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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 14, 1973)
<-Viewpoint 5 Dry season will bring Cambodian offensive By JOHN LANIER Within a few weeks the dry season will begin in Southeast Asia, and the Cambodian national liberation forces will resume their offensive to complete the liberation of their national territory. Already in control of 90 per cent of Cambodia, the liberation forces will now be backed by an unprecedented level of international support for their Royal Government of National Union headed by Norodom Sihanouk. Long recognized by the People’s Republic of China, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam, the Lao Patriotic Front and nearly 50 other governments, Sihanouk recently scored two major diplomatic triumphs. In September, the Algiers Summit Conference of 76 Nonaligned Nations gave unanimous support to a resolution calling for recognition of the resistance government as the only legitimate government of Cambodia. And on Oct. 10, the Soviet Union—which had recognized the Lon Nol regime— finally gave its recognition to the Royal Government of National Union. Soviet support for the Royal Government at the U.N. may well mean the Lon Nol regime will be thrown out of that organization and the resistance government seated in its place. When President Nixon was forced to end the bombing of Cambodia on Aug. 15, the Cambodian resistance forces decided to move slowly and cautiously, avoiding large-scale attacks with low stocks of arms and ammunition, con solidating their gains, rebuilding their war-ravaged land and refraining from seizing the few remaining Lon Nol strongholds and thereby risking American re-intervention. Since the end of August, Cambodia has had its rainy season, when military operations are difficult and the area around the capital flooded. The dry season, which begins within a month or two, is the best time for resuming the fighting. On Sept. 2, Sihanouk told Sylvia Foa of UPI that liberation forces would “launch an all-out attack on Phnom Penh” during the dry season, with new supplies of ammunition and ar maments from the PRG in South Vietnam paid for by China. Because the weapons will come from stocks in South Vietnam, Sihanouk said, there will be no violation of the Peace Accords “as the Americans do every day with their huge shipments of sophisticated weapons to Lon Nol.” Certain supply problems did exist for the liberation forces because of the rigid respect of China and North Vietnam for the Paris Agreement. In view of the continued massive violations by the U.S., though, China said in September it would supply Sihanouk’s armies with the needed arms. Since August, the liberation forces have continued to harass Lon Nol’s army, cut strategic roads and recruit deserters from the puppet armed forces. “From a strictly military viewpoint,” writes Wilfred Burchett in The Guardian (Oct. 24, 1973), “the tactics of the resistance forces...seem impeccable for wearing down the puppet forces...The decisive military factor is that the resistance armed forces continue to hold the initiative on all fronts. Whether or not they have temporary supply difficulties cannot be decisive...In Cambodia itself the resistance forces have pinned down most of what is left of the Lon Nol forces at Phnom Penh and Kompong Cham. They are busy consolidating their positions in the 90 per cent of the territory under their control. They are reinforcing a solid progressive in frastructure at the rice-roots level.... “The bombing halt—despite the activities of Lon Nol’s air force—has permitted the reconstruction of villages and the building up of the people’s economy to proceed at an accelerated pace. In other words, time is not being wasted because of the rainy season, despite the lull in military operations.” When fighting resumes, Burchett concludes, “there is no question that the liberation of Phnom Penh will be on the order of battle.” And when the liberation forces near final victory, the antiwar movement in the United States must be prepared to rise up in op position to any attempt by the Nixon Kissinger Administration to rein tervene in Cambodia and prolong the suffering of the Cambodian people. In recent months, we have seen that the U.S. conducted 3,630 illegal and clandestine bombing sorties against Cambodia between March 1969 and May 1970, while Washington was claiming to recognize Cambodia’s neutrality. In March 1970, Sihanouk’s government was overthrown by a U.S. backed military coup, which put an unpopular right-wing general in power. In April 1970, thousands of U.S. and South Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia to prevent the immediate collapse of the Lon Nol regime and the victory of liberation forces. Over whelming popular opposition to the invasion in the U.S. and Cambodia forced Nixon to limit the penetration of American forces, and finally to with draw them. Since 1970, however, the U.S. has continued to support and prop up the Lon Nol regime with an unprecedented massive bombing campaign, South Vietnamese and Thai mercenary in cursions, economic aid and huge shipments of armaments. Public and Congressional opposition, and the continuing victories of liberation forc es, forced Nixon to end the bombing this year, but the aid and the flow of arms continue, at several times the rate of recent years. And the General Accounting Office in early October revealed that U.S. personnel in Cam bodia, officially to expedite the flow of arms, are actually serving as combat advisors to the Lon Nol army. This recitation of the sordid history of U.S. aggression against Cambodia, plus continued U.S. interference in Vietnam in direct violation of the Paris Peace Agreement, indicates that Nixon and Kissinger are not through with their interference in Indochinese affairs. The Eugene Peace Action Committee (EPAC) is working to maintain public awareness of the situation in Indochina and to oppose continued U.S. in terference in Indochinese affairs in support of the ruthless dictators in Phnom Penh and Saigon. We meet each Tuesday at 8 p.m. at the Newman Center, 1850 Emerald St. Lanier is a member of EPAC. V The Deadly Scourge' Afhleticosis, Humor Jock pox and rallyitis By LEE SIEGEL While Oregon public health authorities have been preparing for the new strain of influenza which will reach the state this winter, there is growing evidence that a new, and far more harmful disease has already infected thousands of Oregonians. The disease, which has reached epidemic proportions in the Eugene area, is characterized by its unique mode of action within the human body. Most vic tims of this fearful mental disorder con tract the disease in the fall, when its virulence is highest. One week after infection, its victims display a characteristic behavioral pat tern. They tend to sit in large groups for hours at a time in cold, windy isolation wards known as “stadiums.” Three weeks after infection, the disease causing organism spreads throughout the body, until it reaches the brain, at which time the characteristic brain rot sets in. Once the victim has reached this state, there is no possible cure. The name of the disease is infectious athleticosis, better known locally as “duck fever.” It is caused by a parasitic organism, known as the sportochete, which invades the nervous system and feeds off the sense of priorities unti 1 most of the brain is totally destroyed. Victims of infectious athleticosis can be easily identified by their incessant vocal outbursts, their uncontrollable craving for hot dogs and alcoholic beverages, and their unbelievable capacity for deriving orgiastic pleasure by watching over developed Neanderthals commit sado masochistic acts upon each other’s bodies. A rare, special case of this disease, known as rallyitis, is spread from the rotted brain and helps to deteriorate the entire body until nothing is left but a bouncy, silly-putty-like blob of loud-but friendly jello. Victims of this disorder display an anal fixation characterized by their habit of jumping on each other’s backs while the Neanderthals cavort on the playing field. One cannot feel anything but pity for the helpless victims of this dread disease, especially when one considers the true nature of the parasite which causes it. The sportochete, which is the cause of athleticosis, rallyitis, jock pox, and several other forms of AD (athletic disease) is a parasitic organism which invades through the pocketbook. Once the sportochete infects the student body it feeds on their incidental feces. Upon infection with the disease, the student body produces an anti-toxin known as IFC (incidental feces control), which acts to lower the level of parasitic action. Unfortunately, years of exposure to similar anti-toxins have allowed many resistant forms of AD to develop. In its current resistant form, the sportochete is able to counteract the action of IFC by conjugating with another rather noxious organism, known by its species name Gregarious leophytus. Once the sportochete and the leophyte have conjugated, the sportochete is able to reproduce at an incredible rate, until it dominates the host body. At this point, the fatal brain rot sets in, reducing the infected victims to helpless robots, whose only pleasure is derived from watching the Neanderthals beat the holy crap out of each other. Knowing that it has a free reign over the entire student body, the sportochete then begins to establish contact with spor tochete colonies in other student bodies. Here in Eugene, the local and particularly fastidious form of sportochete is at tempting to establish contact with Australian sportochetes by increasing its intake of vital nutrients, which are usually green in color. Despite the growing exploitation of the infected body by the parasitic sportochete, medical authorities are beginning to give this dread disease the attention it deser ves. A new antibiotic is being developed to fight athletico6is as well as the other anti social diseases. But developing new wonder drugs is not the whole answer to the problem. Only by a large scale campaign to inform our young people about the real dangers of athleticosis will the threat of “duck fever” be stopped once and for all. Courses educating innocent youth to the dreadful consequences of AD should be taught in every school. Commericals should be broadcast on television and radio informing the public of the five warning signs of athleticosis and jock pox, not the least of which is a noticeable lump or hardening between the ears. Perhaps even an article should be printed in Reader’s Digest about “What Every Parent Should Know About AD.” If every man, woman and child knew the truth about AD and the terrible spor tochete, it would not be long before this frightful infection was wiped off the face of the earth, leaving the human race free to pursue pastimes beneficial to the common good. Siegel is an Emerald staff writer. Letters Murray is a senior Nixon says he is about to offer the country a documented defense of himself in the Watergate Scandal. It is widely rumored that he will produce materials to exonerate himself from all wrong-doing. This is interesting for those of us who have seen Nixon out-wait the repe/cussions of the Cox firing. It seems that Nixon’s best defense thus far has been silence. Everytime he says anything substantive about Watergate those damn sharp young whippersnapper lawyers that Cox hired find all sorts of discrepancies between his statements and those of his cronies. When will he learn? Maybe he figures that he has had enough time now to build himself a fool-proof alibi. Certainly a year and a half would be enough time for most people. But Nixon is an exception to the rule. If Nixon’s upcoming exposition of the “truth” is anything like his past per formances this should be quite a field day for the prosecution staff and all Water snake followers. Perhaps I underestimate the prowess of C.A. Wright & Company. But I would venture to guess that this may produce the camel that breaks the straw’s back. I hope the Auger’s prediction is correct. “When the comet comes, Nixon goes.” It would fit the pattern and would really help put the universe back into proper harmony. It would also give the American sub-culture of “common criminals” back their long-lost leadership. What a break for that minority! Can you imagine the environmental improvements they would have to make at Leavenworth! Now that’s what I call progress! It would be the best thing that Nixon could do for America’s social problems. P.S. Would you please get my class right this time. I am a senior! _ llw Darrell Murray Senior, Political Science
