These Days
Or - Behind The News
From Washington
By -
John Chamberlain
inniinitM tMiiNtUMM* f* l
The sight of two U. S. as
tronauts driving a rover on
the moon below 14,006-foot
mountain peaks fills one with
the wonder of America. But
this is the culmination of
something planntd more than
ten years ago, when we still
had confidence. We reap as
we sow — and what have we
sown lately?
Let us cherish astronauts Da
vid Scott, James Irwin and Ma
jor Alfred Worden, for they
could be among the last repre
sentatives of a vanishing breed.
We are a nation in retreat. We
fought clumsily in Southeast
Asia, taking five years where it
should have taken two and
wasting many young lives.
Still, we were the victors in
the field. What is the excuse,
then, for throwing it all away
by our dissidence on the home
front, as we are now doing?
After World War II, Presi
dent Harry Truman made the
decision to contain Com
munism. He faced Stalin down
in the struggle for Greece
and the eastern Mediter
ranean; he faltered a bit in
Korea, but still he preserved
a line between the Communist
world and onp own. The pol
icy continued to pay divi
dends when our responses in
South Vietnam encouraged
the Indonesians to turn back
When you think of prescrip
tions, think of VABNER’S. adv.
the Maoist attempt to seize
Java and Sumatra and the
rest of those rich and strate
gically placed islands.
The canker in the policy was
our intellectual inconsistency:
our leaders never faced up to
the logical necessity of keeping
Communism weak enough so
that it could be contained. We
let Moscow overtake and pass
us in atomic armaments; we
talked of building bridges to
the East; we sought trade with
the same enemy that we were
opposing on the battlefields in
Vietnam.
We were brave in Guate
mala and in Lebanon, but we
might have paved it, and we
betrayed the true freedom
loving Cubans at the Bay of
Pigs. Small wonder that our
logical Children rebelled at
being drafted to fight against
an enemy in Asia that got its
guns, its ammunition, its
trucks and its anti - aircraft
missies from the power we
were seeking to placate by our
bridge-building in Europe. If
Communism was “all right”
In Eastern Europe, why was
it so terrible in Southeast
Asia?
And what is wrong with the
logic of the American mother
who told me that she, thought
an anti-Communist, would fight
like a tiger to keep her son
out of a war in which he might
be killed by a Jwliet made in
"A Cry Of Players" Is Being
Presented At The Playhouse
“A Cry of Players,” the Wil
liam Gibson play which the
Vagabond Players are perform
ing at Flat Rock Playhouse,
August 17 through 21, is label
ed “adult entertainment” by
Managing Director Robroy Far
quhar, who also appears in the
play.
“I do not mean that it is
X-rated, to use the current
phrase of movie classification,”
Actor-Manager Farquhar added.
“We have never presented a
play that is simply dirty at Flat
Rock Playhouse and we never
will. We value our reputation as
a ‘playhouse of family enter
a nation with whom we retain
ed the friendliest sort of rela
tions?
Because we have been soft
in the head and weak in ;wiH.
our retreat is in danger of
becoming a rout. We show no
real perspective when it
comes to dealing with our is
sues in Congress.
The Lockheed Aircraft Cor
poration, threatened with bank
ruptcy, was saved in the Sen
ate by a single vote. The rea
son given was our fear of what
the collapse of a great builder
of airframes would do to in
crease unemployment. This was
a craven reason for departing
from free enterprise principles.
The honorable explanation for
helping Lockheed by guaran
teeing some bankers’ loans
would have been to say that
the airframe company was vi
tal to our military position in
the world. As such, it was
something outside the free
enterprise economy. It had
come up with the U-2 and the
supersonic SB-71 spy planes just
in time to give us the aerial
Trust
Pat "s shoe World
to know and care
Send the kids
off-to-school in
Jumping - Jack shoes
, that lead in top
styling and comfort.
See us for your
assurance of a great
fit, and select from
tie, slip-on, and
Oxford styles.
tainment’ and we mean to live
up to it.
“When I say ‘A Cry of Play
erg’ is ‘adult entertainment’ I
am saying several things about
the play. It is an intelligent and
beautiful play. Our products i,
costumed by ^ctor Walter Wil
liamson and staged by Designer
Walter O’Rourke, is stunningly
beautiful as a visual treat as
well as beautiful in language.
“It is also robust in spirit and
action. The play tells of the
lusty life of the village in which
Shakespeare was born and
brought up and of the very lusty
young Will Shakespeare him
self. The spirit of the Eliza
bethan age was vigorous, often
bowdy and filled with the diver
sions of drinking and wenching.
The play reflects this agev as it
must, but we believe we have
kept our production in good
taste.
“In frankness and fairness to
our patrons — an attitude we
strive to maintain,” Farquhar
continued, “we ask those who
prefer lighter fare or less earth
ly life styles and language to
wait until the following week
when we will return to our
customary comedy bill — but
•A Cry of Players’ is a strong,
tender and often funny play
which we are proud to present.”
Anita Grannis and Tom
Campbell directed the spectacu
lar production which opens
Tuesday at Flat Rock Play
house. Ralph Redpath, as young
Shakespeare, Margarete Kilness,
as his long-suffering wife Anne,
and Walter Williamson, as a
noble arm of 16th century law,
head a cast of 30.
reconnaissance that was neces
sary to sustain our stands in
foreign policy in the days be
fore we had the robot spy. It
should have been defended as
a linchipin of the military - in
dustrial complex that is need
ed to guarantee our peace. But
who is defending the military
industrial complex these days?
The excuse for our growing
retreat from global commit
ments is that we must take
care of things at home. But
where is the guarantee that
our enemies will leave us
alone to concentrate on an
isolationist Eden? As we lose
influence, we will lose our
economic power. Why should
foreigners sustain our dol
lar if they get no defense for
their pains? We give up the
supersonic jet to get mass
transit, but then we get no
mass transit. The taxes from
a shrinking economy won’t
be enough to support all those
brave welfarist schemes.
We got to the moon, but that
was because of a decision made
in a vanished time. Nixon him
self has warned that we may be
on the verge of decadence. His
new Far Eastern policy, which
must end by throwing Japan,
Taiwan. South Korea and the
Philippines to the wolves, is
surely part of the decadent
drift.
Could it be that the Presi
dent, in his heart of hearts,
know that we aren’t, up to
sustaining the role we accept
ed in 1945 and is trying to
make the best of a bad situa
tion? That is the only logical
justification for his portent
ous shift.
IN APPRECIATION
Mere words cannot express
our sincere thanks and appreci
ation extended to us in the loss
of our son Mitchell’s eye.
There are so many who re
membered us with their pray
ers, telephone calls, cards, let
ters, visits and expressions of
love.
We shall indeed be indebted
to so many. Please accept our
heartf~’*
Gratefully,
Charles and Pansy Greene
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DONALD DUCK
By WALT DISNEY
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By JOHN LINEY
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