Newspaper Page Text
Page 2
THE SPELMAN SPOTLIGHT
March, 1966
;
Turmoil In The
Dominican Republic
by Pat Collins
The Dominican Republic has been in a state of uneasy
calm since last spring’s civil war, but seldom has that country
seemed so close to wholesale bloodshed as it has been in
recent weeks.
Trouble began in Santiago, when Col. Francisco Caamano
Deno, a former rebel “President” was shot at while at the
graveside of a slain rebel officer. Caamano and his men re
treated to a nearby hotel and turned it into an impromptu
fortress. When a Dominican Army Patrol appeared on the
scene they fired upon it with machine guns. Within an hour,
the hotel was under a siege by air tanks and a brisk six-hour
battle ensued; twelve men were killed.
Peace was restored to Santiago through an appeal of
President Garcia-Godoy to the International Peace Force, but
when news of the fight reached Santo Domingo, leftist stu
dents rampaged through the streets of the capital declaring
their support for Caamano. Once more the Peace Force was
called in and order was restored. But virtually dead was an
essential part in Garcia-Godoy’s reconciliation program to
integrate former rebel officers into the regular army. For after
all; people who are shooting each other cannot serve together.
The full repercussions of the Santiago incident had yet to
be felt. Commodore Francisco Rivera Caminero, de facto boss
of the armed forces, blamed Colonel Caamano for the fight
ing and Santo Domingo’s leftist union leaders blamed the
military and threatened to call a general strike if President
Garcia-Godoy did not discuss the officers responsible. Garcia-
Godoy ordered an investigation of the affair with a promise
of taking definite action.
Ultimately, Garcia-Godoy drafted a list of officers to be
assigned to diplomatic posts (in effect they would be tem
porarily exiled) including Caamano Deno, Francisco Rivera
Caminero and Air Force Chief-of-Staff General Juan de los
Santos Cespedes and Army Chief-of-Staff General Jaciato
Martinez Arana.
After his announcement the Dominican Army nearby suc
ceeded in taking over Santo Domingo. OAS representatives
warned against any attempt to topple the government. Can
Garcia-Godoy survive this crisis, or will he succeed in making
top rebel and armed forces leaders leave the country? Equally
important, will the elections slated for next June bring peace
and political stability to the Dominican Republic? These are
questions in the balance. The civil war left so many grudges
to be settled that prospects for continued peace in the Domini
can Republic are far from bright.
An important lesson can be gotten from this. A country
can only have peace when its inhabitants want it. Last spring,
the flames of civil war that touched the Dominican Republic
were smothered by the United States. But even today the
ashes of that revolt continue to smolder.
The Dominican Republic is, now, making her own de
cisions. Whether peace prevails or whether civil war is de
clared, the people can rejoice. They are no longer acting for
the interests of the United States but for the interests of their
own country. They have a common purpose now: National
Freedom.
The SPELMAN SPOTLIGHT
: FRIEDA E. WILLIAMSON, Editor-in-Chief
ANNA B. PORTER, Associate Editor
HENRIETTA TURNQUEST, PATRICIA KING,
Business Managers
; NEWS EDITOR—Andrea Williams
I FEATURE EDITORS — Cheryl Birchette, Melba Davis, ;
Brenda Greene, Melody McDowell
LITERARY EDITORS — Cynthia Smith, Patricia Collins,
Maggie Davis
I CONTRIBUTING EDITOR — Juanita Price
PHOTOGRAPHER CARTOONIST :
Janice Mills Margaret Mills
EXCHANGE EDITOR — Carolyn Clark :
TYPISTS — Carolyn Reynolds, Marjorie Rich, Marilyn
; Wilson, Bonnie Bohannon i
5 DR. RICHARD A. CARROLL, Faculty Advisor
*
Miss Rochelle Clifton
Placement Director
Spelman College has updated its methods of supplying
information concerning employment possibilities and relative
materials on graduate Schools.
Miss Rochelle Clifton, the placement director, is doing
a splendid job bringing personnel officials from various busi
nesses and schools to the campus in order that seniors can
become acquainted with the many and varied opportunities
that are available to them upon graduation. Many students
are undecided as to what career they wish to pursue. Should
they go to graduate school? Should they work? Miss Clifton
can be a great help to those who are wavering. If it’s graduate
school that you are seeking, she now has information on
schools and fellowship and scholarship aid pertinent to your
particular field. If you are planning to enter the labor force,
she can help you to solve one of the greatest problems of
college graduates—that of finding the best employment con
sistent with ones interests and qualifications.
The placement facilities are not limited to seniors. Under
classmen can benefit greatly by its services also. Now is the
time to be thinking about summer employment and rather
than take the first job available after you leave in May, utilize
the possibilities that the placement office has to offer. Allow
Miss Clifton to become acquainted with you, your field, and
your interests. She can open doors to opportunities for you.
Do become acquainted with the placement office, make your
interests known to the director so that she can better utilize
her talents to help you.
Miss Clifton says of her experience as Spelman’s Place
ment Director, “I have been pleased with the student response
to the placement office. However, not all seniors have sub
mitted forms and recommendations; I would like to urge them
to do so immediately and encourage their faculty advisors to
submit recommendations. Ten years hence, when seniors seek
employment and need faculty recommendations, they will not
be sorry they spent a few minutes filling out the form.
I have been disturbed over the state of provincialism
among the student body, particularly among students in ed
ucation. I am disturbed because I see in this a perpetuation
of provincial inbreeding. The students they teach are bound
to be equally as provincial as the teachers and the vicious
cycle will continue until some brave soul ventures to teach in
other areas of the country. Education recruiters have come
from all parts of the U.S. and our students have not respond
ed.
“One way to dispel a provincial attitude may be found in
summer work experience. Thus, I would like to encourage
underclassman to seek summer employment outside the state
of Georgia. Shortly you will receive information about action
work in deprived communities.”
Geraldine Davis
r u «. l <-
/viy cnetiT/
,7
The hope with which I em
bark upon this discourse—a
hope not perhaps easily realiz
able in our time—is to com
bine sheer honesty and frank
ness with a measure of
reasoned optimism for the
future.
Historical evidence has in
dubitably borne out the fact
that the only thing stable
about society is change. This
change has and is engulfing
every realm of human ex
istence. No one can doubt or
deny that we live in a world
which is constantly being
transformed before our eyes.
The problem arises, however,
when we fail to be active par
ticipants in this tremendous
transition and merely become
relegated to the position of
complacent, inactive specta
tors. The fatal barrier to any
problem is to ignore or deny
its existence. The gravest ob
stacle today to the building up
of an effective mass democra
cy, either domestic or inter
national, comes not from those
who are cognizant of the ir
rational character of many of
our democratic processes, but
from those who are blind to it.
In many cases this is char
acteristic of many of our key
public officials whose decisions
and judgments, in large mea
sure, determine the fate of our
country. Our foreign policy
makers with a natural propen
sity toward ethnocentrism tend
to often transcend the realm
of objectivity and clairvoyance,
and rather become builders of
mass camouflages and simula
tions intent upon misguiding
“public opinion” while simul
taneously serving to conceal
the mercenary and venal char
acters of American foreign
policy.
President Johnson in April,
1965, flagrantly declared that
“our objective is the independ
ence of South Vietnam, and its
freedom from attack. We want
nothing for ourselves, only that
the people of South Vietnam
be allowed to guide their own
country . . .” To my mind, this
statement invariably deals a
death blow to the existence of
intelligent discernment by the
masses of U. S. citizens. No
foreign policy is based solely
or primarily on humanitarian
principles as President John
son so contends. On the con
trary, we are militarily in
volved in Vietnam by virtue
of an essential principle of our
foreign policy — the military
containment (Truman Doc
trine)—which is fundamental
ly to our own self-interests, i.e.,
the preponderance of “democ
racy.” Although, I do not feel
that Vietnam will be better off
under Ho Chi Minh’s brand of
communism, I do strongly feel
(Continued on page 4)
<S T J/ st^D CtZOuvrH
/j 0 e /a/<5 S 7,
ic o