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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 13, 1969)
Oregon daily EMERALD Opinions expressed on the editorial page are those of the Emerald and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the ASUO or the University. However the Emerald does present on this page columnists and letter writers whose opinions reflect those of our diverse readership and not those of the Emerald itself. RON EACHUS, Editor RICH JERNSTEDT Business Manager John Anderson Cindy Boydstun Rick Fitch Chris Houglum Associate traitors Gil Johnson Linda Meierjurgen Steve Moore Doug Onyon Ron Saylor Sally Schippers D. L. Sonnichsen Jaqi Thompson DOUG CRICHTON Advertising Manager ELLEN EMRY National Advertising Manager University of Oregon, Eugene, Monday, January 13, 1969 Atomic threat in Middle East The recent report by NBC news that Israel has an atomic bomb that is or will soon be deliverable is prime testimony for the necessity of adoption of the nuclear pro liferation treaty and eventual nuclear disarmament. Israel has denied the bomb exists, and this may alleviate the fears of many. It shouldn’t. The mere thought of either Israel or the Arab world having access to nuclear weapons is terrifying. A look at the Mideast situation shows why. Tension there is obviously high. It may soon become as high as it lias ever been before. It has become a constant war between two worlds who fear each other more than anything else. Like most wars, who is right is becoming irrelevant. Both Israel and the Arab nations fear the loss of their lands to the other. And both have been laying exclusive claim to what was the homeland of both. The recent events of the crisis should illustrate the amount of fear and tension that exists in the area. Furthermore, an escalation of the war could easily bring the major powers into the conflict and lead to a world crisis. Indeed many politicians and diplomats have long maintained that the Mideast and not Vietnam is the most crucial trouble spot in the world. Add to this the prospect of an atomic bomb and the picture becomes even bleaker. The sequence is not hard to imagine. The level of fear and tension could easily lead to use of atomic weapons for quick victory. Such an action could lead to intervention by one of the major power—the use of atomic weapons by the “have” nations in support of the “have not” nation devastated by the bomb. Then comes the retaliation by other major powers. At each step the possibility of total nuclear war in creases. If nothing else, the NBC report will hopefully provoke enough thought by those who can lead to elimination of nuclear weapons. The world cannot afford the introduction of nuclear weapons into the crisis such as exists in the Mideast. 3 om New chairman; new look lor HU AC but the message is still the same Editor’s note: Tom Miller is a reporter and news analyst for College Press Service. If the two most recent sessions of the House Committee on Un-American Activities are any indication, we may as well see a new image emerge from this perennially controversial tri bunal. These changes fall very neatly into three categories, all interrelated: new personnel, new game, and a new tact. Coming in as chairman is Richard Ichord, a Missouri Democrat. Serving only his fourth term, he will be the youngest House committee chair man at 42. This is largely by default, though. The present chairman, Edwin Willis of Louisiana, was defeated; the number two man, William Tuck of Virginia, resigned; and next in line, Joe Pool, died last year. This leaves Ichord, who is in his fifth year on the Committee. The new chairman is already making some staff changes. The main one is a change in coun sel. Chester Smith, who has been former Chair man Willis’ favorite is now out, and Ichord protege Frank Conley, a Missouri Law School graduate, has replaced him. Remaining with the committee is their investigator of the left, Herb Romerstein. Romerstein, who works mainly out of New York, was active in leftist groups before he changed politics and went HUAC. NO SOUTHERNERS In creating the image, Ichord will probably not try to get deep-South Congressmen appointed to HUAC when three vacant seats are filled in Jan uary. Instead, he will rely on conservatives of both parties from other parts of the country. These include Republicans John Ashbrook of Ohio, Del Clawson of California, Richard Roude bush of Indiana and Iowa’s Democratic congress man, John Culver. The only southerner is Albert Watson of South Carolina, a nominal Republican. In keeping with the “accent on youth” Richard Nixon has been pushing, the House group is shedding its old-age people and promoting its relatively youthful members. The average age on the committee as it enters the 91st Congress is under 45, one of the youngest committees in the House. To change image also requires a new name, and Ichord is quite aware of this. HUAC like so many other obscenities, has been a dirty word so long it is almost acceptable, but Ichord will introduce legislation this session to have the name changed to the House Committee on Internal Security. Despite all the pronouncements to “clarify the committee’s mandate,” all this new name will probably mean is new stationery for the com mittee, and a new letterhead for the Los Angeles based Committee to abolish HUAC. The new tact is the most subtle difference. i his becomes more evident after watching HUAC in action this fall. Unlike the buffoonery perpetrated by Joe Pool when he held hearings, or the super ficial red-baiting under former chairman Willis, Ichord has decided to hear all attacks by wit nesses against his committee. He claims “it is very difficult to keep your self-composure when these psychiatrically disturbed individuals are testifying.” LEFT-WING COOPERATION The “psychiatrically disturbed individuals” also have a new approach. In the past, witnesses have traditionally used the first, fourth and fifth amendments in refusing to cooperate with the committee, dating back to its origin over thirty years ago. The New Left, though, has been using a new method: over-cooperation. All the left’s witnesses this fall have given full, sometimes overcomplete, answers to committee counsel queries, specifying date, place, people and when relevant, political affiliation. Moreover, the witnesses have been spelling out to the fullest their own personal political philoso phies. Tom Hayden, for instance, spent over six hours before the committee expounding his own ideas on America’s social and political sickness. Toward the end, he said the reason there were no demonstrators or picketers outside the hear ings was that “the job has already been done on HUAC. Appearances before HUAC are taken as a sign of respectability on campuses—or at least as a joke.” Ichord, more than any HUAC chairman before him, at least showed a vague understanding of what Hayden was alluding to. He told Mobe chairman Dave Dellinger of the anguish one of his constituents had with two sons; one who vol unteered for Vietnam and the other who is con sidering emigration to Canada to avoid military service. MORE LITERATE Committee counsel Conley is doing less guilt by-association questioning than his predecessor. He is even injecting a bit of literary knowledge— in his final question to Hayden he quoted from Ambrose Bierce in The Devil’s Dictionary. The only vivid representative of IlUAC’s past is Congressman Albert Watson. He continually got into discussion with witnesses on superficial points, and invariably lost out. On a couple of occasions he was even gaveled down by the com mittee chairman. Like so many other rightist groups, HUAC is adopting more sophisticated techniques. T h e image may be changing, but it seems fair to say the message will remain the same. uuiiiuiiiiiiuiiiiniiiiiia Emerald Editor: umimuiiuiiuiiimiiu^ Revolutionary Emerald Editor: The term “establishment” has been added to the currency of American speech in recent years and one thing is clear so far as the establishment in Ore gon is concerned: Most people can't define it and haven’t the faintest idea what it is. Back in the 1950’s the establishment in Oregon began showing signs of wear and tear and I wrote a book about it and circulated it here in Oregon and New England in an attempt to straighten it out. Here follows a few conclusions I arrived at in this book which was privately circulated. These points for reasons of space will be limited to the establishment in Oregon as it has functioned in the last 100 years. I will not attempt to prove them in a short letter. 1. The establishment is con siderably more revolutionary for the long pull than the commu nists ever dreamed of. Since John Milton and John Bunyan the establishment including that of Oregon has bet its shirt on redemption through higher ed ucation and total revolution through learning. 2. The purpose of the estab lishment in Oregon is to get one up on Harvard and stay there. One example might be the life of E. B. 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