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University Daily Kansan Tuesday, April 25. 1961
Regardless of the Peril
What happened in Cuba last week was bad. It was a miscalculation that failed for the United States and the Cuban patriots. The greatest consequence was that it provided grist for the hostile propaganda mills of communism, especially the one in Cuba.
The criticism is getting out of hand, however, for the enterprise is now made to look like a personal setback for President Kennedy, the CIA, and America. The fact that we partially armed and based the rebels was never much of a secret but that we "imperialists," "colonialists," and "aggressors" planned the whole affair and carried it out is ridiculous. Our arms, yes, but there was no Cuban blood spilled by Americans on the beaches.
Throughout certain parts of the world the cry is being made that the United States was thwarted by Castro in its attempt to take over the island. Even some releases from Washington take the tone that this is another U-2 affair and that we have lost face again.
LET'S KEEP IN PERSPECTIVE THAT IT was Cubans landing at the Isle of Pines; Cubans killing Cubans, and Cubans fighting to overthrow Castro. The fact that there are more than 40,000 exiles in Florida is difficult to distort. The exiles couldn't all be disenfranchised land owners or Batistianos as Castro proclaims to the world. These are members of the middle class who financed, supported, and held high positions in the 26 July revolt—doctors, judges, lawyers, engineers, teachers and businessmen. The U.S. consular office in Havana issued 1600 visas a week before it closed on Jan. 3 and 52,000 applications were backlogged.
America played no part in this exodus from the island, and its position on aiding the counter-
"... if the nations of this hemisphere should fail to meet their commitments against outside communist penetration—then, I want it clearly understood that this government will not hesitate in meeting its primary obligations which are to the security of our own nation."
revolutionaries was made clear by the starkly simple, yet remarkably forceful statement;
This was John F. Kennedy speaking to the American Society of Newspaper Editors in Washington on Friday. It was a message that was reassuring and long needed. We have an interest in Cuba and we will do all possible to protect that interest.
Just as we entered the age of space in the '50s, so too did we enter a new age of warfare one of subversion, deceit and the slow annihilation of man's rights. We have seen this new warfare work 90 miles off the Florida coast. What greater warning should there be?
WHAT ARE OUR INTERESTS? THE PRESERVATION of this life we lead is our major interest, and we now know that to have it crushed, a single shot need not be fired, a single missile need not be launched, nor a single landing by an enemy need not be made.
The time to wait and watch for that thin red line to come over the hill before we fire is gone. The oozing tide of communism has reached this hemisphere and threatens this country. We have to act now. To worry over the interests of the demented Cuban dictator is to forsake our own.
It could not have been stated better than:
"Let me then make clear as President of the United States that I am determined upon our system's survival and success, regardless of the cost and regardless of the peril."
Frank Morgan
Texans Want Help Dear KU Students, Professors, and Citizens:
We ask your help.
The DAILY TEXAN, student newspaper of the University of Texas, refused to print this letter due to a conservative Southern censorship policy.
Austin, Texas, is ready for further integration of public facilities and business establishments. Many restaurants are open to Negroes, as are predominantly white churches and civic organizations. The University of Texas has been integrated since 1956, with no racial violence whatsoever.
But our theaters refuse to open their doors to Negroes. The theater managers refer us to Mr. Leonard Goldenson, President of ABC Paramount, 7 West 66th Street, New York 23, New York, in whose hands the decision rests.
Since last November as many as 600 students and citizens in a single day have stood in protest lines in front of the theaters three times a week. We are using every peaceful,
Dailu hansan
FOR MORE THAN two years Mr. Goldenson has refused the persistent requests of hundreds of Austin residents.
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904,
trilweekly 1908, dally Jan. 16, 1912.
Telephone VIkng 3-2700
Extension 711, news room
Extension 376, business office
Member Inland Daily Press Association. Associated Collegiate Press. Represented by National Advertising Bureau of 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 Saturday and Sunday and examination periods. Second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kansas.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
NEWS DEPARTMENT
John Peterson ... Managing Editor
EDITORIAL DEPTMENT
Frank Morgan and
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
John Massa    Business Manager
iawful means of protest available to us.
Can you help us?
Inform Mr. Goldenson of ABC Paramount at the above address of your decision to patronize only theaters which belong to integrated chains.
SEND A DOLLAR, or as much as you can afford, to help buy a full page advertisement in the New York Times, protesting Mr. Goldsmons's segregation policy, and to aid us in bringing integration to Austin, and to Texas.
Send your contributions to Students for Direct Action, 2844 Shoal Crest, Austin, Texas.
Chandler Davidson President, S.D.A. University of Texas Austin, Texas
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UN Coverage Bad
The news coverage of the Model United Nations by the UDK was indeed a poor mark for journalism. Not only did the UDK print absolutely erroneous information but failed to scratch the surface of the real work of the Model United Nations assembly.
To begin with the Ghaniian resolution did not give control of the U.N. forces in the Congo to Belgium as you stated in the issue of April 14. Such a statement would make the Model U.N. appear as ridiculous to anyone with knowledge of the Congo situation. You also failed to report the Australian amendment to that resolution which removed any specific reference to Belgium from the resolution.
SECONDLY. THE Brazilian move of incompetence of the general assembly was not meant as any condemnation of the U.N. as you left readers to assume by your lack of full coverage of that situation. The Brazilian delegation, along with the entire Latin American bloot sought to keep the problem in the O.A.S.
Furthermore, the African resolution for reorganization of the Security Council did pass. You reported on April 17 that it had failed. It also enlarged the council to 13 non-permanent members and not 12 as you mentioned. Nor did the assembly ever "kill" a resolution on an election of the Chinese people. The assembly simply refused to bring the resolution up for debate at that time.
THERE WERE also various other small mistakes that could have been made innocently. One such was reporting that the Soviet bloe was applauding the anti-communist demonstration. They were actually applauding a Russian speaker who was denouncing the demonstration from the floor. I suppose if someone only knew half of what was going on that mistakes could have been made.
I feel many things could have been avoided if the paper had bothered to print some of these resolutions in complete form and bothered to interview some of the participants at the radio station to present the readers with some reasons for the action of the Assembly. The few quotes that were used were all but irrelevant to the important debate.
WHEN HUNDREDS of students have put in hours and weeks of preparation I feel their efforts should require much more attention and responsible coverage by our only newspaper. The Model United Nations is a wonderful experience and this year's assembly deserved praise and credit.
The Kansan has left much to be desired of a good newspaper in its trust to transmit news to the readers. I doubt if anyone gained anything from your U.N. stories except perhaps an editorial opinion the event wasn't worthwhile. I feel if facts had been accurately reported your readers would disagree.
Congratulations to the Steering Committee and the KU-Y for its second success with a Model U.N.
Pat Piggott
Chairman of the Brazilian delegation
Kansas City, Mo., junior
"I have driven out the hordes of American invaders..."
From the Magazine Rack
Democracy at Oxford
Norman Mackenzie writes: Though senior members of the university have been preoccupied with the poetry election this week, the row about the "Isis" has been forced on their attention. For the proctors' censorship of the series of reviews of lectures has become something more than an argument about good taste in undergraduate journalism.
A GOOD MANY DONS are critical both of the manner of the proctors' action—which is alleged to have violated university protocol—and of the action itself, and one group of critics has this week publicly declared its opposition. The more interesting development, however, is among the undergraduates, who are now being asked to support a representative council which could express their views to the senior members in Congregation.
Though the "Isis" articles were provocatively intended to attract attention, they made a perfectly fair point: there is dissatisfaction among undergraduates about the teaching system in general and lectures in particular. And when they evoked yet another of the rows with the proctors that have been a pattern for the last three years, it was felt that some more effective means of protest was needed than to pass resolutions in the political clubs. This week, therefore, with the support of several presidents of JCRs, the presidents of the Conservative, Liberal and Labour clubs, all the university magazine editors and the president, treasurer and librarian of the Union, a formal proposal has been made to set up an undergraduate council.
IF THIS MEETS WITH sufficient support a meeting will be called next week to establish a body of this kind, which would express undergraduate opinion on such diverse matters as university regulations, teaching methods, the provision of lodgings and library facilities. The idea is that it should be composed of the president and one other member from each JCR, the editors of the principal undergraduate publications, and the presidents of the political clubs.
This would still be an indirect form of democracy, but it would be a beginning. And, as it is modestly proposed that it should meet only twice a term, and should have power merely to make recommendations to the senior members with whom it would discuss matters of common interest, it may succeed in getting fairly wide approval. The winds of change are beginning to blow even through Oxford.
(From "New Statesman," Feb. 10, 1961.)
Worth Repeating
It is not as if the system required one to be a great scholar, or a good scholar, or even a scholar at all: it only requires that one produce research, which being translated means publish papers. Their contents should be in a certain form and they should be documented and if possible accurate—that is all. Thought, relevance to the interests of any other human being, engaging exposition or lucidity of prose are not mentioned among the specifications. The papers are merely asked for as evidence of professional discipline justifying one's existence—and promotion. And at the same time, "research" can be given as an excuse for neglecting the interests of students or of the university. The modern teacher flees to the library and cries "research" as the medieval thief fled to the church and cried "sanctuary." Thereafter both are untouchable by law or society. Jacques Barzun