description:
Nov. 17,1965 THE SKYSCRAPER Page Three Viet Nam Strikes Diverse Reaction Written by Kathy Riley, Sister Mary Virginia Anne, B.VM. and Marybeth Wagner. Compiled by Brenda Dinneen and Nancy Van denberg. Skyscraper Photos by Nancy Vandenbertf The student protesters for and against U.S. policy in Viet Nam have made a positive impact: they have forced the American people to examine their conscience, both collectively and individually, re garding the Asian war. One of the dominant protest groups is the Students for a Demo cratic Society which five years ago was a dying hard-core band of so cialists concerned with the labor movement. The movement is ob viously no longer dying. Since last spring, the SDS has been actively protesting the war in Viet Nam through picketing, teach- ins, marches and distribution of printed material. Their member ship has risen to 3,000 dues-paying persons and several hundred thou sand sympathizers and demonstra tion participators. They have been called commun ists, Trotskyites and Vietniks, and have received national and in ternational publicity. The SDS is based in Chicago, at 1103 E. 63rd St. on the south side, under the direction of the national secretary of the organization, Paul Booth, 22-year-old political science graduate of Swarthmore College. Richard Rothstein and Paul Booth The SDS and a sister organiza tion, the National Co-ordinating Committee to End the War in Viet Nam, (CEW) which has head quarters in Madison, Wis., are not to be confused with smaller and more radical beat-the-draft move ments. They do not want to fight, but they are filing as conscientious ob jectors and wish to gain permis sion to counsel potential draftees in filing CO forms also. However, they do not condone burning draft cards or other means of beating the draft. For the most part, SDS leaders are recent college graduates who are seriously involved in their pro test and are articulate in its de fense. When questioned by a Chi cago Daily News reporter as to why he was demonstrating, Paul Booth answered, We do in conscience object utterly and wholeheartedly to the immoral war. When ac cused of being afraid to fight, Roth stein replied: It takes more brav ery to defy your parents, the Presi dent and your country than sim ply to follow orders. It would be one thing if Americans had thought about the war and said, 'Okay, that's the price we must pay for freedom.' But most of them have not thought it through. They're blind followers. Voice Approval However, one of the results of this anti-Viet Nam protest has been a wave of verbalized and writ ten support of the President's policy. A recent Gallup poll re ported that the percentage voicing their approval has risen steadily since June. On campuses across the country, students are organiz ing blood drives, gift collections and signatures for petitions which de clare support of the war. The National Federation of Catholic College Students at their national convention last summer passed a resolution which is now being signed by students of mem ber colleges, including Mundelein. NFCCS delegate, Noreen Stoeck, said the statement supports the war in Viet Nam because it is at tempting to contain communist expansion. It also urges con tinued attempts toward a peaceful settlement. Aide Takes Stand The American policy in Viet Nam as outlined at the Open Forum de bate Nov. 2 at Mundelein College Theater, by Joseph C. Luman, for mer aide to General Maxwell Tay lor, has as its primary purpose the support of a free people's right to self-determination and the preven tion of wide-spread Viet Cong ter rorism. It was an appeal by the Vietna mese, Mr. Luman stated, that prompted American intervention. Without this help the fall of Viet Nam to communist forces and the resultant destruction of thousands of Viet families is the only alter native. This is the alternative to American resistance extermina tion of the people. Luman stressed the moral Tight ness of U.S. policy and the support of the 45,000 Vietnamese who have volunteered to fight the Viet Cong aggression, because he foresees in the collapse of Viet Nam a prelude to the communist takeover through out Southeast Asia. Countering claims of policy dis senters that the U.S. has used in ternationally banned weapons in Viet Nam, the State Department representative commented: We prefer to use tear gas (rather than grenades), because the Viet Cong has women and children as hos tages. Both Mr. Luman and his asso ciate, Richard Silek, have recently returned from the Viet Nam bat- tlefront. Mr. Silek, a 1962 gradu ate of Loyola University, served in Viet Nam where he lent medical assistance to Sts. Peter and Paul Orphanage. Mr. Silek said that in working with the Vietnamese people the mistake is often made of judging them by standards alien to them. Americans are there, Mr. Silek continued, to give the Vietnamese the means to build a new and in dependent society. In final support of the govern ment policy, both Mr. Silek and Mr. Luman emphasized that although mistakes have been made in the past, at least effort has been ex erted. The major movement publicizing student support of Viet Nam policy is based on the Chicago Circle cam pus of the University of Illinois. Chairman of Students for a Re sponsible Stand on Viet Nam is Mike Kolundzija. Their platform is essentially to support the effort being made in Viet Nam to gain a just peace with honor. Not all their mem bers approve of the war in Viet Nam but all agree that the United States must fulfill the commitment she has made there. The group held a meeting Oct. 27 on the Circle campus which was attended by more than 50 students representing virtually every col lege in the Chicago 8i ea. An ef fort to join together with groups from all colleges and universities and to march in the Loop Nov. 27 is being made to counteract SDS plans for a march on Washington that same day. The protest movement is not limited to students however. political and cultural issue, he warned, even if China were threatening her neighbors pri marily by military means, it would be impossible to contain her by surrounding her with a military wall. Emphasizing the strength of Chinese predominance in Asia, the professor charged in the same ar ticle that if the U.S. cannot toler ate such a situation, the only alter- Richard Silek and Joseph C. Luman Groups such as the Americans for Reappraisal of Far Eastern policy typify the American intellectual elite approach to the problem, de bate and discussion. Hans J. Mor- ganthau, professor of political sci ence and modern history at the University of Chicago, has been a prominent voice in the intellectual study of the Vietnamese situation. In addition to his teaching, Profes sor Morganthau serves as special consultant to the State and De fense departments. Sees Defeat As quoted in his article, Global- ism, (reprinted in the July 3, 1965 New Republic), Morganthau sees the defeat of U.S. purposes in stopping the Red threat. United States policy of combining moral judgment with political action is doomed to fail, he wrote, be cause it oversteps the limits of in terests at stake and power avail able. First, it clashes with U.S. in terests, Morganthau asserted in the same article, because American faith in the Domino theory, which postulates that a state con quered by the communists will lead to the subjugation of nearby states, is invalid. There is no historical precedent for this belief, he said, because discouraging revolution in one place does not discourage it from appearing in another. Instead, he maintained, the prac tical effect of our anti-communist crusade is to credit communism with the sponsorship of revolution everywhere. In addition, this crusade is likely to bring Russia into the Viet Nam conflict, Morganthau warned in his article Russia, the U.S. and Viet Nam, (New Republic, May 1, 1965). While the U.S.S.R. doesn't want a fight with the U.S., she still desires to keep her image as as protector of the communist countries, he said. Second, Morganthau explained in the article, We are Deluding Our selves in Viet Nam, (New York Times magazine, April 18, 1965), that the government has over stepped the limits of available power because the nature of its present policy would eventually re quire the military defeat of China. Although Morganthau regards the spread of Chinese communism as a native is to strike at the heart of the problem. The U.S. has the power to severely retard China's development, Morganthau stated, but to be defeated, China has to be conquered. Supporting such a program would naturally require the employment of millions of sol diers, a sacrifice out of proportion to our interests, he contended. Consequently, Morganthau con cluded that if Americans do not want to set impossible goals, we must learn to accommodate our selves to the predominance of China in Asia. To him, this ac commodation would mean the strengthening of uncommitted na tions in Asia by non-military meth ods and the evaluation of com munist governments in terms of U.S. interests. Elicits Comment Both these intellectual protests and student demonstrations have elicited comment from adults. This so-called adult reaction to the vari ous forms of protest is diverse. Government officials in Washington agree that there must be strong communist influence in the demon strations. Attorney General Nicho las Katzenbach has begun an in vestigation of the SDS to deter mine the nature of the ties be- Loyola student Joe Wilderson tween the group and the com munist party. The Collegiate Press Service re ports that the Senate Internal Se curity Subcommittee, under the di rection of Senator Thomas J. Dodd (D., Conn.), published a report re- SDS Indicts U. S. From the Students for a Demo cratic Society's standpoint, U.S. in volvement in Viet Nam is pri marily a moral issue according to Richard Rothstein and Paul Booth, 22-year-old Chicago leaders of SDS, featured in a Speak-Easy Open Forum on Viet Nam, Nov. 2, in the College Theater. Ideologically, Booth and Roth stein declared, Viet Nam is al ready lost. If Washington had wanted to succeed, they charged, it should have started fostering democracy there 25 years ago. Consequently the three main in dictments delivered by the SDS leaders dealt with morality: Ameri cans have dehumanized them selves by abdicating individual re sponsibility for government policy; the U.S. has falsely assumed the role of world policeman; and it has defeated its own purposes. By far the most important issue to the Students for a Democratic Society involves the responsibility of each American to make a de cision the decision whether he has the right to take a human life. The government's program by na ture requires death on both sides, Rothstein said. Debunking the no tion that one ought to fight solely for the sake of patriotism, he warned, we have the right to take those lives only if every individual is absolutely sure of this right. As proof, he cited the Nuremberg trials succeeding World War II which sig nified, according to him, that the individual must account for his own conduct and cannot justify his ac tions because they originated from government order. Moving into the second area of protest, Rothstein challenged the essential right of the U.S. to halt the spread of communism. Why should we act as the world's police man? he demanded, adding, when our country becomes a model of virtue, then we can purport it as such before the world. In addition, Booth emphasized, we're defeating our own purposes of stopping the Red menace because we're instill ing a hate that will endure for decades. cently, stating that leaders of the anti-war movement have not pre vented communist infiltration and have thus left control to people who are openly sympathetic to the Viet Cong and openly hostile to the U.S. A Mundelein faculty member who did not wish to be identified in the Skyscraper, also condemned the demonstrators, saying they ex pressed defiance, misinformed ideal ism and perhaps even an inclina tion to promote and sustain furor for its own sake. However, not all adults condemn the demonstrators even if they do not sympathize with them. Dr. Russell Barta, chairman of the po litical science department, stated, After all, protests and the right to protest are part and parcel of our way of life this is what we stand for as against the monolith- ism of other societies. My only qualification is that the protests remain within the rules of debate and discussion and not 'force' its views on the majority.
title:
1965-11-17 (3)
publisher:
Women and Leadership Archives http://www.luc.edu/wla
creator:
Mundelein College
description:
Student newspaper for Mundelein College
subject:
Newspapers
subject:
Religious communities--Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
subject:
Students
subject:
Universities and colleges
subject:
Women's education
relation:
Mundelein College Records
type:
Text
language:
English
rights:
This image is issued by the Women and Leadership Archives. Use of the image requires written permission from the Director of the Women and Leadership Archives. It may not be sold or redistributed, copied or distributed as a photograph, electronic file, or any other media. The image should not be significantly altered through conventional or electronic means. Images altered beyond standard cropping and resizing require further negotiation with the Director. The user is responsible for all issues of copyright. Please Credit: Women and Leadership Archives, Loyola University Chicago. wlarchives@luc.edu
coverage:
Chicago, Illinois
coverage:
Mundelein College