CAMPUS/AREA UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday, April 16, 1996
3A
Professor validates Unabomber's issues
Technology has adverse effects
By Adam Darby Kansan correspondent
Technology can be overwhelming even scary—to those who get left behind.
The Unabomber stated his discontent with technology in a rambling 35,000-word manifesto published
last September in The Washington Post and The New York Times.
"There is good reason to believe that primitive man suffered from less stress and frustration and was better satisfied with his way of life than modern man," he wrote.
The Unabomber claimed that technology was moving too fast for an overpopulated world that could not socially keep up.
That is precisely what Felix Moos, professor of anthropology, has been warning people about for years.
"There is an increasing number of
people who do not have enough education,not enough money,and they are falling farther behind," Moos said.
He said technology had driven the wedge deeper between the haves and have-nots.
"Being poor, and there will be more who are, has a large number of secondary consequences, such as a feeling of powerlessness, inadequate access to resources, and lack of education and political opportunities," he said. "Thus, the seeds of terrorism will germinate in almost all societies
Moos' prediction was in a guest column in the Lawrence Journal-World in 1985.
— including our own."
The Unabomber's trail of bombs, which killed three people and injured 23 in 17 years, perhaps has ended with the Theodore Kaczynski's arrest. Kaczynski, who authorities believe is the Unabomber, was seized from his tiny cabin northwest of Helena, Mont.
But the problems that plagued the Unabomber cannot easily be locked away.
"The world is going to be almost 10 billion people another 38 years from now," Moos said. "What are we going to do with all these folks?"
The Unabomber's issues are real, Moos said, but his methods are flawed. How could the Unabomber expect people to join his revolution when he was nowhere to be found?
"He seems to think that the kind of noble savage, without the conveniences of civilization, was a happy creature," Moos said. "It's almost like Rousseau thinking that going back to nature in the past was a desirable thing — without air conditioning, without spray that fends off the mosquitoes and the lice. He seems to have this romantic notion that primitive people are completely happy and satisfied. I'm not certain that is true." No air conditioning?
No air conditioning?
"Everyone is so spoiled that they would throw a fit if they didn't have an air conditioner," said Megan Jordan, Leawood junior. "Technology is an unstoppable force. There's so much out there that we can learn and discover, and you just can't do that if you are living in a hut in the woods."
It's a dog-eat-ball world
Tyler Wirken / KANSA
Kevin Bahash, Lawrence resident, performs a trick with his dog, Sequolia, by Potter Lake yesterday. Sequolia also had been jumping into the lake to retrieve the ball.
When you pick up The Kansan ...
please pick up all of it.
Vietnam spy agenda failed
Defense agent says CIA plan covered up
By Scott MacWilliams Kansan staff writer
Sedgwick Tourison believes that the history of the Vietnam War should be rewritten.
Tourison, Chief of Analysis POW/MIA Affairs for the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency from 1983-1988, spoke yesterday to 12 people at the International Room in the Kansas Union about his most recent book, Secret Army War.
His book details the CIA's and the Pentagon's failed covert war against North Vietnam from 1959 to 1968. More than 450 Vietnamese agents were sent into North Vietnam as spies. None of them returned and were disavowed by the U.S. after the war.
"The plan was to persuade the North Vietnamese that they should reconsider their covert operations in the south," Tourison said. However, the first spy that was hired was a North Vietnamese agent who helped sabotage the rest of the spy operations. The CIA thought the plan was continuing successfully while in reality, the true South Vietnamese spies had been captured and North Vietnam had seized the chance to send false information.
Tourison, who spent eight years in Vietnam and 20 years in military intelligence, said the North Vietnamese plan was to draw the U.S. into a major war in order to convince the Chinese and the Soviet Union to give them major military support.
"It seems that the more that comes out about Vietnam, the more we learn about the mistakes that were made and covered up," said Terry Welder, associate director of International Studies. "This seems to fit the pattern of other things I've read about the war."
Tourison said that his book detailed the part of the war that was kept out of the Pentagon Papers in 1971.
"I've found the entire documented history of the money that was spent, and the hiring contracts for the 456 agents that were sent into North Vietnam." Tourism said.
Tourison said that a number of Army officers worked to make it appear that the captured agents had been killed in combat in order to stop making payments to their families in South Vietnam.
"Col. Windsor had the missing agents declared dead," Tourison said. Tourison said that of the 456 agents dropped in North Vietnam, 66 were killed in action, 20 were executed after being caught, around 100 died in prison, and the rest survived in prison until after the war.
Gina Thornburg / KANSAN
"They started getting out of the prisons in the early 1980's, Tourison said. "They were rejected immigration status because they were told their story was 'too incredible to believe."
Sedgwick Tourison, author of Secret Army Secret War, spoke at the Kansas Union yesterday on "The Lost Commandos: Washington's Failed Spy Operation In North Vietnam."
Tourism said that the early infiltration of the CIA's operation by the North Vietnamese agents was never even considered by William Colby, CIA station chief in Vietnam at the time. Tourism said that basic counter-intelligence was not employed to find out why all the agents were being captured.
Journalists win Hearst contest
School has finished first two of last three years
By David Teska
Kansan staff writer
The KU School of Journalism has won first-place honors in a national writing contest for the second time in three years.
The school won the William Randolph Hearst Foundation National Writing Competition, a series of monthly competitions in print, photojournalism and broadcast news. Points were awarded for each month's contest, and a final total was given for the year.
The school won first place in 1994 and placed second in 1995. Journalism schools that win first through third place overall win $10,000, $5,000 and $2,500, respectively.
Jenni Carlson, Clay Center junior, won first place and a $2,000 scholarship in the
Additionally, all students who won first place were invited to the National Print Championship in San Francisco, Calif., May 18-21. During the three-day event, each participant will write an on-the-spot assignment along with a news story and a personality profile.
April contest with her story on the promotion of women's college basketball entitled, Drawing A Crowd.
Carlson said she was excited about next month's championship, because she was used to the quick turnaround and fast pace of reporting.
"I'm excited about it," she said. "Reporting is what I want to do."
Richard Musser, professor of journalism and student sponsor for the program, said the Hearst competition was prestigious because only undergraduate students at accredited schools of journalism could compete.
"I'm proud of them because these are things we've worked on together," he said.
In addition to Carlson, Musser said eight other KU students submitted entries during the year.
Mike Kautsch, dean of journalism, said winning the award wasn't only about the cash awards but was a testament to the dedication of the faculty and their excellence in teaching journalism.
"Our students do so well because the faculty works so hard to give them challenging and practical assignments that take advantage of areas outside of journalism," he said.
Home is where the Hearst is
For the second time in three years, the place in the Hearst Wintin Competition.
1992 15th place, writing
12th place, photojournalism
1993 Fifth place, writing
1994 First place, writing
1995 Second place, writing
1996 First place, writing
Total school awards $28,750
SOURCE: William Randolph) Andy Rohrback/KANSAN
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