Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Herald and news. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1942-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 11, 1963)
PAGE-tA HERALD AND NEWS, KUmKh Falls, Oregon Monday, November 11, 1963 Message From the Front Policy Makers Fear Future Of Viet Nam WILLIAM S.WHITE. V'" Lest Veterans Day is not a day that should ,be celebrated by veterans. It's a day that should be celebrated by all the rest of the citizenry on behalf of the veterans. In America, today, one person out of every nine is a veteran of one of the nation's armed conflicts. One person out of every nine has giv en a portion of himself or herself on behalf of this nation's safety. There are 22,633,000 living veterans of America's wars today. Many of them still bear visible scars of the conflicts, in which they served. Many bear invisible scars, but all partook in the sacrifices that come with military service. The roll of veterans includes 73,000 from the Regular Establishment and Indian Wars; 55,000 Spanish-American war veter ans; 2,971,000 veterans of World War I; 15,332,000 veterans of service in World War II, and 4,202,000 Korean War vets. Oregon has 250,000 veterans. 167,000 saw service in World War II, 47,000 in the Nothing - - For the last few years the leaders of organized labor have had thrown up to them more and more evidences that the la bor movement as such is not advancing at pace with a growing nation. Overall union membership is relative ly static. Automation's inroads into such fields as steel and coal have sharply cut the strength of once great unions. Labor's organizing efforts have not taken big hold in the expanding service trades and other white collar fields. But this, it would seem, is only part of the story. Recently some key members of the United Auto Workers undertook some candid self - examination in a discussion joined In by representatives of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions. Some fairly stunning comment on the trend among unions emerged from that con versation, now reported in print by the cen ter. Since the end of World War II, it was stressed, unions have been winning fewer and fewer elections as plant bargaining agents. In case after countless case, local un ion memberships in dispute over wages and working conditions have refused to accept international union leaders' recommenda tions on specifics or on whether or not to tangle with a company. Polls of worker opinions have showed that many workers see big unions as almost JFK Finds Going Tough , By LYLE C, WILSON ' WASHINGTON (UPl)-Thrce years ago John Fitzgerald Kennedy was elected 35th Presi dent of the United Slates by a margin so thin that a handful of votes east in llio opposite di rection could have spelled vic tory for his opponent, thon the iicpublicun Vice President Richard M. Nixon. '.- Today this narrow victory margin still colors much of Kennedy's thliiking as he trios to push an admittedly con troversial legislative program through a balky Congress and, at the same time, load his poli tical guns for a re-election campaign next year. In lotvo Kennedy received 34,227.0 popular votes to Nixon's 3t.HW.Mfi a raior-hlade difference ol only 118,550 votes. Tiius Kennedy stormed into the White House armed with some ! thing less th.in a powerful man date. ; Three years ago the world seemed much simpler to the victorious Democrat than it does today. As a candidate, he could charge Into the windmills of domestic and international problems with a shining lance. Today, be has me final respon sibility (or these problems, and their solution is not a matter of campaign oratory, but tense nights on the telephone await ing the latest word from South Viet Nam or the Berlin Auto bahn. Talk and Prare On the eve. of his I960 elec tion, speaking at Boston Garden ' on the night of Nov. 7, Kennedy .'accused the Republican nd particularly Nixon of following "the easy but fatal course of thinking that we can talk our way into a peaceful world." We Forget Korean conflict, and 42,000 in World War 1. It also numbers 2,000 other veterans from Indian and Spanish-American wars. Veterans Day has been set aside in their honor. But, it shames us to find that the vet erans, themselves, are about the only ones that pause long enough on this day from their recreational pursuits to pay homage and honor. In their cases, they are paying tribute in most cases to their comrades in arms who are no longer with us. What of the other eight out of each nine not a veteran? Where are they on this day? For, were it not for the veterans in the first place, and their heroic efforts, the rest of the Americans would not be enjoying the pleasures and privileges that they do today. To you Americans not privileged to have served your country, let us remind you that Veterans Day is a day for you to pay tribute to those that do. Fails Like Success as much detached from their personal in terests as they believe employers to be. To great numbers of workers, unions seem to have lost any strongly positive function and have become glorified service organizations. Collective bargaining practic es are pledged inadequate to cope with the really pressing matters of automation and unemployment. On top of all this, many companies are vastly more ingenious and imaginative in dealing with workers' demands and com plaints. To the degree they perform this role well, they further undercut unions which grew to maturity battling for things companies would not give without a fight. With unions appearing to countless workers as part of the same Establishment inhabited by management, the workers take the benefits and the "service" where they find them and give no particular allegiance either to company or union. Virtually all these observations were subscribed to by, union men taking part in the center's discussion. But, aside from sug gesting that unions become more active po litically in order to free the movement from some restrictions, these men had few pro posals for pumping new life and purpose into organized labor. Maybe that is symptomatic. Unions are losing effect today because even their staun chest advocates cannot yet see clearly what new role they can play in a fast changing country. lie said Nixon believed "peace can be achieved through conferences and commissions, through meetings and goodwill lours, through special missions and propaganda gimmicks." 1 In three years, tlie President has tried virtually every one of these same avenues to a moro peaceful world community and still he awakens most mornings to a new crisis somewhere along (lie Jumbled frontier that sots off East and West in the so-called cold war. Kennedy's problems at home three years alter his personal victory might be regarded by some historians as more nettle some than the hol-aixt-cold sit uation overseas. Truman's Advantage Ho does not have tlie free dom, for example, of former President Harry S. Tinman in fighting basic programs through Congress. For most of his White llouso tenure, Truman faced a Republican Congress. Control of House and Senate to day rests with tlie Democrats, lite President's own party. Thus he must practice a cer tain amount of moderation if n restraint when he feels the urge to lambasto a committee ulicrein a piece of pet admin istration legislation lies almost dormant. After all, the commit tee cliairman Is bound to be a Democrat of some stature and frontal attack by tlie President is not likely to improve chances of favorable committee action. Kennedy therefore must walk softly and carry no stick, to psraphrase Theodore Roosevelt. Hi powers must be those of relatively gentle persuasion and salesmanship. His major legislative items lliis year involve civil rights, tax reduction and foreign aid. Anybody who listened to his 1!I60 camvaign speeches knew that sooner or later in Uie first Kennedy term, measures of this sort would he put before the Congress. Public Opinion Since the President is in no position to club the House and Senate into specific action, he must rely on talents of nego tiation and public opinion, 'tins is why his televised news con ferences constitute a major part of his political arsenal. It also explains why he makes a number of jet speed speaking trips away from Washington as he tries to generate public sup port for his legislative pro gram. There is little or no doubt in his mind or in the minds of those associated with him tlwt lie will bo nominated by tlie Democratic Convention in At lantic City next year for a sec ond term. At thb moment, Kennedy ap pears to talk more realistically about tlie VXA election battle than some ol his followers. Tlie President, himself, feels that he is in for a fight: Uiat he does not regard re-election as auto matic; that his popularity was bound (o go down this year as he fouglit for controversial pro grams. This reflects what one of his associates was talking about the other day when asked when Kennedy would start campaigning for lt. "He hasn't quit since I960." Uie associate answered candidly. OTHER EDITORS' OPINIONS Unreliable (Corvallis Gazette-Times) Point by point. Sen. J. W. Fulbright, chairman of the Sen ate Foreign Relations Commit tee, has rebutted all major comments made in recent months, by French President Charles de Gaulle about impor tant allied policies and prob lems. The statements have made the United States govern ment regard De Gaulle as an unreliable ally. "The United States, which has commuted itself to a uni fied defense of the West, will not of its, own volition aban don Europe," Fulbright said, and added pointedly, "But this does not mean it cannot be driven from Europe. General de Gaulle regards American withdrawal from Europe inevitable.- It is not inevitable unless Europe makes it so." Secretary of Stale Dean Rusk hinted at American dis satisfaction with the attilude of its European allies in Bonn last week, when he said that there was no outcry when France withdrew her naval units from the NATO forces, but an imme diale protest when' the United States talked of withdrawing some of its forces. Fulbright went further and condemned the protectionist policies of the European Common Market and their refusal to carry a propor tion of the defense and foreign aid burdens, largely because France is suffering from exces sive pride and assertiveness. As an example, Fulbright said De Gaulle expresses sympathy for the burden the United States is carrying, but does nothing about the payment of France World War I debt of $4,317,161,803.19. De Gaulle's lone wolf policies can wreck the NATO alliance. Astronauts (Salem Statesman) "Astronaut Alan Shepard is buying an interest in a bank. He says the other astronauts are looking around, as he did, for ways to invest their money which won't be in conflict with their work in tlie space pro gram. They had a bit of trouble along this line when they bought a motel at Cape Canav eral, which profited greatly, of course, from their Project (Mer cury activities. They sold the motel. Wlicn they moved to Houston tlie astronauts were given a very profitable real es tate deal. Recently, the Luce publica tions and Field Enterprises agreed to shell out over a mil lion dollars to the seven origin al astronauts, plus an addition al group of 14. (Since then, another group has been select ed, with more probably to come. Having gotten a "corner" on the market, the Luce Publica tions must sign up all newcom ers or risk losing tlicir "ex clusive" position.) We wonder what the Soviet Cosmonauts Uiink of the "fringe benefits" accorded our. space nicnt. It's enough lo make a Cosmonaut think of defecting to llie West or is that part of Ihe plan? Despite the criticism, some of it even from within his o w n party. Lord Home, the n e w British prime minister, seems lo be be admirably fitted for tlie post. His qualifications are Impeccable, in the British tra dition. While at Eton, he scored 66 runs for his school in the lsrJi cricket match with Harrow. We are informed "he has remained a devoted cricket fan and is also rated a good shot, an ex pert fisherman and an enthusi astic butterfly collector and bird watcher" This profile is made to order for tlie British public, who like their leaders to have the sport ing spirit, a good eve f o r grouse, and rapport with t he world of nature. Tlie Establish ment lias scarcely yet recov ered from tlie prime minister ship of Disraeli, who wore viv id velvet waistcoats and didn't know a partridge from a pe.ir tree. In this rapidly c h a n g i ng world, it is comforting to see that some of tlie old verities remain. In a work! arena peo pled by such figures at Tito and Castro, Pe Gaulle and Nas ser, it is good to know that we can rely on tlie British to pro vide us with an ardent cricke teer. a butterfly collector and bird watcher. What oilier nation would proudly recall, 40 years later, that its premier scored 68 runs in a prep school ball game? England may be on a sticky wicket in world affairs, but it has a jolly good batsman. THE GLOBAL niTfflFake Oil Reports LirlUsed By By LEON DENNEN Newspaper Enterprise Analyst RIO DE JANEIRO INE.V The story behind Russia's sud den discovery of vast oil depos its in Brazil where none exist might seem incredible to the ra tional mind. Yet it makes an exercise in futility of President Kennedy's policy to woo the sick giant of the Western Hemisphere with lavish handouts of Alliance for Progress funds. It gives Nikita Khrushchev another opportunity to show Mao Tse-tung that Mos cow can subvert Latin Ameri ca's fragile freedom under the cover of peaceful coexistence. Chief actors in the oil drama arc Walter Link, a respected American geologist, two Rus sian oil "technicians" known as Bakirov and Tagiev and Gen. Albino Silva, president of Pe trobras, Brazil's Red-dominated government company for the ex ploration and importation of oil. It was at the request of Pe trobras that Link spent six years looking for oil in Brazil. In his final report he took a rather gloomy view of the country's oil potential. But he recommended that while some areas should be written off, some should be explored furth er. Brazil, a huge country which covers almost half of South America, potentially is the rich est in the world. It has vast untapped mineral resources but not much oil. Walter Link said so. His report outraged the top Reds and their agents who had managed to gain control of Petrobras. They denounced it as another plot against Brazil on the part of "Yankee imperial ism." For if there is not much oil in Brazil there is obviously no need for Petrobras, which was created primarily to explore for the country's oil deposits. But the Petrobras Reds had al ready prepared grand schemes lo increase their hold on Bra zil's economy. The schemes in cluded the nationalization and control of the Brazilian holdings of the U.S. and other companies which seil oil to Brazil. STRICTLY PERSONAL. By SYDNEY J. HARRIS It was said of the ruling Bour bons of France that "tliey for got nothing and they learned nothing." There seems to be something of tlie same case with the British Tories. They never lorgct a cricket score, and tliey rarely remember that the Battle of Waterloo was not won on the playing fields of Eton, but by tlie bloody Brit ish private. One of tlie consequences of the recent scandals in England should have been the slowly dawning realization that Uie old school tie is no longer a reliable recommendation for high office. O'.d school boys tend to cover up for one another, to believe tin- absolute best until the ab solute worst has been proved, and to present an uncommon front against the commoners. The virtues of tlie aristocra cy are many: but it is the great irony of history that one of tlicir greatest virtues loyalty can so easily turn into its rppo site vice of protecting the in competent ami supporting good od stupid "Bonco" hecausei "we were in the fifth form to gether." No other people have remained so resolutely school boys as tlie upper-class Enghsh men. with results that are al most equally admirable, touch ing and disastrous. Lord Home may prove to e a good, bad or indifferent prime minister. But would he have been chosen if be were a poor sltot, a punk fisherman, and had made only the fresh man chess team at a r e d b.ick school? VIEW. . Communists Thus it happened that Baki roy and Tagiev appeared last April. They were invited by Pe trobras to confirm or deny Link's finding. It took the Russians less than six months to submit an opti mistic report about the huge country's oil potential. They even found Uiat Brazil could quadruple her oil output by 1970. This was announced by a tri umphant General Silva at a press conference. The implication was clear: the lying Yankee imperialists wanted to keep Brazil down, while Russia, the nation's great est friend, came to her rescue. What deepened the mystery was the fact that the two Rus sian "technicians" came to Bra zil not merely as Soviet agents but also as "neutral" represen tatives of the United Nations. Geologist Link, who now lives in the United States, has since refuted the Russians' allegations that Brazil has even "enough oil for export." In a letter to Rio's Jornal de Brazil Link wrote that "for the formation and large scale accumulation lof oil deposits' there are lack ing a sequence of geological events and conditions propiti ous for sedimentary deposits." This is a geological fact even "the Soviets cannot change," Link said. WASHINGTON REPORTS By FULTON LEWIS JR. WASHINGTON Mobster song bird Joe Valachi will be re placed on Die witness stand by a millionaire Texan whose knowledge of the Cosa Nostra is limited indeed. He is Fred Korth. recently resigned Navy Secretary, and he will be called by Sen. John McClellan's Permanent S u b committce on Investigations. The Arkansas Democrat will temporarily postpone his hear ings on organized crime and re sume the subcommittee's probe of the controversial TFX con tract. As Secretary of the Navy Korth participated in tlie deci sion to award the controversial multi-billion dollar contract to the General Dynamics Corpora tion. The military men favored Boeing. McClellan's investigators have uncovered fresh information linking Korth to General Dy namics. They have learned Korth made a quick $230,000 profit thanks to inside informa tion supplied him in 11155 by Frank Pace, tlien president of General Dynamics. They have uncovered tics be tween General Dynamics and Fort Worth's Continental Na tional Bank, of which Korth served as president until he came to Washington in 19H2. While serving as Navy Secre BERRY'S WORLD If "I forgot It ttk you, Mr. Tho . . . you don't havt nj luttrt-iu-law, do you By WILLIAM S. WHITE WASHINGTON A long night of worry for the future in South Viet Nam has settled in for high American policy-makers. If any jubilation was initially felt here among junior officials at the destruction of the government of Ngo Dinh Diem with which Washington had long been hav ing trouble nothing of that sort is anywhere discernible now. Instead, there is a morning after mood. In part this is pro duced by genuine regret at the assassination of a man the peo ple would in fact have liked to see remain in power if only he would have got rid of his errat ic brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu. Iron ically, American Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge had pre pared a cable reporting that Diem seemed to be moying a bit more our way on tlie very day the insurrection was mount ed. In larger part, however, the air of concern is caused by these new fears: 1. That "super patriots" at tached to the revolution of the 20 generals which deposed Diem may go on killing, and thus fur ther stain the new regime and raise questions of its capacity to govern in decency, 2. That one or two among the generals might conceivably not be so reliably anti-Communist as the great majority is, and so might begin what above all else is to be feared. This is some under-the-cover negotia tion with the Communist inva ders of South Vict Nam so long ought off by the Diem govern ment backed by 15,000 American troops. 3. That Ihe new provisional government of the generals, with Nguyen Ngoc Tho as prbvision al president, might become po litically ambitious rather than solely concerned with tlie war ' against the Communists. Mixed with all this are two strong American hopes. One is that there may now be an end to the exploitation of religious differences in Vict Nam no more talk of who is a Catholic and who is a Buddhist. Diem, himself a Christian, was end lessly accused of unduly repres sive action against the Bud dhists. It was Hi is charge that brought him down. Most of the Ex-Secretary Made Big Killing tary Korth held shares of bank stock worth $156,009. In 1961. Korth, as bank presi dent, negotiated a $400,000 loan for General Dynamics, a loan that was largely unpaid when he came to Washington. Gener al Dynamics carried deposits of anywhere from $100,000 to $500, 000 in an inactive, non-interest-bearing account at the Korth bank. Korth will be questioned, too, about letters he wrote on offi cial Navy stationery soliciting bank business. One such letter, dated Jan. 28. 19K3. thanked the former singer, Phil Regan, now a public relations man. for opening a $30,000 account at Continental National. Regan had wined and dined on Korth's official yacht, the Sequoia, cour tesy of the taxpayers, just prior to depositing the money. Subcommittee investigators have learned that Korth f r e quently used his yacht for pri vate business. On Aug. 13. 1962. he wrote oificials of the bank: "I am . . planning on Sept. 20 to have a little party aboard the Sequoia, primarily for my Texas friends . . . attending the bankers' convention in At lantic City ... I am just won dering whether you . . . have some extra good customers it would be nice to have." "Secretary of Defense Rob ert S. McNamara and his pub- generals on his staff Christian as well as Buddhist became convinced that religious turmoil, no matter w ho was to blame for it, was endangering the war. In this connection, some comfort is taken officially here in the fact that all three of the top Catholic generals joined in the uprising. Tlie second American hope is that the new regime will be in no hurry to order popular elec tions. Washington is not inter ested in seeing a political cam paign, with all its in-built divis iveness to a country at war, sweep over Viet Nam. The Unit ed States would be quite con tent to see the new outfit main tain its provisional character, with power diffused among the generals. For Diem's fate estab lished the inherent danger of having all power concentrated in one or two pairs of hands. But all this is mere prelude to the crucial question: Will the war against the Communists now be promoted or retarded? If it is promoted, ail, of course, will be well. If it becomes bogged down by disunity in Sai gon, twin disaster will be ahead. Any failure of the American military effort there would not only lay all Southeast Asia open to creeping Communist aggres sion. It would also bankrupt a wise American strategy to halt such aggressions by 1 i m i t e d commitments of our own forces cooperating with full commit ments of local forces. The al ternatives to this policy would be to submit lo local aggres sions or to face major war on the Korean scale or beyond. Moreover, a collapse in South Viet Nam could, quite simply, destroy the Kennedy Adminis tration. Careful and persist ent inquiries have convinced me for one, that the United States neither ordered nor directly par ticipated in the bloody ousler of Diem. But nothing can alter the fact that Washington long had been deliberately shaking his regime not to smash it, but in the hope of thus forcing him to make accommodations with his Buddhist-led opposition to per mit the war to go full tilt. Since America has helped, if indirect ly, to push him down, the Ad ministration's responsibility will be frightful if the new regime ever abandons the war on communism. lie relations director, Arthur Syl vester, have created an oligar chy of control over the release of all news emanating from the Department of Defense and which led lo its boast of 'man agement of the news' in the Cuban crisis late in 12. . . . Genuine freedom of informa tion is at its lowest ebb today in the history of our federal government." The stinging words are not those of a Republican orator. They are those of velcran news men w ho make up the Freedom of Information Committee of the 17.000 - member Sigma Del ta Chi journalistic fraternity. In a scathing. 60 - page re port on Kennedy news manage ment, the newsmen (headed by V. M. Newton Jr., managing editor of Uie Tampa, Fla., Tri bune I cite case after case to prove their point. Quoted are military writers Jim Lucas and Mark Watson lo the effect that Pentagon news policies, laid down by Messrs. McNamara and Syl vester, smack of "Gestapo" tactics. Throughout Ihe TFX investi gation, the reporters find, "the Pentagon released erroneous and misleading information." Former Navy Secretary Fred Korth is severely criticized for his high-handed, arrogant man ner. So is Assistant Defense Sec retary Roswell Gilpatric. Note: The American Newspa per Publishers Association has fired a similar broadside. Eu gene Pulliam Jr.. assistant pub lisher of the Indianapolis News and Star, testified for the group before a Senate subcommittee last week. He laced into Administration secrecy, pointing to the: -W ithholding of a list of mil itary installations where liquor could be sold by the bottle be cause the Defense Department aid the information was of a personal nature. Keeping secret the names of persons granted federal export licenses because tlie informs. Hon was "submitted in confi dence" to the Commerce De partment. Covering up details of com promise settlements of liquor law violations because the Treasury Department said ma terial of a "secret nature" wa$ involved.
