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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday, October 29,1968
Humphrey and the campaign issues
Editor's note: This is the first part in a Kansan series on the three presidential candidates and their stands on issues of the times.
To glean from campaign rhetoric an easily discernible platform of views and positions is at best a dubious task. At worst, it represents a futile attempt to capture the elusive mercury of politics.
The uncertainty of determining exactly what a candidate is saying has been amplified this election year, largely because of the candidate's uncertainty of exactly what the electorate wants to hear. To analyze and then pigeonhole a general, pervasive national attitude this year has been well nigh impossible. The most recent polls, indicating fluctuations in the candidates' strength, would seem to bear this out. The strategy that worked early in the campaign may be wearing thin as the campaign reaches the homestretch.
Even more uncertain is whether a candidate will attempt, much less succeed, in initiating into action the programs he now advocates. With all these uncertainties in mind, the voter must try to determine exactly where a candidate stands on the issues, keeping in mind that the course of events or a perceived flucuation in the public pulse could alter that position.
VIETNAM-To date, the vice-president's position has been that which he spelled out in his Salt Lake City speech. At that time Humphrey said he would consider cessation of the bombing as an acceptable risk for peace. Humphrey said he would stop the bombing of the North if Hanoi showed evidence by "word or deed" of willingness to restore the demilitarized zone. However, he reserved the right to resume the bombing if Hanoi showed, what he termed, "bad faith."
The following is a condensation of the Humphrey position on some of the key issues of this presidential campaign.
Vice President Hubert Humphrey, more so than Richard Nixon, has had the task of orientating the American electorate to the issues. While this has always been a difficult task, it has been amplified this year by the emotional strains pervading the nation.
Beyond the emphasis of a bombing halt, the vice-president has said he would meet with the
Hubert Humphrey
leaders of South Vietnam to work out a timetable of American troop withdrawals, to de-Americanize the war.
In establishing a government in South Vietnam after the war, Humphrey has spoken out against Washington or Hanoi imposing a coalition government in South Vietnam. However, the vice-president says he will not oppose a South Vietnamese government which includes elements of the NLF should they be voted into office in a free election.
FOREIGN POLICY-While making it emphatically clear that he does not advocate isolationism, the Democratic candidate has called for a reevaluation of the U.S. position in the world. Humphrey says he would base international strategy on American moral leadership as well as economic and military leadership. He says he would emphasize working through the United Nations, strengthening and maintaining key alliances for mutual security, particularly NATO.
Humphrey was outspoken in urging congress to
ratify the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Also, Humphrey hopes to initiate talks with the Soviet Union which would lead to a freeze and reduction of offensive and defensive nuclear missiles systems.
LAW AND ORDER-In an interview with the Associated Press, Humphrey said he would advocate the following programs as President.
1. Increased federal aid to help states and localities to recruit, train, and pay the salaries of more policemen.
2. Expand federal, state and university programs for police training.
3. More assistance for local police to bring them the benefits of the nation's technology in areas such as communications and data processing.
4. Licensing and registration of firearms, by the Congress if the states fail to act.
5. Assistance to courts in expanding the number of court personnel and in reducing the back-log of cases.
6. Federal aid to correctional institutions to expand the numbers and training of personnel to help rehabilitate offenders.
RACIAL DISORDERS—Humphrey has placed the emphasis on training and arrests, rather than on firearms in quelling racial disorders once they have erupted.
7. Co-ordinated action by all levels of government to deal with riots and similar violence, including use of local communities of well-trained National Guard units and federal troops. A massive federal, state and local assault on organized crime and drug pedaling.
The vice president has taken the position of increasing man-power rather than gun-power in a riot area. He also stresses advanced training, use of non-lethal weapons, and improved communication and co-ordinated movement between local, state and federal forces.
U. S. ECONOMY-The Democratic candidate indicates he believes that the surtax has already had an effect in curbing inflation. Humphrey cites a slackening of the rise in the price index as evidence and says generally that the economy is slowing down. Beyond this, the vice president has called for a flexible fiscal policy.
Richard Lundquist
Assistant Editorial Editor
Kansan Movie Reviewer Comic book for adults
By SCOTT NUNLEY
"Barbarella" is not so much a motion picture as it is a cinematic comic book for adults. But it is the better elements of the colorful pulps that have been captured: the vision of vast horizons, the pace of an episodic plot, and the wonder of the grand grotesque.
Whether "Barbarella" is a treat or a trick will depend upon the individual viewer's attitude toward just these elements. Seldom has that "willing suspension of disbelief" been more necessary-or more rewarding.
Not that "Barbarella" is "significant." Profound, rational messages are replaced by joyous mass-ages of delight. Communication is wide-open and constant, thanks to Director Roger Vadim's fine feel for the visual statement, but it is the communication of fun and feeling that he achieves.
The heart of Jean Claude Forest's French comic strip had, of course, been sex and sadism (a familiar modern formula). But its success had depended upon its size, upon the gargantuan proportions in which these elements had been realized.
With Terry Southern ("Dr. Strangelove," "Candy") as screenwriter and Roger Vadim as director, "Barbarella" could be transported to film with all that outrageous size intact. If anything, this Roman production's lavish special effects even outstrip the original comic's sense of the exaggerated.
Jane Fonda, in addition, brings to this movie the same whimsical sensitivity to a comedy of innocence and sensuality that she brought to the
uproarious "Cat Ballou." Without the unpretentious zest with which Fonda interprets the space-suited heroine, "Barbarella" would threaten to cloy.
From her opening zero-gravity striptease to her final fantastic escape, Barbarella herself is a giantess bouncing (niceiy) through a world of giant grotesques.
Her homey spacecraft, far from being a scientific "2001"-type vision, is an improbable nest of odd pink angles and unexplained (and rather mammalian) inflatable protrusions. Her sophisticated energy handguns are medieval in their gothic weight and ornament. Her allies and enemies are an unbelievable collection of angels and hedonists.
The unfortunate fact, then, that her mission is accomplished through the death of most of her friends becomes painless to contemplate. Nothing "real" is happening here, nothing that can be mis-applied to the viewer's own ground. The greatest suffering and disaster appear only for his momentary amazement.
John Phillip Law as a potentially-tragic blinded angel is the source of almost obscene innuendoes that arouse nothing more tragic than laughter. David Hemmings as the bumbling revolutionary has found an outlet for his impishness that Modred in "Camelot" so pitifully lacked.
Under the leadership of the Marvel Comics group, the kiddy literature is now tackling issues of justice and sanity which embrace Afro-heroes and psychedelic drugs. Such adult drives as sexuality and guilt are threatening to replace time-honored devotions to "The American Way."
Letters to the editor KU poet thanks
Thank you very much for your coverage of the reading of my poetry on October 24.
To the Editor:
Since, however, your note already prompted some people to address themselves to me with a question or two, allow me to make the following clear: I have no right to claim that I am the author of a hundred articles. The 100 articles which I had in mind are the critical reviews which together with 22 major essays and one scholarly paper constitute the literary criticism dealing with my poetry.
Allow me furthermore to express my gratitude to the organizers of the SUA Poetry Hour for their initiative in acquainting
our students with the verses of a Russian poet. The readings of my poems which I gave in twenty American universities have convinced me of the fact that many students in this country take a keen interest in Russian poetry despite the difficulties in understanding it due to its character so different from American and English poetry. Our meeting on October 24 confirmed, I am pleased to say, that there is the same interest among the students of the University of Kansas.
Sincerely.
Sincerely,
Ivor Chinnov
Associate Professor
Slavic Languages
and Literatures
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