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University Daily Kansan Wednesday. Oct. 5, 1960
A Widening Rift
Last week the People's Republic of China celebrated its 11th anniversary as an independent Communist nation — and once again shook a mailed fist at the West.
The celebration this year was little different from the blatant 1959 display of raw military power and the inflammatory propaganda accompanying it. On the surface, anti-Western sentiment was at the same rolling boil, and the Red Chinese leaders still appeared to give the impression of cohesion with other Socialist states against the world menace of Capitalism.
ONE SLIGHT BUT IMPORTANT DIFFERENCE could be noted. This difference could yet spell the end of the unity so necessary to both the Soviet Union and Red China.
When Khrushchev spoke at last year's celebration, he said he and President Eisenhower had "frankly discussed big problems which we must solve and tried to create an atmosphere for cooperation and peaceful coexistence, thereby contributing to . . . peace."
This was a bitter pill for the Chinese leaders to swallow. There were grumblings at the conciliatory line Khrushchev had taken, and even mutterings of "revisionist," but Mao took his medicine dutifully — for awhile.
NOW THE CHINESE HAVE BROKEN FROM the Kremlin ideology and reasserted their absolute belief in the teachings of Lenin and Marx. They have repudiated the doctrine of coexistence and have set Mao above Khrushchev as the model Communist theorist.
This is not surprising. Red China is a new nation, and still remembers bitterly the 22 years of internal struggle it experienced before the present government deposed Chiang. The revolutionary spirit burns brightly, and the fires are fed by the massive propaganda campaign against
the West and its allies. The fact of the revolution, and not what it will lead to, is still uppermost in the minds of the new generation now rising to power. That generation bought their beliefs with their blood, and did so according to Lenin and Marx.
BUT THE REASON FOR MAO'S REJEC tion of coexistence as a workable policy and his violent insistence on preserving revolutionary ardor among the proletariat is not simply that his will is the reflection of the people's. There is a deeper, less idealistic reason. He knows he must maintain a strict party discipline and continue to weld the proletariat together in the flame of continuing revolution or risk failure of his cherished "Great Leap Forward." The brutal and degrading commune system, the merciless work day, the shortages of food — these would destroy his program almost instantly if the revolutionary goals of Marx and Lenin were softened, altered toward peaceful intercourse with other nations. Without the fictional threat of imperialism, without the urgency of need that threat presents, his plan would be impossible. Is it any wonder then that peaceful coexistence finds little favor with those who rule the most populous nation on earth?
And so Red China reaffirms its belief in the class war, and rejects the idea that peaceful coexistence has any meaning for the true revolutionary. Most of their attacks are directed against the Yugoslav revisionists, but the implications are clear. Red China is no longer in complete agreement with the Soviet Union, and the gap appears to be widening day by day. If there is hope for the West that the unity of this most powerful alliance can be shattered, it lies, to a great degree, in the increasing ideological distance between Moscow and Peiping.
Bill Blundell
OCEAN'S 11; GRANADA: COLOR
Frank Sinatra gathers a few on the Clan around him in this one, but the result falls considerably short of entertainment. Most of the boys spend their time talking out of the sides of their mouths and peering suspiciously around corners in one of the most poorly staged movies of the year. Even the talents of Sammy Davis Jr. and Joey Bishop — as little of their talents as are displayed, anyway— fail to redeem this film.
At the Movies
The plot is ingenious. Sinatra plays Danny Ocean, a high-living ex-sergeant who leads a lightning raid on the gambling casinos lining the strip in Las Vegas. His side-kicks are all old Army buddies who, for the most dramatic and improbable reasons, join him in the effort. These include Peter Lawford, who does as well as can be expected with a miserable "part; Richard Conte, who manages a suspicious squint throughout the entire picture for some kind of world record; and the Messrs. Davis and Bishop. The latter is the man to
pity in this picture. One of the sharpest off-the-cuff wits in the entertainment world, Bishop barely enunciates an intelligent line, much less a witty one. Perhaps the limitations of his part were responsible for the solemn, strained look he wore for two weary hours.
The bandits, having cased the job in detail, move in on Vegas. There they escape with millions from five casinos during the New Year's Eve festivities, which provide a cover for the operation. But they run afoul of Cesar Romero, who was never toothier, playing a big-timer with connections. He tracks the loot to the coffin of one of the group who died after the robberies, but he and the swashbuckling band are both denied the money in a bizarre twist ending.
The plot at least shows a smidgm of originality, but the morass of trite dialogue and wildly improbable incidents through which it is channelled rob the moviegoer of its effect. At times the pace is unbearably slow because the makers evidently felt they had to take the time to cram in all the cute dialogue they could between action sequences. They also inject a half-finished triangle into the plot, involving Sinatra, Angie Dickinson and Patrice Wymore. The ladies strive valiantly, but at the end of the picture we can only wonder why they ever bothered.
The actors are in over their heads in dramatic (?) roles, and are seldom permitted to exercise their special talents. One exception is Dean Martin, who is rooted behind a piano most of the time, meaning "Ain't love a kick in the head." After two hours, the viewer would like to do just that to Mr. Martin.
The film does have glitter. Set in the plush gambling hells of Las Vegas, it gives the moviegoer an inside look at the Desert Inn, the Sands, the Sahara, and others. The decor and the festive crowds add a welcome touch of color and gaiety, and a brief high spot occurs when Sammy Davis Jr. breaks into a song routine. But for the most part, this is a sterile, contrived film. One gets the feeling that the makers deliberately padded the plot in order to come up to acceptable feature length. If the film was half as long, it would have been twice as good.
Daily Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904, triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
Telephone Vlking 3-2700 Extension 711, news room Extension 376, business office
Bill Blundell
Member Inland Daily Press Association. Associated Collegiate Press. Represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50 St., New York 22, N.Y. News service: United Press International. Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $5 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays. University holidays and examination periods. Entered as second-class matter Sept. 17, 1910, at Lawrence, Kan., post office under act of March 3, 1879.
Managing Editor
Carol Heller, Jane Boyd and Priscilla Burton, Assistant Managing Editors; Pat Sheley and Suzanne Shaw, City Editors; John Macdonald, Sports Editor; Peggy Kallos and Donna Engle. Society Editors.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Rav Miller
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
John Peterson and Bill Blundell
John Peterson and Bill Blundell ... Co-Editorial Editors
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Mark Dull
Business Manager
Rudy Hoffman, Advertising Manager; Marlin Zimmerman, Promotion Manager; Milo Harris, National Advertising Manager; Mike McCarthy, Circulation Manager; Dorothy Boller, Classified Advertising Manager.
The Castro regime is rumorea to be trying to sell its sugar to the U.S.R.F. for less than what it cost the Cuban worker to produce it. Nikita may get the sweet stuff in his coffee, but it looks as if the Cuban worker won't be able to afford it.
Short Ones
Some psychologists report that Little League competition is responsible for the increase in adolescent neuroses. It's pitiful to think of all those kids brooding themselves sick over that bad pitch they threw to some 10-year-old slugger years before.
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After Nikita's table - pounding exhibition at the UN, we're surprised Ed Sullivan hasn't already tried to sign him up. We can visualize him pounding a conga drum for a dancing bear.
"—— WELL, HOW'S IT HAPPEN WE FIND YOU'TESTING' UNDER WATER EQUIPMENT ON TH' GIRLS' DAY FOR TH' POOL?"
From the Magazine Rack
New Soviet Policy
". . Only under Khrushchev has the Soviet Union begun deliberately to assert a world-wide role commensurate with its new power.
"He is repeating the same procedure in breaking U.S. control of Latin America by his support for Cuba, and in seeking the friendship of the African nationalists over the Congo crisis. He is traveling everywhere and threatening everywhere, and though he has sent no troops to Suez or the Lebanon, to Cuba or to the Congo, his travels and threats are more than mere propaganda — they are acts of the Soviet Government, calculated to force every leader of every country to take Soviet reaction into account on every issue. . . .
"We have become so used to thinking of the Soviet Union in terms of its rivalry with the U.S. in a two-power world — of the two military blocs and their nuclear stalemate, of the rivalry of the two economic systems, and the ideological struggle — that we tend to overlook the fact that throughout Stalin's lifetime the Soviet Union was far behind the U.S. in developing an effective world policy. The change under Khrushchev is so great that it may be compared with the gradual emergence of the U.S. from isolationism — its awakening to consciousness of its world-wide power and responsibilities, and its gradual assumption of world-wide commitments.
"Khrushchev believes in 'world revolution' far more than Stalin did, because he sees revolutionary changes in every continent. But he also sees the need to develop a world-wide policy in order to make sure that these changes really go in a Communist direction. To achieve this, he does not rely on local Communist propaganda alone, but feels strong enough to use the Soviet state."
"Recently one of Khrushchev's closest assistants in the Party leadership, Mikhail Suslov, coined the classical formula for Khrushchev's revival of Leninism. He said the time had now come, which Lenin foresaw, 'when the dictatorship of the proletariat transforms itself from a national force into an international force, meaning that it is able to exert decisive influence on world politics.' That is how Khrushchev sees his own role in history."
"Stalin was the architect of present Soviet power. His relentless slave-driving created the industrial base; his leadership survived Hitler's invasion; his occupation regime extended Soviet control to the center of Europe. Even the first Soviet atomic bomb was achieved and the hydrogen bomb begun under his aegis. But while he raised Russia to the strength of a world power, he never attempted to use this power outside the gradually expanding area where Soviet land armies could make their weight felt...
"Khrushchev, on the other hand, inherited the power and almost at once he broke with this "isolationist" tradition, developing new ambitions and accepting new commitments as a means of achieving them. He recognized the existence of uncommitted neutrals and proceeded to woo them. He developed foreign aid on the American model, but with Communist modifications, as a worldwide weapon of policy. He jumped across the established geographic frontiers into the Middle East by his arms deal with Gamal Abdel Nasser — and the Middle East, without becoming a Soviet sphere, ceased to be a Western preserve.
(Excerpted from an article "Today the World." by Richard Lowenthal in the Sept. 12, 1960, issue of The New Leader.)