Disquiet Noted in Southeast Asia Despite Official Line of Optimism
Page 3
University Daily Kansan
By Phil Newsom UPI Foreign News Analyst
De spite determined official optimism, an undertone of disquiet runs through news di-patches from Southeast Asia where in the last eight years the United States has invested so much.
In South Viet Nam, the young generals who took over after the overthrow of the Ngo Dinh Diem government, are pursuing the war against the Communist Viet Cong with greater vigor.
Out of 17,500 American troops in South Viet Nam,1,000 are expected home in time for the new year.
BEAUTIFUL AND sophisticatea Saigon has regained its gaiety, the bistros are filled, though guarded against a surprise Communist grenade, and tiny Vietnamese women in their bright silken garments pedal through the city's tree-lined streets.
It's as if, beginning at the city's outskirts, there were no war.
And that perhaps is the source of some of the disquiet.
The Diem regime, in its own way, also fought hard against the Communists but failed to win the people. After the harsh rule of Diem and
BUT WHETHER that support can be translated into an all-out national effort against the Viet Cong is another matter.
More and more it is being recalled that in their 10-year effort to hold Indo China, the French won every battle but the last one.
And the United States' own experience in Laos and in South Viet Nam, all too often has seemed to demonstrate that only the disciplined and indoctrinated Communists feel a real reason to fight, and that a national will is lacking.
his brother, Ngo Dinh Hu, in Saigon at least, the new military regime has the people's support.
In the end, neither aid nor military success will win the battle for Southeast Asia without accompanying political and psychological determination of the people themselves.
AND THAT IS the field in which the new military regime must prove itself.
Other events give reason for disquiet over the future of Southeast Asia.
In Pnompenh, capital of Cambodia. 200 American advisers are
getting out on orders of Cambodia's elected chief-of-state Prince Norodom Sihanuk who has cancelled the American aid program which has been running at $30 million a year.
Sihanouk believes the war against the South Vietnamese Viet Cong already is lost and that he must prepare his country for a neutrality acceptable to Red China.
IN NEIGHBORING Laos, proCommunist forces control two-thirds of the country.
In Vientiane, its capital, the fifth political assassination of a government official this year, demonstrated that the country still is far from achieving the neutrality decreed for it by the major powers at Geneva.
The news is not all bad. The Communists are suffering losses and the cost of aiding the Communist effort in the South is weighing heavily upon the Reds in North Viet Nam.
President Johnson has reaffirmed that the United States will continue its efforts in South Viet Nam. It is a decision which may have to be reaffirmed again and again in the years ahead.
Tuesday, Dec. 10, 1963
Holiday Strike Threatens Airline Passenger Travel
WASHINGTON—(UPI)—A strike scheduled to start Dec. 19 against United Air Lines threatened today to disrupt the holiday travel plans of more than 800,000 passengers.
The walkout has been called by the International Association of Machinists (IAM) to back up demands for pay and benefit increases for nearly 13,000 mechanics and other ground crew members.
NEGOTIATORS FOR the airline and the union were summoned to the offices of the National Mediation Board (NMB) again today to resume bargaining. Their talks were recessed last week after the company rejected a union counter-proposal for settlement.
Mediation board member Howard Gamser said he would renew his efforts to settle the dispute before the union strike deadline of 12:01 a.m., EST, Dec. 19.
He said the Defense Department notified the NMB that 100,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen going on Christmas leave already have bought tickets on United Flights. The airline, which carries from 25 to 30 percent of all passengers flying within the United States, is the only trunkline carrier serving several major cities, including the space center at Huntsville, Ala.
THE BOARD ALSO has received word from a florists' association that up to $1 million worth of cut flowers may not be sold if the strike is called as scheduled and lasts through the New Year's Holidays.
Asked about the outlook for set-
tlement, Machinists' Union Airline Coordinator Frank Heisler said, "It doesn't look too favorable at the moment but we've still got a week to go."
Heisler said the union and the company were about 5 cents an hour apart on the money issue and also were still negotiating on health-welfare items and job injury benefits.
The key rate for journeymen mechanics at United is $3.13 an hour.
Any settlement in the United dispute would tend to set a pattern for the machinists' current negotiations with other airlines-Eastern, National, Northwest, Braniff and Continental. Bargaining with these carriers has been stalemated. On financially troubled Northeast, however, the union is not pressing for a pay increase.
AUTO WRECKING NEW and USED PARTS
Tires and Glass East End of 9th Street VI 3-0956
Studebaker Plant Closes in South Bend
THE SAFE WAY to stay alert without harmful stimulants
NEW YORK. —(UPI)—The chairman of the board for Studebaker Corp. said today the company's South Bend plant will be shut down within a week or two after it completes its present production schedules.
Next time monotony makes you feel drowsy while driving, working or studying, do as millions do . . . perk up with safe, effective NoDoz tablets. Another fine product of Grove Laboratories.
NoDoz keeps you mentally alert with the same safe refresher found in coffee and tea. Yet NoDoz is faster, handier, more reliable. Absolutely not habit-forming.
We are doing it only because we lost so much money in the automobile business while in South Bend," the chairman of the board said. "The Hamilton (Ont.) move is the only way to stay in the business indefinitely and make a profit."
Studebaker announced it has shown a recent loss of $40 million in trying to keep the South Bend plant open.
Awards Offered To Wichita Men
The amount of fellowships is based on transportation, full tuition, books, room and board, and incidental living costs.
Rotary Foundation fellowships for international understanding are available in the 1965-66 school year for men between the ages of 20 and 28. Other qualifications include language fluency, high scholastic ability, bachelor's degree and single marital status.
Wichita area students at KU may be eligible for Rotary fellowships for study abroad in the coming academic years.
District six of the American Alumni Council includes the states of Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Missouri and Iowa, and the Canadian province of Manitoba.
Dick Wintermute, executive secretary of the KU Alumni Association, and an issue of the KU Newsletter received honors at a joint district meeting of the American Alumni Council and the American College Public Relations Association, in Sioux Falls, S.D.
KU Alumni Officer To Head District 6
He took office at the conclusion of the annual meeting this week, and will be responsible for organizing annual meetings the next two years in Topeka and St. Louis, Mo.
The "KU Today" edition of the Newsletter won first place in the alumni communications section of the awards competition at the meeting.
It was sent this fall to all KU alumni and parents of students, and was coordinated by Walter Blackledge, Alumni Association editor.
Both men and women from the Wichita area may apply for student exchange fellowships for advanced study abroad in the 1964-65 school year. These amount to approximately $2,000.
Interested students may write a letter indicating interest and enclosing a college transcript to the Rotary Club, Hotel Lassen, Wichita. Interviews will be held Dec. 27.
Patronize Kansan Advertisers
at the Dine-A-Mite this Thursday 8:00 p.m.
LIVE JAZZ!
featuring
SCOTT NELSON — DRUMS
HERBIE SMITH — ALTO SAX
CHARLIE MATTHEWS — BASS
JIM HAMLETT - PIANO
SUA and ASC announce that
Senator Wayne Morse
has regretfully cancelled the speaking engagement that was scheduled
for
Tomorrow night, December 11 in Hoch Auditorium
This program will be rescheduled sometime after the first of the year.