§ £ ra SRI Page 4 POW'S Almost 1,700 Americans are either prisoners of war or listed as missing in action in Southeast Asia. Aside from the inhumane treatment witnessed by those few who have returned, the most tragic aspect is that most of the families of these men do not know if their sons, husbands, fathers are alive or dead. Hanoi won't tell them. There are many organizations working to solve this tragic problem. One of these is VIVA—an acronym for Voices in Vital America—which is listed as a non-profit, non-political national This organization urges Americans to: write to their concern; contact friends, businesses, schools, clubs and civic groups to solicit help in distributing POW-MIA information; wear a POW-MIA bracelet as a visible display of concern and as a means of bringing the plight of the prisoners to the attention of others. Several local residents are wearing a bracelet with a prisoner’s name engraved on it. They have honoring the man whose name is inscribed until the “day the Red Cross is allowed into Hanoi and can the humane treatment due all men.” Comedienne Martha Raye, who has spent much time overseas in three wars, not just as an entertainer, but as a nurse, has stated, “Only after many people became concerned and spoke out did write to their families. Now all America must help to see that those families who have not yet heard will not spend the rest of their lives in the torturous inhumanity must ring from the lips of all America, and echo throughout the world. Only then will Hanoi, who has already shown itself sensitive to world opinion, listen.” We concur with the opinions of VIVA and others, and would like to add our voice to the fpas Ignoring the wishes of most Americans for an immediate withdrawal of our troops from Vietnam, minority President Richard Milhous Nixon has once again confused and dismayed our countrymen by his rash action Monday night to mine the har- bors of North Vietnam, thereby risking a direct trigger World War III. ‘Mr. Nixon advanced essentially two reasons for the latest and most drastic escalation of this conflict, namely that by not taking the action, he would endanger the lives the 60,000 American troops still languishing in South Vietnam. Fur- thermore, by withdrawing the 60,000 troops he would violate our national ‘honor’ by leaving the hapless South Vietnamese to the ‘‘terror and tyranny’ of the northern aggressors. But Mr. Nixon’s rationale for the escalation in no way touches upon the answer to this most vital States endangering the lives of millions on this planet by risking a major confrontration with the strategic arms limitations accord that would greatly reduce the superabundance of missiles that Americans have many questions concerning Mr. Nixon’s latest action, and like the multi- “answered,” two crop up in its place. If our 60,000 troops are in such dire distress, why did Mr. Nixon refuse to announce a definite withdrawal date, make a deal with Hanoi to release that we did our best under the circumstances. If the : North Vietnamese attacked our departing soldiers or refused to give up our prisoners-of-war, we would then unleash our massive air power—a move hawkish element in our society. Another question: When Mr. Nixon speaks of “honor,” to whose honor is he referring? The honor ~ v Changes By Eric Mayer I don’t want to write this. It seems that for as long as I can remember newspapers have been filled with the Vietnam slaughter; filled with escalations, Tet offensives, bombings, search and destroy missions, Cambodian invasions, Kent State murders, My Lai massacres, Pentagon Papers. I am tired of it. I am sickened by the killing, the weekly, bloodless body counts that begin at last to pass unheeded, making ne more impression on numbed sensibilities than the steady fall of rain against a window. 18 inches of newsprint isn’t going to change anything. Its just another drop in the ocean of ink that has matched the ocean of blood spilled on the battlefields of Indochina. I think everyone is tired of reading about this war, tired to the soul. But the war goes on. There 'is a new kind of fanaticism working in America, a soft talking, gray suited fanaticism that asks wus, in the most reasonable of tones, to prolong the war, to even risk a nuclear confrontation, in order to preserve a looking glass democracy where presidents run unopposed and defeated candidates live out their days behind bars. This fanaticism, like all such movements, operates in the shadows of elaborately maintained secrecy; tossing its explosive descisions with shocking suddeness into the astonished face of the world. Its adherents, financed in a highly suspicious manner through rich and anonymous patrons, operate outside the laws of the land. They form an appointed cadre, in no way responsible to the people of America-they can neither be rejected by ballot nor removed by the congress. Nixon, their leader, fancies himself an elected dictator. He has usurped the war making powers reserved by the constitution for congress. Last night he once again yoked American idealism to the service of a corrupt cause, further devaluing this country in the eyes of the world. Nixon, the pimp, has prostituted America to an Asian dictatorship. Listening | TRB Te oh We seem headed for dark days in Viet- nam in the denouement of a great, futile tragedy. But at least there is some reason to hope that the US military machine, with its built-in momentum that led so logically to the Vietnam involvement, is being brought under check for the future. Nixon’ offering ‘the tantalizing preview -that his Moscow trip will produce a strategic arms limitation agreement significantly broader than had been hoped. Coming from a man who was brought up in the old doctrine that the only answer to Communism was military superiority, that’s a remarkable conversion. Just as remarkable is the way the Senate Armed Services Committee, for so long an apostle of the Cold War and a willing servant of the Pentagon, is kicking up its heels. The other day it took its first preliminary whack at the bill authorizing $22.9 billion in weapons procurement and research by the military services and ended up cutting $450 million from the administration request. The com- mittee even dared to kill weapons program— the Army’s Cheyenne helicopter on which $380 million has been spent in the past 10 years with nothing to show for the money but more developmental problems. The committee is not through with its cutting. Still to-.come is consideration of such major controversial items as the Navy’s F-14 aircraft, already costing $16 million a plane [Fhissa | I Thatta by HH. Null III The Pennsylvania primary has come and gone and there seems to be a bit of puz- zlement about it among the analysts. A local daily seems a little upset by the size of the Wallace vote, which surprised everybody but little old me. Now my record as an election haruspice is not anything which would set me up as an infallible forecaster, but I find myself right once in a while and I see no reason for hiding my light beneath a bushel when that happens. What has happened is just what I have been telling you, that the Shapp Chap has succeeded in making himself so unpopular in this great commonwealth that his support has become the kiss of death, so state Democrats who are not on Shapp’s payroll, figured that a vote for Muskie would have been a vote for Shapp and then took a look at the other Democratic candidates. Whereupon they saw Hubert H. Hum- phrey and figured that a vote for Humphrey was a vote for George Meany and saw no reason for increasing the already over- whelming power of union labor in this fair land. Humphrey isn’t really such a bad Joe, but he has obviously sold himself to the unions. There is lots right about the unions, but the general feeling that is that the country should be run for everybody, not just for one big segment of the populace. McGovern, the Dove of Peace. George wouldn’t come off so well as a sparring partner of Kosygin and Brezhnev, although he seems to have convinced the protestors that ABBR Ad aA BR to him mouthing the familiar patriotic phrases, neatly twisting the ideas behind them, jamming them as well as possible into the totally repugnant situation in Indochina, I was physically sickened. These pathetic strings of words are too fragile to hold the weight of horror I felt. Have we not paid off our ‘commitments’ with 50,000 dead, countless maimed, billions of dollars, national turmoil and nearly 10 long years of standing still while our own, internal problems festered? No wonder countries like Japan grow fat, compete with us economically, refusing to spend money on defense. Vietnam proves that America will defend them, if it ever becomes necessary, for just as long as they like, regardless of whether or not they take any real steps or demonstrate any real desire to defend themselves. There is no honor to be gained in Vietnam, save the honor of admitting our mistake and renouncing further bloodshed. - We have destroyed Vietnam. A million Vietnamese have died; we have scourged the countryside, burned and blighted the forests. The con- tinuing war constitues a reign of terror for the people of Indochina that cannot be stopped by further escalation. We should have learned that long ago. Look at Nixon’s Cambodian blunder. Did it buy us time? Time for what? Today Laos and Cambodia are on the verge of collapse and North Vietnam is stronger than ever. A great nation acts on its own initiative instead of reacting, puppet-like, to the manipulations of its enemies. A great nation must have the courage to act morally. The United States, if it wishes to preserve any vestige of respect in a world that has’ con- demned this war as immoral, must withdraw immediately. 7 The war is lost. Our leaders miscalculated, put themselves in an untenable position. Everyday this country remains mired in Vietnam is another day of humiliation, Our president, squirming like a worm on thegiook of his Asian dilemma, is an obj for derisien. The only way to get out is to get out. The only way to stop fighting is to stop. Its just that simple. We cannot bomb our way to peace. But now Nixon has mined North Vietnam’s harbors. He has made a reckless gamble that the Russians will maintain their sanity in the face of our madness and he is wagering human lives. He has asked Russia to end the war for us. But what if they don’t back down this time, as they did during the Cuban crisis? Will the United States be forced to suffer yet another humiliation or will Nixon choose to fire on Russian ships and bring us all to the brink of a nuclear holocaust? I don’t beleive that the South Vietnamese dictatogship is worth risking a nuclear war over. Ong##nan’s obsessive compulsion for asserting his dominance should not be allowed to threaten millions of lives. Z The tide at San Clemente should come in red with blood; 50,000 corpses should be piled in front of the White House, maybe then Nixon would find the courage and character to end this war instead of cowering behind his in- sipid game plans and lofty, empty phrases. I admit it, I've failed. I can’t properly ex- press the horror of this useless war or the villainy of those people who heedlessly per- petrate it. coolly as mafia hit menz! don’t know what will be happening whegFthis is printed. We are really waiting for the Russians to make their move. Our leaders have once again given the initiative to our enemies. One thing is certain in this nuclear age, when a full scale war would destroy civilization-there will be no more great men of peace. and which Grumman says it can’t continue to produce unless the price is raised; a new nuclear aircraft carrier with a price tag of $1 billion; the ULMS submarine at $1 billion per model; and the Army’s Safeguard ABM system whose cost seems to grow as its rationale disappears. With those price tags, it find a way to cut the military request by a few billion dollars. The amounts of cuts, however, is not as significant as the fact that the committee is no longer saluting the Pentagon and forking over the money the military services say they need. Of all people, it was Barry Goldwater, the great defender of the military, who proposed that the committee Kkill the Cheyenne. When Goldwater starts thinking that way, something significant is happening in the committee. It’s almost enough to restore one’s faith in the political process, because the conversion - of the committee is an example of the political process at work. All those years of nagging by Senator Proxmire about cost overruns are finally having their impact. The Senate committee is not about to sign more blank checks so the Navy, for example, can bail out Grumman on the F-14. Even the still supine House Armed Services Committee felt compelled to hold hearings on why the Navy should pay Litton Industries an additional $400 million for five amphibious assault ships, with $110 million going to pay Litton can- cellation charges for not building four other ships. The ABM fight of a few years ago is also having its effect. It was an embarrassing experience for the Senate committee to find that other senators knew more about a weapons program, and its weaknesses, than they did. Ever since, the committee has been a little more assertive, a little less inclined to take the Pentagon’s word at face value. The committee has found out that with a little homework, it too can draw judgments about weapons programs, thus demolishing the myth that military technology had become so complex that it’s beyond the control and comprehension of Congress. What finally bestirred the committee, however, was the dollar, than which there is nothing closer to a politician’s heart except the vote of the taxpayer who has to put up the dollar. Somehow over the years the con- nection between defense and the dollar had gotten lost. Nothing was too good or too much for the military, and damn the expense. That was until the Nixon administration proposed a $6.3 billion increase in the defense budget— ‘to a total of $83.4 billion—at a time when a $25 billion deficit was projected. Even the venerable John Stennis blanched at the sight of so much red ink. It was as if the committee suddenly discovered that the founding fathers had a purpose in mind when they gave provide for navies, as well as lei taxes. The awakening comes too ldte to have any effect on Vietnam. But maybe it’s relevant to future Vietnams. In his new book, The Roots of War, Richard J. Barnet suggests that two root causes of Vietnam were a national security bureaucracy whicifgcame to play by its own rules and the vulneability of the public and Congress to manipulation on national security issues. The Senate com- mittee may not be completely independent yet, but at least it’s no longer totally acquies- cent to the national security bureaucracy and is no longer intimidated by invocations of na- tional security. : Congress the power to raise Ao and Now if President Nixon can show that military parity is acceptable by entering into a SALT agreement, perhaps the committee can get over its outworn notion that military superiority is still important and really begin to examine the size of the military machine. Why, the next thing you know Congress might even conclude that George McGovern is not being too outlandish when he proposes that the defense budget could be cut by $30 billion. But that’s probably too thuch to hope for. Note: What can one say about the death of J. Edgar Hoover but De mortuis, nil nisi bonum. He first served his country well and then too long. It is a common “ae in ‘this city. t is a great idea—lots of people have thought of it—but ending it by pulling out our troops after considering the lives and wealth already invested in it, allowing our allies to be sub- jugated by communism, which they do not want, and allowing the U.S. of A. to become second class as a country, living on under a threating cloud of Communism, just doesn’t strike a lot of us as a good idea. Then cometh Senator Jackson. Jackson is no Dove and, in fact is a pretty well qualified man, but he isn’t making much of a splash and what we independent voters want to do is to bring ourselves to the notice of the Shapp Chap. Jackson wouldn’t do it. ~ There were a few other Democratic hopefuls, but they had sense enough to quit. Lindsay has gone back to mismanaging New York City and I don’t remember what hap- pened to Hartke, Mills, etc. So we come to Wallace, Wallace has been doing well in some of the primary voting; isn’t tied to the labor bosses, hasn’t plumped for surrendering to the Russians and has been consistent in his stand against school busing. So, why not a vote for Wallace? We don’t: necessarily have to vote for him in Novem- ber; in fact, I believe that most of the coun- try’s Wallace voters are conservatives, who will vote for Nixon. That is my present in- tention, although I can always change my mind. That privilege of changing your mind right up to the time you walk out of the voting booth is a great thing. It keeps them guessing that, they are forgotten until the next election. Thank God, in this country, there always is a next election. It gives us a chance to rectify our mistakes. Getting back to the Shapp Chap, he’s a busy little fellow. I have . been reading about his $100 a plate political fund- raising banquets. The Chap denies that this is macing because he never tells state employes that they will lose their jobs if they don’t cough up for it. That is a sophism if I ever saw one. Since when do you have to tell a man that he will be fired if he doesn’t shell out for political fund-raising? Every job-holder knows that before he takes the job. Maybe he can’t be fired, but his life can be made miserable enough for him to quit. I’ve seen plenty of it and know whereof I speak. It doesn’t happen only in politics. I wonder just how much money Shapp raised that way and how much of it got to Muskie. It doesn’t seem to me that there was. #» time for much of it to be handed over to Muskie. The governor must be hanging on to a bundle, to be used in November. Probably to tout his graduated income tax desire. His pitch on this one is that the rich will be soaked for it and that the poor and the middle class will come off much lighter. That is the same bally-hoo we got for the federal graduated income tax, but it just doesn’t work out that way. + The rich have a way of finding means to avoid much of the taxation burden under the federal tax plan. There are plenty of loop- holes and there will be plenty under the state graduated tax, if we are foolish enough to accept it. Shapp is a rich man ang, you can rest assured that his tax bill na sping to make a poor man out of him. The straight percentage tax gives few loopholes, except that it eliminates Sociel Security payments, tax-free bonds and ex- treme poverty. That is fair to all. Editor emeritus: Mrs. T.M.B. Hicks Editor: Doris R. Mallin News editor: Shawn Murphy Advertising: Carolyn Gass
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers