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Friday, October 27,1972
University Daily Kansan
KANSAN comment
Editorials, columns and letters published on this page reflect only the opinions of the writers.
Illusions of the Past
While we brace for the homecoming hoopla this weekend, it might be good to re-examine some of the things already said about the event and then to consider their relationship to another issue close to
The money, time and effort expended on homecoming is all calculated to nourish and preserve an illusion of what the University used to be—something it isn't now and shouldn't be in the future. It is an illusion of a time less complicated than this, when the really big intrigues concerned which smiling coed would be named queen and which fraternity would win the house-decoration contest.
The queens are gone, thank you, but we still have the decorations. People are going hungry in Lawrence and the University's back is against the financial wall, and, as we did before, I'm crepe paper, wood and wire seem, at best, a misordering of priorities, at worst, a frivolous exercise in waste.
A professor friend of mine says he will swallow all this if it eventually encourages an alum to donate to the college, or he will illusion for a cause, yet I doubt whether the cause has indeed benefited from the illusion. At any
rate, we still have the illusion and everyone except a few incorrigible idealists seems to enjoy a dashing good time.
Just as homecoming is an illusion of what KU used to be, this peace is an illusion of what peace used to mean to this nation.
Illusion is a part of the national sociology, too. The most significant national illusion these days is the progress of our government toward securing some sort of peace in Indochina. Just Thursday, Henry Kissinger announced the main points of what appears to be a settlement between Washington and Hanoi. Here, the illusion is peace.
For Americans, peace used to imply a satisfactory end to a just involvement in an international conflict. There are those who say there is no such thing as a just war. They may be correct. Certainly, though, we have never fought such an unjustifiable war. Years from now, we will be able to look at our conduct with any pride?
This settlement, given to us a week before a national election and a referendum, will be unaltered. It can only be an effort—by illusion to quiet the national conscience.
—Thomas E. Slaughter
Administration Conspiracy
Nixon's justice department is trying once again to convict a group on conspiracy charges. The group is the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). Eight of its leaders are being tried in Tallahassee, Fla. Relying on the administration's past record of unsuccessful convictions of accused conspirators, it is not likely that the Tallahassee Eight will have to spend the years in jail or pay the $10,000 to $30,000 fines which their victims would be awarded. Eight, the Oakland Seven, the Harrisburg Seven, those in the Seattle Conspiracy, Black Panthers and Angela Davis have all managed to prove themselves not guilty of conspiracy charges before a jury.
Even though the administration may not be able to convict these men of conspiring to evade taxes, cross state lines with the intention to incite riots or train in the use of and possession of illegal firearms, it has done an effective job of forcing the VVAW to use its limited funds and other resources to defend these men. It also allowed the administration to keep local VVAW leaders in jail during the Republican and Democratic conventions, when demonstrations had been planned.
The charges against these men are incredible. It was claimed that they would attack the Republican National Convention with cherry bombs, ball bearings, lead weights, smoke grenades and some things called "fried marbles." According to the report, these were to be shot for reasons "wrist rocket sling shoots," "leave those make one wonder if they are even of this world, much less this country. Maybe they just worked in the ballistic's research department of the United States Army.
I find it hard to believe that the government's accusations of an armed attack on the Republican National Convention have been the target of many people who have become dedicated to peace after having become
sickened by war. If they wanted to continue to play with firearms, they could have stayed in Vietnam where government would have supplied them.
The VVAW is against the current administration's war policy, which illogically enough makes them unpatriotic. Not only is it unpatriotic, VVAW is also embarrassing. It seems that a good number of those brave men for four years have resigned every minute of it and are disgusted by the whole American mess in Vietnam.
What is more significant to the Nixon administration is that Americans are inclined to believe the reports of men who have actually been over there for too many months. Americans are too easily sickened by the images Vietnam veterans can arouse with their war stories. Americans are coming to realize the disillusionment with this futile war that they hear expressed by this war's troops, many of whom, like the eight men being tried in Tallahassee, have earned medals of honor along with their disabling wounds.
The public circuses Nixon's administration provides with this continuing parade of conspiracy charges has got to stop. It forces the people who are committed enough to stand up to the man who holds the power of the presidency to spend their time and money themselves. Instead, the man with that power should be the one on the defensive and should be made to have an adequate answer to the questions asked by the public which gives him his power. In a democracy, which because of size has to be organized as a republic, it is dangerous to the democratic ideal because if the president effectively silencing the voices of those men and women who demand that he recognize where his power comes from and act accordingly.
Mary Ward
Nixon's Peace Efforts Sincere
Jack Anderson
WASHINGTON-Press speculation that President Nixon is playing politics with a Vietnam cease-fire, say those familiar with the secret negotiations, is untrue and unfair.
No doubt the President would like to be able to boast before the election that he had ended the fighting in Vietnam. But those who have discussed the subject with him say his political instincts warn against a preelection truce.
For the terms, once they are announced, are bound to displease either the hawks or doves, perhaps both. Politically speaking, the President believes it is better to keep the settlement terms vague until after the election.
But Richard Nixon, though he will present his actions to the public in the best possible political light, puts patriotism ahead of politics. No one who has participated in the Vietnam policy discussions has any doubt about that. They tell us he won't be president if he doesn't than he considers necessary to secure an "honorable peace."
George McGovenn, on the other hand, believes the fighting has lost all purpose except to keep the Thieu regime in power. He doesn't consider President Thieu worth another American life. The Thieu's view is McGovenn's view, is almost immoral.
The voters should judge the opposing views, not question the patriotism of the candidates. For both men are sincere.
Earlier this year, President Nixon made a decision on Vietnam that he thought could hurt America. The mining of North Vietnam's harbors and the bombing of her supply lines, despite apprehension that the decision would be perplexed with the American votes.
He also ignored the assessment of his intelligence services that the bombing and mining could have caused by supplies in North Vietnam. The
But the President's main purpose, our sources say, was to shake Hanol's confidence in her communist big brother. He was also trying to prevent Peking would respond to the bombing and mining with anything more than rehoric. This might help convince the North Vietnamese, he felt, that they couldn't count on their allies to protect the war, therefore, should settle the war at the negotiating table.
assessment has now been confirmed. Five months after the President's action, food, fuel and water will still plentiful in North Vietnam.
The President feels his strategy, for all its high political risks, is paying off. Washington and Hanoi are now close to a cease-fire agreement that meets their mutual wishes. Under the formula that has come out of the Paris truce talks, each side, during the cease-fire, would administer the territory its troops now control. A coalition against Saigon until internationally supervised elections could be held.
This would give the communists a voice they don't now. They're not here. Them is fiercely resisting. White House negotiator, Henry Kissinger is trying to persuade him this is the best possible outcome.
Kissinger has argued, in effect, that both sides participated in the fighting, therefore both sides should participate in the interim government. Neither side can be expected to wait out in the cold, he contends, and let the other run government during the cease-fire.
Narcotics and Bale
Congress will lay bare the financial world war narcotics racket next year by showing that "respectable" bankers finance international heroin dealers.
Narcotics and Banks
For years, Congress has skirted the issue, throwing the spotlight, instead, on the Mafia overlords, dope addicts, the criminals who can be more comfortably put under congressional klee lights.
Banking subcommittee, is taking on the chore, as he puts it, of exposing "the banking and financial operations that underlie the illegal international traffic in narcotics."
The hints of corrupt bankers doing business with the mob have been muted. The bankers rested their trust in the banks' businesses. The done trade flourished.
Mondale must first be reelected, but he is a heavy favorite to defeat the Republican rival. Until the election, however, his plans for hearings in the next session must remain conditional. But already his staff is at work on the bank investigation.
Now, Sen. Walter Mondale, D-Minn., chairman of a Senate
Mondale has already learned that the banks do not finance the Corsican, Italian, Latin
They are "focusing on placement on permanent bases in Japan, Southeast Asia and Switzerland. These are the "narcotics banks" whose names are mentioned in whispers in the hushed and secretive databases of the international banker brotherhood.
American and ethnic Chinese lords of narcotics directly. They, in turn, may act as both financial agents and fronts for somewhat insignificant loans may be secured by phony Mafia stock certificates.
As the chain of intermediaries stretches closer to the drug wholesaler, the collateral becomes, in effect, warehouses of heroin, brown morphine or stockpiles of raw opium.
Thus the bankers, who never need soil their manicured fingers by shaking the hands of the dope merchants, indirectly finance them and accept as collateral fields full of opium poonies.
Some of the "narcotics bankers" are only vaguely aware that they are loaning money through fronts to drug wholesalers. Others know they are financing drug addiction but
cannot resist the lure of high interest short-term loans.
Mondale's task will be to trace the loans from the banks to the drug wholesalers. This will require overcoming the traditional and legal secrecy of the international banks. Although it may not extend overseas, he hopes that investigators to Switzerland, Hong Kong, Japan and possibly even mainland China.
Meanwhile, Mondale's staff is in contact with the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, which for years has tried to tell the world that narcotics, like any other big business, has its bankers and middlemen.
Up to now, few have listened.
Copyright, 1972,
by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.
Remembrance of Things Past
Rv MARK REDNER
Kansan Editorial Writer
The two figures walked slowly along Jayhawk Boulevard. The October wind was crisp and the leaves formed small whirlpools on the sidewalk as they passed by. The old man was short and bent from the years. He spoke first:
"That Nebraska bunch is as tough as ever. What happened? Don't you have any big boys this year?"
"Well, no sir. I mean yes, we do have some. I guess so," answered the young man. "They are in the top ten though, you know."
"Yes, yes that's right," said the old man, "but they were plenty tough when I was in school too." He raised his head a little, and tightened his grip on the boy's arm.
"Yes that's right," the old man said. "Weidlein, our man, was put to bed on Wednesday with tonsilitis only two days before the game, and on homecoming with
"Ah, you should have seen them," he continued, "the year they brought that train called the Cornhusker Special down from Lincoln. We thought it was the greatest day ever. We had a brand new stadium for the game, but I missed it. They had a parade down Massachusetts with the bands and the G.A.R. and the Legion boys in their cars. What a sight."
"Our quarterback was hurt," said the young man.
the new stadium too. But old Dutch Lonborg, he didn't care about his ankle. No sir. Couldn't have stopped Dutch with a pickup truck when it came time to take positions."
young one.
The old raan tugged at his trousers. He didn't hear the question.
"Ah, boy," said the old man, "was Potty Clark fit to be tied that year. He found out about some of us planning to sneak outta the Eldridge and go to the rally. Higgy Higgins was the one who started it all, and he was the captain that year."
The old man was gleeful now. There were rallies in those days.
"Oh boy," he said, "did we ever miss a good one too. They say Virg Miller stood up and said it was all right to bring dates and all."
The old man paused, then roared, "but he said that if your girl was too timid to yell, beat her over the head with an umbrella or not," and moved on to mention to the fact that she was a Jawhawk."
The old man was laughing so hard that he began coughing. The young man stopped so he could rest. Then they started down the hill.
"He would let you have it all right," said the old man. "Wvig told me, we just couldn't have dates detracting from the fame of Kansas. And he knew too. That newspaper had been a hit out," cause when they came to Kansas they were gonna hear the best damned college
yell in the country, the old Rock-Chalk-
lery really let you on it." The young man smiled.
"Do you have rallies like that?" asked the old man.
"Rallies. sir?" said the young man.
Raines, sir.' said the young man.
"Oh lordy," said the old man. "Enormous before you. Put up the night before. The women were on the first floor with their tumbling and building pyramids and having' kitten beds and such. The menfokel, well, they'd be up on the second floor for the boxing and wrestling matches. Then they'd all meet outside for ol' Potys's speech. I never heard him, but they say he was as good in the locker room. Course I don't believe them. He never got mad at a rally, I betcha."
Suddenly the old man stopped. He looked at the young man, "Say, boy," asked the old man, "What happened to the decorations?" He said, "the young one." "Not relevant."
"Well," said the old man, "what about the Turkey Run, and the Law School-Med School football game, and the KU KU Klub street dance and . . ."
The young man shook his head.
"Himm," the old man looked down at the stadium as he thought a moment. "I knew you weren't supposed to paddle the boat, but what do you do for homecoming anyway?"
Griff and the Unicorn
"Homecoming, sir?" asked the young man.
By Sokoloff
F H
(C) 1972, Universal Press Syndicate
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