Pace ?
University Daily Kansan
Fridav. May 12. 1961
The Soviet Goal
There seems to be a great deal of confusion among the United States and its allies at present as to what the Soviet Union will do in the troubled spots of the world. Does the Kremlin really want an armistice in Laos? Will it carry out its threat to use missiles against the United States if the U.S. intervenes in Cuba? Does the Kremlin intend to sign a peace treaty with East Germany and give it control of the air and land routes to West Berlin?
These questions and others like them would be much less difficult to decide if we kept the basic tenets and patterns of Soviet foreign policy in mind. The basic goal of Soviet foreign policy can be summarily denoted with one word: expansion. The communist created hot spots that presently confront the United States and its allies are merely individual cases which represent an effort to achieve that basic goal. They are different only in the method that is being used to reach the goal.
The methods can all be placed under two broad classifications: military force and subversion. In Laos Communist guerrillas are being used to seize the country. Cuba has been drawn into the Communist net by economic and military aid, with strong assistance from local Reds.
The location of these two countries is significant. Laos borders the Communist bloc, while Cuba is thousands of miles from it. The point
worth noting here is the pattern of military aggression in countries bordering the Communist bloc and the subversion in countries which are not adjacent to it. There are, of course, many cases that fit into this pattern. Korea, India and Viet Nam all are countries bordering the Communist bloc. All have been the spot of aggression by communist troops or guerrillas. Cuba and some of the new African states are being tied to the communist bloc with military and economic aid administered by great numbers of "advisers." And naturally, the local communist parties are extremely active.
The communist maneuvers are conditioned by how the Kremlin thinks the United States and its allies will react. But the basic pattern remains the same. Thus, while Russia may agree to negotiations in Laos because of the threat of U.S. or SEATO intervention, it has established a foothold in that country from which it can continue aggression later or engage in a campaign of subversion to overthrow the present government.
If we keep these things in mind when judging Soviet moves in the international arena, the task becomes less complicated. Difficulties may arise in understanding how some new move intends to further the Kremlin's goal, but we must realize the goal itself never changes.
William Mullins
Arabs Criticized
Twice this past Sunday the Arab students used campus activities as a springboard for their nationalistic propaganda. At a People-to-People forum on the Eichmann case a bloc of Arab students brought up, in a rather hysterical manner, the political disagreements between Israel and its Arab neighbors. I cannot see the connection between the Arab-Israeli dispute and the Eichmann case.
I would suggest that the Arab students keep their propaganda restricted to their own sphere of interest and not interfere with the serious discussions of others.
The other incident concerns itself with the foreign students' fashion show also held on Sunday. Some Arab coed paraded herself on a stage in a costume supposedly representative of a state called "Palestine." I know of no contemporary state called "Palestine." Where is this state and who are its legal representatives? If the Arab students are referring to the now defunct British mandate territory they ought to be informed that part of this territory is now the legally recognized state of Israel. The remainder of the old mandate area has been annexed to
Dailu Hansun
UNIVERSITY
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904,
triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
Telephone VIkring 3-2700
Extension 711, news room
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... Letters ..
Egypt and Hashemite Jordan. "Palestine" is a fiction of Arab nationalism.
Morad Ghodooshim
Isfahan, Persia, junior
Robert M. Hersaberg
N.Y.C. senior
Ira Wolinsky
N.Y.C. graduate
Critic Criticized
Dear Editor:
I'd like to point out to Mr. Wrightson who wrote you protesting against stories and editorials about Fraser Hall coming down and Ann Landers being criticized that it's refreshing to read once in a while what is actually going on in a University.
I'm a transfer from another university where the paper apparently printed only what made the place look good to the public. Everything was public relations stuff.
My old school was the greatest; the faculty was tops; the president a generous, brilliant man; the students were smart. devoted to their work and studied every night. At least that's what the paper said. Someone came to speak . . . it was accepted at its face value; it had to be good since the university had invited the speaker. Everyone was proud of our great school.
Trouble is everybody knew it was a fraud perpetrated by narrow-minded people who had no idea that the University is a place of excitement, battle, strivings and failures. So I say to Mr. Wrightson that the only people who fear criticism, the only ones who want to keep the place under glass as a museum piece aren't very good educators.
Never any criticism. Never any looking deeply into what made the place tick. We were the best.
(Name withheld by request)
The Liberal Ax
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1. The cheapest form of criticism is that which hides behind the cloak of anonymity. If you have the courage of your convictions, boy, then speak up. Declare yourself! Only a Johnnie Bircher, or some other such creature, would act like that.
This is in reply to the anonymous letter criticizing the "NSA fiasco at MU." There are four things I should like to say to Mr. "Name Withheld by Request":
3. We don't claim to be 100 per cent representative of the opinion of the student body. No group ever is. All we can do is try, to the best of our ability, to be as representative as possible — whether this implies conservatism, liberalism, or what have you.
2. You must not have read the paper very well — the convention was right here in your own back yard. Any KU student who so desired was encouraged to sit in on all our discussions and plenary sessions. As for your monetary concern, the KU delegates paid their registration fees out of their own pockets.
4. Never criticize something unless you can offer something better in its place.
Carol McMillen NSA Coordinator P.S. Just how would you define a "moderate?"
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS
"HE NOT ONLY GIVES A LOUSY LECTURE — BUT HE EXPECTS YA TO TAKE NOTES ON EVERYTHING THEY HAS"
From the Newsstand
Against the Ph.D
The Ph.D. degree, that most coveted and most criticized symbol of American scholarship, once again faces merciless attack at the hands of a distinguished Ph.D., Prof. George Boas. "My criticism of the Ph.D. is that he usually is not a great scholar. * * * He is simply a person who has passed certain tests which test endurance, assiduity, and a faculty's charity." Professor Boas, emeritus professor of the history of philosophy at the Johns Hopkins University, writes in the current issue of Pitt, alumni magazine of the University of Pittsburgh.
In fact, Professor Boas' criticism of the Ph.D. in the humanities—he concedes that there may be greater value in the equivalent degree in the sciences—goes beyond academic polemics. He points to the French doctorate thesis, usually produced at age 40 or later, as mature work "which his colleagues can use." By comparison, he rejects the concept of the American or of its parent, the German, Ph.D. thesis.
"Who in the world ever used an American Ph.D. thesis?" he asks. "The theses for the most part are not even published, which is a blessing, and those that are serve little purpose . . . The young man who has written a really good one normally takes ten years or so after getting his degree to rewrite it and fill it out with substance."
Professor Boas suggests as a remedy that, in the humanities, the accreditation boards abandon the degree and "simply certify that a man has taken three years of graduate work and knows how to read two foreign languages—and really see to it that he can actually read them."
(Reprinted from The New York Times April 16, 1961.)
Academic freedom is not an end in itself . . . Nor is education . . . Both are means to a greater end, the fostering of greater and more effective utilization of knowledge and thought.—Erwin N. Griswold
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You do not beat a competitor simply by deploring him, but by outdoing him—Neil H. McEliroy