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Thursday, March 27, 1975
University Daily Kansan
KANSAN
Editorials, columns and letters published on this page reflect only the opinion of the writers.
Cambodian domino
We sit placidly before our television sets night after night attempting to make sense out of broadcasts about the domino theory, bloodbaths and Communist containment. Poticians and newspaper columnists dabble about our commitment to Lt. Gen. Lon Nol and the people of Cambodia. Meanwhile 60,000 community Khmer Rouge insurgents continue to pound at the gates of Gham Penh.
What are we to do other than grime at photographs of terrified Cambodian refugees fleeing from enemy rocketfire and widows grieving over their mortally wounded husbands? Should we cut off aid to Cambodia to bring about a more immediate halt to the war with the hope that a peace accord will be made between the Khmer Rouge forces and the Lon Nol government? Or should we continue to aid Cambodia until July, when the monsoon rains will flood the Mekong River and effectively jeopardize the fighting ability of the enemy?
The United States sacrificed 50,000
and expended $350 billion in a
billion-dollar effort.
free from Communism. In 1974 Washington sent another $1.728 billion to South Vietnam. In the current fiscal year, South Vietnam received $650 million aid and $420 million in economic assistance from the United States.
Since Lon Nei seized control of the Cambodia government from chief of state Norodom Sihankou in March 1970, the United States has given Cambodia $1.8 billion in military and economic assistance. Surely our generosity in military and economic assistance to these two governments hasn't brought about desired results in the Indochina war.
The prognosis of Cambodia is similar to that of a terminally ill patient awaiting death. Heroic last-minute measures will only prolong the agony. We can only hope that after Cambodia falls the people will be spared a bloodbath and that some blasmance of peace is restored to that God-forsaken country. Whether South Vietnam will be the final, or only the second domino to fall remains to be seen.
—Stephen Buser
'WE WON THEIR HEARTS AND MINDS
...WE ONLY LOST THEIR BLOOD'.
By TOM BILLAM Contributing Writer
Bentsen wants name fame
A Texan without boots or cowboy hat, an insurance millionaire and a Senator for five years; these are Lloyd Millard Benten. He was also the fifth Democrat to officially become president race when he announced his candidacy Feb. 17.
he is the candidate to whom a mid-1974 Harris poll gave a two per cent name recognition figure. Much like Jimmy Carter and Morris Udall, Bensen has been one of Texas' most popular He has been either "another Texas Senator" or unknown. That is, he used to be.
In December 1973, Bentzer decided to test the political waters and ask, "Can a Democrat face a candidate nominated by the Democrats in 1977?" He set out on excursions, which, by election day 1974, had caught him to more than 30 states which he delivered 130 speeches.
AS CHAIRMAN of the Democratic Senators Campaign Committee, he could officially speak in all the states where Democrats were running for the presidency and declaring himself a candidate. He has spoken at dinners honoring three old-time political bosses, Meade Esposito of Brooklyn, Peter J. Camell of Philadelphia and Richard Daley of Chicago.
SINCE THEN, Bentens has apparently gained confidence, saying in New York a few days before his official candidacy announcement that the Democratic party needed "a lot of work" to reach the center," to which he added, "and I can do it."
His advisers said there was no point in maintaining a campaign office if one wasn't a candidate.
Ben Palumbo, his campaign chief, said in January that Benten wouldn't enter the race
Although Bentzen is said to have decided soon after his election to the Senate in 1970 that he wanted to make a race for the Democratic nomination for president in 1976, when he served a presidential campaign in Georgia, January he insisted that the rental agreement contain a strong sublease clause.
jumbo sand that seems to be what Benten did in Texas in 1970, challenging the popular liberal Ralph Yarborough in the Democratic primary, and winning. After he beat George Bush in the general election, Benten was the junior senator
unless he thought he had some likelihood of success.
"He's not a guy who believes in tilting at windmills," Palumbo said.
IN THE 16-year interim before he reentered politics, Bentsen established himself very well. Before his election to the Senate he was president of a company Houston and served on the boards of directors of several corporations.
Not a stranger to Washington politics, Bentsen nonetheless had a lot of catching up to do. First elected to the House in 1948, and at, 27, the youngest member, that year, he served as mayor for two years left the House to establish his financial independence.
His campaigners are quick and careful to point out Bentsen's background in business and finance, stressing his connection in an area of major contemporary concern, the economy.
Bentsen said in his opening speech to the Senate that he was an establishment man who believed in four establishments: the United States, the Senate, Texas and the Democratic party. But he has argued that doesn't deserve the conservative tag news media have given him.
NEWSMEN point to his business and banking support and his victory over the liberal opposition and call him a conservative.
of it from Texans. He raised $36,500 at a single dinner in Houston late in 1973.
"I'm not an extremist on either end of the political spectrum," he says, and calls a man of the ideological elite.
He also downplays his Texas background. Though Lyndon Baines Johnson never let anyone forget his Texas origins, Bentsen, immaquacated it, a silver-haired 44-year-old, seems to see little political value in cowboy hat and boots.
Financial help also has come from several Wall Street executives, attesting to Bentley's financial roots and the financial interest in a candidate in 78 with a business orientation.
But Bentens is a hard man to classify; he isn't a "business oriented" men. He has
Yet his strongest support so far has come from Texas. Last year his campaign receipts were more than $1 million, most
consistently steered the middle course in the Senate, voting for tighter controls of campaign financing and reduced aid to Turkey while voting against gun bans, buiding, no-fault insurance and additional funding for the Trident submarine or the SST.
He's sponsored mass transit bills and has proposed to restrict big oil companies in favor of small independent
operators. He's also established himself as a worker on the Senate Finance Committee and is a member of the Public Works and Joint Economic committees.
THE LIBERAL Americans for Democratic Action gave him a rating of 38, with 100 being the most liberal; the conservative Americans for Constitutional Action gave him a rating of 40, using the most conservative. Senators according to their votes on bills the groups consider important.
It seems Benten has always done the smart thing in politics, whether that meant doing the principled grave or conservative thing.
Texas friends have described him as personally unencumbered by people or ideas. He displays impeccable self-control, drinks rarely and only sherry, plays tennis ferociously, raises roses and collects objects d'art.
Other than that, Bentens has little personal information to examine, of which one result is a lack of any known positive features. Isn't it not known so much for what he is, but for what he is not.
YET HIS staff says this may be one of his greatest assets. As a moderate Democrat who has spent most of his adult life away from Washington and a man who disagrees more with the Pentagon than does Sen. Henry M. Jackson, D-Wash., congratulates Democratic front-runner, Bentzen man uniting factor of the Democratic party. How uniting remains to be seen.
Bentens's supporters point to the cluster of candidates as his biggest advantage. Among the possibilities they envisage are: Scoop Jackson's continual disease of foot-in-mouth and subsequent loss of local support. Wallace camp's knowledge may be a non-starter and Bentens may be their next-best bet; the Kennedy camp's splitting to all candidates.
In the midst of these imagined happenings, his staff says, all eyes will turn to the cool and confident man from Texas.
Perhaps then we'll know the answer to the question posed by James Fallows in Atlantic, "Can another Texan apply?"
Readers respond
One thing Stock didn't mention was that Santee was a big track star at KU in the '60s. What was he doing during the 60s.
In response to "i-Man War Staged", I would like to congratulate Craig Stock on a fine job of pointing out the viciousness of a Lawrence resident, Wes Santee. Santee did everything in his power to destroy his deserter, fired from his city job. Now ol' Wes can sleep easy. He succeeded.
To the Editor:
Guest commentary
Holiday spirit diverse as Easter approaches
Easter 1975. Simply a day on the calendar to many students; just another Sunday to forget about classes. To some, it is a rare occasion to visit the neighborhood to observe students of different cultural or religious backgrounds. Easter has little personal meaning. To firm Christians, it is a time of sincere worship. There is such a range of personal attitudes, attachment to enthusiasm.
Editor's Note; The following is a guest commentary on Easter by Doug Lamborn, Lansing junior.
Through the centuries the heart of Easter, the heart of Christ, has always evoked contrasting responses. Many oppose it as a fable, unfit for intellectual consideration. But many defend it.
Was this man's bodily resurrection only a hoax or the介质 issuing from the minds of his followers? Or did
Others propose that the missing body was stolen by his disciples, who had remembered Jesus' promises to rise from the dead. But these theorists fail to recall how Jesus' followers fled when he was condemned. The disciples were too fearful to
Some suggest that he never really died in the first place, that he only seemed dead. In the fourth, they continue, he revived but these theists fail to believe that the grisly finesse of those Roman executioners. But just suppose that a severely wounded man later rewived in another prison have we rolled aside a huge boulder then crept away unseen by the guardiates there?
Jesus resurrect literally? We know by the common agreement of his contemporary historians that he was indeed crucified. But the disagreement enters when we ask what happened afterwards to his body?
steal a body under the noses of seasoned guards. But even supposing they could have, such an miserable deception, even the point of violent martyrdom? Such deliberate fraud concludes the high morality that they asleep in their beds both lived and taught.
Korean War? He was running miles all over the world and making a big name for himself. And I am sure that he didn't quit being a warrior, even though the '68s to go to fight in Vietnam. It is easy to sit around and say what is right and wrong in our society, but it doesn't affect you personally.
And how much more did the religious authorities want to stifle the Christians? The Jewish priests resorted to beating, imprisoning and even executing them in their asl
The only other possibility, apart from literal resurrection, is that either the Roman or the Jewish authorities possessed a wizard who, however, wanted to kill woman hands of the matter. They gave the body away to be burned. If anything, they would have wanted to stop the Christian's resurrection. Displaying the body would have crushed the movement instantly.
temps to stop the talk of a resurrected Savior. But the priests never produced the body.
If Santee felt so strongly about fighting for America, why didn't he change places with someone like York or the thousands who never made it back from Nam?
Those first disciples had more in which to trust than a missing body, however. On that first Easter they saw a man rise after to have talked with him later with him, touched him. There was no possibility of hallucinations, because hundreds saw him in a wide range of settings. Just as nothing else would explain the resurrection, nobody explains the dramatic change in his followers' lives. Those witnesses of that first Easter ran to the ends of the church, every event, in supernatural form, that had seen Easter 1653. Many were really telling what the first Christmas reported. Many are still displaying against any challenge. Many are still disillusioned. To them, it's just another day.
Right to blast deserter criticized
In closing, I would like to say that if the rich and powerful people like Santee who rule America would mind their behavior there wouldn't be Vietnam or amnesty to worry about.
Michael J. Conley
Attleboro, Mass.
Freshman
Minority desk To the Editor:
Thanks go to Bill Ashley for bringing our minority to attention, and I'm glad to know you are here. We have banded desk on this campus.
Becky Spence
Lawrence Junior
Texts supply
Marx said the economic structure of a society determines the behavior of its political superstructure. Although we were wrong, he wasn't correctly right, let's admit that Karl had a point. Were he attending the University of Kansas today, he would probably be wrong, because the universities' bureaucracies would behave like corporate executives.
Not long ago the Bookstore Bureaucrats sent teachers a form letter saying they all had a problem: "ever increase in textbooks" and a problem with an insufficient supply of textbooks? No. Funny, I hear a
BUT THE HORROR stories about "No text!" keep piling up. Consistently, students in my course have had to go without texts for weeks. I heard about a student in a meteorology course that was writing a text. (Yes, prices are certainly "ever increasing.") An alumnus from the Class of 1965 told me the other day he received texts late for his courses. Thus the problem isn't new. The present advertisement suggests they say, the top executives come and go, but the bureaucrats keep on truckin'.
lot of complaints about tacos,
texts but comparatively few
executives. But like others,
Bureaucrats are booksied.
more worried about the money
wollen be involved in a
volved when texts are lacking.
(1) Bookstore Bureaucrats teach a course on Bureaucratic Behavior. Make them structure a course to begin with readings and quizzes starting from day one. Then give their students only 75 per cent of the needed texts; or
ACTUALLY they wouldn't have to attend such a course on Bureaucratic Behavior. The main point would already have been made that books should be placed by returning a 5 to 15 per cent corporate stockholder dividend from other books they might have been able to buy. Advertise this with large print or newspaper implication; what's good for the Bookstore is good for the University.)
The main problem is that the Bookstore Bureaucats can order any number of books they want, regardless of the price at which they have a series of proposals. First, require that;
(2) Bookstore Bureaucrats take the course. Immediately make them read and take quizzes on textbooks for which they must "allow two weeks for delivery."
The above proposal is neither as facetious nor as radical as it sounds. Periodically, Chairman Mao sends bureaucrats out to work in the rice paddies. Let's say that maybe he has a point.
But a second proposal might be taken more seriously. Is it that the teacher buereacursal order as many books as the teacher requests. If disagreement occurs, both sides should refer to the teacher would have the last word.
Bureaucrats' self-concept of being private executives rather than public servants. If money is left over after ordering, then costs for texts during the next semester can be lowered.
Abolish the rather absurd corporate "stockholder dividend." Why? Because many students do not ever know about it, it is a hassle, it creates overhead costs, thereby adding to the "ever increasing prices" and it reinforces the Bookstore
If this doesn't work, then an All-University Soviet of Teachers' and Students' Deputies may have to be formed to order textbooks. Of course many political analysts have noted that the formation of alternative authoritative institutions is a revolutionary act. If the corporate Bookstore Bureaucrats should want to prove Marx wrong, they might stop trying to prove him right. David Kowalskiw
Letters Policy
Letters to the editor should be typewritten, double-spaced and should not exceed 500 words. All letters are subject to editing and condensation, according to space limitations and the editor's judgment. Students must provide their names, class designations and home lounge; faculty and staff must provide their names and positions; others must provide their names and addresses.
Assistant Instructor in Political Science
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Editor
John Pike
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Craig Stock Elennis Dellwis
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Carlow Hewes
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