Grim prospects
Southeast Asian expert Bernard Fall gave a very grim picture of prospects for American counter-insurgency warfare in Viet Nam, when he spoke here Thursday night.
Fall estimated that, on the basis of past guerrilla wars, an additional million troops are needed for a military victory in South Viet Nam. Most of these million men, it would seem, would have to be Americans, increasing five-fold the already heavy American commitment in Southeast Asia.
He also ridiculed predictions that the war could be militarily won in three years, recalling Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara's 1963 prediction that all American troops would be pulled out by the end of 1965.
IN MALAYA, British and Malayan troops, holding a 55 to one superiority in numbers, took 13 years to defeat under 10.000 Chinese guerrillas. In Algeria, the French achieved military success with only a ten to one ratio. But in South Viet Nam, while the Americans have far superior firepower to the Viet Cong, the Allied forces outnumber the guerrillas by only three or four to one, insufficient, on the basis of past experience, to win.
Fall also casts doubts on the accepted State Department theory that the war was started on orders from the north, and that the Viet Cong are all dedicated communists.
He noted that the Diem dictatorship made many enemies, and was actually threatened by three groups—the armed forces, which periodically tried to revolt; fundamentalist Buddhists, and the Viet Cong. In fact, Fall believes, the revolution may have started without support from Hanoi, feeding on local dislike of the Diem dictatorship.
He concludes that the wisest course for the United States is to start negotiating with the Viet Cong themselves, rather than with Hanoi. There is no reason to believe that the Viet Cong are monolithically controlled by Hanoi, and in the course of negotiations it might be possible to split the National Liberation Front from the north, as the French succeeded in doing in Algeria and the British in Cyprus.
UNFORTUNATELY, Washington is reluctant to do that, preferring to treat the Viet Cong as a puppet creation of Hanoi, which it is not.
The result is similar to the Spanish Civil War, where both sides tested their theories of war, forgetting about the natives.
The foundations of American policy in Viet Nam, the "domino" theory that defeat in South Vietnam Nam would endanger the pro-Western Thai government, and that a victory would deter future insurgency elsewhere in the world, are false, Fall said. Guerrilla wars depend upon local conditions, and in any case one war does not deter another.
And as Fall points out, even now, while the United States is pouring men and equipment into South Viet Nam to halt that guerrilla war, there are signs in other places, Thailand, Venezuela and Colombia, for example, that tomorrow's wars are already beginning
The foundations of American policy in South Viet Nam are false, and the costs of the Viet Nam delusion are rising. The alternative to negotiation is a long, possible indecisive struggle in a country that has already been torn by 20 years of war. Fall's advise should be heeded, and negotiations with the Viet Cong begun as the only path out of the Asian morass.
By Justin Beck
the people say...
Patrolman replies to letter
Dear Sinful Senior:
Although you thoughtfully mentioned the "Welcome to KU" certificate I awarded you for not having your parking permit properly attached, you failed to mention the times I have rolled up your car windows in the rain.
Thank you so much for your kind letter. I am always glad to hear nice comments from any of the men and women on this campus.
You failed to mention the times I have turned off your headlights (or, finding the car locked, have checked through the station to find out who the car belonged to, and then tracked you down so
your car would not lose battery power).
Daily Kansan editorial page Monday, March 21, 1966
YOU ALSO failed to mention,
Sinful Senior, the times I have
escorted woman students to and
from their cars late at night because they were afraid to walk in
the hall parking lots alone.
Finally, you did not mention the number of times students have come to me complaining that someone stole their parking permit because they had illegally taped it in place, and now they must spent $10 to get a new one.
I am sorry you got a ticket because your permit was improperly
Batman's driving risky
BOSTON — (UPI) — Batman is television's poorest driver and a "vicious example" for the nation's youth, the Automobile Legal Association said today.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY kansan
For 76 Years, KU's Official Student Newspaper
The Daily Kansan, student newspaper at The University of Kansas, is represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East St. 50 St., New York, N.Y. 10022. Postage paid at Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays. University holidays and examination periods. Accommodations, goods, services and employment advertised in the University Kansan are offered to all students without regard to color, creed or religion.
The opinions expressed in the editorial column are those of the students whose names are signed to them. Guest editorial views are not necessarily the editor's. Any opinions expressed in the Daily Kansan are not necessarily those of The University of Kansas Administration or the State Board of Regents.
EXECUTIVE STAFF
KANSAN TELEPHONE NUMBERS
Newsroom—UN 4-3646 — Business Office—UN 4-3198
Managing Editor Fred Frailey
Business Manager Dale Reinecker
Editorial Editors Jacke Thaver Justin Beck
NEWS AND BUSINESS STAFFS
Anytime I can help you again,
do not hesitate to call. I am never
very far from students' cars. Protecting them, and you, is my job.
attached. But you are luckier than many—you still have your permit.
Assistant Managing Editors... E. C. Ballweg, Rosalie Jenkins
Karen Lambert, Nancy Scott and Robert Stevens
Sports Editor... Steve Russell Merchandising ... Linda Simpson
Photo Editor... Bill Stephens Promotion Manager ... Gary Wright
Circulation Manager Jan Parkinson Wire Editor Joan McCabe
City Editor... Tom Rosenbaum Advertising Manager ... John Hons
Feature Editor Barbara Phillips Classified Manager Bruce Browning
FACULTY ADVISERS: Business Prof. Mel Adams; news, Marvin Arth;
editorial Prof. Calder Pickett
Freeman Stultz
Patrolman, Kansas University
An apology
To the Editor:
Recently I submitted to the Kansas a letter on the Kansas Union. It was printed on March 2. At this time I would like to say that it was an attempt at satire and was written in the hopes of stimulating a dialogue between interested parties. It should be further noted that the contents of said article were greatly exaggerated and, as I was not an enrolled student at the time, I had no legitimate right to comment. My apologies.
Wayne Macura
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS
O'Connor post-mortem
Death does much for many of the famed of the world. The reputation of Flannery O'Connor has been even bigger since her sad passing at only 39. Now her widely praised stories called Everything That Rises Must Converge (Noonday, $1.95) are available in paperback. She was working on the volume at the time of her death.
Her following must be sizable. Naturally there is an uneven quality to this collection. Her style is simple, yet not in the Hemingway sense. This book, it may be predicted, will become a standard in English Lit. classes.
AS FOR OTHER standards, they continue to come off the paperback presses. Like Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (Signet Classics, 75 cents). This is a handsome volume, with an afterword by the ubiquitous John William Ward. Plot? Well, you see there was this old Negro slave, and there were those ice floes on the Ohio River, and a mean Yankee named Simon Legree, and a precocious brat named Topsy, and an over-sweet little darling named Eva. . . .
Another is Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad (Signet Classics, 75 cents), which is still about the best travel book ever written by an American. The beloved writer demolished everything—from The Last Supper to religious landmarks in the Holy Land. It's one of the funniest books you'll ever find, as well as a pretty shattering
commentary on the behavior of American "pilgrims" abroad.
A stunning new volume is called Imperial Spain, 1469-1716 (Mentor, 95 cents). The author is J. H. Elliott, and the period covered is from the rise of Ferdinand and Isabella to the reign of Philip V. There are brilliant protographs of paintings (El Greco), architecture, sculpture and manuscripts. Generally peaking, Elliott's concern is to trace the fall of Spain from its imperial grandeur.
HARVEY WISH, one of the key names in American studies and history, has edited a valuable volume called Reconstruction in the South, 1865-1877 (Noonday,$2.25). These are first-hand accounts, by major figures in many instances—Carl Schurz, Phillip H. Sheridan, Gen. O. O. Howard, Frederick Douglass, Thaddeus Stevens, Andrew Johnson, Charles Sumner, President Grant, Justice John M. Harlan, Gen. Nathan B. Forrest, Edward A. Pollard and Thomas Nelson Page plus many others. It is a large volume and a valuable tool for the scholar.
James Kritzeck has compiled one called Anthology of Islamic Literature (Menton, 75 cents). The volume goes beyond Omar Khayyam and the Arabian Nights, which the editor regards as inferior. Kritzeck has sampled Islamic writing from the rise of Mohammed to the end of the 18th century. It represents an area of literature generally unknown to students in the West.
Campus film program available
To the Editor:
I'm delighted to read that Mr. Geary is interested in film, and I couldn't agree more with his desire to be able to take more film work at KU. This letter is to report that there is, at present, much more work in film than he apparently realizes; he can stress film in a radio-television-film undergraduate major, and film is one of the two major concentrations of the master's degree in RTVF. There are two full-time faculty people on the RTVF staff who work primarily in film—one in production and the other in history, aesthetics, writing and criticism. Many graduates are now working as film editors and directors in industrial-education
film companies; others work in television film.
The student may take courses in history and criticism, cinematography (in which he may work on a project of his choice), and follow-up projects—all at the undergraduate level. At the graduate level (MA in RTVF) he may take more production work and add course experiences in writing and documentary film. Fourteen of the present MA candidates are emphasizing film, and probably that many undergraduate majors have a similar interest. Very complete 16 mm. camera, sound and editing facilities are available, and the student may move as far as his abilities (and pocketbook,
in the case of advanced projects) may allow.
Contrary to the assumption made in Mr. Geary's letter, the strength of the present program is in production and aesthetics, and its weakness is in news film—a condition we hope to correct. Film is more than an art form. It is a complexity of audio and visual know-how, of creative writing, staging, blocking, editing, and documentary knowledge. For such reasons it is a part of the Speech and Journalism areas at the undergraduate level and it stands almost alone at the graduate level. Come see us, Mr. Geary!
Bruce A. Linton Director of Univ. RTVF Prof. of Speech & Journalism
---