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Friday, November 30, 1973
University Daily Kansan
KANSAN
Editorials, columns and letters published on this page reflect only the opinions of the writers.
Nation of Paranoiacs
Ten years after Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy, many people still refuse to believe that one insane man, acting alone, committed the heinous crime.
Jim Garrison, the New Orleans district attorney who has an unsurpassed talent for becoming involved in sensational stories, investigated businessman Clay Shaw and others. Books and movies, purporting that Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and even Kennedy's widow and brothers were involved, have been consumed by a conspiracy-hungry public.
To some, it was a Communist conspiracy. To others, it was a fascist plot.
Whenever anything unexplained happens, Americans are quick to cry "Conspiracy!" We are a nation of paranoiacs. Instead of Zeus, Odin or black cats controlling our destiny, we think pinkos and cigar-smoking businessmen really run America.
Television's late movie Tuesday night was "The Brotherhood of the Bell," the fictional story of a nationwide white, Anglo-Saxon, protestant mafia organized through an obscure college in California. By remarkable but honest coincidence, the Kansan's front page the next morning confronted an exposure of a secretral organization called "Pachacamac," which has apparently been running the University of Kansas for several years.
Although there is considerable evidence to support the existence of Pach, the most damage it could
have accomplished would have been what a normal political party could have; elect its members to important offices.
Alleged members of Pach appear to be in key positions in such student governing bodies as the Student Senate. But, then again, the Student Senate has been about as effective as David Jaynes trying to block Dewey, Leroy and other members actually attend its meetings and, when they do, most of the night is filled with rhetoric, not action.
After all, Pach hasn't been accused on the laws of residence hells.
I wouldn't want to shock anyone, but there are many organizations like Pach at KU. And, like the people who belong to the organizations, their purposes range from the ridiculous to the sublime. But nearly all of the organizations, like the secret clubs of 10-year-olds, have little if any power.
Whether Pach, the Brotherhood of the Bell or the Mickey Mouse Club actually exist isn't the question. Rather, the question is, why do we think it's so terrible for them to exist?
Men have ambivalent feelings about secret organizations. On the one hand, they abhor them. On the other, they want to belong to them.
The last several millennia have seen great progress for mankind: No longer are we the heathens who worship strange gods. No longer are the ignorant masses who believe in witches and superstititions.
We have become our own gods,
our own witches.
—Eric Meyer
By Oct. 13, the Israelis had advanced as far as the high ground above the plain of Damascus, about 25 miles northwest of Tel Aviv, most of their army to the Egyptian front.
DURING THE FIRST WEEK of the war the Israelis concentrated their army in the north and pushed the Syrians out of the Golan Heights. The war was decided in favor of Israel Oct. 11. On that day Israeli broke through the Syrian lines and started to advance towards Damascus. The Syrians lost about 1,000 tanks, and the remnants of their army were retreating.
By HILLEL UNZ
During the second week of the war there were massive close range attrition tank battles on the Egyptian front near the Suez Canal. The conditions of battle were unfavorable to the Israeli armored forces, which excelled in mobility, daring tactics and close air-to-ground support. The Israeli command discovered to its surprise that the Americans centrate their attack in any one place, spread it all along the Suez Canal.
On Saturday, October 6, 1973, the holiest day of the Jewish religion, the Egyptian and Syrian armies invaded Israel in a well-coordinated attack on two separate fronts. Thus they broke the cease-fire agreements which have been in effect for several years, and the fifth Arab-Iraqian war in 28 years ended.
Taking the initiative on the night of Oct. 15, the Israelis sent a whole armored division to cut the Egyptian lines between the 2nd and the 3rd Egyptian armies and to establish a bridgehead on the west bank of the Suez River. The Israeli forces in Egypt command failed to realize this threat to its lines of communications.
An Overview of the Mid East War Can a Workable New Peace Be Established?
Most of the Syrian army with its force of 1,400 tanks attacked Israel in the Golan Heights in the north on a 35-mile front and advanced as far as 10 miles into Israel. The Egyptian army crossed the 100-mile Suez Canal with two armies, the Hizbullah and the Bar-Lev line and poured about 100,000 men and 1,200 tanks across the canal.
SOON AFTERWARDS two Israeli armored divisions crossed the canal and started to enlarge the bridge in all
Israeli air force attempts to cut down the bridges had failed because of the large number of ground-to-air Russian missiles on the Egyptian side of the canal. However, the Egyptians were unable to prevent a defense about 10 miles east of the canal on the three major passes leading into the Sinai desert.
The magnitude and the concentration of this sudden Arab invasion can be estimated by comparing the invasion of Russia by Nazi Germany on June 22, 1941. The total armor strength of the German army of 2,700 tanks was about twice that of the invasion of the 1200-mile Russian front.
directions at the back of the Egyptian army on the Egyptian side of the Suez Canal. These Israeli forces destroyed numerous Russian ground-to-air strikes, ground-to-air force to operate freely. They also cut the Egyptian supply lines from Cairo to Ismaili and sauw and pushed them out of the way away from the canal on a 40-mute front.
The Egyptian 3rd army of 20,000 soldiers and the city of Suez were surrounded. Only a very weak Egyptian tank columned and Guro-90 rows away.
The situation looked very serious to the Egyptian high command, and Egyptian President Sadat called on the Russians for immediate help in arranging a ceasefire. The Russians couldn't allow their Egyptian client to lose another war so totally as they did in 1967, so they threatened a direct military intervention with Soviet troops, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Moscow and a cease-fire in place was arranged by the United Nations Security Council on Oct. 22 and again on Oct. 24.
BOTH ISRAEL AND EGYPT suffered heavy losses in this war in men and equipment, with the total Egyptian losses reported to be about 1,000 tanks and the total Israeli troops set at about 800 tanks and armored vehicles.
Since the continuous cease-fire of several years originally was broken by Sadat's decision to invade Israel Oct. 6, it scarcely seems to matter whether Israeli forces surrounded the Egyptian 3rd army before the Oct. 22 cease-fire or immediately after it. It is much more important to understand the possibilities for a permanent peace arrangement in the Middle East between Israel and Egypt.
Sadat stated in an Oct. 16 speech that he would accept a permanent cease-fire and peace on condition that the Israeli forces would withdraw from the Sinai desert to the pre-June 5, 1977 line. This line is about 40 miles from Tel-Aviv and is very close to other major Israel sites. He would also give any depth to absorb the momentum of a surprise attack on Israel by the Egyptian large army.
IN TIMES OF PEACE Israel, a country of three million, keeps only a very small regular standing army. If Sadat's Oct. 6 invasion had started at始动 in September, the Israeli battles and artillery duels of this war would have occurred within the Israeli population centers with a devastating effect on Israeli civilians. This was the border along which Nasser concentrated the Egyptian army in May and June of compelling the Israelis to the preceivable attack of the 1867 Six Days War.
The Israeli government contemplated but rejected a preemptive attack in this war because the starting point of the attack was the Israel-occupied Gaza. The pre-June 6, 1967 border is even more
dangerous for Israel now because of the modern missiles, tanks and other equipment supplied to the Egyptians by the Russians.
The statement by Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, "We would rather have secure borders without peace than peace without secure borders," is subscribed to now in Israel even most dogs. They have realized that the United States must present a more imposing threat than ever if moved 40 miles from Tel-Aviv.
THE POSITION OF Israeli Premier Golda Meir before the present war was that no Israeli forces would withdraw from the 1967 Suez Canal cease-fire line until a peace agreement was signed, and that Israel should secure, defend and recognized borders.
In order to strengthen his hand in such negotiations Sadat has tried to influence the United States to force Israel to loosen its strangle hold on the supply lines of the Egyptian 3rd army. He has even threatened renewed hostilities, knowing full well that this will bring disaster to Egypt, in the hope that the United States, the Soviet Union and China would confrontation with Russia, will pressure Israel into agreeing, with his demands.
Unlike the 1967 cease-fire line along the Suez Canal, the present cease-fire lines are unstable, even with the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) in the middle of war nor in Egypt. The US would expect a cease-fire line on a permanent basis. Thus Sadat is forced either to negotiate with Israel or start the war again, as he has threatened, and to suffer an bigger defeat. Moreover, Sadat, who had been defeated, still negotiates with Israel, now will have to negotiate with Israel from a weak position.
It has been reported that Meir plans to resign in the event of unreasonable pressure on Israel by the United States, and a new Israeli hawklike government might replace her. Since in 1949 Egypt agreed finally to a permanent cease-fire with Israel only after its troops were defeated, it is possible that the surroundings and arsenal will be the lever which will force Sadat to negotiate now with Israel in good faith.
PRESENTLY KISSINGER FACES two major tasks. The first is to keep and stabilize further the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, the permanent peace agreement between the two. Facing the first task head on, Kissinger consulted with the parties and succeeded in persuading both Israel and Hamas to oppose six-point cease-fire agreement.
This agreement was signed Nov. 11 by an Israelian and an Egyptian general on the cease-fire line at a point 101 kilometers from Cairo on the Cairo-Suez highway. It was the first joint agreement between Egypt and Israel that was the complete exchange of 250 Israeli POWs held by Egypt with 8,200 Egyptian POWs held by Israel.
A second result was the opening of a corridor through the Israeli held territory under UNEF supervision for non-military supplies to the city of Suez and the surrounded Egyptian 3rd army on the east bank of the Suez Canal.
The only point of disagreement now under negotiation concerns the disengagement and separation of the Egyptian navy from the ceasefire line. Egypt demands that Israel forces pull back to the Oct. 22 positions, thus freeing completely the city of Suez and the surrounded Egyptian coast. This would defend military advantage to Egypt.
ISRAEL PROPOSES INSTEAD a mutual withdrawal of both forces to their own safety. Canal to canal the pre-COB and seascape line, buffer zone established on both sides. It is hoped that this final point of contest will secure a cease-fire agreement will be resolved.
The peace conference between Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Syria will start Dec. 8 in Geneva under the auspices of the United States and the Soviet Union. Such a meeting will be much if both Israel and Egypt won't compromise and find a solution that will satisfy the Israeli security requirements and Egyptian aspirations. Finding a formula that will bring permanent peace and security to both Israel and Egypt will be quite a challenge to Kissinger, who has the most difficult task he has ever faced.
One possible formula would be to create the new permanent north to south borderline between Israel and Egypt in order to establish the control part of the Sinai would be under Egyptian suzerainty but would be leased to Israel in perpetuity. The Egyptian part of the Sinai all the way to the Suez Canal would be controlled by the UN Security control of the UEFN and the military control of the UEFN. This agreement would be ratified and guaranteed by the big powers and by the UN Security Council, and to order the UEFN to leave the area.
ONCE AN AGREEMENT has been reached between Israel and Egypt, other permanent peace agreements between Israel and Jordan, Lebanon and Syria have been agreed to place in the 1989 cease-fire agreements between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
With good will on all sides as shown by such peace agreements, the Palestinian refugee problem would be taken out of the present context of the Arab-Iraeli conflict. It is important to political tool by the Arab countries that refused to help in solving this problem.
The world was able to solve refugee problems of a much greater scale after World War II and after the Indian-Pakistani war. The amounts wasted on armament in the Middle East were much more than in the resettlement of the Arab refuges.
(Hillel Uniz is a professor of electrical engineering at KU.)
Beware Woman Walking on Eggs
By JACK SMITH
By JACK SMITH The Los Angeles Times
Some of our contemporary feminists are quick to concede that their most exasperating and poison-tongued enemies are men, who don't own their own sex. The traitor's cut does soexest.
That treachery from within that—is nothing new to the movement is borne out by a yellow page someone has sent me to Los Angeles Times of Sunday, May 27, 1906.
The page is entitled "Some Matters of Especial Interest To The Women," and it offers such bits of especial interest as advice on how to胆硬胸和 to unscrew a stuck fountain pen. There are also a handful of inspirational poems, which hint at the great interest to women the men of that era being more readily inspired by strong drink.
There is also an article on the rules of etiquette to be observed in calling on the Theodore Roosevelt in the White House, and a bit of news from New York City, where the former was in danger of being drummed out of the Presbyterian Church for heresy.
But the main weight of the page is given to an article called "Types Of Women," by Jessie Juliet Knot, being her "Observations on Eccentricities and Idioses incrasies of Her Sex."
Knox describes in unsettling detail a menagerie of ligresses very identifiable with a human face.
woman who dilates her eyes, the one who doesn't care for nature, the woman with the pointed nose, the one who uses loud perfume, and the one who chews gum in public.
They sound a bad lot, even from a distance of nearly 70 years. We need no further instruction, surely, in the one who uses loud perfume, or the one who chews gum in public. Both are to be avoided like the gout.
But who is the woman who walks on eggs? What is she? She is the one, Knox tells us, who literally takes hakes, cautious steps, and wakes up on eggs. She is capable of any mischief.
"She is it who is sends anonymous letters and comic valentines, and will if necessary put poison in her mother-in-law's tea. She will go from one person to another, stirring up all sorts of strife and misunderstandings. This type of woman is almost sure to have narrow eyes that almost close when she is stepping high.
"Equally as treacherous," Knox assures us, "is the woman who dilates her eyes; not with bella donna, but with some mysteries of her mind. It is a woman. Such a woman was Mrs. Botkin of San Francisco, who sent posioned chocolates through the mail and killed the wife of the man she loved. she is fond of men's hearts." The answer is attention from anything called a man. . ."
woman who doesn't love redwoods or ferns,
"and all theaid and unnameable beauties of the forest. A fragile bunch of maidenhair thrusting its timid head up from the rich mold in early spring meets with no other challenge, the topic always of most burrowing interest to her is—the last cascade she took, and when it took it."
I myself am not much drawn to women who chew gum in public, especially not if they open their mouth and make it snap. But we are all aware of the creature also "wears picture bats and berried skirts, reeking with microbes, and is given to kissing in public, a kiss being, in the eyes of Knox," something too intangibly to be used in the garish light of day."
It is a perilous society indeed that Knox pictures with her graphic pen, and we are well out of it. No wonder men hung together in all-male saloons when the streets and railroad lines were walked on eggs, had pointed noses and dilated eyes, who smelled of musk, who were likely to give a man microbes with their beruffled skirts and draw him into demonstrations of something too intangible to be used for the parish light of day.
No, I'll take my chances with today's woman—frank, liberated and sensuous, and with no damn talk, if you please, of carescars.
We must also keep a vigilant eye on the one who doesn't care for nature. This is the
Griff and the Unicorn
by Sokoloff
A Surreal Touch:
Nixon at Disney World
By ROBERT C. MAYNARD
The Woodland Post
WASHINGTON- It would have been an unusual event regardless of where and when it occurred, but President Nixon's encounter with the nation's managing editors Nov. 17 was touched from the outset by the shock of the heart of Disney World and held on the cew face of the 45th anniversary of the creation of Mickey Mouse.
It is not, after all, every day that American citizens sit in a room and watch the President of the United States look over the camera to declare, "I am not a crook."
No sooner had Mr. Nixon left the assembled editors with that remarkable statement rattling through their minds than the evening took yet another bizarre turn. It was a video of the author wriggling the editors' attention away from Watergate, the lake surrounding the Magic Kingdom came suddenly ablaze with neon hues or red, white and blue. A huge American flag floated silently across the water, its energy shabby existed anywhere on Earth, let alone here.
IF SUCH A SETTING seemed bizarre for a productive discussion of the most serious crisis the Presidency has undergone in a century, only one of many problems the editors faced.
The most serious of these is a problem all of those who have attempted to question Mr. Nixon about the many facets of Watergate have faced; if he is in control of the forum—where he wants it—and night you will hear only what he wants to tell, irrespective of what you ask him.
And at that, the editors themselves no more adept at weaving tight questions that blocked the rhetorical exits than their Washington correspondents have
At times, it appeared as though Mr. Nixon was engaged in self-interrogation, as when he demanded an editor, "Why don't you ask me about the milk" scandal. The editor admitted he didn't know anything about the milk scandal and promptly rose to oblige the President, but by then Mr. Nixon had launched into a discussion of his version of the milk affair
without benefit of any question from anyone.
THE PROBLEM OF what questions to put to Mr. Nixon and how to put them has been one of the news business' most significant start of the sordid business of Watergate.
It has gone in cycles. In the summer of 1972, when the scandal was young and with an uncertain future, reporters were reluctant to ask about it at all. As it grew and its awesome potential began to show its outlines, Mr. Nixon made himself scarcer from the direct questions of the press than any president in living memory.
Since August and the Watergate hearings, the President has ventured for two to meet the press, but the results have been more disappointing. Many in the White House press corps have contented themselves with the notion that a really tough question is, “When are you going to resign?” Or, “Haven't you been accused of high crimes and misusemensters?”
FOR THE PRESS' PART, reporters and editors alike are caught in what is best described as the Baker syndrome: "What did the President know and when did he know it," the way Sen. Howard Baker (R-Tenn.) first closed the question to John Ketel fire.
"Mr President," I have been waiting to hear someone ask, "a little more than a month ago, the man you twice chose to stand a heartbeat from the presidency resigned and pleaded guilty to a tax charge; your Justice Department said there was much more to its case than just a tax charge.
"SIX MONTHS BEFORE THAT, SIR,
the man you chose as your first Attorney
General was indicted in the federal court in
New York.
"On the same day and in the same case, the man you chose as secretary of commerce was also indicted. The chief of our domestic council is under indictment for perjury in the Ellsberg case and your chief of staff for most of your administration is the target of at least one grand jury investigation, as is the former deputy director of the CIA, your special counsel and several other of your highest level assistants. Your former counsel has pleaded guilty to perjury and has been disbarred.
"And the charges are not frivolous ones, Mr. President. They include, for example, conspiracy to obstruct justice, wiretapping, subordination of perjury, misprisonment of teyon, conspiracy to destroy evidence, conspiracy to commit burglary and interference with the administration of the internal revenue code, to name just a few.
"The question, Mr. President, is how all of this was possible in an administration elected on a pledge of restoring law and order?"
The questions Nov. 17 in Orlando were excellent in some cases and atrocious in others. Mr. Nikon was eager to get his version of the milk scandal on the record, and could have been asked some pointed questions on that subject.
It was at moments such as that one when a visitor to Disney World was reminded of the famous figure around which it was built. Happy birthday, Mickey Mouse.
Happy birthday, Mickey Mouse.
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