Seventy-Third Year EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS "Where OpinionsA e e STUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG., ANN ARBOR, MICH., PHONE NO 2-3241 Truth Will Prevails.s Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1962 NIGHT EDITOR: MALINDA BERRY The Cuban Crisis: A Third View HIS REPORTER views with a mixture of disgust and sadness, the efforts of elements bbth on and off campus to simplify and over- simplify the world situation into a glaring condemnation of President Kennedy's action in the Cuban situation. The right to criticism, the right to dissent is inviolable; the right of distortion 'is a right of the most questionable sort. An editorial in these columns yesterday re- soundingly proclaimed, "If World War III is the end result of the present Cuban debacle the United States will have had the dubious distinction of starting it, no matter who starts flinging the bombs first." On the diag yesterday, like minded students dragged out the old reliable protest rally. Their leaders declared in the Daily letter columns yester- day, "Though only a few moments, perhaps, remain before the final crash, sane voices must be heard, urging that the truly courageous action would be to stop playing "chicken" and start living as responsible men-responsible to mankind, to principle, to life." How stirring! How pompous! How absurd! THE THINKING--and I use that word doubt- fully-of these people divides into two cate- gories. Some of them feel that the Cuban threat is minimal, that Washington is guilty of mass hysteria and overbearing self-interest. Others go farther and say that no matter what the nature of the threat the United States is not justified in the use of force. The overwhelming fact. of life, sad as it may be, is that this country does not live in a vacuum. However trite, that statement is undeniable. This is not a world of our own choosing. It is a world of action and reaction. We cannot wish things into being. Reality de- rives not from what countries should do but from what they do do. Few are unfamiliar and many are sym- pathetic to the principles of an ideal society. Force in the perfect world is an absolute evil. But it is utter suicide to play around, in the nuclear age, with a unilateral elimination of the tools of force. Those very elements which make war so final in this seventh decade of the twentieth century also make a unilateral turn toward peace impossible. THIS NATION has not historically been an armed camp. In the past when a war situation arose-aggressive or defensive-we put a military machine together on the spot. As late as the conclusion of World War I, we were able to dismantle this machine. But modern technology precludes the element of time. If any potential enemy holds a mili- tary advantage over the United States-this means a nuclear advantage--and decides to attack, we are simply and unequivocally dead. To contend that this country should ignore reality, whatever the cost, by allowing its enemies-and the Communist states have de- clared themselves our enemies so there can be no fuzzy thinking along that line-to man- euver into a position to destroy us while we sit back and extoll the virtues of the "should be" - world is preposterous. T HIS THEN brings on the other question: the hature of the Cuban threat. And this question is undebatable. It is not that President Kennedy's intelligence information and his estimate of same could not be wrong. The simple fact is that no one without that in- formation can make any accurate judgment of the situation. We must accept on faith the idea that the government has a real cause for concern in the Caribbean. If the Soviet Union is turning Cuba into an offensive base equipped with missiles which can strike anywhere in the United States with- in ten minutes, then we must act. Our whole retaliatory system is based on the premise that if Russia unleashes its missiles on us we will have enough warning time to unleash ours. Missiles from Cuba eliminate this warning time. We will be rendered helpless before we can fire a single shot. Cuba does not yet have the missiles to destroy us; we cannot let the situation progress to the point where it does. PRESIDENT KENNEDY has not suddenly become a madman. He realizes completely the gravity of the situation he has created; he has called for this blockade with the greatest reluctance. For months, while a growing right wing has clamored foolishly for war, he has told the nation to remain calm. We must concede that his changing position is based on alarming evidence. There are all sorts of diplomatic channels open to the two powers, and the United States is ignoring none of them in an effort to soothe this crisis. But we cannot barter with Russia at the conference table and, at the same time, let her keep moving arms into Cuba unchal- lenged. The blockade is an awesome, frightening event; the alternatives are more frightening. We are running the terrible unwanted risk of atomic war, but if Cuba ever becomes able to make a devastating first strike against us, we will live in 24 hour fear. OUR PAST MISTAKES in Cuba do not apply now. We have made many-from the unjustifiable war McKinley started in 1898 to the contemptable Bay of Pigs invasion we, fostered last year. But the world situation has swept past our mistakes. The world is now under the gravest danger of war ever. Berlin or Tibet could explode into atomic particles at any time. And now Presi- dent Kennedy has made Cuba the most dan- gerous troublespot of all. History will be the only judge of his de- cision. And the sole criterion will be whether or not atomic war breaks out. Many people wish that we could act in accordance with ideals; even more wish that we could act with 10 per cent safety. This chaotic world denies ideals and safety. There is no universal order from which to derive the formula of life. We can struggle to change the world, but not in the utopian vacuum. We can never lose sight of reality. -H. NEIL BERKSON "You Never Told Me There'd. Be Nights Like This!" 't S or h " N k a .4 } .,"k. '44k pF 3 4 y r'4 4.-F+!' j r ,' A 4.- '4 t A k 4 f k a }4 t M / C '44 . I. . ,4 *4 ,. ..~'.4{+.~,'~ kwee y. . ' 4 ,. '-.'h 4 F. ' . 44 3 . ;:,$:;"r}i' iio- .r,:. .y r.:,:: . .,Y.:o " 4... .- "}:;'y'A:t 44 ~ 4 .. 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