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The Slfndy Post
Editorial & Opinion
Von Braschler. Publisher
Caroline Duff, Office Monoger
Dan Dillon, Editor
Scott Newton, News Editor
SANDY. OREGON THURSDAY. JANUARY 7. 1982
The Innocent Bystander:
H it squads tilt world power
’,< *” ?
Wl
It was a dark chill evening in the winter
of 1989 I was taking a shortcut through an
alley in Washington's Embassy Row when
a sinister figure loomed up before me
Could it be
Yes’ Carlos the Rascal!
I recognized the international master of
disguise immediately for he quickly
changed from a short, chunky Ap
palachian woodcutter to a tall, lean
Gimbel s toaster salesman before my
eyes
With a deft movement, he fanned a pack
of documents and held them out “ Pick a
passport.” he said cunningly "Pick any
passport ”
"You can't fool me, Carlos," I said "What
brings you and your Phynkian hit squad to
Washington’’ "
“ You haven't read the papers'’ " he
demanded "Your President Muckross has
seen fit to double your import duties on
variegated gerbils "
I was stunned Was our president mad**
The Rattdom of Phynkia <population 1831
produced only two commodities rocks
and variegated gerbils Its hereditary
ruler, the Ratt, had but one source of hard
currency the four gerbils he exported to
the U S each year Increasing our tariffs
could ruin him
"Y es.” said Carlos, who as now wearing
a morning coat and striped trousers. “ I
personally delivered a diplomatic note to
your secretary of state this afternoon It
said that if the tariff was not withdrawn,
the Rattdom of Phynkia was prepared to
declare (here, he paused for effect) hit
squad'”
I shuddered Once hit squad had been
declared, there would be no turning back
The conflict would not be resolved until our
hitsquad took care of the Ratt or his hits
quad
No, the consequences were too
awful to comtemplate
A decade earlier, of course, such a con
frontation would have meant war But that
was before Colonel Moammar Khadafy
won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982.
U H M
While other nations, including the U.S.,
were believed to have employed hitsquads
in the past, it was Khadafy who showed the
world how effectively they could be used
The very rumor that he had dispatched one
to this country panicked Washington far
more than the mere threat of a ther
monuclearwar Overnight, Khadafy'sarid
little nation of three million souls became
the equal of the American goliath
The lesson was not lost on other small
countries None was so small that it could
not manage to pul together a six man hit
squad to take care of foreign affairs and a
vigilent bodyguard to provide for the na
tional leader's defense
And thus the small countries could no
longer be pushed around by the super
powers Indeed, one of the mightiest na
tions on earth was now the Republic of Ar-
tgum, whose fanatic hit squad, the Artgum
Erasers, was feared in capitals around the
globe
Armies were naturally disbanded With
a hit squad, who needed an army** For as
war was once the logical extension of
politics, as von Clausewitz suggested, the
logical extension of politics was now the hit
squad,
So nuclear weapons were anachronisms,
battlships a joke and tanks an obscenity
With half a trillion dollars saved each year
on armaments, peace and prosperity ran
amok
Of course it wasn’t all peaches and
cream I glanced hesitantly at Carlos, who
was by now a railroad engineer
"If. . . If it comes to hit squad," I asked
nervously, "what will you do yo President
Muckross?"
He glared at me with the cold, cruel eyes
of a born terrorist. "We w ill," he said, flip
ping away his cigarette, "let the air out of
his tires,”
Poor President Muckross! Poor national
leaders everywhere How careful they
were these days to say only nice things
about each other Yet when it came to hit
squad, they were the ones to suffer
To be sure, since time immemorial, it
was they, not we, who extended politics
beyond the bounds of propriety It was
they, no, we, who stirred up emotions and
sent us off to fight and die for them
So that's another good thing they can say
for hit squad Better them than us
Wall Street report:
N EW YORK — Pssst: dangerous
criminals at work Their hideout: an
innocent-looking home, possibly on your
street Their aliases Mom, Dad, Sis. Son
ny Their tools blank videotap«* and video
cassette recorder Their crime: recording
with the shades drawn
a telecast of
“ Gone With the Wind "
«W
•S
But If you and the kids can now ap
p a re n tly re co rd ’ ’C itiz e n K a n e ,’ ’
“Casablanca" and "The African Queen
in safety 'even with the shud«*s open to
f«<deral inspection), Hollywood is still
pushing Washington to levy royalty Iw s on
the producers of recorders and blank tap«**
who make your little game possible And in
that area. McC Mathias ( R . Md ), a rank
mg member of the Judiciary Committee
already has submitted an amendment that
would impose such (••«»
it;
H's become a top movie industry priori
ty for the new year As Jack J Valent,,
president of the Motion Picture Associa
tion of America, put it to me. "There is no
objection by film makers for families to
tape a program from their TV i t in the
privacy of their homes Who, we do care
about, very strongly, is the right of tluiae
who create, produce and copyright
American entertainment to be com pen
sated for the use of their property by the
manufacturers who profit from it "
In pursuit of this effort, Valenti heads a
new ‘Coalition Io Preserve the American
Copyright that it attempting to rally both
the film and television Industrie", in
eluding their labor forces. to ba,11« Sony
and other Japanese VCR manufacturers
The argument is that growing use of VCRs
threatens to shrink residual revenue ac
rrued from the showing of movies on com
mere is I and cable TV
How tag is this alleged threat’ Well, it’s
certainly building fast more than a third
ot those three million (J 8 VCRs were void
in 198«, and industry observer« forecast
ISM sales as high as 18 million seta
t
Public involvement pays big here
All help clean!
I'm writing this note in
response to the comments
made by Barbara Nutter
regarding cleanliness of
the local laundramat in
Sandy
For me, the issue isn't
whether the building is
clean or not, but how an in
dividual can evoke a possi
ble change in any given
situation without publicly
em barrassing someone
P u b lic
c h a s tis e m e n t
sometimes is the only op
tion available, if pnvate
and consistent complaints
are ignored In this case, a
simple note to the owner
would have been more
gracious and tactful It is
always wise to ask yourself
how you would like to be
treated in the same cir-
cumstances-’
Judging by the amount of
people frequenting this
facility, it must be quite
difficult to m aintain a
p erfe ct atm osphere of
order, and 1 seriously doubt
anyone is expecting it. As
long as the w ashing
machines and dryeis work
and the place is reasonably
free of litter, the owner has
fulfilled his obligation to
the public The customer
also cannot escape a sense
of responsibility for con
tributing to the problem of
disorder
In otherwords. clean up
your own act, America,
and maybe clean living will
become a reality
Linda Fredricksen
Rhododendron
Chartity shown
On behalf of the Sandy
Kiwanis Club I wish to ex
press our thanks to the
many people and organiza
tions th at c o n trib u ted
money, food and toys to
help us make it possible for
more than 140 families in
o ur a re a to re c e iv e
Christm as baskets this
year
Thanks to students in
Sandy High and Cedar
Ridge Schools who always
come through with their
canned food drives, the
VFW with cash and toys
and the Mt Hood Mudders
who are always available
to help deliver the baskets
to the more remote areas
A special thanks also to
Pete Sulzbach for many
hours spent in the organiza
tion and to AI and Helen
Lamke for the repair and
storage of many of the toys.
This is a community
wide effort that is repaid by
the thanks of basket reci
pients
Darrel Dempster, presi
dent
Sandy Kiwanis Club
Mail speeded
With the Christmas m ail
ing season now behind us,
the entire staff of the Sandy
Post Office wishes to ex
press our appreciation for
the excellent cooperation
we received from your
newspaper in helping us
urge the public to shop and
mail early during the last
several weeks.
Thanks to your effort and
the excellent cooperation of
our residents, we were able
to handle the holiday mail
volume without any dif
ficulty Allow me to men
tion, too, that our success
was due also to the dedica
tio n
of
our
p o s tal
employees who worked
long hours to make sure all
mail was delivered in time
for Christmas
Again, thank you for your
help in making this holiday
season one of the most suc
cessful ever for Sandy.
A E Becker
Sandy Postmaster
LETTERS POLICY
The Post asks that
all letters to the
ed ito r be typ ed ,
double-spaced and
signed. Deadline is
noon. Tuesday. Let
ters should be ac
c u r a te . free of
libelous remarks and
In good taste.
Personally speaking
Home movie pirates warned
Sound silly to you’ With some three
million video cassette recorders ( VCRs) in
the U S today, It's beginning to sound silly
or at least hopeless
even to aggrieved
movie makers Indeed, a bill dropp«‘d in
the Senate hopper shortly before year end
would courageously exempt the typical
American family from criminal pros«*cu
tion for having a VCR in the home (Gee,
that was c I om *. wasn't R?)
Letters to the editor:
Two relat«*d markets are burgeoning
space (1) domestic sal«» of blank vid«*o
cassettes, which range between 112 and
119. totaled 9232 million in 1980 (based on
nearly 20 million cassettes) and are ex
peeled to approximate a billion dollars in
1984 ( based on nearly 75 million cassettes I,
and (2) prerecorded movie cassettes, such
as “ Annie H all," "Raging Bull” and
’ Rocky,’’ are sold or rented by vide«»
retailers for prices ranging from 950 to 98ti
for each purchase and a few dollars a day
for a rental (The movie studios earn a
royalty fee on an average of 97 for a
cassette sale, but are not compensated by
the retailers in the booming rental
market I
How often does an American family per
form that dastardly act of r«*cording a
movie off the a ir’ All to often, according to
Hollywood Valenti cites a survey repor
ting tha, 52 8 percent of VCR owners use
their equipment to record films for their
entertainment library (Even more un
patriotivealy nearly 84 percent said they
’ skip" commercials when taping films
l>on t these suhaersives care about the
level of deordorant sales in America’ )
Hollywood's tangled legal battle against
VCRs, charging copyright infringement, is
currently beading toward the Supreme
( ’our,
though Congress may act first
The fight takes on overtones of
xenophobia tim e virtually all VCRs and
blank cassette» sold in the U S are
manufactured in Japan, even though
many are marketed here under such
domestic bhels as RCA, GE or Sears But
Valenti points out that other countries,
notably West Germany and Austria,
already have acted to protect their enter
tajnmenl Industrie*« against uncompen
sated home recordings He'd like a law
that would establish a royalty fee to be
paid by importers and manufacturers of
VCRs and tapes to he distributed annually
to copyright owners Mom and Dad might
have to pay a little more for their «quip
men, bu, they'd then be able to hit the
’ record' button in peace tPhew !)
Dozen years melt Saigon’s images
This new year's eve and
yuletide were fun like most
others, hut I couldn't help
remembering a more »«»mber
observance a dozen years ago
The distance and hundred
degree warmth made lovely Viet
nam m v iii so unlike a holiday set
ting Periodic "police actions"
also
re m in d e d
c h e e rfu l
Americans we were close to war
Those occasions in the nine to-
five war didn't stop us in the
“ comfort zone" five miles from
the combat zone from afternoon
volleyball games. The five foot
Vietnam friendlies always won,
by the way. Nor did evening
fireworks at the edge of Saigon
frighten those of us in the securi
ty of five story hotels from slipp
ing downtown for fun times and
drinks til dawn Somehow the
bombs bursting in air never
seemed real to us who watched
the colorful display with July
Fourth amusement from our
uirernesh hotel windows
The Navy hotel down the street
where we lunched was bombed
one otherwise quiet afternoon,
hut that didn't phase us A local
turncoat Viet Cong drew a pistol
on me on a streetcorner ice
cream stand one Sunday but that
also seemed unreal.
What s«*emed real was the F ri
day I forged my Karmen Giua
through a foot of Seattle snow
Christmas, 1989. to report for
overseas duty Training in that
much snow was had enough, but
orders for Vietnam duty seemed
horrid
Saigon also was recouperating
from its Chinese version of new
year's cetobration a backstab
by northern brothers in a broken
truce that nearly turned Saigon
over to the enemy The surprise
of the ruthless Tet Offensive left
the city of hundred degree heat
strangely cold
We fresh replacement troops,
h ow ever, noticed only the
strangely barren, quiet streets I
rem em b er wondering aloud
where the three million native in
habitants lived They were hud
died in nameless alleyways bet
by VON BRASCHLER
ween streets, eating rats and
drinking from polluted street
hydrants
Vietnam was a beautiful land,
despite the war We Americans,
like summer tourists, never felt
closer to it than transients who
played out "W alter M itty” frauds
to live through our jobs and
leave No American I me, there
really felt a part of the country or
committed to the war cause The
boys in the base camps and fire
support bases, however, fought
pretty tough to save their own
hide But that was a personal bat
tie for self preservation.
Not that we didn't make per
sonal friends there, though But
every time you d befriend a stray
<k»g it would turn up eaten the
next day Every time you'd
befriend a native be d turn up
dead or move during the night
Every day w ed live out our lies
as alien Americans trying to feel
good about our stay Almost daily
award assemblies for departing
soldiers would draw a five
minute unmoved crowd of troops
who already had medals or ex
pected medals, which they later
stashed with forgotten trinkets in
some duffle bags
At one routine award ceremony
I met Washington Post publisher
Katherine Graham's son whose
lot overseas was to photograph
awarded soldiers for the Army
newspaper Since The Post
published Pentagon Papers that
soured war sentiment. I wonder
bow young Graham now Post
publisher feels about the war to
day
The real power on our military
compound, aside from the
general who advised General
Minh next door, was the fellow
who carried the coffee pot’s
clothes pin valve in his pocket.
When the 30-cup pot lost its
original handle to an overzelous
soldier one long day, the clothes
pin became the perm anent
substitute The Army base and all
its interpreters, political ad
visors, m ilitary geniuses and
radio communicators ran on the
drug of the bean The guy who
never wanted to run dry on those
boring 10-hour shifts stole the
clothes pin and sole rights to tap
the coffee keg
I remember lots of Walter M it
ty unreal scenes like interroga
tion of ig n o ran t peasants,
children and old men who cleared
the streets after 10 p m curfew
with M 16 rifles and a high-speed
chase at near ground level after a
phi .tom company or 100-200
Noi *h Vietnamese Nationals who
popped out of the myst«?rious
undergrot d tunnels only to
d is a p p e a r a g a in
1 even
remember, as though in a dream,
seeing one of the first copters to
depart for Cambodia - the buffer
country we once vowed not to in
volve in war
W hat I most re m e m b e r,
however, was the daily ritual of
posting “ kills" on a sort of
scoreboard for the generals' mor
ning briefing, a catered affair in
a pill box secure compound
For months I transferred pen
ciled numbers onto a clear plastic
board with color coded grease
pencils Red stood for Com
munis,. of course. It was my
clerical task to keep score of how
many Americans. NVA, Viet
Cong and south Vietnamese
friendlies had been killed the day
before The chart also recorded
by color the number of Vietnam
provinces cu rren tly held by
American and friendly troops
versus provinces dominated by
northern Communists
The numbers rarely changed,
and the green "safe” provinces
always equaled or exceeded the
number of red Communist pro
vinces /m a lty a battle-wise cap
tain from a nearby fire support
base set me straight on the fraud.
Since this new year eclipses the
12-year seal on such classified
documents I now can assure you
th a t my color-coded d a ily
scoreboard was fixed. When
public anti war sentiment forced
the Congress to put a squeeze
p la y on w a r finances, the
m ilitary brass apparently were
forced to show daily results or
abandon the war effort The
ugliness of blanket bombing,
Lyndon Johnson’s quick victory
approach, was taken from their
arsenal
But the truth remains that our
allied effort in Vietnam never
won and held as much ground as
we publicly claimed The same
captain that fed me penciled
numbers to compile the daily
scoreboard showed me how fewer
than half the provinces we claim
ed as "friendly" should have
been marked in red
But that fact never mean,
much, because the whole chart
was only a bunch of transcribed
numbers written in grease pencil
by a kid in Saigon
Like dominoes stacked too
close for comfort. Vietnam fell
with nearby countries close
behind But that didn't seem real
either, since the domino theory
sold by defence-minded John
Kennedy and Richard Nixon in
p res id e n tial debates before
millions were simply theories
heard on an impersonal T V
screen
If Vietnamese allies took our
committment too seriously, they
should by now realize that
American presidents hold in
fluence only four ye an . Soma are
shot down even sooner