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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, Feb. 19, 1958
To Counter Red Propaganda
(Editor's Note: The following editorial is condensed from an article by Harrison Salisbury, of the New York Times, who won a Pulitzer Prize for articles based on his six years as a Times' Russian correspondent.)
The Soviet earth satellites and the rapidly moving events that have followed confront the United States with possibly the gravest propaganda crisis since America became a world power. The launching of our own "moon" has by no means halted the march of Soviet propaganda.
From Congress and the American public an urgent demand has arisen for the administration to put in operation a new aggressive program to carry the message of democracy and freedom to the world.
But certain prerequisites must be met. Unless we take care to found our new propaganda upon the solid granite of well-conceived policy; unless we understand the complex interrelations of propaganda forces in the world today; unless we know what propaganda is and what it is capable of achieving, there is little chance that we will succeed in fashioning an information policy that can serve as the valued arm of foreign relations which we need.
Indeed unless we act with greater wisdom than in the past we may find ourselves unwittingly helping the Soviet propagandists.
Our scientists have shown their ability to counter the Soviet technological challenge. But our statesmen have not yet demonstrated that they can cope with the political aspects of the
new space age. We have enormous reserves of goodwill throughout the world-far vaster than any Moscow can command.
Why is it that we reacted explosively to the sputnik whereas the previous danger signals made no impact? The explanation seems to lie in a public attitude caused and conditioned by a dangerous flaw in our own propaganda-a flaw that created a delusive idea of vastly superior American force which persisted until it was punctured by Sputnik I.
The root of the trouble goes back to 1945 and the explosion of the first atom bombs.
So successful was the American bomb and its propaganda that, even after Russia began to produce her own nuclear weapons in 1949, popular Russian fears of American A bombs diminished very little. Because the propaganda of the Soviets had been so false, Russians gradually stopped believing it—even when it was true.
Both logic and reason have little effect upon shock conditions. We proclaimed our fears to the world and it was this hyper-reaction which gave the real momentum to the Soviet propaganda. We ourselves inflicted the worst blows on our international prestige—blows the Kremlin was incapable of administering.
We must at all costs avoid future self-injury. Effective propaganda must be founded upon realistic assessment of our strength relative to that of the Soviet Union.The facts must be ascertained and accepted at home before we begin to proclaim them to the world at large.
DR. H. R. WILLIAMS, OPTOMETRIST
DR. H. R. WILLIAMS, OPTOME
Formerly of Pittsburg, Kansas
Wishes to Announce
the new location of his office at
10211/2 Massachusetts
Lawrence, Kansas
Phone VI 3-7255
Patronize Daily Kansan Advertisers—They Are Loyal Supporters.
Sputnik Spurs U.S. Education
We owe the Russians a lot. Since Sputnik first entered the air, Americans have become increasingly education-conscious. You used to be called a "square" if you dared risk popular opinion to mention such words as books or studies. Now anything with the slightest relationship to education is as electric a topic as the Sputnik itself.
The new crusade which simply asked for federal aid for science education has expanded to include everything from demands for emphasis on humanities and languages to educating the folks at home. Here are some of the comments around the country:
Roscoe Drummond—"Why are the Soviets startling the world with their scientific achievements today? The answer goes back to the Russian classroom. All Soviet students graduating from the 10th grade in 1955 had completed five years of physics, four years of chemistry, six years of foreign language and five years of mathematics above the arithmetic level."
William A. Caldwell, Hackensack, N. J. Bergen Evening Record "Indeed there is something we can do about Sputnik. We can proclaim 'Be
Herb Graffis-"If the teachers come up with a system for teaching science that becomes as popular with the kids as the current plan requiring the minimum of mental effort the country will have scientists by the millions. ...
"Scientists are valuable. But so are barbers, truck drivers, mechanics, cooks, printers, tailors, plane pilots and a few hundred more categories of workers."
—Carol Stilwell
Kind to Egghead Week.' We can stop believing that when our kids are taking lessons in dancing, diving, life adjustment, and candy-bar peddling they're doing as much for themselves as are the silent thousands in Russian libraries soaking up hungrily the lore and rigors of scientific method."
Edward Crankshaw—"It is quite right that they should turn out more of these (scientists, technologists, and engineers) than Britain and America, already highly developed countries. We need nothing like the same proportion of scientists.
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LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS
By Dick Bibler
0. 21
Cauliflower, the "cabbage with a college education," is recorded in human history as early as the 6th century B. C. It is the archeologist of the cabbage family because of its sensitivity to climate, difficulty of culture, and relatively high price.
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