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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, Feb. 17, 1965
Propaganda War
Everyday someone screams for action in South Viet Nam. Goldwater wants to go North, so-and-so wants out, and what's-his-name wants to get rid of all the guerrillas around Saigon.
There is one other type of action which may be very effective in winning the war, but as yet, no one has begun to speak out for it. This particular idea, instead of using guns, would use paper, and rather than using sheer force would use persuasion.
THE PLAN WOULD CALL FOR WINNING the support of the peasant masses. The mind of the peasant would become the battleground. In him, we should instill the loyalty to his South Vietnamese government and its western helpers. His loyalty must be won not by threatening his rice paddy and destroying his village with napalm bombs, but by showing him how his daily lot can be improved.
This type of war may be a lot harder and may take longer to fight, but once victory is gained, the country of South Viet Nam will be much better off. Perhaps the government will be a little more stable, and its western allegiance more secure.
THERE ARE MANY IMMEDIATE EFFECTS to be gained by forming a front of this nature. Presently, the Viet Cong is using the peasant for his source of food and shelter. In many cases, the
North Vietnamese soldier is a member of the family and has lived in the village all his life. At night he plays soldier, and in the daytime he cultivates his rice. Soldiers hiding in the jungle depend upon the peasants for food and information. The peasant aids the guerrillas for fear of reprisal or because of kinship. The guerrilla does not always want to fight, but does so because of threats to his family, or because he feels he may be better off in the army than in one room with 10 brothers and sisters.
RATHER THAN RUNNING THROUGH THE village with a gun in one hand and the American flag in another, why not take time out to get acquainted with the local dialect, and sit down and explain exactly what is going on. A few people might get out in the fields and play Peace Corps.
This method of persuasion was tried once before, and helped to win a man the world's largest and most populated country. Mao Tse-tung was fighting for his life in China. With little food and few men, he went to work swaying the peasants over to his side. When the time came for a show-down between Mao and Chiang Kai-shek, Mao had the support and the means. Rather than burn the peasant village and take the peasant food, Mao indoctrinated him—and now rules the country. It is a lesson well worth our consideration.
— Clare Casev
Letter to Student Body
Kaye Whitaker Resigns
To the members of the Student Body:
Having had the honor of serving you as Vice-President of the Student Body for the last two months of the Spring 1964 semester and the full Fall 1964-65 semester, I now find it necessary to submit my letter of resignation.
WHEN BOB STEWART, President of the Student Body, and I were elected, I, as well as Bob, set out specific goals that were to be in addition to those inherent in our respective offices. In setting up a comprehensive file system (specifically the activities of the All Student Council committee system), improving the physical set-up and efficiency of the ASC office and meeting room, in redesigning the ASC stationery, and sending personally signed letters of introduction to Kansas University to graduating seniors in all of Kansas' high schools, (approximately 600) I hope to have realized the most of these goals.
IN ADMINISTRATING THE ASC committees, sitting on the Union Operating Board and the Deans' Advisory Council and attending the All Student Council meetings and any other special meetings or conferences, I hope that I have successfully fulfilled the duties of the office of the Vice-Presidency as it is specified in the Associated Students' Constitution. It has, at all times, been my pleasure to execute these duties in co-operation with Bob Stewart.
UPON MY RESIGNATION, I wish to thank Bob, my assistant, Miriam Kangas, all committee chairmen and their committee members, the Chairman and the members of the All Student Council and those members of the administration and faculty members connected with the Associated Students' activities for all of their assistance and help.
In a critique, not a criticism, of my experience with the associated Students' activities and the Student Council, I feel the committee system, the executive system and the All Student Council are doing the most successful operation they are capable of doing until you, the members of the Student Body, recognize more fully the importance and effect of their efforts. Your increased interest and respect
will bring their further improvement.
AS I PRESENT THIS LETTER of resignation, I am residing in Chicago where I am continuing my education through courses at the Chicago Art Institute and employment in my area of interest.
Thank you again for the opportunity of serving you.
Sincerelv.
Kaye Whitaker
The People Say...
Dear Editor:
Beneath the endless plains of Kansas lie the remnants of gargantuan creatures and primitive men who constructed equally primitive cultures. Those infatuated with the activities of our reptilian and human ancestors have unearthed the vestiges of antiquity. To the credit of these excavators, they have replaced the outlandish divots that were chunked out of the ground in the interests of science. Thus Kansas, though a demilitarized zone between New York and San Francisco, remains relatively free of pock-marked areas one may find at the 38th parallel, the Gaza Strip and Verdun.
Unfortunately, the surface of X Zone is the exception to the rule.
What manner of archaeological nonsense is taking place in this lot?
Is the University attempting to unearth the remains of a Brontoasaurus or an ancient Indian village?
Or is there a mad golfer, a Paul Bunyanesque duffer, playing the front nine on the asphalt surface at 3 a.m.?
As our cars crack and dip into these canyons, as our axles split with eerie precision, we ask: Why must we subject our wheels to such remarkable obstacles? And those in charge of such affairs answer, as did Hillary after conquering various Himalayan mountains: Because they are there!
David Fractenberg Assistant Instructor San Francisco, Calif.
111 Flint Hall
Dailij Mänsan
University of Kansas student newspaper
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded, 1889 became bluestokly, 1904 triumphs, 1908 demolished
UNiversity 4-3646, newsroom
UNiversity 4-3198, business office
University of Kansas city
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904, triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
Member Inland Daily Press Association, Associated Collegiate Press.
Represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50 St., New York
22, N.Y. News service; United Press International. Mail subscription rates:
$3 a semester or $5 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays, University holidays, and examination periods. Second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kansas.
Leta Roth and Gary Noland ... Co-Editorial Editors
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Don Black Managing Editor
Bobbie Bartelt, Clare Casey, Marshall Caskey, Fred Frailey, Assistant
Managing Editors; Judy Farrell, City Editor; Karen Lambert, Feature-
Society Editor; Glen Phillips, Sports Editor; Janet Chartter, Telegraph
Editor; Jim Bennett, Picture Editor.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Tom Fisher
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Business Manager Nancy Holland, Advertising Manager; Ed Vaughn, National Advertising Manager; Dale Reinecker, Classified Advertising Manager; Russ Calkins, Merchandising Manager; Bob Monk, Promotion Manager; Gary Grazda, Circulation Manager.
The People Say...
THE COMPARISON BETWEEN articles on the front and back pages of the Feb. 11, University Daily Kansan is glaring. We are presumed to abhor the censorship of news abroad, referred to by Earl J. Johnson, vice president of United Press International, yet the faculty of the KU School of Journalism has placed Mr. Mabbutt on disciplinary probation for his criticism of the censorship policy by a member or members of that faculty.
To the editors:
Though I have found Mr. Mabbutt's editorsial throughout the fall semester to be politically incomprehensible, my opinion is that he has struck a sensitive nerve within the School of Journalism and that the retaliation is unwarranted.
Is it the truth that hurts:
Robert E. Buck
Wichita freshman
Dear Sirs:
WE FEEL COMPELLED TO EXPRESS our feelings on the administration's policy concerning out-of-town educational functions.
Many KU students attend educational functions in other towns and on other campuses. By attending these functions they not only enrich their own education, but do valuable public relations work for this University.
Many other colleges and universities officially sponsor student representatives to such functions.
Not only does the KU administration not financially support most such groups, they do not even officially sanction most of them.
We feel that KU would be doing a service to itself as an institution, and to its students by officially supporting such groups.
It is unfortunate that such students must bear the entire financial burden of registration fees for such events, besides risking scholastic penalties.
We respectfully request the administration to review its present policy on this matter so that in the future KU will be notable by its presence rather than by its absence at many such events.
Respectfully yours,
Chuck Colver
Durham, N.C., junior
John A. Sharp
Macon, Ga., junior
Tom Ward
Concordia senior
Richard J. White
Wakefield, Mass.,
junior
To the Editor:
1
THOSE WHO POSSESS THE official authority should do something about the entrance and exit controls to Zone X parking lot. Maintenance men spend an hour or more at the scene on almost all weekdays. Drivers entering or leaving are confronted with barriers irresponsive to card, coin or tire every three to four hours.
Faced with a "frozen" barrier, the average driver who uses the lot is caught in a dilemma; his ingrained obedience to law and its symbols tells him not to tear down the barrier but the impatient drivers behind him insist that he do just that. More often than not, the driver who chooses to wait for police or maintenance help finds the problem taken out of his hands and "solved" by those in the rear. The pile of wood (deceased barriers) grows higher.
Surely there are more effective parking lot controls on the market than these. A set should be purchased and installed at Zone X.
However, there may be a purpose in keeping the present controls. Perhaps two or more members of the maintenance crew owe their jobs to the continued existence of these contraptions. If this is the case, why not let users of the lot in on the secret? Two signs, one for traffic entering and the other for traffic exiting, would do the trick . . . the signs to read: "If barrier sticks, please tear down." Then all could join in the fun without pain to conscience.
William B. Fenton
William B. Fenton Greenleaf graduate student
To the editor:
IN REFERENCE TO THE School of Journalism placing Mr. Rick Mabbutt, former editorial editor of the University Daily Kansan, on probation last week, I entirely disagree with the action taken. The said action, I think, violates the principle of the United States Constitution of free speech and free press.
Although I did not agree with Mr. Mabbatt's editorial, I sincerely think the faculty SHOULD NOT interfere in the STUDENTS' newspaper policy. However, the faculty should encourage editorials like "Your Right—A Responsible Kansan," so that the spirit of "free speech and free press" is kept alive among student journalists.
Hanna S. Dallal Lebanon freshman
The senior class at the University of Kansas are known as "the cranberry idiots."
It was the president of the university who gave them the name. The logic behind it all is that this year the senior class sweatshirts (each year has a different color and design) are cranberry red. On the front of the sweatshirts, a little white schmoo is jumping gleefully into the air shouting, "World, Are You Ready?!"
The senior class at KU is an active bunch. Out of their class dues of $10 a piece come their sweatshirts, a reception at the president's home where the sweatshirts are handed out, their caps and gowns and diplomas. The dues also pay for three or four senior parties each semester, including a senior weekend with a name band dance. The dues pay for the senior class gift, a senior newspaper, breakfast the day before commencement and a series of senior coffees and speakers for which the seniors are dismissed from classes.
KU's Seniors... ...Ready Or Not
At every football game, the seniors sit together, forming a "cranberry idiot" section. They have their own cheers, such as;
Give 'em Hell, Jack Mitchell. (KU's football coach)
Give 'em Hell.
Give'em Hell, Jack Mitchell.
Oh Hell, give 'em Jack Mitchell.
And their half-time cheer:
Let's go north;
Let's go north;
Let's go south.
Let's go potty.
The only thing that has slowed the seniors down this year was a session between the class officers and university administration after quite a senior weekend this fall. Reportedly, several students were put on probation after the senior party.
So, the seniors at KU are screaming, "World, Are You Ready??!"
Our question is, are they ready for the world?
Beth Resler
(Reprinted from the Oklahoma Daily, University of Oklahoma.)