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FRIDAY, JUNE 4, 1965 NIGHT EDITOR: ROBERT MOORE
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i
I
A Teach-In Needed
On African Situation
KENYA'S MINISTER for Commerce and
Industry, Julius Kiano, and four mem-
°bers of Kenya's Parliament issued a state-
ment Monday calling on Kenya's vice-
president, Odinga Odinga, to either stop
attacking the government or to resign.
The attack bears solemn testimony to
the success of Communist efforts to de-
stroy Kenya's stable government under
Jomo Kenyatta and to establish one more
favorable to themselves. It is also a mile-
stone on Kenya's path to ward off civil
war.
Communist forces appeared to have
suffered a serious setback a month ago
when Kenyatta uncovered an arms ship-
ment ostensibly bound for Kenya's army,
but in fact headed for Odinga-backed
rebels. But the resolute Russians, spurred
on by Chinese successes in Africa, have
made a fast comeback in their drive to
split the country into warring liberal-
moderate camps.
The agent of this drive is Odinga. He
has evidently been so encouraged by his
Russian backing that he feels able to
criticize his government with imunity,
itself testimony to the promises the Rus-
sians must have made him.
Four weeks ago several members of
parliament called on him to resign for
"confusing the people and embarrassing
the governent."
MONDAY'S ATTACK on Odinga was the
result of a speech he made in Kisumu
in which he accused the United States
and Britain of creating trouble in Kenya.
IHe also attacked ,Thomas Mboya, minis-
ter for' economic planning and develop-
ment, and Ronald Ngala, former. opposi-
tion leader, for acting as dupes of the
\English. Mboya and Ngala have recently
spoken out actively against Communism.
Odinga's Russian-created strength is
a product of Soviet desires to split Afri-
,.Lantern' Argument
x Unworthy
JT IS, OF COURSE, always encouraging
to hear someone defending freedoms on
the campus, as the (Ohio State) Lantern
did recently. Perhaps it is enough these
days that such freedoms as the right of
one man to speak and of others to listen
are being defended, but one always hopes
in addition that the arguments marshall-
ed will be worthy of what is being de-
fended.
In balance, the Lantern's defense was
almost as disappointing as it was expect-
able. The OSU campus had seen long and
bitter protests by faculty and students
demanding the OSU administration al-
low Communist theoretician Herbert Ap-
theker to speak there.
The cause was certainly just and clear,
yet in order to prove that the protestors
were not "fraudulent," "dissident," "few"
and Communist - duped, the Lantern
found it necessary to resort to a chronicle
of their credentials: noted scholars, hon-
ors students, large numbers, etc.
It's as if one must be noteworthy, in-
telligert, popular or followed by thou-
sands in order legitimately to exercise
his rights or to insist that others are
obliged to honor those rights. The holy
cry of "expertise" goes up, while in fact
all that is relevant is that the thousand
or so were responsible American citi-
zens and were deeply concerned with an
issue they felt affected their lives. That
is all one should ever have to say about
why he finds it necessary to voice his
convictions.
SOMEONE ELSE MIGHT, in any given
case, argue with those convictions. But
it takes deplorably poor style at best,
and a well-imbedded intolerance of dem-
ocratic processes of expression and choice
at worst, to say the man who differs is
somehow not a respectable human being.
And it takes the same poor style or the
same intolerance to say the man who
differs is respectable only because he has
already been judged respectable.
If the legitimacy of one's speech must
).a- n.ra i.n - + f n + tx n A
can nations-inserting her own influence
into the vacuum thus created. They are
evidently succeeding.
in Odinga they have found a powerful
spokesman capable of hitting Kenyatta's
moderate government where it hurts.
Odinga pulls one way, Kiano pulls the
other, and the Russians step in between.
Kiano's statement further illustrates
the dissent Odinga is capable of creating
in the face of supposedly evident facts.
Odinga has often spoken about the ad-
vantages of Russian aid.
YET TRY EXPLAINING the importance
of "recurrent expenditures" to a dis-
satisfied African. And then watch him
turn and listen to Odinga talk of war.
Thus far, American policies have taken
little if any notice of these "divide and
conquer" tactics. They require rather
sophisticated foreign policy maneuvers
and after the Dominican landings, one
rather dispairs of Washington's under-
standing anything more complicated than
simple shoot-from-the-hip retaliation.
But there are forces today which have
recently induced the administration to
undertake rather more sophisticated poli-
cies in Viet Nam. President Lyndon, B.
Johnson's Baltimore speech followed by
the six-day halt in the bombing of North
Viet Nam were obviously reactions to cri-
ticisms of his policies emanating from the
nation's universities.
His "vote of confidence" request to
Congress for an additional $700 million
to help pay government bills in Viet Nam
and the Dominican Republic was an at-
tempt to both answer and to quiet this
criticism.
THE ORIGINATOR of the criticism, the
University-based Inter-University Com -
mittee for a Public Forum on Viet Nam
met last Friday "to evaluate the Wash-
ington teach-in and discuss future ac-
tions." Apparently the meeting centered
on reports from the teach-in rather than
on planning of future actions. Hopefully,
the committee will meet again soon to
decide where to turn its attention next.
There are few better areas such a group
could bring to its attention than the dan-
ger of racial uprisings-Communist-in-
spired or not-in Africa. That these dan-
gers are both imminent and ubiquitous
has been noted; that the University com-
munity has at its disposal the perfect in-
strument for calling our negligent gov-
ernment's attention to a vital problem
has been sadly neglected by all.
Certainly, an African teach-in would
be less popularly interesting that a Viet
Nam teach-in, but is not the very pur-
pose of such a program to arouse pop-
ular interest in the subject? Before the#
protests began, Viet Nam was certainly
a dormant issue in many of the eventual
participants' minds.
To argue otherwise is to argue that
the committee was a creature of the mo-
ment, and this the committee is certain-
ly not about to admit.
It might always be argued that an Afri-
can teach-in would lobby for, rather than
against, American involvement in a for-
eign nation's affairs. But this misses the
point, for any nation with America's
power is, almost by definition, involved
in the affairs of many foreign nations.
What is of issue is the character of that
involvement.
THE INVOLVEMENT in Viet Nam could
be protested because the U.S., had in-
tervened in what was apparently a civil
war; it seemed that we were doing more
harm than good.
But in Africa, this certainly does not
need to be the case. U.S. involvement
there could be as an unofficial mediator
or as an economic aide; conceivably the
teach-in might argue for an expansion
of the Peace Corps in Africa. The possi-
bilities for useful U.S. action are endless.
At such a stage, details should be rela-
tively unimportant. What is crucial is
that the gifted creators of the Viet Nam
teach-in have the chance to present
themselves with another, and if possi-
ble more important, task.
Hopefully mere assurances of Africa's
By ROGER RAPOPORT
Special To The Daily
STOCKHOLM - Ake Hedtjarn,
chief of the planning commis-
sion for downtown Stockholm, is
about to leave on a two month
tour of the United States. He will
visit a dozen American cities to
study their superhighway systems
and parking ramps.
While the Swedes might learn
how to take care of cars from
the Americans, it is the Ameri-
cans who can learn how to take
care of people from the Swedes.
Through a unique political sys-
tem the Swedes have systematical.
ly abolished slums, poverty and
unemployment. None of the stan-
dard political labels are applicable
to the government of this nation
where the rich get richer and the
poor don't exist.
THE SWEDISH government is
not based on any foreordained
prescription that will solve the
problems of society. Their for-
mula is a pragmatic one. They
have mixed Keynes with Adam
Smith, Marx (the graduated in-
come tax) with Gunnar Myrdal
all under the leadership of a par-
liamentary monarchy.
Each Swedish community seems
more modern than the next. Neat,
rows of high rise apartments,
modern shopping plazes and clean
streets are everywhere. Usually
the most attractive building in
town is, the school-most have
several pieces of original art rang-
MATTER OF FACT
ing from $40.000 pieces of sculp-
ture to striking murals.
Gothenburg (pronounced Yetta-
boyg) Sweden's manufacturing
center and Scandinavia's largest
port is a good case in point. Even
the wharves are clean, and the
downtown is only stores and of-
fices. All major industry is locat-
ed on the outskirts of town leav-
ing the city itself for beautifully
planned housing developments.
One is never more than two min-
utes from one of Gothenburg's
wooded parks.
Sharing in all this good for-
tune is the student - Sweden's
most exaulted citizen. The hous-
ing facilities at Uppsala Univer-
sity put the 500 year old univer-
sity ahead of its time-at least by
American standards.
TYPICAL accommodations are
a three room suite for two stu-
dents. Each student has his own
room, furnished naturally with
ultra modern Scandinavian fur-
niture, plush chairs and a full
size office desk. The students
share the use of a kitchen and
full bathroom. Cost? $40 a month,
which isn't bad when one con-
siders that Swedish students pay
no university tuition.
Naturally this helps avert pov-
erty among students. As for
averting poverty among the rest
of the citizens the Swedes have
an extensive welfare program that
includes such benefits as child
allowances, pensions for the aged
(the old folks homes often look
the state ultimately picking up
75 per cent of the bill. But since
the frugal Swedish patients are
still paying part, they take their
business to doctors who charge
reasonable fees.
This "Free Enterprise Welfare
State" as one businessman jok-
ingly calls it, is not cheap. Sales
tax is going up to 8 per cent, and
personal income tax ranges around
30 per cent. But the Swedes be-
lieve they are getting their money
back in social services and assure
everyone a minimum standard of
living.
The Swedes may also take pride
in knowing their beatnicks appear
far better dressed than those in
Palo Alto, Ann Arbor, East Lan-
sing, Evanston, London, Paris or
Copenhagen. Here the uniform is
a simple one. It consists of a green
surplus U.S. Army shirt. From the
sound of things, the presence of
the U.S. Army in South Viet Nam
is not nearly as popular as the
shirts.
The Swedes themselves seem
remarkedly indifferent to their
achievement. Most explain it by
reminding the observer that their
homogenous country of only 7
million, has not been in a war
in 150 years, and they have a lot
of trees and iron ore to make
money from. As one man put it,
"If you took just half of that $60
billion a year you spend, on play-
ing 'policeman' for the world, and
used it on the things we have,
you could solve these problems
too."
STOCKHOLM IS A CITY of contrasts. Amid luxurious high-rise
apartments, clean streets and beautiful people stands the historic
government headquarters, seen above.
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like a branch of Hilton Hotels),
widowed, or orphaned, maternity
benefits, free care in hospital
wards, payment of half of all
medicine and three-fourths of all
doctor's costs and rent rebates for
large families.
By this time some Americans
are probably seeing "red." Relax.
Ninety four per cent of all busi-
ness in Sweden is privately owned.
Moreover in some areas the
Swedes are more capitalistic than
the Americans.
Businessmen are' allowed to
write off the cost of all capital
equipment over a five year period.
The corporate tax rate was re-
cently reduced to 40 per cent,
lower than the American rate.
Moreover there is no such thing
as an anti-trust or minimum wage
law in Sweden.
CAPITALISM is even firmly en-
trenched in the state run medical
system. In Sweden a doctor may
charge any fee he wishes, with
By JOSEPH ALSOP
HONG KONG-Any attempt to
sum up the present dangerous
situation in Viet Nam must begin
with the fact that the initiative
has been completely abandoned to
the enemy during the entire period
since the middle of March.
The President's decision tolbomb
North Vietnamese targets initially
produced very big dividends. The
North Vietnamese government was
visibly consternated and thrown
off balance.
The Viet Cong were not merely
thrown off balance; according to
all indications on the spot, their
morale plummeted downward to
the low point reported by the
French newspaperman Georges
Chaffard.
In the South Vietnamese gov-
ernment and army, and among the
civil population, morale improved
proportionally. Relative govern-
mental stability was consequently
%et Nam Polic-.y-One Note Piano?
achieved. The final defeat that
had been uncomfortably close (for
South Viet Nam was literally cut
in half in late January) was de-
cisively prevented.
THAT LEFT the problem of re-
taining the initiative that had
thus been regained. In South Viet
Nam, not a great deal could be
done immediately. To be sure, cer-
tain important actions were taken,
like the courageous ground offen-
sive, supported by tremendous air-
power, that drove the enemy from
his positions along Route 19.
But the South Vietnamese army
lacked the reserves to launch of-
fensives against the enemy "main
force" units in their mountain and
jungle redoubts; and the Ameri-
cans, who were coming in to re-
constitute the reserves, were not
yet ready for action.
That left the bombing of the
North, which should be conceived
as a boxer's left hand, reinforcing
the work of his right hand. What
was needed, of course, was noth-
ing like the area bombing of Hanoi
which people who have never set
foot in Asia seem to regard as the
only alternative to the nibbling
attacks we have been making.
But there is all the difference in
the world between quietly but
sternly increased pressure and try-
ing to pressure a man by biting
him persistently in the toe. Or
another way to put it is to say
that there is a wide gap between
a carefully modulated crescendo
and getting permanently stuck on
the least important note in the
'piano keyboard.
SINGLE-NOTE PLAYING is
really all that has been happen-
ing. The pianists in Washington,
measuring distances to Hanoi in
quarter inches, reportedly believe
they have been playing a crescen-
do; but they are mistaken.
The targets are trivial. The
areas under attack are those of
least importance to the Hanoi
government. What is now the
main supply and invasion route
has not even been hit once on
North Vietnamese soil, for it runs
from North Viet Nam into Sam-,
neua Province in Laos at a point
rather far in, the North.
What may be the logic of this
one-note piano playing is pretty
hard to perceive. Countless mis-
sions are run and planes and
pilots are lost on road recon-
naissance-on "roadwork" as the
Navy pilots scornfully say.
But no truck can move on those
roads without oil fuel; and the
limited petroleum stores are prob-
ably the most vulnerable single
feature of the North Vietnamese
economy. Would not taking out
the petroleum stores be cheaper in
the end?
There are other questions. What
is beyond question, meanwhile, is
the unfortunate political-military
effect of this American abandon-
ment of the briefly regained ini-
tiative.
THE APPARENT PROOF of iron
American resolution, of final
American commitment, was re-
sponsible for two-thirds of the
good effects of President Johnson's
February, decision in South Viet
Nam.
But the South Vietnamese, who
know their own country, are not
to be deceived about the compara-
tive unimportance of the targets
being hit and the relative insig-
nificance of the areas being cov-
ered.
In the South, therefore, what
started as proof of American reso-
lution has begun to be regarded
as still another proof of American
irresolution. A recurrence of poli-
tical troubles has automatically
resulted.
One can assume with confidence
that the impression conveyed in
the North has been the same as
in the South, but with reverse ef-
fects. A man who expects severe
and mounting pressure, and then
experiences nothing much worse
than persistent annoyance, is not
likely to be thrown off his stride
for very long, it must be remem-
biered.
Hence, the situation is doubly
dangerous. It is dangerous, first,
because a mere local catastrophe
can conceivably have generalized
effects this summer because of
the slumping mood of the South.
AND IT IS dangerous, second,
because we are all too likely to
end in another Korean-style war,
under much less favorable con-
ditions, unless the principle of the
boxer's right and left begins to
be remembered. That is the most
important point of all.
(c) 1965, The washington Post Co.
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4,
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Humphrey 'Sells Out' to the Consensus
To the Editor:
FLUID AMERICA is a prime can-
didate for fads-witness the
wholesale adoption of the Beatles,
the "Nude Look," the skate-
board. One might be tempted to
say this applies in the political
arena-the "New Conservative,"
"New Radical,"-but sadly enough,
it's not true.
President Johnson says he would
rather be right than President,
but shrewdly reminds us that he
must "be President too." Which
is just to remind us that if there
is anything stable, anything cer-
tain in America today (and for
the past 200 years) it is the con-
tinuous fad of the "middle-road
mind, the no-stick-your-head-out
thought that passes for pragma-
tism, the holy grail consensus."
Consensus is nothing more than
a fad to be invoked at the slight-
est provocation. Tried and true,
consensus in American politics may
well spell the end of its so-called
middle-road political system, its
GREAT CLASSICS.
inaccurately described liberal de-
mocracy.
Why? The logic of the advocate
of consensus is baby-simple: ex-
tremes can't be right and more
importantly, they can't win. You
want to win (everybody wants to
win), so you simply mix the two
extremes together and get some-
thing a little less virile, less ob-
jectionable, and of course, less
valid. But Everyman subscribes to
it and you're in-you win.
President Johnson knows fads.
He is well aware of that homily,
a kind of gentle Machiavellian-
Texan dogma-"everyone should
get something and nobody should
get hurt very much." A true-blue
pragmatist, a winner .at home, his
idea of force-fed consensus to
foreigners has produced nothing
but massive stomach aches.
Even granting that consensus
might be OK at home; abroad we
cannot deny ritual adherence to
it is disaster; the middle road is
plain and simple doom for Amer-
ica in the 20th century.
Why? It seems strange that
Cuba has taught us so little. We
tried to play both sides of the
Cuban street - Batista-Castro,
Castro-Batista-and when the real
winner was named, got the boot
because our sure-fire betting sys-
tem was remembered.
I contend that our country and
our noble President are fast be-
coming victims of the great Amer-
ican "Middle Road." Their pursuit
of consensus-where right lies dia-
metrically opposed to wrong-
clearly is nothing less than sui-
cide.
The 20th century has had labels
ranging from the Age of the Atom
to the Age of America. It is nei-
ther. It is nothing less than the
Age of Revolution, which may be
something of both, but certainly
is not the middle of the two.
It's a shame that "Revolution"
should be such a dirty word these
days. Even the DAR is careful to
disclaim their heritage to it: the
American-British "conflict."
Vice-President Humphrey at the
MSU Bar-B-Q, seems the sixth
man on the administration basket-
ball team-the fellow who goes in
when one of the first-stringers
fouls out. Tuesday night the man
who many Americans contend
"sold out" to the "consensus es-
tablishment," came into the Viet
Nam game and tried a couple of
foul shots-he missed both.
If he proved anything it was
that teachers should do their
homework and revise old notes.
His first lesson-his first missed
shot-was the equation: revolu-
tion equals Communist take-over.
His second, one when the pressure
was on: if you're wrong, you don't
admit it, just play the game. Mr.
Humphrey surprises his old friends
tossing "Communist" around-
shades of J. Edgar Hoover!
I'll bet a ten-gallon hat that on
the bench Mr. Humphrey would
give a much more sophisticated
in the true sense of the word: he
went to the root of the 20th
century, saw social evils, saw rev-
olution as a rooting out of those
evils, leading to democracy.
A good teacher then, Humphrey
didn't flunk semantics: he wanted
to be right, didn't label flippantly
things "Communist" or "Social-
ist." He didn't sit in the middle of
the road.
It's sad Mr. Humphrey has
chosen to sit there now; sad not
paradoxical that that the middle
may well be the end of the road
for America, sad that Humphrey
has become addicted to the "con-
sensus fad" too.
-George Abbott White, '65
Six Shorts Recall
Early Humor
At the Cinema Guild
SIX WONDERFUL shorts, ranging from two classic Laurel and
Hardy's to great early melodrama are being featured at Cinema
Guild this weekend.
Both the Laurel and Hardy films are typically ridiculous and
uproariously funny. In the first the two attempt to deliver a piano to
a house at the top of a hill-lots of falls, slaps, slips and laughs.
The second features scenes from the "Battle of the Century," one
of the greatest pie-throwing, goo-wiping, indignant-old-ladies-spoofing
movies of all time.
too.
THERE IS an old time melodrama, complete with burning train
scenes, thieves, maidens in distress (for those who like Helen Holmes)
and suspense, rather than humor.
mT - - -n1A an- fiii".- o- la civ i -Tnmr, Rt+-" mit
'UP FROM THE BEACH':
just a Lot'
Of Excessive Footage
At the State Theatre
WITH ALL that excess footage from "The Longest Day" left over
it was inevitable that Twentieth Century Fox should find use
for it. But what a shame that it was wasted on such a film as "Up
From The Beach."
"Up from the Beach" concerns the efforts of an army sargeant
on the day after D-day to evacuate 23 French civilians and a boy.
Caught in a "Catch 22"-like whirl of contradicting orders and red
tape, the weary band of people move back and forth between the
beach and their homes.
It would have made a passible half hour "Combat" television
show. As a movie it is just one long bore. Cliff Robertson is mildly
ineffective as the sargeant and the supporting cast isn't much better,
Red Buttons plays the New York Jew with a heart of gold, Broderick
Crawford mumbles and sweats through his lines and James Robertson
Justice glares for a few minutes.
THE REST of the movie iests on the shoulders of the band of
French civilians and the war itself. If it had focused itself from that
direction instead of playing around with Robertson and a very silly
romance, it might have been an interesting film.
The plight of the average French citizen expecting "liberation"
from the allies, and the carefully constructed chaos of the invasion
effort which of its nature is oblivious to human wants and needs
w