Tuesday, October 24, 1967
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
9
Prof says-
Continued from page 1
Continued from page 1
1949 "White Paper on China" expressed concern over United States involvement in China. He said, "The United States must be prepared, if it is to take over the Chinese government. The cost and antagonism will be great. Once committed, it will be hard to withdraw. I cannot recommend a course of undertaking this government and military commitment by the United States."
But at the time the weight of commitments and the hopes were too great to keep from disengagement, Van Slyke said. Marshall had to go along with the policy if the Marshall Plan was to succeed in Europe.
The worry soon shifted from Russian dominence of China to Communist China's dominance of other parts of Asia, Van Slyke said. This was due in part by the scare of McCarthyism, he added.
Three attitudes developed among the people of the United States in its involvement with this area: 1) They wanted simple and uncomplicated solutions of the problems; 2) They felt a sense of omnipotence in all the United States was doing; 3) They felt a pure, moral self-righteousness in everything the United States undertook.
Why Vietnam?
In talking of the present situation in Vietnam, Van Slyke asked,
"Why Vietnam involvement, if not involvement in China?"
He gave two reasons: China is big, Vietnam small—a land war in Asia can be carried out on a small part of the land but not a big part; the omnipotence factor —big United States cannot pull out of little Vietnam.
When asked what he thought of the United States' position in Vietnam, Van Slyke said he felt we are so committed that "anything we do is going to be painful." He said if the United States pulled out, the prestige shouldn't be hurt too much because "we have proved the point of our military power by showing that we cannot be defeated."
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He said that it is possible that the same type of situation as Vietnam could develop in Thailand because right now there are many U.S. raids from Thailand into North Vietnam. This could mean that communist troops would move into Thailand.
Even if the United States pulls out of Vietnam, Van Slyke said, he feels the U.S. should keep giving aid to Thailand. He said, however, that military involvement there should come only if communist troops come storming over the land as they did in Korea at the start of the Korean War.
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