'The war mentality always exists'
Professors share insights
on Korean airliner incident
By loan Herman
Of the Emerald
Although nearly a month has passed
since a Soviet pilot shot down an unarmed
civilian jet filled with 269 passengers, little is
known about what really happened.
The Korean Airlines incident has elicited
angry and conflicting accusations from
each superpower against the other. Yet
beneath the name-calling, confusion, doubt
and fear prevails.
The Soviet Union has blamed the incident
on the United States, saying the 747 jet was
on a spying mission when it strayed into
militarily sensitive and restricted Soviet
airspace. In turn, Pres. Ronald Reagan has
vehemently attacked the eastern super
power for its "crime against humanity."
(TIME, Sept.19).
Several prevailing questions remain: Was
the United States in fact on a spy mission?
Did high-ranking Soviet officials order the
attack? What, if any, retributions should be
taken against the Soviet Union?
Ultimately, the incident, says Russian
history Prof. Alan Kimball, "raises the
whole question of the suitability of the
Soviet Union in the modern world." Kim
ball is also the Honors College director.
Several University professors who
specialize in Soviet studies have their own
theories as to why the incident occurred in
the first place. All agree the Soviet action
was unjustified, yet none are surprised by
it.
Reagan has implied the attack was
ordered by a high-ranking Soviet official.
Political science Prof. Joseph Fiszman
disagrees. Simply, the action exemplified
the predominant Soviet philosophy to de
fend its borders no matter what or who in
vades them.
"I think it was a broadstanding order to
defend the border. It was a decision made
on the spot based on the judgment of local
ground controllers, local commanders and
the pilots in the air," says the Polish-born
Fiszman who has lived in the Soviet Union.
As for the order coming from a high
ranking political official. Communist Party
leader Yuri Andropov was vacationing out
side of the Soviet Union when the incident
occurred Sept. 1, and he did not return un
til a few days later. It was nighttime in
Moscow and Communist Party leaders
were sleeping when Flight 007 was shot
down over the Sakhalin Islands — where it
was daytime.
So the incident, in Fiszman's opinion,
stems not only from a deep-seated Soviet
paranoia about its borders, but also a
breakdown in communication.
The Soviets assume that if they don't get
the "enemies" now, "they will get me (the
pilot) later," Fiszman says. "If something
should go wrong, then the pilot and those
connected with him would have to pay a
price. They would have to give a reckoning.
They (the Soviets) believe the reversal of the
old American colonialist adage, that the
best indian is a dead indian.
"They believe that the safest penetrator is
a dead penetrator. Better be safe than sorry.
"What is frightening about all this, if my
hunch is correct, is that this makes the safe
ty of the world even more iffy than we
thought before, because what it means is
that any kind of jackass flying a plane or any
kind of bureaucrat manning the controls on
the ground in an outpost could trigger a
war," Fiszman says.
Math Prof. Sergey Yuzvinsky, who
emigrated from the Soviet Union in January
1980, shares similiar thoughts.
Unlike the Americans, who are taught to
respect and cultivate human individuality,
the Soviets learn to respect uniformity
among people. The individual has no im
portance to society as a whole; the mass of
humanity does.
So if Soviet people are possibly in danger
— no matter how remote that danger may
be, no matter who the "penetrators" are —
killing a couple hundred foreigners is a
small, logical price to pay in the majority of
Soviet minds.
Most Americans do not understand this
Soviet attitude, Yuzvinsky says, which is
"very close to war."
"A young person is brought up with the
word 'war' all around him," Yuzvinsky says.
It is a war of ideologies: the Soviet's and
everyone else's.
"The Soviet point of view is that everyone
outside of the Soviet Union is an enemy. It
Graphic by Shawn Bird
stonewall, and when they can't stonewall,
when they are forced to say something,
they blame it on someone else. Never admit
an error," Fiszman says. "Blame the victim,
blame the victim — like now they are blam
ing the Koreans on being agents of the CIA.
"It's not a new story. In a sense, it's like a
child doing some nasty thing — they always
blame it on somebody else. 'Not me, not
me,' " Fiszman says.
Although many Americans are as outrag
ed by the Soviets' handling of the situation
as they are with the original incident, their
denial of any responsibility is politically
'If you say something often enough, you begin to believe
your own lies, your own inventions, your own fantasies.'
— foe Fiszman
doesn't matter who or what. The war men
tality always exists," Yuzvinsky says. "There
is always war."
Neither does the Soviet's "stonewalling"
response to the incident surprise Fiszman.
"Their handling of the situation follows
Soviet traditions in such occasions," he
says.
For example, during World War II, the
Soviet army destroyed an entire army of
Polish war prisoners in a forest in Katyn,
located in the Smolensk area of Poland,
Fiszman says. The Soviets didn't blame the
attack on an obviously innocent party, but
on the Germans, who could well have done
it. But they, themselves, would never admit
an error.
"The Soviet tendency usually is to
shrewd, Fis/man says.
There are "millions upon millions" of
Soviets — and even some Americans — who
believe the Soviet version, he says. "And
those who do not believe it have doubts."
So the Soviets are not handing the world
merely a "blank lie," Fiszman says,
"because they are using something that is
plausible enough to plant a seed of doubt
in people's minds."
Most Americans do assume, without
question, the United States cannot be
wrong. Soviet citizens are no different in
their views toward the Soviet government
— especially when information is restricted,
Fiszman says.
The Soviet citizens are being told what
the Americans are being told, he says, "that
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this was a dastardly act by American in
telligence forces."
Although high-ranking Soviet officials
know the "Russian excuse" is a lie, in time
they will begin to believe it, Fiszman says.
"If you say something often enough, you
begin to believe your own lies, your own in
ventions, your own fantasies. I am pretty
sure Reagan believes it was an act of in
humanity, and it wan't an error, but
something that extends logically from the
Soviet character."
Because the situation has put the Soviet
Union in an "awful tough bind — and they
ought to be," Kimball says, the United
States "shouldn't let them off the hook."
Kimball believes the United States should
"dig its heels in and demand a full, open,
reliable account" of what happened. "Who
is at fault is almost a secondary issue," he
says. The main responsibility of all nations
is to "make sure this never happens again."
All three professors believe Reagan
should take sterner measures against the
Soviet Union than he has so far.
"Pres. Reagan has a tendency to talk
about the 'evil empire' and then to sell
them wheat and high tech. Somebody said
he talks loudly and carries a small twig,"
Fiszman says.
Although there has been some specula
tion as to how much effect U.S. embargos
would have against the Soviet Union —
because other nations might fill in the void
— all three professors say Reagan should in
stigate a grain embargo. Contrary to what
Reagan says, a grain embargo would
Continued on Page 12
Senate
Confined from Page 1
fessors are not supposed to abuse
their “captive audience" by "in
doctrinating" them with political
opinions unrelated to the course.
Likewise, Sherwood argued,
in the Assembly "the lectures
often have not been technically
related to the motion that was
made."
Sherwood charged that liberal
members have used the Assembly
to express irrelevant views that
should be discussed under other
circumstances.
"It's been the forum for what I
call lazy liberalism," he said.
But Senate members worried
that the resolution would be im
possible to enforce and would
give too much power to the
Assembly president, who would
be able to rule irrelevant discus
sion out of order.
Both motions overwhelmingly
failed, the first by a 26-4 margin,
the second 27-3. Sherwood in
dicated he would bring the issue
before the Assembly next month.
The Senate also decided to
organize a committee that will in
vestigate the question of "the stu
dent athlete and minimum
academic standards," according
to Gerald Bogen, who was
reelected Wednesday as Senate
chairer.