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Thursday, April 12, 1973
University Daily Kansan
KANSAN comment
Editorials, columns and letters published on this page reflect only the opinions of the writers.
Less Than the Truth
New facts recently have come to light about President Nixon's December bombing campaign in North Vietnam. Among the more interesting points is that the United States, contrary to North Vietnamese propaganda, did not inculde in "carpet" bombing. On Feb. 28, Committee held a hearing to discuss the effectiveness of the bombing campaign, commonly called Operation Linebacker II.
The purpose of the committee hearing was to force the Department of Defense to open its files and supply information concerning the number of sorties, the tonnage, and the aircraft losses, personnel loss, North Vietnamse casualties, damage and complete costs.
Pentagon personnel worked to prepare a briefing, expending about 1000 man-hours at a cost of about $10,000. The meeting had been called by Rep. Michael Harrington (D-Mass), who, incidentally, didn't bother to attend. I mention this because several days earlier, the declassified report became more exhaustive investigation been released by Rep. George H. Mahon (D-tex), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
In January, Adm. Thomas H. Moorer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, presented the report, which included more that 70 slides of target areas. In his presentation, December bombings had been neither futile nor indiscriminate, as many critics had claimed.
In the text, Moorer describes numerous cases in which the laser-guided bombs were 'right on
target." In one instance, a power plant was knocked out by one bomb. Only the generator room was hit. In other parts of the text, he describes precision raids on railroad staging areas, bridges, assimilated hardened railway tracks, and tankanks were destroyed in an area of Haiphong) and oil storage denots.
During the discussion, the subject of airfields came up. Moorer admitted that the targets had included commercial airfields. One example was the Hanoi Gia Lam airfield, commercial only in the sense that transport aircraft frequented the field. All of North Vietnam's best MIG's, the MIG-21M, were stationed there.
As for North Vietnamese casualties, the North Vietnamese admit having lost 1,300-1,600 killed. This is hardly a reflection of the casualties that would have been recorded had the United States been pursuing a policy of carpet bombing. The North Vietnamese killed 25,000 South Vietnamese in their recent invasion of the South.
Much of this evidence tends to indicate that the people of the United States have been receiving less than accurate coverage of events in Vietnam. Instead of carpet bombing, which antwar activist reports, seems that the description given by a security assistant secretary for international security affairs, might be more accurate.
Doolan said, "That bombing was so precise that the citizens of Hanoi used to come out to watch the show" by the military targets were picked off.
—John P. Bailey
Fried Reindeer?
To All Our Younger Readers:
There is no truth to newspaper stories elsewhere suggesting that Alaskans may start raising reindeer in the high cost of other meat products.
The rumors began when the Alaska Senate voted last week to approve funds to expand the reindeer industry in the state.
If you read or have had read to you any such story, you should not believe it. It was just some adult trying the funny, and you know how they are.
The fact is that Alaska's $80,000 "pilot reindeer development program" is to train Rudolph's little reindeer to guide Santa's sleigh, so he'll have to worry about how Santa will get your gifts to you at Christmas.
The idea, slaughtering reindeer!
Adults may not have any sense of
humor anymore, but even they are not stupid enough to let Rudolph or his friends be endangered.
Don't adults get presents at Christmas too? Don't they like it and bring them to your house? Do you think THEY will have any worries about Santa's journey?
Adults may be upset about food prices and they sure do some pretty dumb things. You may not be very old, but you'd have better sense than to boycott the candy counter if prices went up, wouldn't you?
They're really okay and they want the same things you do.
You just have to remind them once in a while about things like reindeer, Rudolph and Santa.
C. C. Caldwell
WASHINGTON - Commercial broadcasting's resistance to government censorship was so weak, and its capitulation so quick, that the event evoked little bumbling or bannering. It was crushed by
the next day Dean Burch, FCC chairman, the old Goldwater guy who has heretofore been a good candidate for First Amendment, told a convention he broadcast association that its program content would either conform to the government's standards or be heard or be compelled to do so.
The Censors Win—No Contest
On March 27, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced it would conduct a closed-door investigation to learn if any broadcaster or cableoperator had violated its profane material. That same afternoon the board of the National Association of Broadcasters unanimously published a statement asking all its members to examine their programming in order to comply with decent and good taste requirements.
"What I am talking about," he told them, "is the prurient trash that is the stock-in-trade of the sex-oriented talk radio. I am talking about three, four, five hours of titillating chit-chat, scheduled during daytime hours, and dealing topics in public concern as the number and frequency of orgasmes, of the endless varieties of oral sex or a baker's dozen other turns-on, turn-offs and turn-downs. . . . Do not, ladies and gentlemen, please do not permit the gamemesm and the schlock operators to call into the audience end and unpredictable consequences of their perverse folly."
Nicholas von Hoffman
The very next day Peter Storer, executive vice president of Storer Broadcasting, announced that the Bill Ballance Fermina Felice Gunther, from Los Angeles, and syndicated to 21 other stations, would be spayed.
When asked if Burch's words were, in effect, censorship, Storer replied, "What else would he say? The answer is, ' rather than add to the problems of an industry that already has enough major difference in the area of governmental interest, we prefer to be responsive."
Also preferring to be responsive was Soundering Broadcast, which said it too would trim the content of its topless radio programs to conform to the government's Diktat. In all America only one broadcaster, William Hernstad, the owner of KVVU-TV, Las Vegas, promised a Supreme Court fight if he was running X-rated films on his station, and for that the FCC is talking about possible criminal prosecution. Other than Hernstadt, there was no one to speak for. Frank Stanton, CBS vice
It's often argued that the First Amendment doesn't protect filth or what government censor Burch thinks are not elevating topics of urgent public concern. But the theory behind free speech is more complex than it turns away from trash without guidance from the authorities. That happened to Herststadt and his X-rated movies. He had so many complaints from the authorities that he stopped showing them.
chairman, who for years has been the courteous but gutsy voice of broadcasting independence, is now in retirement.
pruriest, it is nevertheless very popular with unknown thousands of women who phone these high-rated shows. Beyond that, sex is an apolitical subject, all of which the 1960s wish ways of conducting public prayer on Sundays and winking at motel room adultery on Mondays. No area of life is more political than the national struggle between the permissives and repressives in matters sexual.
Burch is using the power of his office to prop up a morality that half the country doesn't practice and despises.
The politics of Calvinism aside. Variety, the newspaper of showbiz, remarks that "never has the
executive branch of government been more directly involved in all the crucial elements of broadcasting—from news to advertisements to biological threats to network return to the prime time access rule."
and on and on and on
And it's true. Advertising on the American air is as heavily regulated as political comment on the Russian air; Clay T. Nixon's defense of the Nixon's omnious named Office of Telecommunications Policy, has abandoned all thought of allowing a free market economy in the industry and is trying to tell employees that they should show; the PCC is a work trying to draw up a set of rules for children's programs,
Matters have gotten so tight that Rolling Stone magazine reports that NBC cut a line from a pre-1968 Papa John Crech song which said, "Look at the shape the President's got us in." That is nothing, however, related to the new obscenity law the administration has asked Congress to pass. Its language is so loosely linked to the Aristophanes and Moliere would be banished from our stage and Chaucer and Homer from our bookshelves.
But then as Burch would say, they aren't authors of urgent public concern either.
"US? TORTURE THE AMERICAN POWS? WHATEVER GAVE THEM THAT IDEA?"
Jack Anderson
Another Tense Summer Possible
The truth is that the Department of Justice is deeply apprehensive about trouble in the streets this summer. A survey of possible trouble spots, intended to show eyes only, warns that tensions are spreading among communities and distressed areas across the country.
The survey, conducted by the department's Community Relations Service, suggests the
WASHINGTON—Ominous reports, locked in the files of Att. Gen. Richard Kleindienst, flattly dispute his public statement that the days of racial tension in the city "might possibly be behind us."
Gun Deaths Increase Two-Thirds
By the Associated Press
trouble could be triggered,
ironically, by President Nixon's
cutbacks in social programs. We
have seen a copy of the findings,
with Krundestadt and his top
areas are keeping under lock and
key.
In one week last month, 345 men, women and children in the United States were shot to death. Some were victims of armed robbers; some were policemen who were shot during family encampments.
Other gun deaths were more bizarre: a bartender was machine-gunned as he sat in his car at a Boston intersection, an teen-age couple was executed as they sleepbed in the Arizona desert.
The 345 counts, counted in an Associated Press survey the week of March 4-11, represented a 67 per cent increase over those counted in the last similar survey four years ago.
In each of three previous AP surveys, gunshot deaths totaled about 200. There were 198 in June 1964 and 203 in November 1965 and 206 in June 15-22, 1969.
The dates for the AP surveys were chosen at random. The first two were taken in the wake of the
assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. The third came a year later after passage of a federal gun control law.
In the latest survey, 238 deaths were classified as homicides, 89 as suicides and 20 as accidents. While the total number of gunshot deaths rose 67 per cent since the 1969 survey, homicides climbed per cent, suicides 33.7 per and accidental deaths 30 per cent.
The weapons included small.
"OUT OF THE WAY SWEETIE!"
cheap handguns called "Saturday night specials" and often used in holdups, a father's revolver in the hands of a curious infant and a family shotgun grabbed during a quarrel.
But in the 345 gun deaths counted March 4-11, at least 128 or 37.1 per cent of the weapons used were handguns. Handguns were responsible for at least 41.4 per cent of the homicides, 25.8 per cent of the suicides and 20.5 per cent of the accidental deaths.
In most states, there are no attempts to compile comprehensive, statewide records of gun deaths until weeks or months after they occur. And, in many cases, when the records is not always listed immediately.
In Washington, D.C., a suspected bank robber pointed at gun at a police officer and pulled the trigger five times; each time the gun misfired. Before the man fired, he noticed the officer fired, killing one of two armed men who had fled from the scene of the robbery.
The 1988 federal gun control law banned interstate mail order sales of rifles, shotguns and all types of ammunition. It also banned most over-the-counter sales to out-of-state residents.
Ten persons were killed during holdups, and five robbers suspects were killed by police.
The 1968 law also banned imports of cheap, small-caliber pistols, but a number of U.S. firms sell Saturday night specials assembled locally from parts shipped in from overseas.
Last year, the Senate passed a bill to prohibit the sale of easily concealed handguns, ranging from .18 ounces specials" to expensive, snubnosed handguns. But the House took on action on the bill, and its chief sponsor, Sen. Birch Bayh, D-Ind, says he sees no point in shuttling it this year unless there are signs the House will pass it.
One bill reintroduced this year would require registration of all firearms and licensing of owners. The bill, proposed by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass, failed 78 last year.
In the latest AP gun death survey, California reported the most deaths, 42 during the week. Next came Texas with 33, Michigan 28, New York 25, Illinois 22, Ohio 19, Virginia 17, Louisiana 15, North Carolina 14 and Georgia 12.
Attempts to get tighter controls have failed in Congress.
No hearings have been scheduled in either of the houses on any of the proposals.
Typical is this report from San Diego: "First reaction by minorities to the President's budget action was stunned disappointment and confusion. Now these feelings are being transferred into anger and resentment. Seven-hundred teachers are being fired. Most of them have been parents centers are closing. Mothers who relied on child care centers cannot work. Unemployed fathers are further discouraged by longer unemployment lines.
Of California's 42 deaths, 20 were homicides and 22 were suicides.
Michigan reported the most homicides, 22, followed by New York with 21, California 20, Texas 18, Illinois 16, Ohio 13, Georgia 13, Virginia 12, Pennsylvania 10 Florida 9 and Louisiana 9.
Seven states reported no gun deaths during the period: Colorado, Kentucky, Minnesota, South Dakota, Utah, Utah, Vermont and Wyoming.
"Talk on the streets is defeats and sometimes militant Youth are hardest hit and represent the greatest threat to community tranquility. According to a Neighborhood House counselor, they cannot contain threats without frustration without some outlet or success. The counselor said, 'I'm worried and scared.'"
The survey warns: "Fears have been expressed that the phase-out of federal categorical grants will force thousands of teenagers into idleness . . . The Los Angeles Indian population is the largest in the United States (400,700,000). There is no preponderance of Native Americans; they will react to conditions arising out of Wounded Knee."
In Los Angeles, according to the survey, peace may be threatened this summer by "youth gang activity" and "threatened cutbacks of federal programs."
Across the country in New York City, the survey states, there are grumblings about resorting to violence.
It describes "polarization between the white ethnic communities and the black and the Asian communities in the municipal control" and cautions against "potential violence during the spring between Afro-American, Puerto Rican, Asian college students on the college campus."
Across the Hudson, "factors fueling tensions in Newark include the polarization between blacks and whites; the phase-out of federal programs; unemployment minorities and veterans; duplication and black-white confrontation within the police department."
Integrationists and nonintegrationists are gearing up in Boston, says the report, for school boycott, picketing, demonstrations. And tension between landlords and tenants are likely to cause problems this summer in Springfield.
In Massachusetts, there is "potential for violence during the summer . . . particularly in Lymn, Revere and New Bedford." The Department of Justice also is troubled over a series of crisis situations in the state prison system and the unemployment rate. It has particularly in those cities that have defense-related industries
Down South, trouble is expected in Alabama. "A number of confrontations have occurred in protest of alleged police brutality ...," the report alleges. "Many black communities are organized and have capacities for impact." Another report suggests should a precipitous act occur. The potential for conflict during the summer is very real."
The survey suggests that in Pennsylvania disturbances are following a trend from the large metropolitan areas to the smaller towns, but warns that the small ones often don't have the law enforcement sophistication to properly handle tension situations.
Mass demonstrations about education, unemployment and injustice are also "in the plan-
ring stage and will come as early as May and can be expected to be well organized before the summer is over." In Birmingham, there are widespread rumors of thefts taking place on streets in protest over antitheory program cuts, the report says.
Racial tensions are also reported in Georgia, and a black-white confrontation is expected in the "racially tense rural" town of Sparta. "A number of towns, including Lavonia, Columbus, Augusta and Valdosta," says the report, "continue to have police problems that produce tension." Indeed, "racial tensions are expected to increase generally over the state."
The report concludes, "The local temperament, combined with nationally organized demonstrations, will increase the tension in D.C. throughout the summer."
The report speaks of interdepartmental police tension and increased use by police of physical force, adding: "There is some concern in the inner city surrounding the circumstances in which the two suspects in the (Sen. John) Stennis shooter."
Finally, demonstrations will probably occur throughout the spring and early summer in the nation's capital, the report saves.
Copyright, 1972,
by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.
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