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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (April 25, 1961)
MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD. OREGON TUESDAY, APRIL 25. 1981 Matter of Fact By Joseph Alsop (c) New York Herald Tribune Syndicate Editor's note: Joseph Al sop is on a brief vacation. During his absence his brother Stewart will write the Alsop column. By STEWART ALSOP IF you strike at a king Washington-Sometimes it is useful to state the obvious. After the events of the last tragic week, and especially after what President Kennedy said in his speech to the edit ors, Fidel Castro cannot indef initely be permitted to sur vive in triumph. The prestige and even the honor of the United States are now ob viously and wholly committed to Castro's ultimate downfall. There is hardly anybody in the higher reaches of the Ken nedy Administration who does not agree that this commit . ment to Castro's destruction now in fact exists. And yet President Kennedy and his ad visors certainly did not plan . the commitment. On the con trary, the President's key de cisions in regard to theCuban operation were specifically designed to avoid such a com mitment. There were two key deci sions made by the President after he decided to give the operation a green light. The plan for the operation which the President inherited from President Eisenhower involv ed the use of American arm ed force-for example, naval air power-if necessary to as sure the success of the opera tion. President Kennedy's first key decision was to rule out the use of anyAmericari forces whatever, under any conditions whatever. His sec ond key decision was to an nounce the first decision, just as the operation began. THE public announcement that American forces would under no circumstances be in volved was reiterated twice by the President himself and four times With even more emphasis by Secretary of State Dean Rusk. The an nouncement obviously great ly reduced the likelihood of : a general uprising in Cuba, which was the main purpose of the Cuban operation. It also quite unnecessarily tied the President's hands in ad vance. After the operation began to go bad, at an all day meet ing at the White House on Wednesday, certain of the President's military and civil ian advisors favored active American intervention. They argued that the operation sim ply could not be allowed to fail, if only because the Unit ed Stales would in that event become in the eyes of the world the most papery of paper tigers. The President might well have favored this course himself, if he had not so publicly tied his own hands in advance. Why did he do so? This reporter has tried hard to find the answer to that question, and must confess a partial failure. The fact is that there has been something odd ly uncharacteristic about the President's role in the Cuban affair. To be sure, since the operation failed, his actions have been wholly characteris tic of the man-he has taken the whole responsibility for the failure on himself and he has passed the word down the line that there will be no re criminations and no scape goat hunt. The uncharacteris tic phase came earlier. Throughout his career - as for example in his decision to enter the" key Wisconsin and West Virginia primaries last year - Kennedy has always looked before he leaped. He had looked very hard, care fully weighing every con ceivable factor likely to af fect the outcome. And then he has leaped very hard, us ing every conceivable means to assure success. TN THE looking phase of the Cuban operation, Kennedy was certainly the victim of bad intelligence. But intelli gence is and always has been two-thirds guesswork, and it is hard to believe that the President adequately weighed the consequences of failure. This is further borne out by the fact that the leaping phase of the operation was, by past Kennedy standards, so uncharacteristically tenta tive. The idea that Castro could be brought down with out any risk at all of using American men or arms re calls the old rhyme of dubi ous origin: Mother, may I go out to swim? Yes, my darling daughter; Hang your clothes on a hickory limb And don't go near the water. At least part of the ex planation for the markedly un-Kennedy-like quality of the President's role in the first phase of the Cuban operation lies with United Nations Am bassador Adlai Stevenson, whose voice is listened to with respect in the Kennedy Administration. From his own point of view it was quite natural that Stevenson should strongly favor a categorical promise that American forces would not be used in Cuba. The peculiar holier-than-thou public stance which succeed ing American delegations to the U.N. have always thought it necessary to assume was difficult to sustain in any case, in view of the obvious American, complicity in the Cuban operation. Without the Kennedy promise, it would have been impossible to sustain. ITENNEDY has spoken of "the lessons we have learned" from the tragic Cu ban episode. One lesson, sure ly, is that what pleases the majority of the strangely as sorted gaggle of more or less sovereign nations - which now constitute the U.N. General Assembly does not necessarily serve .the' national interest of tne united States. Another lesson is summed up in the old adage, "If you Strictly Personal By Sidney J, Harris (c) General Features Corp, Harrli CHESS CAN'T BE A HOBBY FOR HARRIS IT'S A HORROR In the biographical sketch of myself that our promotion department sends out to the groups that have been foolish enough to invite me to lecture, the game of chess is given as one o f " my "hobbies." This is an error. Chess is not, and can never be, a hobby. It is either a disease or nothing. It is an obsession, an affliction, an ad diction. But it is not a hobby. "Every chess player," an ironic friend of mine said re cently, "should have a hob by." This was a neat epigram. Because those who are serious about the game soon become as single-minded as alcoholics: wife, family, job and other in terests all become submerged in the chessboard. I have- 'largely given up playing the game because of its seductive powers. I used to urge others to take it up, but no longer. The peril is too great. Some serious drink ers avoid becoming alcoholics; but no serious chess players ever avoid becoming chess nuts. What we need is a secret organization called "Check mates Anonymous," Not ' only ago, Cleveland Amory came to Chicago for a few days of the most strenu ous activity. His book, "Who Killed Society? , is high on the best-seller list; his anthol ogy, "Vanity Fair," is crowd ing the leaders. - During his brief visit here, Amory was scheduled for sev eral literary luncheons, re ceptions, dinners, radio and TV interviews, and the whole depressing gamut of modern publicity. Every hour of his time was rigidly scheduled. Yet .owing to the evil machinations of my publish er Amory spent five hours at my house, involved in two ferocious games of chess with me. He ignored phone calls including one piteous . call strike at a king, you must strike to kill." Some day, one way or an other, the American commit ment to bring Castro down will have to be honored. The commitment- can only be hon ored if the American govern ment is willing, if necessary, to strike to kill, even if that risks the shedding of Ameri can blood. ' from his wife awaiting his re turn at their hotel curses. threats, promises, and cold looks from our other guests who were waiting to go out for dinner with us. Like the lush who can't stop with the conventional two before a meal, he would have stayed all night locked in mortal combat over the chessboard. We finally had to load him into the car and drive him down to the TV sta tion for his appearance on a panel show. He cried like a baby. I am doing penance in this piece, for in the past, I have urged the game of chess upon strangers to it, and I still have a nostalgic fondness for it. But I rarely play it any more; the game calls for a strong will and a steady hand. It is not for weaklings like Amory and myself. And it is not a hobby, un less you look upon opium- smoking as a 'harmless diver sion. I thought I had kicked the habit, until Amory pulled me back into the pit. SETS UP CAMP Katmandu, Nepal- (UPD -Sir Edmund Hillary has' set up a base camp for an assault on 27,790-foot Mt. Makalu, re ports reaching here said today. Hillary, conqueror of Mt. Everest, plans to climb the world's fifth highest mountain without oxygen. Drummond Reports (Walter Lippmann it In Europe. Roscoe Drummond reports from Washington in his absence.) CUBA: NEXT PHASE Washington-President Ken nedy is facing the hard and painful dilemma posed by Castro's Cuban Soviet Social ist Republic. We are witnessing the steady build-up of Soviet mili tary and political power in the Western hemisphere which every United States official says is intolerable. Have no doubt about it, more Soviet power is going to be put at the disposal of Castro. But while we say that a Soviet military and political base in the Western hemis phere is intolerable, we stand committed to a policy of "non interference" which was made for a different world and set of circumstances than we now face. The dilemma is: Do we con tinue to stand aside and watch the mounting build-up of Soviet power in Cuba? Or do we act alone, even If this ac tion is unpopular with our Latin American neighbors who prefer to close their eyes to the problem? . ' BY TREATY and policy we are bound not to Interfere in the internal affairs of any member of the Organization of American States. This is the long-standing U.S. and inter American policy of non-intervention. But through these same inter-American treaties we are committed to resist the spread Try and Stop Me : By BENNETT CERF A BRITISHER, married to a dashing cavalier years young er than herself, was summoned to America and forced to leave her roving-eyed husband alone for the first time since their marriage. Just before she left, she intro duced the new butler to her husband. "This is Rumbold,' she said. "Not only will he look after you while I'm away but he'll do the cooking as well." Sotne nights later the cavalier invited an old university chum to din ner. The food was ghast ly. "What's gone wrong around here, old chap?" Inquired the chum testily. "You never used to be satisfied with food like this. "I know, I know," sighed the husband. "But what Kind Of cooking can you expect fromScotland Yard?" t; Phyllis Fraaer defines a woman driver as wife who drives like her huaband and gets blamed for It" O 1981. by Bennett Corf. Dlatxibuted by Klnr Feature Syndicate- Ml If you drink four cups of coffecia day ... at a dime a cup ... you spend SI46 a year for it. The average, family spends only SI 04 a year for doctors and medicines combined. Health Is Priceless, Yet Costs Less Than Ever Prescriptions Free Delivery fill Open 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Daily CLOSED SUNDAYS AVI. GREEN STAMPS CONVENIENT LOCATION MAIN and CENTRAL APRIL CHARGES MADE NOW NOT PAYABLE UNTIL JUNE 10th nnT.nni.in mm Group of SPRING PASTELS AND BONE . . . Flats and. i sesis I now 1 VSI99JE99 J HEELS ' j Up to $14.99 t i A If Your CREDIT Is GOOD Its GOOD it PICKS! of Communism to the West ern hemisphere and penetra tion by any non-American power. By every objective test Cas tro is today creating a Soviet Socialist state in Cuba. It is tied to the Soviet Union and Red China,- who have inter vened in the internal affairs of every nation they can get their hands on. The point I. want to make is that non-interference in the "internal affairs" does not bind us to non-interference in the spread of Communist dic tatorship to the Western hem isphere or in bulding a Soviet military and political base in Cuba; they are the external affairs of every democratic Western hemisphere country. A FEW weeks ago I wrote the followine: "Have we got to stand im potent and immobile, para lyzed by the theory of 'non intervention' until Castro (and Khrushchev) have intervened so widely that It Is too late? . I suggest that the uncriti cal acceptance of the theory of 'non-intervention' covers up the Cuban problem, keeps us from facing It clearly." In his address to the Amer ican Society of Newspaper Editors here this past week President Kennedy seemed to have concluded that non-inter vention is no longer workable because it leaves the Commu nists free to fix their hold on Cuba while we remain immo bilized. He said: "Should it ever appear that the inter-American doctrine of non-interference merely con ceals or excuses a policy of non-action if the nations of this hemisphere should fail to meet their commitments against outside Communist penetration - then I want it clearly understood that this government will not hesitate in meeting its primary obliga tions, which are to the secur ity of the United States." ' T AM sure that Mr. Kennedy means exactly what he says-that the U.S. will not in definitely tolerate a Cuban Soviet Socialist state anchored in the Communist bloc of Rus sia and Red China and that we will act alone if necessary. Obviously the timing must be the President's. He will surely try to make the Ameri can republics realize that they cannot counter Soviet Inter vention by pretending that it isn't happening. It is. The in vading Cuban fredom-fighters have been set back by Soviet arms in Castro's hands, but most of them have gone to the hills, as the President said, to carry on the struggle of "Cu ban patriots against Cuban tyranny." The struggle must not be ended until the tyranny is overthrown, (c) 1961 New York Herald Tribune, Inc. SNAKE CAUSES CRASH Detroit - (UPD - Donald E. Jameyfield, 17, had a novel excuse Monday when police questioned him on the cause of an accident involving a parked car. Jameyfield said that as he was driving to A 5 school with a pet garter snake for biology study the reptile crawled out of a bottle. Jameyfield reached for the snake to put it back, but it bit him. As a result he took; his eyes off the road and hit a parked car. , - APRIL 4 If Your CREDIT . GOOD HsGoodai Pick's DRESSES Very good selection of one and two piece styles . . . solid colors and prints. 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