Viet welfare, U.S. policy topic of debate
By PATRICIA PRUITT
By PATRICIA PRUITT Is the welfare of the Vietnamese people best served by the present policy of the United States in Viet Nam?
Four KU faculty members debated the question for an hour last night before a packed auditorium in Dyche Hall.
Clifford Ketzel and Carl Lande, associate professors of political science, spoke for the affirmative. Michael Maher, assistant professor of zoology, and Hamilton Salsich, assistant instructor of English, debated the negative.
THE VIEWPOINTS boiled down to this:
"Have we confused fighting communism and helping people?" Salsich asked. "Why don't we stress individual human beings' suffering and dying, and not power politics?"
"We see it as a greater problem than Viet Nam," Ketzel said. He listed the Red Chinese agenda and history of aggression in Southeast Asia. "The solutions must be more political and economic than military. There is no doubt that a civil war exists."
While eliminating outside influence, the United States is checking external pressure and providing an atmosphere for handling the internal strife, he said.
LANDE CONTINUED the theme. "To confine the question to Viet Nam is comparable to asking, in World War II, whether landing troops on the Normandy coast was in the best interest of the people of Normandy."
He said the Vietnamese people want peace and their own government. The government wants social reform, a civilian government, and minimum U.S. involvement.
Students in Viet Nam don't want a Viet Cong victory or totalitarianism. They do want progress, he said.
Contrary to popular western belief, Lande said, the peasants value individual freedom and privacy. Only some are drawn to the messianic aspects of communism and totalitarianism.
MAHER COUNTERED that "the present regime is a military dictatorship, latest of a series, and makes no pretense at democracy. We expect an effectual regime made up of those people who would be hurt most by reforms."
He continued, "Our government insists that the major reason for being there is for the Vietnamese welfare." However, of the 1,000 civilians who die monthly, all are results of U.S. bombing. At least 70 per cent of the civilians live in government-protected zones, living under government-appointed officials.
Hirt tickets scarce
Al Hirt Show tickets are nearly all gone.
Late yesterday afternoon, about one hundred $2 tickets remained. "We may be selling tickets at the door," said Jeff Rockwell, Wichita sophomore and ticket sales chairman, "but we won't be selling many."
WEATHER
The U.S. Weather Bureau predicts partly cloudy skies tonight and Saturday with light and variable winds. Low tonight 25 to 30. High Saturday near 60.
"In the final analysis," Salsich said, "the conflict with China is most important. We are there to fight China and are alienating the peasants. How can we possibly expect to gain respect from these people? The Viet Cong, however, have gained their allegiance."
1
BOMBING AND the emphasis on air power is a defeating approach. Maher explained. With homes and families gone, the
Vietnamese turn to the Cong. In 1965, he said, 173,000 soldiers were recruited from the South, and they are soldiers who fight vallantly.
Maher said the Viet Cong, badly outnumbered by American and southern combined troops, are holding their own, and that this is possible only with Vietnamese peasant help.
The present Viet Nam, under U.S. influence, is dissatisfactory
to the peasant, Salsich maintained. He said the revolution actually began in 1956 when a U.S.-supported dictator hunted down and executed all those who disagreed with him. Promised elections were forgotten.
just trying—to beat up a very small boy," Salsich said.
"The United States has violated international law in the Geneva agreement, and is now abandoned in her stand. Not one major country stands behind her. We look like a bully trying—and
Lande argued that progressiveness is not a determining factor of effectuality when deciding whether or not to support a government.
12 Daily Kansan
Friday, November 4, 1966
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