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i i Friday. April 7, 197 Page 2 THE DAILY TAR HEEL War In Vietnam Capsule As We See li New Pro War Group Oversimplifies Question There's a new group on cam pus now the National Student Committee for Victory in Vietnam which in a 55-word, three-excla-. mation-point petition has managed to produce a rather gross oversim plification of the Vietnam question.' The statement reads: "We the undersigned citizens of the United States urge President Lyndon Johnson to stand firm on the war in Vietnam. The United States must not allow communism to en gulf South Vietnam. The Viet Cong must be defeated! South Vietnam must remain free! The United States and her allies must win the war in South Vietnam!" The group will begin circulat ing this petition Monday. At the same time, its leader says, they I would also like to somehow dis ; play some of the atrocities which the Viet Cong have been commit ting. : And between students' hoped- for support of U.S. posture in Viet- nam and their rejection of atroci l ties, the group wants to show the : world that everybody at Carolina doesn't think like the vocal Stu ; dents for a Democratic Society iwho oppose the war. Well, that's nice. After all, it would be a shame if the people of North Carolina thought that per haps there were serious doubts on this campus about the U.S. posi tion. That,- however, is exactly the case. There are doubts serious ones about our stand in Vietnam. And these doubts are spreading. They are popping up on college campuses throughout the land, in Congress and almost wherever people gather to talk about the war. The Vietnam conflict has, in fact, become the grayest moral question of our time. This is not to say that the Unit ed States' position in Vietnam is unjustified. Neither is it to say that this is a totally holy war. It is to say, though, that there are indeed questions being asked about Vietnam, that there is indeed room for these questions and that the answers to them do not come easily. It is a very complicated war both militarily and morally. It is being fought with both crossbows and napalm at the same time. And it is being argued by everyone from garage mechanics to philoso phy professors. But petitions such as the one to be circulated by the National Student Committee for Victory in Vietnam provide no answers only emotions and exclamation points. H ow Mellow The Yellow? Those 4 eyer-so-slippery, banana peels have . slipped out of the mon key cages and into the hands of the hippies, Newsweek Magazine -reported this week. From the realm of slapstick comedy where funnymen used to step on them and go spinning head over heels, the banana peel has moved into the realm of things psy chedelic where hippies drag on them and claim to go spinning mind over matter. The whole thing started when the underground newspaper Berke ly Barb offered its readers a "kitchen-tested recipe" for con verting banana skins into a poor man's hashish, said Newsweek. The recipe is simple: scrape the white fiber from inside the banana peel, dry it slowly in a 200-degree oven and then smoke the stuff. And suddenly everybody was buying bananas. Bob Travis: , . But what good does it do ?-t Pos sibly very little, said, Newsweek, quoting doctors as saying and bio chemists as saying they really didn't know of any way for a per son to get high from smoking ba nana peels. But, regardless, the banana peel has slipped its way into the hip culture, been heralded in song (Donovan's "Mellow Yellow") and may evolve as one of the symbols of our time. Can't you just see it now: The Soaring . Sixties will be remem bered as the era when astronauts conquered outer space and cons ciousness at the same time astride a jet-propelled banana. A mover If there's one thing that Bob Travis will do this year as student body president, it will be to get things done. He showed this very clearly yesterday when he had himself in naugurated with little pomp or ceremony in his office so he'd be in a position to present his appoint ment of David LeBarre as Attor ney General to the first meeting of the newly elected Student Leg islature last night. ' There will of course be a later and more formal swearing-in cere mony complete with all the expect ed officiousness of officialdom. But we were glad to see Travis take his oath yesterday and get started early. If this attitude of do-it-now con tinues, Travis' administration will make student government a mean ingful and moving force. 3!j t iattij ar Qeel 74 Years of Editorial Freedom Bill Amlong, Editor Tom Clark, Business Manager Lytt Stamps, Managing Editor John Askew .:. Ad. Mgr. Peter Harris Associate Ed. Don Campbell News Editor Carol Wonsavage ... Feature Ed. Jim Fields .. Sports Editor Owen Davis .... Asst. Spts. Ed. Wayne Hurder Copy Editor Jock Lauterer Photo Editor Bruce Strauch Cartoonist Mike McGowan, Steve Adams Photographers Steve Knowlton, Hunter George, Karen Freeman, Donna Reif sni der, Sandy Lord, Joe Ritok, Joe Coltrane, Penny Raynor, Joe Sanders, Dennis Sanders. The Daily Tar Heel is the official news publication of the University of North Carolina and is published by students daily except Mondays, ex amination periods and vacations. Second class postage paid at the Post Office in Chapel Hill, N. C. Subscription rates: $4.50 per semes ter; $3 per year. Printed by the Chapel Hill Publishing Co., Inc., 501 W. Franklin St., Chapel Hill, N. C. rrpn TTDT1 11 he M n .000. Tears And sweat .Havase The onl From The Cheraw Chronicle WAR IS UNPOPULAR Random conversation with people these days reveals a deep and instinctive dislike for the Vietnam war. "This dislike is growing. It comes from both sides and the mid dle, from those who have a ready answer for everything and from those who admit tedly do not know how on earth the country can with draw from the bloody busi ness but who like it no bet ter than the others. This war is gnawing at-the conscience of the peoples-Many have a growingsense of dis quiet that a land war in the jungles and swamps of south east Asia is not really in the national interest. But they hesitate to grow too vocal about it, lest they inadverten ly give encouragement to the leaders of North Vietnam and prolong the conflict. Others who believe the Unit ed States has a vital stake in the course of events in Asia nonetheless do not like the way our leaders are pur suing their objectives. Many who support the President's policies experience a deepen ing revulsion to the bloodshed and slaughter. POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS President Johnson and his chief advisers are surely as aware as anyone else of the political implications of this dissatisfaction. As the casual ty lists grow longer, this dis satisfaction will grow. If the war is not won or settled through negotiation by 1968, the Democrats can be in real trouble. It is grossly unfair of the President's critics to suggest that he is enjoying the war and does not long to secure-an honorable settlement. Mr. Johnson is a humane man as well as a sensitive politician. Of course he wants an early end to the fighting, but he wants it on his terms. The nation may be nearing one of those historic sea chang .esin its political affairs J 'If our military commitment can not be curtailed without dan gerous loss of face, the elector ate might decide to give the other major party a chance to see what it can do. It may be an unfair and fickle way to behave, but that is the way the American people are some times. They did it in 1952, when, thanks, to an unhappi ; ness with the Korean War, al most any respectable GOP candidate, even had he not been a war hero, might have won. It is true that the GOP is just as full of haw&s as the Democratic Party and that Republican criticism of "John son's War" may create the kind of political climate which will not permit the Admini stration to "surrender" addi tional real estate to the com munists. A change of parties a n d a new administration sometimes unfreezes static po litical positions and provides the new government more flexibility. DANGERS OF ESCALATION There are those who fault President Johnson on his ori ginal decision to escalate the war in 1964, when he appa rently had a mandate from the people not to follow the war-risky policies advocated by Sen. Goldwater, the GOP standardbearer. Others argue that he is interested in victory, not negotiation, and that he is therefore wrong in refusing to utilize the full strength of American military power to force a decision. Prudent people, however, will think a long time before advocating all-out war in Viet nam. Caution and judgment are needed not to push Ame rican dominance in southeast Asia to the point of forcing Chinese or Soviet intervention. Even further escalation i s risky, for every time we in crease the tempo, the com munists appear able to match it. UNEXAMPLED SAVAGERY We have been exposed to two new opinions in recent days on Vietnam. One soldier, just back from the war zone and decorated for heroism, says that both sides practice unexampled savagery. There is nothing inspirational about it, he says. He believes the war originally was a civil war, much as the American Revolution or the War Bet ween the States was a civil war. Vietnam has now be come a battleground between hostile, rival big powers who have little interest in the wel fare xf the Vietnamese people. Although field commanders have issued orders against it, it is not uncommon, he says, for American soldiers, in rage against Viet Cong atrocities, to commit atrocities of their own, including the cutting off of ears of slain soldiers and the stamping of American uni form insignia into the fore head of a fallen foe with the heel of a military boot. It is no place for American mili tary personnel to be, he ar gues, although he admits that wholesale slaughter of civilians would follow a communist vic tory in the South. AN ENGLISH EXAMPLE Our brother-in-law, who was born in England, raised in South Africa and educated in Canada, says America could borrow a leaf from the Eng lish during their days as the world's leading power and keeper of the peace. Now a psychiatrist in New York State, and long since an . American citizen, he feels that the United States has made, a serious mistake in waging this war with American troops. The English, he points out, defended their national inter ests, spread English custom and culture throughout Asia and Africa, and maintained law and order without the wholesale sacrifice of young Englishmen. The outposts of the British empire were, de fended with colonials and hired mercenaries. Even in their re cent successful defense of Ma laysia, native troops, not Eng lishmen, were used. In Asia, where so much capital can be made about a white man's war, the white man's burden, and the yellow and brown peril, it would make more sense to finance the war from ,the West but .utilize mercen aries and adventurers, most ly from Asiatic nations, to do the actual fighting. Like the British, the United States might furnish the tech nicians and the officers, but that would be all. Even in the Boer War the English relied entirely upon volunteers. It was not until World War I that the English resorted to conscription, and it was half way through the war, at that. CONSERVE OUR MANPOWER It wasn't until World Wars I and II that both the British and the French committed the flower of their manhood to the battlefield, and after these two great bloodlettings, both of these major world powers sank to second class rank. In the present conflict, nei ther Russia nor China has sent troops to Vietnam, and Russia was careful, after her dreadful losses in World War II, not to send any men to Korea. In the civil war in Spain, both the fascists and communist powers sent equip ment, supplies, advisers and officer cadres but made no large scale manpower com mitment. It may be that the United States, if she is to remain the world's policeman for any length of time, will have to be more practical and conserva tive in her use of manpower. There should be additional manpower resources to be found in non ' - communist 1 Asia that could be used in battle. There is another argument against the use of ones own men in a place such as Viet nam. It is difficult to' extri cate ones self from a commit ment if ones own nationals are committed in great strength. If the fighting goes badly, or if for some reason or other, a decision is made to cut ones losses or strike out in a new direction how can you get out of the place with national honor intact? Self respect and world opinion are important to great nations. If a nation has not committed large land . armies to battle, her leaders can stop the sup plies, pull out the advisers and technicians, and call off the mercenaries without seeming to surrender. Perhaps the battle was too far gone to permit such a strategem in South Vietnam. Perhaps now it is too late to Of course we're being open-minded. You a commie or something?" -mm 1 1 1 WiliP'tor Off Q A resort to them. The political implication of using soldiers of the National Chinese from Formosa might be too provo cative. ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS One cannot dismiss Presi dent Johnson's policy as a wholesale failure. Whether due to American military presence in Southeast Asia or to inner stress, great changes have oc curred in Asia, the three most important being the Sino-So-viet split, the internal press ures within China itself, and the anti - commurit w in Indonesia. The American mili tary effort in Asia, which saved South Vietnam from certain defeat two years ago, may have contributed to these great events and also may have stopped communist infil tration and aggression in Cambodia, Thailand, Burma and India. It is difficult to judge because on cannot ex actly measure what has not happened, only that which has. The question is whether it matters greatly to the United States if Asian communism were to engulf the southern reaches of the Asian main land. If it did, would it not be beyond China's ability to harness this political power? Might not this communist movement contain the seeds of diversity, contradiction, and dissension and lead to the same kind of national schism that affects Sino-Soviet rela tions today? Might not the mil itary and administrative bur dens of trying to regulate this huge area prove hopelessly burdensome to a country as poorly roganized and desper ately hungry as Red China? A DECISIVE DIFFERENCE There is a difference, in our mind, between a civil war, even one backed by a hos tile communist power, in southeast Asia, and the ag gression against the free Wes tern world by Nazi Germany. There is a difference, from, a , military,- political, - economic ; and : culturalXTiew;li; between the threat posed to Western civilization by Hitlerism and the threat of further com munist expansion in south east' Asia. In 1940 Roosevelt made the right choice. In 1964, Johnson may not have. The threat to America and to her major allies in Asia lies not so much from direct military aggression as from communist subversion. Ef forts to strengthen the domes tic economy of these nations and their social institutions, a significant effort on behalf of education, health, diet, and a modern technological society, would probably do more to win the battle against communism than any amounts of dynamite, bullets, and bombs. Before such aid can be effectively adminis tered, of course, the area must enjoy security from ex ternal aggression. President Johnson's inter est in restructuring the eco nomic and the social fabric of those areas of South Viet nam now pacified and secur ed against the communists is well placed. A military victo ry not accompanied by such reforms would be hollow. It js said that the Guam Confer ence now underway will con centrate more on postwar redevelopment than on new ways of waging war. Perhaps. It is unfair to offer critC cism if one does not have a constructive alternative. The complexities of the Vietnam situation are so great and the errors of past and present ad ministrations so compounded that it is exceedingly difficult to make any recommenda tions. There may be no way out at this juncture save to continue the killing until both sides have wearied themsel ves to the conference table. SOME SEARCHING QUESTIONS The questions to be asked now are these: What are our real national inf-pr"" rrnw compromise can we afford to accept? How can we cut our commitment without too great a loss of national prestige? How can we guarantee the safety of the millions of South Vietnamese now in our care? Above all else, what have we learned in Vietnam that we can apply elsewhere? How can we avoid such future en tanglements? Does our whole basic con cept of world affairs require review? Does "collective se curity" with uncertain allies in Asia make sense in the same way that collective se curity in Europe makes sense? Can the United States afford to be the "policeman of Asia" and provide the bulk of the manpower in a series of undeclared wars in the Far East? Which is more impor tant, the spread of Asian com munism and - or socialism in alien lands which have little - in common with the highly developed and sophisticated - diplomatic -k with Soviet rRussiat v-y. . - v. zj. i ; ,W h i c h is more .danger ous to U. S. security, the spread of communism in the lesser lands of southeast Asia or the development of nuclear power by an unreformed and unrepentant China? When does the use of American military power reach a point of di minishing returns, and when is it clearly within the national - interest to curtail such mili tary efforts and use the money formerly committed to war for economic and social recon truction? At what point are American resources danger ously eroded? If President Johnson cannot do better than return from the Far East this time with a proclamation that we are going to "nail the coon skin to the barn house door," he will have failed to meet the mood of the American people. The times clearly call for some thing more than chauvinism, militarism, and nationalism. Pompoms People Pass-By- Chris Easter Sunday. Eleven o'clock. Washington Cathe dral. Suddenly trumpets blare, the organ blasts out a deep and magnificent chord which shakes the very foun dations of the cathedral, the procession, with banners fly ing, solemnly passes before the colorfully decked congre gation, and the Easter enter tainment has begun. Isn't it grand! Better than the circus! Such magnificence, such beau ty, such precision in the ma neuvres. Itis a real spectacle. Ev ery Easter, Washington Cathedral plays it up for the crowds. Whole gardens of blooming trees and shrubs are brought into the cathedral (quite unique and quiet beau tiful). Everything is polished and ornamented and exalted and whatnotted to the great est possible extent. Here is the Church TriumDhant. Glory be to God, world without end, Amen. But somehow a thought comes stealing across my mind: Is God really a part of this service? To whose glory do the trumpets blast? Does the pageantry provoke us to feelings of humility before God? Do the Easter bonnets remind us of the agony that the man-god went through for us? I think not. I think the service is de signed to awe the masses, to show the glory of Washington Cathedral. Why else would the front rows be reserved for dig nitaries and peonle of so ciety' (making their once-a-year appearance)? The front rows absolutely sparkle with colors and decorations and polished shoes and shining -clean faces. "Isn't this love ly?" the smiles all say. But no one thinks about Easter in the Christian sense. ". . .let us not wish to gloss over the Christian requirement, so that by suppression or by falsifica tion we may bring about an appearance of decorum which is in the very highest degree demoralizing and is a sly death - blow to Christianity." It is a pagan production. See them leaning right' and left to see the procession a little better! See the flash bulbs flashing the second that the service is over! See the mobs surging into the crossing to get a glimpse of the flowers on the altar! Where is Christ? Christ is hanging on a cross many feet above their heads, but the people never think to contemplate that figure. After all, what does Christ have to do with Easter? 1
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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April 7, 1967, edition 1
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