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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 17, 1963)
TUESDAY. "Everyone Id Southern Oregon Read! The Mail Tribune" Published Dally except Saturday by 33 Noi Ih fir St., Ph. 77i-6141 ROBERT W RUHL. Editor HERB GREY Advertlilnf Menace! GERALD T LATHAM. Bui Mir ERIC w ALLEN JR.. Mne Editor KAHL H ADAMS, City Editor MAHRV rHIPMAN Teles Editor RICHARD JEWETT. Sporla Editor OLIVE ST ARCHER Women'! EOltol DALEERICKSONCirculatlon Mjr An IndeDendent Newspapel Entered ai second clasi matter at Medford Oregon under Act 01 March 3, 1897 SUBSCRIPTION RATES BV Mail In Advance Dally and Sunday 1 year 918.00 Daily and Sunday 6 moi 10.00 Daily ana bunaay a moi s.uu Sunday Omy One year 95 00 Single Copy (Mailed) lOe Rv Carrier And Motor Route. Daily and Sunday 1 year $21 00 Daily and Sunday 1 mo 1.75 Sunday Only 1 mo. 50e Carrlel and Vendor! .Copy 10c Official Paper of City or Mediord Official Paper ol Jackton County United Presa International Full Leased Wire U. P 1 Tciephoto Newaplcturea MEMBER OF AUDIT BUREAU Oy CIRCULATIONS Arfrnil(nv Rnriiintatlve NELSON ROBERTS t ASSOC1. ATF.S nrflrea In New York. Chi- raco Detroit. San Franclaeo. Lot Angelr! Seattle, fortiana Denver. NfWSPAMI RATION At EDITORIAL Memoer California Newipaper Publiiheri AnoclaUon Flight o' Time Mediord and Jackson County History from the tile of The Mail Tribune 10, 20. 30. 40 and SO yean ago. Iff YEARS AGO Sept. 17. 1953 (Thursday) Jackson county's 11th polio patient of the year, a 19-year-old Talent girl, was flown to a Eu gene hospital last night by Mer cy Flights air ambulance plane. Cpl. Harvey L. Rogers, last Medford prisoner of war to be released by the Communists, was home today. 20 YEARS AGO Sept. 17, 1913 (Friday) W. M. McAllister, local attor ney, leaves for duty as army captain. From Arthur Perry's "Ye Smudge Pol" column: "A Mas' sachusetts solon has been in dicted for mail fraud. People with long memories recall in the last national mandate, his elec tion was vital to both state and nation to prevent the loss of 'social gains'." 30 YEARS AGO Sept. 17. 1933 (Sunday) Siskiyou highway jobs will open soon. Fruit harvest to cut attend ance as schools open tomorrow. 40 YEARS AGO Sept. 17, 1923 (Monday) Lee (Duh) Watson returns from extended stay in Los An geles. Valley delegation to bid ship load of Oregon cedar for Japan Godspeed. 50 YEARS AGO Sept. 17. 1913 (Wednesday) Lee Jacobs named by council to fill vacancy as mayor. Medford golf club subject of article in Seattle Times. What's Your I.Q.? Nina or ten correct li superior; taven or eight ii eicellent; five or ii ll good. 1. Which country of Central America is largest in area'.' 2. Was Roger Bacon a monk, chemist, or an authority on optics? 3. What legislative body exer cises exclusive jurisdiction over the District of Columbia? 4. What Federal agency en forces requirements as a proper ly labeling wool products? 5. Does a wombat most re semble a snake, a bear, an al batross, or a whale? 6. Is an invidious remark most likely to provoke laughter, ill will, or good-will? 7. "Colonel Pyncheon" Is a character in which Nathaniel Hawthorne novel? B. In which European coun try did Wilhelm, former Em peror of Germany, die? 9. Norway is a republic; true or false? 10. The Inhabitants of Mada gascar are known as M g ans? Annwern: 1. Nicaragua. 2. All three. 3. Congress. 4. Fed eral Trade Commission. 5. Bear. ft. Ill-will. 7. "The House of Seven Gables." (. The Netherlands. 9. False. 10. Mnlagasiane. 810,000 Oregoncms Said Eligible To Vofe SALEM (UPD-More than 810,000 Orogonians will be eli gible to vote in the Oct. IS lax referendum, Elections Supcrvi nor Jack Thompson predicted today. Deadline for registering was Sept. 14. Thompson ald he would navt the official registration totals in about two weeks. 4 A- I -rfS VjAISOCIATION ShPTL.MBLR 17, 1963 The Constitution s 1 76 Years It starts this way: We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tran quility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America. It ends this way: Done in convention by the unanimous consent of the states present the seventeenth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven, and of the independence of the United States of America the twelfth. In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names. IN BETWEEN the preamble and the conclusion are the seven brief articles which, together with the later amendments, form the most im pressive document of government ever written. It is not a perfect charter of government, for it was designed and formulated by fallible hu man beings, who could not know what the future held. Still, it has formed the basis for our liber ties, and the framework upon which our laws and our traditions are based. Today exact! v 176 its ratification in convention we stand in awe to know that those brilliant and sober men were able to devise a document sufficiently flexible that, even though the world and society and gov ernment have changed it still serves. HPHE biggest and most important change in the - Constitution was proposed little more than twoi years later on Sept. 25, ed a little more than two years after that on Dec. 15, 1791. This was when the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution, became an integral part of it. It is not easy to change the Constitution, which is as it should be. After adoption of the Bill of Rights, it has been amended only 13 times and two of these cancelled each other out, the 18th and 21st. The second-largest period of change was im mediately following the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments were adopted, abolishing slavery, protecting citizenship and guaranteeing equal protection of the laws, and protecting the right to vote. (These guarantees, sadly enough, have not all been uniformly en forced, and still are not, even today, in some parts of the nation.) npHE most controversial of the more recent amendments are the 16th, which permitted the income tax, and the 18th prohibition which was repealed by the 21st. The others provided of Senators; for woman suffrage; revising the terms of president and vice president, providing for annual sessions of congress, and the line of succession; limiting the president to two terms; and allowing citizens of Washington, D.C., to vote in presidential elections. Each of these have gone through the tedious process of getting a of Congress, and ratification by three-fourths of the states. (The other method of amending the Constitution by a constitutional convention has never been employed.) pONSERVATIVES are fond of calling for "a return to Constitutional principles." But at the same time, many of them are promoting pro posed amendments which would, in effect, com pletely negate the delicate balance of power worked out over the years between the state and federal governments, and send the nation back into a state of Confederary, by granting the ulti mate and supreme power to the states a power they surrendered 176 years ago. lhus far these crippling amendments have not gotten very far, and the chances are they won't get much further. But a nation which could pass a prohibition amendment is theoretically capable, in a moment of aberation, of doing equally foolish things. The "states' rights" amendments, and the even more crippling so-called "liberty amendment," would throw the nation's polity and economy into chaos. 'PI IE main body of the Constitution, those seven articles, sets forth in brief and orderly fashion the powers, duties, limitations and responsibili ties of the various arms of government. It is obscurely worded in some portions, but is magnificently clear in others. Some portions arc outmoded (no "letters of marque and reprisals" have been granted for many years). But others are sharply pertinent today. For instance: This constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall he made In pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the consti tution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding. TH1E Constitution, and Kiglils, is the most tangible guarantee of the rights and liberties and privileges of all Ameri can citizens. Yet no document can, of and by itself, do the job alone. It is administered by human beings, and if it does not command the loyalty and re spect and support of a majority of the citizens, it is little more than a scrap of'paner. But as long as it does command that support, and as long as it remains a barrier to the .ever ambitious forces of tyranny and injustice, we can all be thankful that we live within its pro tective shadow, todav as 176 yeai-s ago todav. E.A. years from the date of almost unrecognizably, 1789 and was approv Civil War, when the for the direct election two-thirds vote in each house particularly the Bill of "We've Decided Against The Test-Ban Treaty We Want The Right To Develop Our Own Bomb" -rw was, mara. ... Communications ... Letter! to the Editor must bear the nam and address of the writer, although under certain circumstances the us ol a pen name or initial for publication is permissible. The Mail Tribune reserves the right to edit all Utters with a view to clarification and condensation. Lelteri submitted for publication must not exceed 400 words. The letters printed in this column do not necessarily represent the views of the paper; in fact the contrary is often the case. Distressed To the Editor: I am greatly distressed by the inconsistency, the criminal greed, and the lack of common humanitarian prin ciple animating and actuating those businessmen who operate markets that sell in their "sa loon departments" beer and wine of many kinds, (not to mention the real saloons (tav erns) and other outlets), that do so much to destroy the mor als, manners, principles, and general equilibrium of men and women and youth! Not only so, but "open seven days a week for your convenience." Our lawbrcaking and moral bankruptcy, "The inhumanity of man to man makes countless millions mourn," and still for filthy lucre simply, and mer cenary gain entirely, the Jug gernaut car, the liquor traffic continues unrestrained to crush its multithousands under its iron wheels! Yes, and the brutish traffic is too rapidly diminish ing our common sense and re sistence; populating our mental hospitals; and our cigarette smoking, beer and wine guzzling mothers are bringing forth ane mic weakling children, born lacking normal strength and capacity, as is so often told in our news channels. And con sider this, the mourning millions are trying by spending millions of dollars for "tranquilizers" to alleviate their mental and moral torture, only to sink deeper into the morass, or the whirling maelstrom ! What care the brewers who sing the praises of their alcoho- j lie potion: What care the distillers and the wineries who peddle so wide ly their mockers? What care the mercenary ad vertising mediums who help them so well? What care the saloon keepers on Front Street, or anywhere else? What care our "super mar ket owners with their "saloon departments?" What care they j about car wrecks killing thous- j anHs: the moral and mental wrecks of overcrowded memai jn the limits of the current ' two scnoois wouio jeopardize we hospitals? What care any of budget and are of a good re-1 position of Medford's tradition them about anemic weakling ! sale value. The use of them i ally victorious athletic teams, children being born in or out of ! also gives the Medford schools Can this possibly be the situ- wedlock to grace excuse me I mean disgrace our already too anemic and weakling race? Yes. Mr. Editor. I am dis- j Iresscd, greatly distressed! I think I have a just right to be, for that person was so right who said, "The inhumanity of man to man makes countless millions H. R. Bulman Route 4, Box 316A Medford, Oregon Favors Sales Tax , i iv,A KMiinr- Vniir editorial in ii Friday's Daoer regard- ing a sales tax was a very good one. If we have to have ' more . money I'm in favor of getting it mis way. It is no longer possible to meet the rapidly increasing cost of our bureaucratic state gov ernment without such a tax. Further increases in our al readv loo high income and prop erty taxes are simply out of the question. A sales lax is the only mod ern way to collect such a large amount of moncv. It is more or less painless, a little is paid ! out each day and everyoooy into llie act It is self 1IK na(1 lhcr reason for section of land, bought with bor dualizing: people' with 'large j 11 hurrying home ; He had to rowed money. l .m. nav more than those i mTe thev are able to buy more prod-1 uets such as cars, clothes, fur-j niture, etc. The state would also m,u,.i h..iuppn i anH .1 million dollars per vear from the many thousands of tourists and vaca-, tioners who come lo Oregon i even' summer and spend two or three davs to two weeks here. These people would not mind paying a sales tax. in1 fact a lot of them expect to naiTHr. r ir ilM? most of them have such a tax ! x1 MKDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MKDFORD. OREGON in their home state and are used to it. If the legislature would work up a proper sales tax bill I believe the voters would accept it. Something like a 3 per cent tax with food and prescription drugs exempt, and also gaso line. The bill would also have to stipulate that present income and property taxes would be lowered in proportion to the amount brought in by the sales tax. The last time a sales tax bill was presented to the voters this was not done and the peo ple voted it down, with good reason. By lowering income and property taxes we would no doubt attract more new busi nesses and industry in the state, which we greatly need to pro vide jobs for the expanding population and the many young people coming into adulthood. Elmer W. Knips 147 South Holly st. Medford. Utile Hcrt" School Houses To the Editor: This is a hit late, but the letters your edi torial of 9463 apparently in spired prompts me to answer it. The thought that you, a staunch supporter of schools, would place beauty before ed ucation is hard to accept. E.H.A. explained the reason for the temporary classrooms and their location in his editorial of 82863. I am sure you are aware the school board had an other choice, of operating Med iord High school in shifts. PotllH it hp that vnil ilist litnlr nnp Innk at Ihp fii'Sl rlnscrnnm and jumpcd to conclusions as vou did about the removal of diseased trees from the school 1 lawn? 1 The suggestions that those buildings were erected to im press the voters was unworthy The members of the school board and administration arc voters, too, and well aware that increasing taxes are fast be- coming a burden. They should be commended on the use of prefabricated buildings to solve the classroom shortage. These huilriines were of a Drice with- a chance, to try, on a small ; scale, the new concept of win- dowless school buildings, with controlled ventilation and tom- In the Day's News By FRANK JENKINS In Aberdeen, South Dakota, five, four and three. Their Mrs Andrew Fischer, aged 30, 1 names are Danny, Charlotte, gives birth to qui.up.e.s-..n,s!Jt-e.yn and Deni bringing the U.S.A. into the 1 limelight hitherto monopolized by ranada Argentina and Vene- , 'IM1E dispatches add A The father, who works for a wholesale grocery firm in Abei-j deen and in his off time operates a small farm just outside the town, sweated out the ordeal of waiting and then hurried home to milk Ihe cows There are two of them and thev have to be milked each morning and eve- mng S'"1 hack ,0 lhir 'IVE OTHER ,,,,, .... , Red -eyed fron.1'"l ,come sleeplessness, he told the hos- pital attendants who queried mm as io now u icu lo oe tne : father of oumtunlets: "I've never been so shocked in all mv life." He added: "I've never seen mv wife so surprised as when she found out about it. . She's really aappv about it. thoiaaa " '0nvr Mvri. six, Traditionally Friendly Relations With Portugal Dimmed by U.S. African Views Bv PHIL NEWSO.M UPI Foreign News Analyst LISBON, Portugal (UPI)-In Portugal's marbled parliament building which began as an 18th Century convent a hih government of ficial sighed with regret. "D i f f e rences between gov- ernments are always unfortu nate," he said. s.w.om "But wl?en come between friends they are especially pain ful." For in Portugal there is both a regret and a deep resentment over what the Portuguese re gard as United States' abandon ment of a friend and ally in NATO and a misunderstanding of Portugal's determination to retain its overseas territories in Africa. Portugal, traditionally aloof from European commitments, joined NATO in 1949 and an nounced it did so only because 1 perature. And at no extra cost. You could be more right than sarcastic when you mention the "little red schoolhouse." It could well be that the "you owe it to us" attitude of some of our children could be changed by a return to less elaborate school buildings. But I'm afraid many of us oldsters just don't want to remember what we were taught in the days of the old copy book; that we have to pay for everything we get. Honestly now do you really think those neat little green classrooms are eyesores? Verna Flowers 355 Berrydale ave. Medford. o Editor's note: Yes. Shocked To the Editor: A few weeks ago I made a hurried trip through Medford and had oc casion to drive past my old Alma Mater. 1 was as shocked as you and other Medford citi zens to see the "temporary classrooms" on the front lawn. There was insufficient time to make proper inquiries as to the problems faced by the Medford School Board but, for what it is worth, my many years in public education have proven that such classrooms are seldom finan cially justified and practically never temporary. I am all too aware of the prob lems facing many school admin istrators and boards which force them to unsatisfactory "solu tions" to immediate problems. I have never known the problems to be lessened by insulting the aesthetic sensibilities of their patrons. Surely some more suit- able location could have been found for the classrooms if they had lo be constructed which would have preserved the beauty of the high school campus. Before leaving M- 'ord I was told by one citiz that the Board had purchased another site many years ago but had failed to build another high school when needed because of pressure from prominent citi zens who feared that a division of the current student body into ation : Fred C. Sander 5700 The Toledo Long Beach 3, Calif. 1., f..llhprhiwvt he said hp hadn't ; decided on names for the five new ones, , ..Jls( A B C. D and E, reckon.' he added. ! V t EMORY goes back to a fam- nf pl".on- .Ml lUllll. 1U Udlll Ul'll-ta. IW triplets. Just one set of twins, Thev lived at the edge of a I jn region not loo different in its economics from Aberdeen, in South Dakota, "orc vc. There was no intern nioncv. ine father started with a quarter "'"" m '"l.w ""c atHMI ' year .Int. he econ- 1,s history , each child was a niember of the family work """ r-iK'n 10 make the vin-to milk the cows, to feed thc ",cs- 10 Plow ,he Riound. To Planl 11,0 rrops To tend them a' they grew To harvest them I as they matured. For the children, each am v. ins child was another playmate ; of U.S. participation. In 1951, Portugal signed a common defense pact with the United States and gave the U.S. free use of an airfield on Santa Maria Island in the Azores. Also in 1951, because of her own economic recovery, Portugal refused further U.S. Marshall Plan aid and has gone on her own ever since. It came as a shock then in 1962 when the United States joined the Afro-Asian countries in demanding that Portugal give up her grip on Angola, her larg est and most prosperous prov ince in Africa, and permit self determination. Portuguese officials freely ad mit that Portugal's current re fusal to sign a new agreement on the Azores base springs from U.S. and Portuguese differences over Africa. And Portuguese-U.S. relations plunged to a new low in Au gust when Premier Antonio de Oliveira Salazar accused both the United States and Russia of pressing African liberations for their own individual advantage in control of African markets. In the United Nations, Salazar charged, self-determination had become synonymous with inde pendence regardless of a peo ple's ability to rule themselves. And in Lisoon mere is a con viction that if independence were to come now to Angola, it Strictly Personal By Sydney J. Harris (ci Field Enterprises, Inc. UNITY VS. FUNCTION A couple dropped in for tea last Sunday afternoon, and dur ing the conversation the wife mentioned that TL I they had been shopping for an apartment, but with no sue- ' cess, snowing -V !& that she owned a hand some building in a most desirable location, I ask- Harri- ed her why she didn't take an apartment in her own property. "It would drive me crazy," she shrugged. "As the tenant, I'd expect the owner to pay for all the repairs and decorat ing but, as the owner, I'd insist that the tenant take bet ter care of the apartment. My nervous system couldn't stand such a strain!" We all laughed, of course, hut her jest was rooted in serious fact. She was really saving that she prefers to keep her functions as Land lord and as Tenant quite sep arate because combining them might force her to give up a viewpoint she now finds comfortable and profitable. The tremendous size and complexity of our society has given each of us a special ized task and role to play; and it has become dangerous ly easy for each of us to con sider his separate function as the whole person. We arc the Landlord, the Tenant, the Banker, the Work man, the Stockholder, and so on. These roles are usually so demanding, and so re stricting, that we forget our selves as a human entity, and become only part of a person: the part that is directly en gaged in making a living and protecting our possessions. Perhaps we can see the prob lem more clearly with an every day illustration. When the aver age man is driving his car. he is a Motorist, and pedestrians arc menaces or fools who seem to be his sworn enemies; when he is walking, however, he be comes a Pedestrian, and then Ihe motorist is seen as the luna tic foe. Yet. above both the Motorist and the Pedestrian is the higher concept of the Good Citizen, who wants justice and fair treat ment for walkers and drivers alike, and whose attitude does not depend on whether he hap- ! pens at any given moment to be walking or driving. 1 1 The lady who refused to move j into her own building was deny ing her unity as a person, and preferred to'think of herself as i separate function. Her attitude. Wlllll' UIIUl'I MrtllllilUll', IS I II t j greatest single stumbling block in the wav of a decent and flex- : ible social order - for. until i we are willing to put ourselves : in another Person's place, to incorn,.rale his views in ours. .'".-mn., ouj .ijmvu , a b,lt,r world. in the not too numerous hours of relaxation. For the parents. each was another helper to liphtcri the load of making a iiv,n8 T,erc was ncvcl. any wondering about what to do next. There was alwavs PLENTY to do. t . A nw. il Life was simpler then That was back in the days when our economy was a basi- callv RURAL economy. The URBAN SPRAWL had not then been even imagined. mi?' i m would fly into tribal pieces with the whole rich area up for grabs. The winds of change blow slowly over Portugal and change also has been slow to come to its overseas provinces in Africa. It is a source of pride to Portugal that on the bloody "night of the long knives" on March IS, 1961, black African troops turned back the first wave of terrorism that saw the butchering of Europeans in set tlements of northern Angola near the border with the Congo. It was the start of the Ango lan revolt which focused world attention on Portuguese over Matter of Fact (C New York Herald THE COMMAND POST BINH DAI, Kicn Hoa, Viet Nam The command post of the battle was a little shack next to the mud fort of the militiamen of Binh Thanh, a strategic ham let. Here the district chief, Capt. Hoa, a tough little man with a Buddhist med al on a neck chain, was gabbling earnestly to the L-19 liaison plane cir cling endlessly overhead. On the high bank of the mud fort was Maj. John S. Ames, commander of the provincial advisory group. Alternately, he gazed out across the exquisite green sweep of rice fields, to the clump of jungle a couple of hundred yards away, whence came the pop-pop of firing; and turned to glare at his radio equipped jeep with furious ani mosity. "Goddam it, why should the radio cut out today? Goddam it, I hope the L-19 gets through on the Vietnamese net." SUDDENLY there was a cry from one of the group of women waiting by the mud fort to help the wounded men, who occasionally limped or were carried back across the rice fields from the sharp fight in the patch of jungle. The sharp-eyed woman point ed excitedly. And there, sure enough, were five AD-6 fighter bombers. The L-19's call for air support had indeed g o t through. Like a small but intelligent dog leading a flock, the L-19 invited the AD-6S to follow along; and over the thickest patch of jungle it dropped marker-bombs. The smoke plumes rose, acid-carmine against the perfect blue of the late after noon sky. The first AD-6 swoop ed to the attack. There was a crash of rocket. At this new noise, the aigrettes and white herons soared up in alarm from the rice fields all about. For 20 minutes, the strafing and rocketing continued. Then it was over, and as the planes flow homewards, little Capt. Hoa urged his men forward, into the newly strafed area which the enemy had hastily fortified hours before. Now the noise of the battle rose and became more continuous. Sud denly, it was ominously dom inated by the rattle of Brown :ig automatic rifles. yHAT meant that the air at- j lac nau laiieu iu lane uui any of the three BARs the Communists were known to have. And that meant, in turn, that the battle could end only in a draw. For in that jungle, no man can see more than three yards ahead and, in these con ditions, the little district chief's force of village militia and civil guards could not hope I c a dug-in position protected by heavy automatic fire. As the d"'k began to fall, the faces in t' hut command-post grew grimmer almost by the minute. You could almost see them thinking about the Com munist force's melting away under cover of darkness. The women who had been helping CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS "Haslrilly. It s (he uvnal campaign stuff phnux. in n Indian headdress, kissing hahies. elhnir-grnnp lunches. But hal l this one. 'eating watermelon in Ihe Souih?" seas territories. For the safe of the Portu. guesc position it is unfortunate that important reforms giving the Africans equality with Euro pean workers and a greater voice in their own affairs havo come only after the "night of the long knives." But the Portuguese nut only are determined, they are confi dent. There are hints that forthcom ing months may see a referen dum to prove that Africans in the overseas territories prefer to remain Portuguese. Mean while, both for the Afro-Asians and the United States, it ij hands off Portuguese Africa. By Joseph Alsop Tribune Syndicate the wounded, understanding tha outcome, went into the nearby hamlet and returned with food for the troops. At last the ordrr was given to break off the fighl, and files of men trudged back across the rice fields, carrying a couple more wounded. That is how a rather ordi nary, indecisive, fairly repre sentative minor battle of this war in Viet Nam now looks. The battle had begun even be fore we left Saigon, when a pa trol sent out at dawn by tha Binh Thanh strategic hamlet ran smack into a reinforced company of Viet Cong troops. The hamlet used its new radio to call for help from Capt. Hoa. The district chief threw in all the men he could gather and borrowed more support (hut very little was available) from the provincial commander. BOTH sides suffered. A bam boo hemlct, blood - stained and bullet-pierced, was the solo proof of the Viet Cong's losses, for they still carry away their dead and wounded when they can. Capt. Hoa's men had five dead and 12 wounded among about 250 men, which is a rath er heavy casualty list for irreg ulars to accept without flinch ing. Indecisive as it was. more over, the battle at Binh Thanh strategic hamlet must have Riv en less than no satisfaction lo the Viet Cong commander of Kien Hoa province. To begin with, his reinforced company almost certainly had the mis sion of overwhelming the ham let's mud fort and if possibln the hamlet itself by a surprise attack at night. Instead, tha company was surprised by Ihe dawn patrol of the men of the hamlet. To go on, this is one of Ilia "front line hamlets" of Capt. Hoa's district of Binh Dai. Like the other two districts of this province. Binh Dai is an ishnd, with all but impenetrable man grove swamps at its seaward end. The swamps are the Viet Cong stronghold. Capt. Hoa has therefore laid out his strategic hamlets in thc pattern of a defense in depth command, with the front line nearest tho swamps BEING in the front line, Binh Thanh hamlet has suf fered everything from petty harrassing attacks to major as saults since the hamlet was formed. Yet here was Binh Thanh still on thc alert, still resisting, with its women spon taneously gathering to aid tho troops. "In the five months I've been here," Maj. Ames told me as we left Binh Thanh, "no night has passed without an attack on at least one of thc strategic hamlets. We have more than 250 of them by now. In all that time, not one of them has failed to resist. In the great majority of cases the VC has been beat en off, quite often with heavy losses. And although some ham let forts have been lost, no actual hamlet has ever hern overrun." There is something oddly in consistent, hero, with the widely propagated picture of Vietna mese masses with no will to re sist and a positive tendency to regard the Communists as" the. i preferable alternative. n1 p 0 i. WX k X
