Page 2
Summer Session Kansan
Friday, June 12, 1964
A Word for the Campers
Last summer a pretty young lady here for what campus old-timers called Band Camp (though obviously it's many other things) lit with great exasperation into the long walk she was forced to take from one of the big dorms up on Iowa Street to Flint Hall.
She was from Kinsley or Neodesha or some place like that that does not possess Teton-like heights quite like our Mount Oread. Naturally a bit of commiserating seemed in order, even though some of us—even some students—have become quite used to scaling the peaks every day, sometimes twice, or more, a day.
THIS GIRL'S QUITE understandable complaint is the starting point for a bit of comment for fine young folks who have moved in on us for six weeks. You have our deep sympathy if you don't like climbing hills, or if you don't like hot weather. But a bit of adjustment on your part seems in immediate order.
You are here, and we're glad of it. Your Sunday evening hour is always pleasant. Sometimes it's downright professional. You decorate the campus in your bright colors and with your smiles. We enjoy watching you sketching; we wish we had your energy and enthusiasm.
This should be a pleasant time to be at KU, and you're here, as far as we know, by your own choice. The climbing, the heat, the restrictions probably were known to you some time ago.
IT'S A LOVELY campus in the summer. You help make it so. Some of you work with us here in Flint Hall, and we admire your feeling of excitement, and your dedication, and we hope you'll spell at least the important words properly, just as we hope the musicians won't hit sour notes when they're giving us the "1812 Overture."
The University is justifiably proud of "Band Camp." It's one of our fine institutions. Several people—notably Russell L. Wiley—have made it a fine institution. But the real stars must continue to be the boys and girls who are engaged in the many separate camps of the big overall camp.
We've walked away from concerts marveling at your ability. We've seen the excellent work you turn out in the many divisions. These have made us realize how the camp is as much a part of the University of Kansas as the events scheduled during the regular school year.
YOULL ALL GET to know the buildings, but may we recommend that you spend some time in the museums? The Museum of Natural History has a magnificent panorama of hemispheric life, along with other excellent exhibits. The Museum of Art is a splendid place to spend a few hours. And there's one too little known, in Fraser Hall, called Wilcox Museum, that will take you back temporarily into the classical age.
This is all booster talk, and intended to be. If you're looking for a pleasant, scenically beautiful place to spend the summer it's hard to beat the University of Kansas. We continue to be puzzled that anyone who has once stood on the slopes here, looking out at either the Kaw Valley or the Wakarusa Valley, would want to go to school anywhere else.
Circumstances Force U.S. into Position Where No Viet Nam Solution Is Simple
Ambassador Adlai E. Stevenson mined no words before the United Nations Security Council when he charged that the clear aim of the Communists "is to take over control of all Indochina."
He made it abundantly clear that the United States cannot stand by while Southeast Asia is overrun by armed aggression. Mr. Stevenson said that we will extend help "as long as the peoples of that area are determined to preserve their own independence and ask for our help in preserving it."
THE AMBASSADOR cautioned against the illusion that my government will abandon the people of Viet Nam—or that we shall weary of the burden of support."
Mr. Stevenson offered the opinion that "a very simple way" to restore order could be found in withdrawing all foreign troops from Laos and ending the violations of the political agreements reached at Geneva for the future of Southeast Asia.
"THE PEOPLE of Laos, Viet Nam and Cambodia want to be left alone," said Stevenson.
Stevenson warned that until this is done, "we shall stand for the independence of free peoples in Southeast Asia as we have done elsewhere."
He branded as "malicious fairy tales" the charges made by the Soviet Union that the U.S. is organizing military action "against the people of the Indochinese peninsula."
It is well that our chief delegate to the UN has spoken so frankly. Ambassador Stevenson again used the forum provided by the United Nations to clarify and restate this country's position in clear and unequivocal terms.
HIS ABLE EXPOSITION on the Southeast Asia crisis was in marked contrast to the official brain-washing of the American people for the last five years.
It was only one year ago that we were told "the war in South Viet Nam is being won." Last October, the official word was that the Viet Cong could be "suppressed" by the end of 1965 and most of the American troops would come home.
THE PEOPLE of South Viet Nam have shown little taste for war. Ambassador Stevenson speaks of their determination "to preserve their own independence" but there have been few men with the will to undergo sacrifices in order to win.
Peter Grose writes in the New York Times that efforts to mobilize civilians for this struggle to preserve freedom are sadly lagging. He attributes this to "sluggishness in an administrative bureaucracy that in 10 years has never recognized a responsibility to serve the people."
The mystery of why the Communist guerrillas have made so much headway against a modern, well-equipped army, says Grose, is explained by the fact that the South Vietnamese government lacks political support of the population.
THUS, THE U.S. is endeavoring and at considerable cost—to give assistance to a country which has no deep-rooted determination to fight off the invaders.
The Viet Cong Communists, on the other hand, hold the initiative and gain psychological victories with every successful raid and act of terrorism.
THE SOVIET reactions to Stevenson's speech were characteristically insulting. Delegate Nikolai T. Fedorenko sought to denigrate our ambassador by saying it might be suitable for those who are "telling stories to little children and village idiots, but there is no place here for such stupidity."
UNDER SUCH conditions and circumstances, it is not surprising that the war in South Viet Nam has gone so badly. Yet, until now, the official line has always been that "we are winning" and the boys will soon come home.
The British applauded Stevenson's "constructive ideas" including a UN force to patrol the border between South Viet Nam and Cambodia.
What remained unsaid, either by Stevenson or our allies in the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, is why SEATO has not stepped forward to do the job for which it was created—to keep the peace and resist aggression in Southeast Asia.
FRANCE—a signatory power—has no interest since she is openly proposing neutralization of all Indochina.
Britain, which faces trouble in Malaysia, is avoiding a showdown until her own greater interests are under attack.
Pakistan pleads lack of men, New Zealand and Australia appear indifferent. Thailand is helpless.
And so it goes, with the United States standing alone as the guarantor of freedom for a small and disorganized nation which has done
precious little to help preserve itself.
"IN THE CIRCUMSTANCES," says the New York Times, "it is of great importance that we frankly recognize limited, realistic objectives. Total victory is beyond our grasp; but it is within our capability to deny victory to the Communists—and to increase their costs and difficulties."
The Times $ _{5} $ concludes that we must make it clear that we are trying to get out of, not stay in, South Viet Nam. "The aim should be," says the Times, "a return to the Geneva settlement of 1954, an objective that might even be supported by the French. An increased military effort alone, without an offer to negotiate, would simply compound the errors of the past.
THE PLAIN TRUTH is that we can do neither at this time. Escalation of the war is unthinkable; a pull-out would give the Communists total victory.
This approach will be denounced by those people who insist that "we should either win in South Viet Nam, or pull out."
And such is the price, as we have learned to our sorrow, of over-committing the United States and pledging the men and resources of this country in the pursuit of unlimited and unattainable objectives.
In the end, we shall find no victory with which to crown our folly.
Detroit Free Press
Summer Session
Kansan
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904, triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
Telephone UN-3198, business office
UN-3646, newsroom
111-112 Flint Hall University of Kansas Student Newspaper
Member of Inland Daily Press Association, Associated Collegiate Press. Represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50th 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. Published Tuesdays and Fridays during Summer Session. Second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kansas.
BOOK REVIEWS
GIGI AND SELECTED WRIT-INGS, by Colette (Signet Classics, 75 cents).
Many American readers know Colette, and still more know her most famous creation, the delightful "Gigi" who became the heroine of a Broadway play and an immensely successful motion picture. Signet Classics, in an attractive new paperback, has collected several of the writings of Colette, including "Gigi."
The works come from a half century. They include an excerpt from "The Last of Cheri," a novel about an aging courtesan and her young ex-lover. The other writings deal with recollections of life among the artistic world of Paris, childhood, portraits of people, personal evocations of nature.
As for "Gigi," it of course concerns the young girl being carefully trained as a courtesan who upsets all her relatives' plans by falling in love.
A SHORT HISTORY OF JAPAN, by Malcolm Kennedy (Mentor, 75 cents).
A man who served nine years as Tokyo foreign correspondent for Reuters has written this paperback original. It is an interesting and entertaining history, one which stresses legend and myth in the development of Japan.
Those who know recent Japanese history will recognize the role of legend and myth, for Kennedy reminds us that the most important step in Japan's westernization was the renunciation of divinity by Hirohito in 1946.
The author considers Japan's growth through the centuries, the significant wars with China and Russia little more than 60 years ago, the conquest of Manchuria, both world wars, and the current position of Japan as a partner of the United States.
THE HUMAN BODY, ITS STRUCTURE AND OPERATION, by Isaac Asimov (Signet Science Library, 75 cents).
This is a handy guide, easily understood, by an associate professor of biochemistry at Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. Asimov provides exact detail on the structure and operation of the human body. There are illustrations by the artist Anthony Ravelli.
TITUS ANDRONICUS, by Shakespeare (Signet Classics, 50 cents).
One of the lesser-known plays of Shakespeare, "Titus Andronicus" in this version is of special value because the probable source for the play has been reprinted for the first time in more than 200 years. This is an 18th century booklet called "The History of Titus Andronicus." The editor of this edition is Sylvan Barnet, chairman of the English department at Tufts University.
THE GOLDEN AGE and DREAM DAYS, by Kenneth Grahame (Signet Classics, 75 cents).
The author of "The Wind in the Willows" also wrote this series of tales of five orphaned children who live with relatives in an English country house. And it is likely that the idea of "a book for children of all ages" really applies in respect to this one.
Vernon Watkins, who has written the introduction for this book, would disagree, for he holds that the style and even the ideas of Grahame are too much for a child to grasp. Maybe, though children seem capable of reading and grasping some mighty complex books and ideas these days.
No matter. These are delightful tales, written in that warm style that has made "The Wind in the Willows" a book that all readers can love.
MARDI, by Herman Melville (Signet Classics, 75 cents).
One more Melville novel, in what looks like a Melville renaissance, has made it to the paperback shelves. "Mardi" is, like the other novels, more than an adventure tale. It becomes an allegory, as a young sailor has adventures on a mythical Polynesian archipelago.
Melville provides satirical commentary on human morality, politics and all of life in a novel that for some readers may be a bit too much.
THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY, by Henry James (Signet Classics, 75 cents).
I A I
University students whose first experience with Henry James was "The Golden Bowl" or "The Wings of the Dove" should go back and try again with "The Portrait of a Lady," try again, that is, if they gave up James as a lost cause. For here is a deeply moving, easy-to-read novel that is pure James but not the complex James of a later time.
"The Portrait of a Lady" is a big novel, and a detailed one. It is perhaps the best example of the international theme for which James became so noted. Its heroine is a young American girl, Isabel Archer, who goes to England and becomes entangled in international society.
She becomes a damsel in distress, a theme one finds often in James, especially concerning ingenious American heroines who cannot cope with the intrigues of Europe. All students of American literature should know this exceptionally fine book.
In particular Isabel comes under the influence of a sophisticated American woman who has become quite European in outlook, and Isabel marries Gilbert Osmond and finds herself virtually in the trap of a subtle and scheming man and woman.
BURMESE DAYS, by George Orwell. (Signet Classics, 60 cents).
This is the first novel of the celebrated English writer best known for "1843" and "Animal Farm." It dates to 1934, and is a personal reminiscence, in a sense, as well as novel.
Orwell offers an indictment of British imperial rule, placing his story in the beauty of southeast Asia. The hero is John Flory, a young Englishman attempting to maintain integrity in the moral climate of imperial Burma.
SLUMS AND SUBURBS, by James B. Conant (Signet, 60 cents).
Orwell presents a cross section of Anglo-Indian society and tells history of an important recent era.
The respected critic of American education, who has been looking at American schools under a Carnegie grant, gives a new insight into criticism of teachers. Conant suggests in this book that much of the criticism should be shifted to the community.
Conant writes that a school's accomplishments are "determined by the status and ambitions of the families being served." He contrasts the schools of city slums with those of wealthy suburbs and reveals the differences that exist. The book is a persuasive one deserving of a reading by all concerned Americans.
A HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN ANTIQUITY. by H. I. Marrou (Mentor, 95 cents).
A professor of early Christian history at the Sorbonne provides in this new paperback an examination of how our values and ideals have developed from Homer. Marrou describes the evolution of Greek education its adaptation to Rome, its renaissance in the Carolingian era, and the influence it has on today.
The book is stimulating, but not for the general reader. Students of history and of education should find it of special interest. The book first appeared in 1948.
THE TRAVELS OF JAIMIE McPHEETERS, by Robert Lewis Taylor (Cardinal. 75 cents).
In the vein of "Huckleberry Finn" is this vastly entertaining novel which won the Pulitzer prize for 1958. Television viewers know it as a kind of junior league Wagon Train, for it tells about Jaimie and his dreamy, improvisant father as they join the California Gold Rush.
There is little in the way of fun and excitement that Robert Lewis Taylor does not unfold for us in this book. There are the expected brushes with the Indians, and there is an incident with the Utah Mormons, and Jaimie sees the mystifying matters of life, such as love, unfold before him.
And in California itself there is more excitement, and violence too, in the gold mines. Not for a minute does this become an important novel, but readers who are looking for something highly enjoyable will find this a gold mine in itself.