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University Daily Kansan Thursday, Feb. 25, 1965
Humor From Saigon
It takes real diligence and perserverence to keep score on the jumbled mess in South Viet Nam. In the sixteen months since President Ngo Dinh Diem was assassinated, there have been no less than eight coups in Saigon.
Fighting the communists seems to be a mere pastime with the South Vietnamese. What they really delight in is a lively game of musical chairs for control of the government.
REPORTERS IN SAIGON HAVE TRIED to keep the American public informed with detailed accounts of each coup. But since coups have become common and expected events, the average American finds it a difficult, if not a helpless task to read about the new premier and how he ousted the former premier, or about "young turks" who plan to oust the new premier and set up a civilian government which will then be thrown out by some aspiring general.
Everyone who is anyone is now telling the President what needs to be done in South Viet Nam. The situation is so confusing that one can take almost any position on the matter and be right.
NEWSPAPER HEADLINES SCREAM daily about a new coup or a thwarted attempt at one. Reading the newspaper accounts, one would feel certain that the reporters at least know what is going on, even though their accounts are confusing and outdated by the time they reach the United States.
The most understandable, concise report of the latest coup (the one at the time of this writing) was the one by Bill Mauldin, Pulitzer prize-winning cartoonist, who reported his "barbled account of Saigon's garbled coup."
MAULDIN MADE NO ATTEMPT TO FOOL the reader with a sophisticated analysis of the situation.
When the military situation approached a crisis, Mauldin asked a group of bystanders whom
the air force planes zooming overhead were supporting. Mauldin was informed:
"They told me the planes were directed by the air force commander, Brig. Gen. Nguyen Cao Ky. 'We think he's a Khanh man, but he could change his mind,' I was told."
At the height of the coup, some tanks near the riverfront turned their turrets on the navy (two LSTs and some gunboats), which in turn aimed their deck guns at the tanks.
"I NOTED THAT THE PLANES FLEW exactly halfway between the ships and the tanks and could have clobbered either," Mauldin reported.
Hoping to clear up the confusion in his own mind, Mauldin decided to check with the U.S. embassy:
"I walked down the street to the U.S. embassy to ask whose side Maxwell Taylor, our ambassador, was on, but was unable to get a conclusive answer.
"A minor functionary downstairs hinted that the ambassador had been unhappy with Khanh but could change his mind."
LATER MAULDIN WAS ABLE TO LEARN that the airplanes buzzing Saigon rooftops were "still sitting on the fence, policywise."
On his way back to town, Mauldin was caught in a traffic jam "consisting of rebel tanks and government tanks eyeball to eyeball and bumping each other with their gun muzzles . . . because the tanks are big and the streets are small."
The faithful Mauldin eventually eased the tension of his worried readers: "Exactly 24 hours after the coup began, I have just learned that it was a failure."
What the American public needs now is a good laugh at the situation in Viet Nam. A little humor will make the Viet Nam situation easier to bear. It is a good thing that there is a Bill Mauldin in Saigon.
Gary Noland
In America
Church Members-A Minority
By Louis Cassels United Press International
United Press International The largest single body of Americans, in terms of religious orientation, consists of those who do not belong to any church.
Even with church membership at an all-time high, non-members constitute 36 per cent of the population, or nearly 70 million persons.
THIS FIGURE IS somewhat misleading, because many Protestant churches do not count children under 13 as members even though they are attending Sunday school regularly.
But after full allowance is made for such technicalities in record-keeping, the "unchurched" still outnumber the adherents of any particular denomination. America's largest religious body, the Roman Catholic Church, has 45 million members. The biggest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, has 10 million.
Some are militant atheists. They are convinced that God doesn't exist, and are openly hostile toward religion, which they call an outworn superstition.
WHO ARE THE unchurched, and why do they choose not to affiliate with a religious body?
ATHEISTS MAY GET A LOT of publicity when they denounce religious institutions or file court
suits to bar recognition of God in public life. But they are a relatively small minority. Surveys by the Census Bureau and several private opinion research organizations indicate that only 2 or 3 per cent of the American people regard themselves as atheists.
Others find in the shortcomings of church members a convenient rationalization for not undertaking the duties and disciplines incident to personal involvement in the community of faith. The latter are wont to say that they can worship God just as well on a mountaintop as in a sanctuary.
Another large contingent of the unchurched is made up of men and women who profess to believe in God, but who see no need to express or nurture their faith through church membership.
MUCH MORE NUMEROUS are the agnostics who say, "I do not know whether God exists," but who act habitually on the premise that he doesn't.
SOME OF THEM ARE strongly attracted by the ethical teachings of Jesus Christ, but feel that these teachings have been betrayed by institutional Christianity.
Should someone point out that they usually spend Sunday morning on a golf course rather
than a mountaintop, they reply that the principle is the same.
Others hold that the church can convince the disaffected only by deeds-by acting out the Christian faith in the struggle for racial justice, the war against poverty and other "secular" contexts.
HOW TO REACH THE UN-churched is a question that Christians spend a lot of time discussing. Some have reached the conclusion that the church must radically revise the theological packaging in which the Gospel is presented, to make it more understandable and believable to men who have been conditioned to a scientific, materialistic view of the universe.
STILL OTHERS HOLD A third point of view. They do not minimize the importance of theological renewal, or of Christian social action. They acknowledge the imperative duty—which Jesus laid on his followers in the most explicit terms—of doing everything possible to communicate the Gospel to anyone and everyone who will seriously examine its validity.
But they also question whether there is anything the church can say or do to convince people who are simply not interested in finding out whether Christianity is true or false.
"By The Way, Is There Any Brake On This Thing?"
The People Say...
Dear Editor:
SINCE THE OBJECT OF THIS letter is to get print, and, hopefully, to present a side of an issue as yet unpresented. I will merely say that Gary Noland, in his Monday, Feb. 22 editorial, "Obsessed with Fear," is guilty of oversimplification and innuendo that should make Robert Welch, of the John Birch Society, feel quite inadequate.
Noland questions the courage of the Student Peace Union, especially with regards to its stand on Viet Nam. Of the twenty demonstrators, (a mixed group), at least two were veterans, and another is going to enlist to fulfill his military obligation within two months. I question Noland's right to indulge in these near libels. If, indeed, nothing personal was intended, and Noland merely questions the courage of that "school of thought" (i.e., the notion of non-alignment) I would remind him that it was largely Social Democrats (the most prominent body politic to advocate an objective assessment of BOTH sides of the Cold War) who fought Russian tanks with bottles of gasoline in the streets of Budapest. It was also India and Sweden who furnished the bulk of the U.N. force in the Congo. I do not find Noland's accusations justifiable.
Noland alludes to a pamphlet distributed by the SPU. It was several weeks ago that Newsweek published a picture of South Vietnamese troops slitting the stomach of a bound, conscious Viet Cong prisoner while an American advisor looked on. Prior to that, Life ran a series of similar photos in living color. Were the Newsweek and Life features news coverage, and vet, somehow the SPU pamphlet trash? No, I am led to believe that Noland is merely angry — the American people have a long history of trying desperately to avoid facing unpleasant facts. (i.e. That Hitler was allowed to plunder most of the Western world, and that when we did react, it was not in indignation at the rape of a culture, but because someone was bombing us.)
The unpleasant facts in Viet Nam are:
We are involved on the side of a regime (or regimes) which have shown negligible, if any, concern for the welfare of their people. Their people fought a long, hard war for independence, and to think that they should support such regimes as they have had is worse than stupid.
We do have alternatives in Viet Nam. 1. Unilateral withdrawal, which, although I am an SPU sympathizer, even I will grant, is politically unthinkable. 2. Negotiation. 3. Continued military activity, either escalated or at the present level. Alas, this third alternative seems well nigh indefensible, too. From an ethical viewpoint, we are now defending a system (in the name of democracy) which cares little or nothing for its people, and thereby selling out, for the world to see, our alleged principles. Pragmatically? I would suggest that we ask any number of French military geniuses about the feasibility of defeating a guerrilla force with popular roots in S.E. Asia.
If Mr. Noland cares to continue this dialogue, I shall be more than happy to; whether in space allotted by the UDK, or in public debate. If he does not, I would suggest that he learn to control his nasty tongue until his ability for reasoned discussion reaches a level consistent with his talent for shrill vituperation.
Indeed, my only conclusion must be that those who are really "Obsessed with Fear" are those who, when confronted with a challenge from a conflicting belief system are those who can only react with outraged shrieks, and a throwing of stones. Or bombs. If, indeed, we should prove unable to cope successfully with "communitist tactics and strategy," I am sure it will be due to just such mental and moral myopia on our own side.
Sincerely,
John Garlinghouse,
Salina junior
DailijIfansan
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LEDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Leta Roth and Gary Noland Co-Editorial Editors