10
Tuesday, Sept. 29, 1970
University Daily Kansan
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Indo-Chinese Summer Defines War Reality
By JAN GOODISON
Kansan Staff Writer
Kansan Photo by GREG SORBER
Martha Mangelsdorf Donned Army Fatigues
Hitchhiking down Highway 1 from Phnom Penh to Saigon, the beautiful Cambodian countryside, dotted with men leading their water buffalo through the fields, can provide a false sense of security.
"Except for the occasional military checkpoints along the highway, it hardly looks like there's a war going on!" Martha Manglesdorf, Overland Park, senior in journalism said.
THREE MONTHS as a war correspondent in Cambodia and Viet Nam is not everyone idea of a summer vacation, but Martha was persistent enough to convince Harrison Enterprises, a small chain of predominately Kansas daily newspapers, that she was serious. They agreed to pay her $1500 for the summer, $1200 of which was spent on her flight over and back.
With only $300 in her pocket for the summer, Martha donned fatigues and combat boots to travel, talk with both military men and civilians, and discover for herself and her readers more about the war.
. . . to report on the battlefront
Surprised when she landed the job, Martha's parents were forced to take a real interest in the war, she said.
Because hotels were expensive, various fire support bases became her temporary home. A fire support base is temporary camp of heavy tanks and other artillery, facing out for protection of the camp from the surrounding jungle.
MARTHA AT IN ARMY mess hall show lines, spent three or four days in a hospital with jungle fever, and was under small arms fire in a helicopter. Once her fire base was attacked.
"You just sit in a bunker and hope you don't get a direct hit," she said.
Exposed to the Viet Nam War at a more personal level than many ever will be, Martha's views on ROTC, peace movements, the war itself and other current issues have become more defined. She was disappointed in many "concerned" people in the United States. Who "get burned out so fast!"
In Viet Nam, Martha said she felt she was doing something worthwhile by writing about what she had come to understand concerning the civilians and the military. She felt as though the people there were really concerned about what she was saying.
"It's really disillusioning to come back to the U.S. and realize that all that time and work didn't really mean anything, because so many people here don't care
anmore, or if they do it's a selfish concern." she said.
"THERE IS A VALUE and intensity placed on a human life in the Asian situation that brings
out the better qualities in a person," she said.
"Mad minutes, blasted into the jungle with every bit of a base's firing power, still did not prevent the enemy from attacking.
"Life is a hazard," Martha said, "If you get scared you'll never step foot out of your room to eat dinner."
Martha realized how valued life is to everyone in Vietnam. "There is a big difference between seeing human beings "get blown to bits" and seeing a statistics report in the U.S. stating blank number of people were killed in Viet Nam today," she said.
VIETNAMESE AND even the soldiers that have been out of touch for some time can't understand the peace movements,
she said. "One guy put it the best,
"I don't like this war anymore than they do—and I'm here!"
"What the heck, demonstrations don't do them a bit of good over there." Martha said, "They've had their fill of bullets, why should they have to come back and go through it again in the U.S."
"What really gets depressing," said Martha, "is when a guy tries to rationalize where a year of his life has gone. It's really dissappointing when you can't and you have been laying your life on the line for a year. Some guys try to find a purpose for their being there, and others go
Martha labeled the career brass, captains and above, as "Nixon backing, hard core military who backed military policies and facades, committed to the military as a career."
home more bitter than when they came."
"The lieutenants sergeants on down would level with you. They didn't always know what was going on, but they wouldn't hassel you—they told you what they knew," she said.
Martha said the soldiers, treated her very well.
"It even got so that I'd ask all the platoon leaders I met if they had been in ROTC," Martha said. "I really believe ROTC is going to be the salvation of the military here in the U.S. ROTC graduates are a lot more sensitive to their men."
"They'd give me their last cigarette or their last hot beer and I made some really good friends," she said.
Martha said some soldiers were bitter toward her because of her relation to the news media. Others really respected her.
Despite varied reactions to her summer in Viet Nam and Cambodia by both soldiers and friends, Martha wants to go back.
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"I'm not smart enough to be afraid of going back." she said
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"I WOULD LIKE TO GO BACK even though I remember lonely nights crying to myself about the insanity of the situation—guys being blown away for nothing. It does get really depressing even when I can get away from the field to collect my wits anytime."
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