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University Daily Kansan Monday, Jan. 7, 1963
The Lion Roared
The British government's majority Conservative Party has made itself look silly in the recent Skybolt affair and in its insistence to establish Britain as an independent nuclear power.
When President Kennedy announced he was sacking the Skybolt bomber-launched missile program because of its repeated failures and its expense, the Tory bench lifted its head and roared. So Kennedy and Prime Minister Macmillan met at Nassau and agreed on their celebrated pact whereby the United States will supply Polaris missiles to the British as the British build the submarines and construct the warheads.
BY ACCEPTING THE POLARIS system, the British government saddled itself with a two and one-half billion dollar program which will uselessly duplicate United States efforts. Hopefully, Britons and the shaky British economy will not support this program.
It is difficult to understand the Conservative Party's desire to make Britain a nuclear power. The Western Alliance already has the potential to roast every turkey on the globe.
Even if the British do back the Polaris program, it will not become effective until at least 1970. Meanwhile, the United States will continue to carry the West's nuclear burden.
THE TORIES MAY BE SEEKING one of three things. The first might be increased national prestige and influence. This, however, is a short-sighted, rather nebulous goal. The strength of the Western Alliance in cooperating to forestall nuclear war is far more important than the national prestige of any country. And it is fallacious to suppose that nuclear strike capability gives any
country the final say in any international matter.
A second goal the Tories may envision could be independence in global action. It is difficult, however, to imagine a situation in which even the British would act alone as a nuclear power in contradiction to its own alliances. One way or the other, this is a growing trend which is ominous. France already is building a nuclear armaments stockpile. Communist China apparently already is near the brink of nuclear strike capability itself. In this path lies a world of seven, nine or even 15 nations capable of "independent deterrence," any one of which could start general nuclear war on its own.
A THIRD REASON for Britain's thrust for nuclear independence might be that it fears in an emergency the United States would back down from its European committments rather than risk international destruction. United States action in the Cuban crisis seems to dispel this fear, however. Neither has the United States shown signs of shrinking from the defense of Western Europe.
An excuse given by several Tory parliament members for nuclear weapons independence is that the British could supply part of its force to NATO. This is kidding nobody. The minute the British were threatened by any emergency, they would take command of their NATO force, just as would the United States their own forces.
In short, the British are moving ahead with a massive—and futile—program of nuclear armenament when the West already has more than enough nuclear reserve to "deter" the Soviet bloc. Britain should quit now.
—Scott Payne
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler
"I SAID WE HATE TO BOTHER YOU AT HOME, PROFESSOR SNARF, BUT COULD WE TROUBLE YOU A MOMENT TO DISCLISE A COPILE OF QUESTIONS ON THAT EXAM WE HAD TODAY,"
UNITED CITY Daily Hansan
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Guns Not Answer
It is fortunate that the United States and Russia have, for the present, resolved their differences on the Cuban dispute and that the Communist offensive weapons have been removed from the West, because guns as such will not win the war already existing in Latin America.
Although the two countries have managed to liquidate the tensions which threatened aggressive attack, the battle of poverty, sickness, and illiteracy still rages over nine-tenths of Latin America. The success of communism in the southern hemisphere rests not on military bases and weapons but on dissatisfaction and chaos among the common people.
COMMUNISM today is encouraging the peasants to throw off the yoke of their dictators so it can strike out during the inevitable period of uncertainty preceding the establishment of an organized government.
Most of the Latin American countries presently are in this state of uncertainty and unrest, but three—Paraguay, Haiti, and Nicaragua—remain under dictators.
Although the dictatorial regimes of Peron, Vargas, Odrea, and Trujillo in Argentina, Brazil, Peru, and the Dominican Republic have crumbled and disappeared, these same countries lack the political stability to tackle the problems of rapid economic growth. Unless outside aid (other than military) is given these nations, their efforts to establish a democracy will crumble alongside the dictatorships, and communism will be the victor.
The United States may be mildly ignoring these destitute people, but the Communists are not. The underprivileged laborer who needs food, shelter, and medicine serves as an ideal starting point for exploitation.
President Kennedy's Alliance for Progress program may be a partial answer to the problem. Nevertheless, the concern of the United States for Latin America should not cease with the fading of the Cuban crisis. As Roscoe Drummond recently stated, "... the 'crisis continent' is not Africa or Asia; it is the American continent here at home."
Janice Pauls
Civil Servants Get Pay, No Prestige
Congress recently voted a pay raise for some 1,600,000 Federal Civil Service employees.
But even though their paychecks will be fatter, the government workers probably won't gain much status in the eyes of their fellow Americans.
The federal civil servant is a pretty important man or woman. Government employees bring us our mail, protect us from harmful drugs like thalidomide, help keep us safe from enemy attack . . . the list goes on and on.
BUT HOW DO we feel about them? Several years ago a joke went around about the typical civil service worker. It seems he was like a lot of the missiles then-he wouldn't work and you couldn't fire him. Sadly enough, studies have shown a lot of people probably thought it was no joke. In general, the government employee rates low or mediocre esteem in this country.
low or medicare esteem in the country Much of this attitude is based on legends, biases, and misconceptions. For instance, there's the belief that when someone gets into Civil Service he stays for life.
THIS JUST isn't so. One of our government's big problems is the high turnover rate. Many employees leave voluntarily. Some are lost due to deaths, disabilities, and retirements. A great many are separated because of reductions in force or are discharged for some reason.
Civil Service, overall, may appear to the average citizen a mass of bureaucrats, tax-eaters, and clock-watchers. But should you mention a branch of the government he's familiar with, it's apt to be a different story. An agriculturist, for example, may be highly impressed by the researchers in the Department of Agriculture.
Civil Service prestige, or the lack of it, directly affects public employment in two ways. First, it helps to determine the kinds and numbers of people who will apply for government jobs. Second, it influences the attitudes and conduct of those who already have such jobs, the effectiveness of their work, and their willingness to continue working for the government.
A DISDAINFUL public attitude can lower morale and efficiency of those working for the government, while discouraging competent people from applying for federal jobs.
By and large, federal employees are as capable, loyal and devoted as workers outside government. But they won't do their best work as long as they can feel their fellow citizens staring down their noses at them.
Prestige is by no means the only problem of the Federal Civil Service. But it is one problem we can do something about-by taking a more realistic look at our civil servants and giving them credit for the job they're doing.
—Elaine Blaylock
H.M.S. DEFIANT, by Frank Tilsley (Ballantine, 50 cents).
This is not a very good book. It is on the bookstands chiefly because it has been made into a movie. The book originally was called "Mutiny." The mutiny takes place on a ship, during the Napoleonic wars, called the Regenerate. The movie was to be called "H.M.S. Defiant," but that was changed to "Battle Aboard the Defiant" (probably because of coming competition with "Mutiny on the Bounty"), and it now is reaching the screen as "Damn the Defiant!" Confused?
Well, the book is confusing, too. It is an 18th century mutiny told in 20th century terms, and people even talk like 20th century folks. But there is a fine character study of the first officer, named Scott-Paget, a vicious martinet. Yet one wonders when the mutiny is going to take place. And it never is much of a mutiny.—CMP
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
CHRIST IN CONCRETE, by Pietro di Donato (Popular Library, 50 cents).
This is pidgin English naturalism. The novel made quite a splash back in the proletarian-literary days of the thirties, but today it's really quite dull.
Here we see an Italian worker, Geremio, give his life on a construction project, which Di Donato calls "Job." He lives in a part of New York called "Tenement" (all of this rings a little like a conversation between Tarzan and Jane in the movies). His boy becomes a mason, so he can work on Job. Others give their lives on Job, or maybe that should read "to Job."
Well, that's about it. Perhaps it's all quite poetic. Di Donato certainly grasps the impact of the technological revolution on the workmen of America. But one wonders why this knocked everybody dead back in 1939.-CMP
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OTHELLO, by Shakespeare (Bantam Classics, 50 cents) three editors have worked to make this edition more comprehensible for average readers. A handsome volume and a needed addition to others in the series.
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THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, by Shakespeare (Bantam Classics, 50 cents)—another in the excellent Bantam series, which includes "Hamlet," "Macbeth," "Romeo and Juliet," "Julius Caesar," and "Othello."