McNamara looks again
Robert McNamara is again in Vietnam.
Each time the Defense Secretary has returned from one of his Vietnam fact-finding tours President Johnson has reacted to McNamara's data by raising the ante. Now those anonymous "government sources" who are always ready with their press feelers have strongly hinted that any substantial increase in the U.S. troop commitment would at this point make a reserve call-up necessary. President Johnson has always resisted calling the reserves, ostensibly because he desires a force which could swiftly counter China's entry into the arena, more practically because such a call-up would cost him votes.
With an election looming, it just might be that this time the President will see fit to evaluate McNamara's evidence differently than he has in the past. In fact, Johnson could decide to re-evaluate the whole search-and-destroy method, which has required so many American troops and yielded such intangible results. When American ground troops were first committed in 1965, they were to release South Vietnamese soldiers from guard duty so the latter could seek out the enemy. It has not worked out that way, and American forces now do most of the
searching and destroying while ARVN troops are left to garrison their positions. Even so, the South Vietnamese have secured a remarkably small area, and there is little hope they will do much better in the future.
--as he was known in Jordan, was the actual boss of the Jordanian Army for a few years (although Pugh somehow labeled him as "British military representative in Jordan"). To quote a biased source like that is as ridiculous a misrepresentation of truth as to quote General Moshe Dayan's recent book as an impartial source.
Both doves and hawks have concentrated their spleen on the bombing policy in the North. The latter cry for more, the former for less. Both criticisms may be missing the mark. What needs to be re-examined is the whole search and destroy method—a policy which has tried to do everything at once and accomplished little. Military men have described it as punching your fist in a bowl of water. Lift your fist and the old level is resumed. Might it not be better to secure one area at a time? If the U.S. continues its present policy of strategic bombing in the North, coupled with search-and-destroy in the South, it is likely the war will go on as it has indefinitely. Sending more troops to execute the present strategy will cost more lives for both sides but will bring the war no closed to an end. Ho Chi Minh has ample reserves in the North to counter such an escalation. What we need is a re-evaluation of our whole war strategy. With McNamara in Vietnam, there is no time like the present.
—Ivan Goldman
The people say More on Middle East
Dear Editor:
On June 27, you published a letter by David Pugh, where he states that the position of the Arab countries in the Middle-East is grossly misrepresented. I think that Pugh's letter has created additional misrepresentations that should be clarified. My aim is to point out some facts that were grossly distorted by Pugh's presentation, and to try to demonstrate how some of his arguments collapse when backed by some well-known facts.
1 When Pugh claims that Harry Truman recognized Israel under pressure of Zionist leaders, he is partially right. What Pugh forgot to point out is that the Soviet Union recognized the State of Israel only a few hours after the U.S. This fact could not possibly be imputed to "excessive political pressure of Zionist leaders" and has nothing to do with Zionism, since Zionism was banned and savagely persecuted in the Soviet Union since 1919. Moreover, in the War of 1948-49 the Israeli Army fought with Czechoslovakian weapons (which were bought with "zionist-imperialist" American dollars). I can actually show to Pugh, and whoever wants to verify this claim, that approximately 1 out of 10 Israeli soldiers in the recent Israel-Arab War holds a Czechoslovakian gun. This is a small piece of evidence against the slanted claim that Israel was created "primarily through U.S. pressure and coersion of UN members." The Communist propaganda, as well as the Arab leaders, try desperately to conceal these facts from the Arab public opinion, so as to popularize the myth that Israel was created by Western imperialists. The Soviet Union and its satellites were part of the more than 2/3 of the UN members that voted for the partition of Palestine. I would assume, then, that they were also innocent victims of so-called "pressure and coersion," that Mr. Pugh claims was behind the decision of partition of Palestine.
2 Pugh recommended a book by Sir J. H. Glubb as if it were some impartial or objective source of the state-of-affairs in the Middle-East. The reader is reminded that Sir Glubb, or "Glubb Pasha"
3 In reply to the question why did the UN censure Israel for attacks on Syria this Spring, the answer is astonishingly simple: because Israel retaliated against Syrian attacks which were never censured in the Security Council, because at least three times the Soviet Union made it clear that it would put a veto in any kind of censure of the pro-Peking Government of China.
4 While attacking U.S. newsmen for slanting the Mid-East news against the Arabs, Pugh "forgets" that through the Arab world the U.S. was maliciously defamed as giving air-cover to Israeli planes, Meanwhile, King Hussein of Jordan has already declared that he has no evidence for this claim. U.S. Embassies have been savagely attacked, burnt and looted by mobs, who were deliberately and maliciously deceived. An unbiased observer would probably agree that if the news about Arab countries in the U.S. is "slanted," then the news about the U.S. in the Arab countries is no more than a pack of perverted lies, which were deliberately propogated in order to remove the blame for a disastrous military adventure from some irresponsible leaders.
5 As for the question why Israel never allowed UN forces to station in its territory, one has to remember that Israel never sent any guerilla forces to attack any Arab country. It was the Israeli Army that retaliated the guerilla-attacks on peaceful settlements. Fugh should brush up his memory and recall that between 1957 and 1967 there were no hostilities between Israel and Egypt, precisely because the UN forces presented guerilla raids against Israel. Therefore, no retaliation was necessary to establish the right of Israelis to plough its lands.
- 6 If one stretches the lines of arguments used by Pugh about "legibility" or "morality" of the
partition of Palestine—one would have in the same grounds (like never considering the right of self-determination for the indigenous population) to give California, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas to the Mexicans. The rest of the U.S. should be given back to the Indians. This quandary arises when instead of judging events in terms of what can realistically be done in order to solve problems, one adopts labels, like "legal" or "moral" without attempting to indicate what one means by these labels, and what systems of laws and values are covertly used to judge what is legal and moral.
2
Schalom Camenitzki
Graduate Student, Psychology
Summer Kansan editorial page Tuesday, July 11, 1967
By John Carter
Do you realize this is only my second booklet of tickets today?
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And for years dormitory residents have complained about the food, but this fall the dorms will serve steak dinners 10 times a semester; dorm rates go up too. Perhaps the Greeks can serve flaming shish kebab and raise the initiation fees.
The hippies in San Francisco, who wear flags at least as often as young women do at KU, have discovered a new drug, Stp (sensualism through psychedelics) said to be five times stronger than LSD, Stp has contributed to a dozen deaths already. Indianapolis has been doing that for years.
Celebrating the Fourth presented problems this year. Is it better to wave the American flag, or wear it?
Instead of raising things, Jim Ryun keeps lowering records, the latest being his conquest of the respected 1,500-meter record. When Ryun isn't running he is a photographer for the Topeka Capital-Journal. Maybe he could snap his own picture as he crosses the line.
Snappish indeed must be the Midwestern Music and Art campers and the KU Previewers. Both groups must roll out of the sack at 6 a.m., a time considered human only by the military and farm workers who need all that daylight. The groups are getting a slanted view of the University; 6 a.m. is the time when many a KU student is just going to bed.
A county welfare department in North Carolina has decided the sexy look is out for its office workers: blouses must have collars so as to avoid exposing the bosom, skirts must reach the knees, and hairdos must be above the shoulders and preferably at the earlobes. There are KU men who couldn't work there.
The Federal Trade Commission has cracked down on advertising of headache remedies because there isn't much difference between them. If the Federal Communications Commission would do the same thing for the summer television shows, for the same reasons, a lot of headaches would disappear anyway.