GI's in Germany a war of their own
They can't be found in Vietnam. The threat of death doesn't influence their every minute and every move. They don't have to worry about going to the front lines of the war and putting their life on the line.
They're in uniform all right, but the civilians who live around them are much like themselves. The natives are white, come from a similarly based culture, and are not unfriendly, or at least not very unfriendly.
THE SCENE IS THE "other front" of the war, the "cold" front, in which propaganda is being used instead of bullets, and alertness instead of bombs. The place is West Germany, and the characters are American G.I.'s.
Germany is, by nature, a friendly and hospitable country. The password is "Gemütlichkeit" which means something between comfortable and happy, and the universality of good German beer helps to bring people together and gives them an extra push in enjoying themselves.
So the G.I. is sent to Germany, and after he gets over his first relief at not being sent in the other direction, begins to acclimate himself to the new life.
He doesn't know the language, and it's not an easy thing to learn. If he's in a small town, he has little chance of meeting any girls he can date. Parents seem to have a bad impression of G.I.'s. They worship anything American, except G.I.'s.
WHY? IMMEDIATELY AFTER World War II, American soldiers tore Germany apart. They drank their way from town to town, and, although few German girls were raped, so many were accosted that parents began looking askance at the G.I. and American occupation.
So the G.I. in Germany is lonely. He's not as lonely as the sentry in a jungle in Vietnam, but he must deal with something even more fearful—being alone and unliked in the middle of a crowd.
They are probably not going to die in Germany, and few will win purple hearts for valor in action. Yet they are a necessary part of the total picture of war. They are fighting the war of nerves, which may prove to be more disastrous than a war of bullets. They need help and friendly thoughts and a few kind words. Don't forget the cold the war in the midst of the hot one.
Barbara Phillips
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(Note: Whitley Austin, editor of the Salina Journal, is the first Kansas editor we know of who has decided that this nation must get out of Vietnam, and get out now. His editorial, which appears below, has—oddlly enough—received a three-to-one majority of "favorable" comment from Salina Journal readers.)
Killing too costly a price for pride
Let's get out of Vietnam.
Let's get out the quickest, practical wav.
We are about to achieve our only possible military purpose. We again have shown we can field an unbeatable army on the other side of the globe. If that is a deterrent to communist expansion, we have provided it. We have choked the Red appetite. Our men have been heroic.
I AM NOT A PACIFIST. But war must have a reasonable and achievable result, like defense of our nation. If we go further in Vietnam we only squander our human and material resources to no purpose.
BUT WE CAN'T CONQUER Asia any more than the British, the French or Genghis Khan. We are not the shapers of the world.
If we bombed Vietnam to spinach—and we could—we still could win in any ultimate sense. We won World War 2 in Asia. It was necessary to stop the Japanese imperialists. We did that. But what else? Look at mainland Asia now.
Further and massive destruction in Vietnam only would hurt us. We would acquire scorched earth and the united hatred of the world. Hardly a prelude to democracy and peace!
We create chaos and that is an invitation to the Communists, not a deterrent.
Aren't we a helping hand to the villagers? I saw combat duty in the Burma and Chinese theatres, lived in the villages, and I have visited Asia twice since. Now, as then, we are the white foreigners, aliens in the land of the yellow and brown. Our motives are as suspect as our customs are strange.
THE ASIANS FEEL as did our forefathers when they denounced King George for "quartering large bodies of armed troops among us."
This does not mean we should isolate ourselves from Asia. Economic and cultural intercourse remains imperative, but on a basis of mutual interests between peoples, not as master and pupil's.
Asians respect "face"—power. We have shown our military power. But we are losing "face" because that power has not and cannot achieve political ends. We have not even demonstrated what those ends should be.
THE ONLY "FACE" we really are concerned about is our own. We are stuck by pride to a faulty course. To continue that course means more killing and waste. What a high price for pride!
Despite the hawks and the domino theorists, it is possible Washington may now see Vietnam in this light, although President Johnson's message was not reassuring.
If the Administration and the Congress are trying to find a way out, let us hope they find it quickly and courageously, pride or no pride.
This is the time for a positive offensive for peace.
Official Bulletin
TODAY
Foreign Students: Sign up now for Feb. 17 People-to-People tour to federal prison in Leavenworth. Leave at noon. First 33 who sign up will be accommodated d on bus. PtP office, basement, Kansas Union.
Lecture, 4:30 p.m. Enrique Zulita Al ar z. "Literatura y Politica en Ambas Americas." Jayhawk Room, Kansas Union
Frishman Basketball 6 p.m. Independent J-jo. All-in F14 Houses.
Varsity Basketball 8:05 p.M. Nebraska-Kansas, Allen Field House.
NEW BOOKS
2 Daily Kansan
editorial page
Tuesday, February 7, 1967
LOUIS PASTEUR: THE MAN AND HIS THEORIES, by Hilaire Cuny (Premier, 60 cents)—Another in that series called Profiles in Science. This is a brief volume, semi-biographical in nature, but segmenting the life and accomplishments of the great scientist. Selections from Pasteur's writings are included.
*****
THE RISING OF THE LARK, by Ann Moray (Crest, 60 cents) Now comes a love story, set in Wales and dealing with an Irish-Welsh girl and her growing-up time. The writer does a good job of conveying the feeling and atmosphere of the Welsh countryside to the reader.