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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday, January 7,1969
Opinion forum
ROTC-right to kill?
KU's ROTC program should be retained.
It should be retained with all of its hues of red, white and blue intact.
As the earnest State Rep. Ben Foster, R-Wichita, has pointed out so eloquently, ROTC is needed to maintain the vast military of these great States. One can certainly see how Foster would consider an investigation into this American program as . . . well, it's un-American, that's what it is.
The idea that anyone would question the rights of KU men to learn the techniques of war is an outrage.
We demand the right to learn to kill, so that when our time comes to claim our right to kill, we'll be ready to serve our flag. We demand the right to learn the ways our forefathers used to get the world into the shape it's in.
Let the damned liberals say what they will, muttering things like that Adlai Stevenson did: "For it is often easier to fight for principles than to live up to them." Now, does that really make any sense at all? Haven't we always put our principles on the battlefield?
Let's not listen to those low-rent pleas for the rights of Vietnamese to live. What's that right compared to our right? Our right to kill? We earned our right through war after war and many a valiant American boy died fighting for that right and I call any man a traitor who defends foreigners against Americans.
War has always existed, you fools, and it always will. It should be plain by now that the good Lord himself must've wanted wars on this
earth of his or he wouldn't have let so many of them happen.
Oh, don't let anyone say I like war. No one likes war, but when you got a job to do, you do it. You don't ask questions. You put your faith in the men in Washington, because, after all, we elected them to do the job. When they say fight, they got reasons to say fight. If they don't tell us why we're fighting, they've got some real good reasons. Maybe that Ho Chi Minh fellow made some personal type threat to the men in Washington.
Yes, we gotta maintain the military on KU's campus so we don't let our heads get above the hard facts.
Yes, KU's ROTC program must be maintained as a link in the chain of protectives against the world's evils.
Besides all that, we need to remember that there is more to life than scholasticism and parties. We need those ROTC uniforms on campus to remind everyone that there's a war over there. Elsewise, college students are likely to start thinking those idealists they read about are really real.
We need to keep reminding these booky students that reality isn't Thoreau, Schweitzer or Gandhi. Reality is MacArthur, Churchill and Westmoreland.
Where were them idealist fellows when there was fightin' to get done? They was nestled over their silly books and everyone knows books don't win wars.
Yes, we need to keep ROTC to help Uncle Sam teach them commies to be free.
Mike Shearer
KU and housing
By WILLIAM BALFOUR, Dean of Student Affairs
Question: What is the University involvement in off-campus housing?
Answer: The University maintains a list of available housing in 226 Strong Hall for those who may live off-campus. This list is made up of apartments, rooms, etc., whose landlords have indicated in writing that they will not discriminate. This is a listing only, and does not imply that any inspection has been made of the facilities offered. The University, at present, does not have the capacity to inspect the spaces available for the some 6,000 students who do not live in residence halls, fraternities, or sororities.
The University is concerned that the student who chooses to live off campus becomes aware of safety and health factors which are important for any living situation. The Off-Campus Housing Committee, with the assistance of a group of students through the ASC and People-to-People organization have recently made available to anyone summaries of the Lawrence Minimal Housing Code which details the physical facilities of a dwelling that should be noted by the student who wishes to rent. These forms are available in the Offices of the Dean of Student Affairs. The forms, of course, are also available to those who are now living off campus who may wish to familiarize themselves with minimal standards as far as health and safety factors are concerned. In case violations of the Housing Code are present most landlords, of course, wish to be notified immediately and discussions should ensue between tenant and landlord. If the student feels that the situation has not been corrected within a reasonable length of time, a complaint may be brought to the Off-Campus Housing Committee who will forward it to the administration of the City of Lawrence for action.
It is equally important that the student carry out all his parts of the agreement between him and the landlord. The University is willing to help in any way that it can in any difficult situation that may arise between tenant and landlord, but it must be realized that the Univeristy has no jurisdiction for off-campus housing and can act only in an advisory capacity. The student who chooses to live off campus must assume the responsibilities necessary, and the University can do no more than make as available as possible the facts that the students would consider in choosing a place to live.
Letters to the Editor
ROTC defended by Vietnam veteran
To the Editor:
I have read the many letters lately on the new left and the right of students to take ROTC for credit. It seems the people who back the New Left and denounce the ROTC program are being a bit ridiculous.
The New Left demands an end to White racism in such a way as to make way for black racism such as that advocated by Stokely Carmichael and others. Have they forgotten the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King to destroy racism in all shapes and forms? The New Left, a definite minority, demands this and demands that. The one thing they really want seems to be to destroy this country. They want to get rid of the police because some cop in Chicago who hadn't
had any sleep for three days was a bit free with his club. That's exactly the same logic behind racism—one or a small group is bad, therefore, all are bad.
Then there is the ROTC bit. The letter from the law student in the December 13 Kansan makes it sound like the only purpose of the military in this country is to kill, kill, kill. I was in the Army for two years and in Vietnam for one year. I never killed anyone. Luckily, I never had to, but I probably would have if it meant saving the lives of several close friends.
It might interest a few people to know that there are more manhours and money spent on building hospitals and schools, treating ill Vietnamese, and giving them all sorts of farming aid
and equipment than in all our military operations. And the greater part of the money and labor comes from the American military man. Perhaps a few people should go to Vietnam and look at the villages that have been destroyed by the Communists because one man refused to be a slave to them, or the "military targets" of the Communist mortar and rocket attacks, i.e., the residential districts of Saigon and 25 other cities on south Vietnam, or perhaps the orphanage that the communists attacked during the Tet Offensive last February.
I'm sick of people condoning the atrocities of the communists just because they object to our being in Vietnam to begin with. I'm praying for peace as much as
anyone else, but peace isn't going to come just because we quit.
It seems to me that the situation that some people want to put our country in is the following: First, let the students take over the colleges; then, get rid of all our police; next, we repeal all laws; then we throw out all our weapons and do away with our Army, Navy, and Air Force; and finally we throw away all forms of government. That's what some of the leaders want who say they are "not Communists, but are liberators of the poor and the minority groups."
I believe in equality, I hate the type of thing that George Wallace stands for, and I'm in favor of changes from the present state of affairs, but I'd like to
point out that another man was expressing the same thing in his country only ten years ago. He was not a Communist, but a "liberator." His name was Fidel Castro. Need i say more?
Harold R. Smith El Dorado junior
A student newspaper serving the University of Kansas, Lawrence,
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