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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday, November 12, 1968
Which way to peace?
During the past year, the American people have grown to consider the Vietnam war as an impossible war—impossible to win and almost impossible to lose gracefully. The current Paris peace talks and the bombing halt have offered at least a glimmer of hope that the United States will someday soon be able to get out of Vietnam.
However, Lt. General Lewis Walt, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, assured a Rotary luncheon audience yesterday that the United States had already won the war and now must just hold fast until the North Vietnamese give out and declare defeat.
The intelligence reports from the war haven't been quite this rosy. Walt asserted that the North Vietnamese have been chased out of South Vietnam and totally and completely defeated. "If they come back again, they'll get the hell knocked out of them again," Walt said.
Apparently the North Vietnamese haven't caught on to the fact yet that they are totally defeated.
However, the Associated Press reported yesterday that the North Vietnamese shelled provincial capitals and district towns in South Vietnam.
And despite the daily news reports of the defiance of the South Vietnamese and their refusal to participate in the Paris peace talks, Walt presented a glowing picture of the South Vietnamese government and of the country's affinity for the United States.
One of Walt's most telling statements was about the South Vietnamese and the future of the war.
"The day is coming when South Vietnamese
forces can take over from U.S. forces on the battlefield," he said.
Walt obviously doesn't think the end of the war is in the near future even though, according to him, the war is already won.
Richard Nixon became the president-elect of the United States last week supposedly because the American people want a change. And the biggest change they seem to want is the ending of the Vietnam war.
Walt's view of the war should give U.S. citizens a rather queasy feeling.
And will the United States be able to extract itself from the tentacles of the Vietnam problem if military commanders refuse to believe that the United States has not been completely victorious? Will the military finally agree to compromise? And will we work out peace in Vietnam over a conference table and not on the battlefield?
Will there be a quick ending of the war and even progress in the peace talks if generals such as Walt push for a continuance of battle until the North Vietnamese declare defeat?
The irony of today is that while we want peace and are endeavoring to negotiate in Paris, military commanders representing the United States in Vietnam still hold the opinion that this is a war to be won at any cost.
If the American people really want peace in Vietnam they had better keep close watch on those actually directing the war on the battleground.
Alison Steimel Editorial Editor
Quotes
WASHINGTON—Senate. Democratic leader Mike Mansfield, declaring he believes the United States should continue with the Paris peace talks with or without the participation of South Vietnam:
"I do not think the tail, so to speak, should wag the dog, and I hope this is understood in its proper sense."
Letter to the Editor Election
To the Editor:
The other day I read a poem, the title and author being irrelevant, which sounded strangely familiar.
. Some belike.
Groaning with restless enmity, expect
All change from change of constituted power;
As if Government had been a robe.
On which our vice and wretchedness were tagged Like fancy-points and with the ribs.
Pulled off at pleasure . . .
After reading these lines I was reminded all too well of last Tuesday night—watching Walter Cronkite announce the election returns—and the following Wednesday morning—listening to doleful predictions of a Nixon-Agnew administration. We haven't finished crucifying LBJ yet, and already we are ready and willing to blacken any hopeful prospects for change. And I wonder if feelings would be any different were our President-elect the "famous advocate of the "politics of joy?"
It seems to me the praise or blame for our country's fate lies much more with those who pulled the levers on November 5th than it does with the unlucky recipient of those votes.
fringes, with the robe
Sincerely,
Irreserly.
Barbara Lang
Tulsa senior
the rock hound
Soundtrack interesting
By WILL HARDESTY
YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT on Columbia might best be characterized by the term "interesting."
The album is part of the soundtrack of the movie by the same name. (Query: Has anyone ever actually seen YAWYE?) The album will never qualify as great, but will probably satisfy a lot of people just because of the number and variety of the performers recorded thereon. The album (let alone, I would suppose, the movie) has a cast of thousands.
Peter Yarrow, of P, P & M, directed the album and sings on four of its cuts. John Simon also produced the album and sings in five of its songs. Rosko does a funny and entertaining monologue. John Herold sings of "The Family Dog." Hasma El Din performs. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band plays a song, and The Electric Flag has a cut on the album.
Also included for those who have no musical taste at all and who have a perverted sense of humor is Tiny Tim. (I've often thought a good psychological torture would be to force someone to listen to a Tiny Tim-Mrs. Miller concert.)
With a cast like that, it would seem one would have a sure-fire winner. However, from the album at least, I see a lot of smoke, but find no definite trace of fire.
By TED BELL New York, N.Y. senior
Complaining has been, is and always will be, a favorite pastime for the newly-induced GI's, mothers-in-law and college students.
For the latter, the gripes vary from campus to campus but almost invariably include the great institutions of: (a) the lousy football or basketball coach; (b) the demagogues inside the administration building; (c) the dean of —; (d) the dorm food; (e) the keystone k Campus kops and parking regulations; (f) the filthy off-campus housing conditions and the evil landlords.
To the credit of those magnificent men and women who run Harvard-on-the Kaw, sincere efforts have been made to satisfy grumbling students with respect to these traditionals. But unfortunately the students themselves haven't been too helpful in solving at least one of their miseries, and, according to a Topeka senior, it really isn't their fault.
"Off-campus housing in Lawrence has drawn a great deal of criticism from students recently and quite a lot of it is justified. Many of these dissatisfied students want to help do something about improving the situation but almost all of them don't know how to go about it or even where to start."
The words are those of Frank Hummer, chairman of the People-to-People program at KU, and the idea of supplying the wanting information to off-campus students, who comprise some 50 per cent of the student body (not including Greeks), is his also.
Hummer first became aware of the plight of these independents last spring after the University Daily Kansan ran a series of articles on the subject. Since then he has formed an informal committee of six other students to look into the matter and compile a readable sort of information handbook.
The result has been a ten-page version of the Lawrence Minimal Housing Code and anti-discrimination City Ordinance No. 3749 with instructions on how to file a formal complaint with the University's Off-Campus Housing Committee and an analysis of what happens after the complaint has been filed.
The Housing Committee, comprised of Deans Balfour (chairman), Alderson, Taylor, and Director of Housing J. J. Wilson, have been effective in investigating complaints and passing on the information to the Lawrence building inspector and county sanitation officer. There has been at least one instance of a boarding house having to close up shop as a result.
But still, the committee has received few formal complaints in proportion to the number of substandard establishments in the city, particularly in East Lawrence.
The reasons why are speculative. The foreign student who usually suffers most because he arrives on campus later than American students and is left with a small choice of questionable dwellings, either seems afraid he will be kicked out into the street if he makes any attempt to complain or is unaware of the fact he has the right to protest and how to go about doing so. He sometimes even feels that if he causes any waves he will be sent back home on the next trump steamer.
Other students have said they are afraid that if the landlord is forced to make improvements, he will finance them by raising the rent.
So it would seem that the problem of substandard housing boils down to the question of whether students are willing to take the risk of doing something about their predicament or just sit around and complain that The Establishment is out to get rich on their monev.
Hummer and his associates will be handing copies of their efforts to students on the campus, landlords and even sticking them in mailboxes. Copies will be available in the offices of the dean of student affairs, dean of men and dean of women. Additional copies will be available in the People-to-People office, B 104 Kansas Union, and the Off-Campus Housing Office, 226 Strong.
The information and the instructions are available. If you want "to do something about it"-do it.
Frost pattern tells of winter's arrival
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