita, will lecture in 200 Learned Hall at 7:30 p.m. today. The event is part of activities presented by the KU branch of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Neal's talk, illustrated with slides, is entitled "So You Want to Be an Aeronautical Engineer?" It is a description of the organization and operation of an aircraft engineering department and the related duties and responsibilities of an engineer within this working environment.
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