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University Daily Kansan Monday. Feb. 11, 1963
U.S. Bungles Chances
The U.S. Department of State has handed Canada's John Diefenbaker a club with which to beat Uncle Sam over the head.
Before the State Department made its master move, Diefenbaker was on the defensive. Pressure was building inside Canada for a definite decision on nuclear arms, but Diefenbaker was stalling. Through secret negotiations, the United States had been trying to convince the Diefenbaker government to accept U.S.-built nuclear warheads under the joint-control provision already accepted by most other NATO nations.
THE U.S. PRESSURE was there all the time, but it was kept well out of sight where it could not harm U.S.-Canadian relations.
Canadian Defense Minister Douglas Harkness was exerting his influence in favor of accepting U.S. warheads. And Lester B. Pearson, leader of the opposition Liberal Party, had committed his forces on the same side. On the other side were the ban-the-bomb groups, also anxious for a decision.
Diefenbaker finally made a vague statement before the House of Commons in an attempt to stall the rising pressure. But Canadian journalists would not buy the smokescreen. They read between the lines to see the statement for what it was, merely a delaying tactic.
DIEFENBAKER WAS RUNNING out of time. He had told the United States he wanted to wait until the NATO council meeting in May before committing Canada on nuclear weapons. But the pressure inside Canada was rising so rapidly that Diefenbaker's chances for such a long delay without internal repercussions were slight.
The issue was clear to most of those concerned. The Diefenbaker government was plagued with indecision in the jet age—a time when indecision can be almost as detrimental as no decision.
Diefenbaker had only one hope for getting the delay he wanted. He had to shift the emphasis away from his own indecision. If he could not find a red herring to get public opinion off his
back, he would have to take a stand. And any stand would bring sharp criticism from influential groups.
Diefenbaker was on the spot, and so much the better for the United States, who was just as anxious for a decision as anyone. But the state department could not let well enough alone. It had to have not only a quick decision but also the right decision, namely Canadian acceptance of U.S. nuclear warheads.
EXERTING SUCH INFLUENCE is perfectly justifiable from the U.S. viewpoint—but only if such influence is exerted skillfully.
The U.S. Department of State handled the situation with all the grace and tact of a runaway cement truck. The public statement criticizing Canada for dragging its feet in NATO gave Diefenbaker just the red herring he was looking for to shift the emphasis away from his own indecision and gain the delay he wanted.
The State Department gave Diefenbaker a new issue-U.S. interference in Canadian affairs. The emphasis on his own indecision on nuclear weapons was swept away by a wave of Canadian public resentment against outside pressure on what Canadians generally consider to be a purely internal matter.
DIEFENBAKER'S GOVERNMENT was thrown out all right—but it took U.S. popularity and chances for acceptance of nuclear warheads along with it. U.S. nuclear weapons have now become the symbol of outside interference in Canadian affairs.
Diefenbaker's Conservative Party will make the most of this symbol in the coming Canadian elections. Even the Liberal Party, which had previously given support to Canadian acceptance of U.S. nuclear weapons, must abandon its stand and get on the anti-American bandwagon if it is to maintain its position, much less strengthen it.
The U.S. Department of State has struck a telling blow. It is unfortunate that all the State Department's telling blow cannot be struck on the side of the United States.
—Dennis Branstiter
Liquor Laws
The following excerpts come from an article appearing in the Feb. 6 issue of the Trinity Methodist Church Chimes, published in Kansas City. I feel that this article presents a clear and valid argument against the liberalization of Kansas liquor laws.
"Many years ago Edmund Burke said that 'all that is required for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.' I am sure that we have seen this truth demonstrated time and again.
"A few years ago the people of Kansas voted on the liquor issue, and although Kansas had been a traditionally 'Dry' state, the 'Wets' won, and I am convinced that they won because the people who believed in the 'Dry' cause did not do enough about it.
... Letters ...
"When Kansas became a 'Wet' state we were told that the establishment of liquor stores under strict government control, would reduce the amount of drinking and give us a 'controlled' situation. It would mean that we would never have the 'open' saloon. Youth would be protected and large amounts of revenue would be available for the schools.
"Now we are told that we must have 'liquor by the drink' because so many are drinking in private clubs and we can't control it. If we will change the law then we will have fewer law breakers.
"If we were to follow this logic in other areas, we would legalize prostitution so we could control it better. We would set up 'dope' shops so that dope peddlers would be eliminated.
"With all the high-sounding reasons given for sale of liquor by the drink, let us-never lose sight of the fact that real motivation back of such action is 'the almighty dollar,' not concern for people, and if it passes it will be 'people' who suffer."
Daily Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904, triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
Enterprise 711, news room
Telephone VIking 3-2700
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.
Extension 711, news room
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Fred Zimmerman ... Managing Editor
Ben Marshall, Bill Sheldon, Mike Miller,
Art Miller, Margaret Cathcart ... Assistant Managing Editors
Scott Payne ... City Editor
Steve Clark ... Sports Editor
**Dennis Branstiter** ... Editorial Editor
**Terry Murphy** ... Assistant Editorial Editor
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
***
Jack Cannon, Business Manager; Jim Stevens, Assist. Business Mgr.; Mike Carson, Advertising Mgr.; Joanne Zabornik, Circulation Mgr.; Brooks Harrison, Classified Mgr.; Bob Brooks, National Adv. Mgr.; Charles Hayward, Promotion Mgr.; Bill Finley, Merchandising Mgr.
Robert Angle Kansas City sophomore
Block Seating
The Student Council spent a lot of money advertising the sale of tickets to the Smothers Brothers in the UDK. (Editor's note: SUA purchased the advertising.) Not being a member of a house which has the privilege of purchasing block tickets, before general public sale is announced, I was glad to see this advertisement.
They who ran the ad neglected one bit of information. They forgot to tell the reader that the only tickets available to the independent buyer were located in the second balcony. In the past several better seats for these events had been left open on the main floor for buyers such as myself. Not so this year.
THIS YEAR, AS in the past. I made a special point to get a good night's sleep, arise early and hit the information booth with the knowledge that there was a scattering of seats available on the main floor.
It is understood that everyone cannot be seated on the main floor, but to us who arrived early in the frosty morn to purchase these better seats, the expressions on our faces can only be described as disappointment.
A plea is now in order to the powers that be to leave some stray seats on the main floor for future performances such as these. But, alas, for this year, see you in the balcony—the second balcony that is.
Brent K. Mandry
Ferguson, Mo., senior
Keystone Senators Are Saving U.S.
At long last, the nation can relax and sigh in relief. We are saved.
Yesterday, we faced death blindly, lulled and duped into false security by misinformed, incompetent administrators. We trusted the men in Washington, and they lied to us.
But thanks to the efforts of one man, who is both omniscient and Republican, we can breathe easier this winter night. Three cheers for Sen. Kenneth Keating and his hearty band of Koppers.
IT IS A TRIBUTE to the sagacity of the people of New York that they elected to the Senate a man who single-handedly threatens to replace the Central Intelligence Agency, Robert McNamara, the Department of Defense and aerial reconnaissance photography.
Equipped with his own private intelligence network, Sen. Keating has shown the bungling idiots in Washington the "true facts" behind the Cuban Problem.
Even when the Kennedy Administration tried to save itself by putting Robert McNamara on television for two hours last Wednesday, Sen. Keating and his Koppers were undaunted.
Before the program was aired, Sen. Keating said he would eat his hat if the administration proved that his information was incorrect.
AFTER TWO HOURS of aerial photographs and declassified intelligence reports were presented, the Republican Senator and his fedora were still intact.
But Sen. Keating was not alone. By his side were the other members of the Koppers. Sen. Everett Dirksen of Illinois was unimpressed, Sen. John Stennis of Mississippi said the program changed nothing, and Sen. Margaret Chase Smith of Maine said the program was "too long, too technical and too defensive."
Keating's Koppers forge ahead. Forgotten are the thousands of man-hours spent by the Kennedy administration since last fall. Forgotten are the hundreds of reconnaissance flights made over Cuba. Forgotten are the terrible moments spent by Kennedy and his close advisors last October.
It naturally falls to David Lawrence, the disgruntled haruspex of the Right, to explain, in part, the motives of Keating's Koppers.
FORGOTTEN ALSO is the claim by McNamara that by revealing two hour's worth of vital information to the public, the entire U.S. intelligence system has been "degraded."
He wrote recently that "an opposition party doesn't need a concrete program of its own . . . it is primarily concerned with ousting from office what is considers—and seeks to make the country believe—is a fumbling, misguided and dangerous party."
THE CHARGES THAT Keating's Koppers have made have done nothing but stir up pointless controversy, and in the words of one Senator, "placed our national defense in the political arena."
So Sen. Keating and his opposition Koppers enter the lists against the Democratic Black Knight. Any resemblance to the Keating Koppers and a group created by Mack Sennett a few years back is the Senators' own fault.
—Zeke Wigglesworth
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler
'YES I OLD WANT TO BE A ENGINEER-BUT I THINK NOW I DLK
SOME KIND OF MAJOR WITH CLASSES CLOSER TO TH SISTEN UNION.'