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BRUCE BIOSSAT
Asian Hindsight,
Far From 'History'
By BRUCE BIOSSAT
WASHINGTON iNEAI
There is no more perilous exercise today than the effort
to build firm judgments about Southeast Asia on the emo
tional quicksands of Vietnam.
Seldom in America’s experience has loudly thundered
hindsight so easily acquired the sanctity of proven his
tory. But few if any of those who are now declaiming on
the subject will be involved in the digging out and writing
of the real history of the Vietnam war and its enveloping
Asian context.
Clearly, no one is going to halt the rolling tide pres
ently sweeping over this issue. But it might not hurt to
post a few warning buoys here and there.
Whatever we may be able to establish in the way of
approximate or precise truth about Vietnam and South
east Asia, there are some things we cannot know yet with
any certainty—and some which we may never know.
We do not know whether Thailand, Burma, Malaysia,
Indonesia and the Philippines would be worse off had we
not fought our limited but still sizable war in Indochina.
The domino theory, that they would all fall to the Reds
if Vietnam fell, has not been tested by events.
But if the theory has not been proved right, neither has
it been disproved. For Vietnam has not fallen. Anyone
who says categorically that the domino idea was always
nonsense is just a fancy Dan.
Those nations’ secret government files may ultimately
provide some clues as to what might have happened
after 1965, but they will be only rough guides. Leaders
may not in fact do what they think or say they will do in
critical situations.
Moreover, if any of the “domino” countries has to face
this dilemma in the years ahead, its answer may not be
the same one it would have given in 1965-66. None of
these lands is what it was then. Response to a South Viet
nam defeat in, say, 1973 might be totally different than in
that earlier time.
Indonesia is a special case. In an incredible 1965 blood
bath, it resisted a bold attempt at a Communist take
over, and set itself on a strongly independent course.
Liberals here said the event proved Asians could
handle their problems without U.S. help. Others said our
presence in Vietnam encouraged resistance to the take
over. Some Indonesian officials say we might have had
indirect effect, by perhaps contributing to a “climate”
heartening the non-Communists. We can never really be
sure.
What about Laos and Cambodia in Indochina itself?
Would they have tumbled quickly to Hanoi if South Viet
nam had been conquered in 1965?
The betting may be fairly high that they would have
fallen in the wake of a Saigon defeat, but no journalist or
historian can either prove the proposition or disprove it.
The correct answer requires reading the mind of a man
now dead, Ho Chi Minh. It is a risky enterprise.
The overriding point is that our heavy participation in
the Vietnamese war had inevitably to alter the course of
events, not just in the war zones but in the neighboring
lands beyond. Everything is different because we were
there.
The frozen-peas school of instant history, undaunted by
warnings of caution, is laying the whole Southeast Asian
story out with breathless speed. A more perplexing blend
of fact and fancy probably has never been offered to the
American people. And much of it by men who complain
about the credibility of the people they are chronicling.
We can only wait out the shouting and the frenzied scrib
blings, and try to remember that only much later—if
then—will we know some things about the war.
(NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSOCIATION)
Cleghorn is going to Charlotte
CHARLOTTE (UPI)-The
Charlotte Observer announced
Sunday that Reese Cleghorn
will become editor of the pa
per’s editorial pages effective
Aug. 1.
Cleghorn, 41, former asso
ciate editor of the Atlanta
Journal, has been editor since
1969 of South Today, a month
ly publication of the Southern
Regional Council’s leadership
project.
C. A. McKnight, Observer ed
itor, also announced that asso
ciate editor David E. Gillespie
will work directly with Mc-
Knight on priority projects
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editorials and personal col
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Cleghorn began his journal
ism career on the Atlanta
paper in 1950 as a general as
signment reporter and in 1954
went to work with the Associat
ed Press in New York as a re
porter and foreign desk editor.
He spent two years as editor
and co-publisher of a weekly
newspaper in Fresno, Calif., be
fore returning to Atlanta where
he served as assistant city edi
tor and state news editor of the
Journal until 1964.
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HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT, KIDS AND EACH OTHER
Lonnie Davis, left, and Larry Roberson are driving stakes for the
State Highway Department this summer. The boys are taking
part in the federal government’s Neighborhood Youth Corps
Summer Job program. Lonnie, Larry, and 28 other high
schoolers are performing various jobs for the highway
department’s fifth (southeast Georgia) division, headquartered
in Jesup. The boys work five 5-hour days or three 8-hour days a
week. The federal government provides their wages, the state
provides transportation and supervision. The program is
designed to provide deserving high school kids with meaningful
work experiences, and with enough money to return to school.
State highway officials are pleased with the program, now in its
4th year in Jesup. A similar program was undertaken in Atlanta
by the Highway Department this summer. (PRN)
Leaky seal blamed
in space deaths
By DAVID NAGY
MOSCOW (UPl)—Official in
vestigators said today a sudden
loss of cabin pressure through a
leaky seal killed the three
Spyuz 11 cosmonauts only 30
minutes away from touching
down on earth after nearly 24
days in space.
The key finding of the report,
made public 12 days after the
June 30 deaths, was that the
cosmonauts were victims of a
defect in their ship and had not
succumbed to the physical
punishment of their record 23-
day flight.
A “Report of the Government
Commission” only seven sen
tences long said Georgy Dobro
volsky, Vladislav Volkov and
Viktor Patsayev performed
normally until their descent
capsule began its glide toward
earth.
“On the ship’sdescent trajec
tory, 30 minutes before landing,
there occurred a rapid drop of
pressure within the descent
vehicle which led to the sudden
deaths of the cosmonauts,” it
said.
“The drop in pressure resulted
from a loss of the ships sealing,
and an inspection of the descent
vehicle ... showed that there
are no failures (ruptures) in its
structure.”
The report, circulated by the
Tass News Agency, concluded
that the reason for the fatal
leak had not yet been pinned
down from “a number of
probable causes.” It said the
study was continuing.
The official report essentially
confirmed information circulat
ed earlier by non-Soviet Com
munist sources, who said that
the leak came through the seal
around a hatch which had
become an external door to
space at the moment the ship
began its descent. That was
when the descent ship separat
ed from its orbital compart
ment, making the inner con
necting door an outside door.
Although the report did not
say so, the sudden loss of air
pressure mean that the lives of
the spacemen were snuffed out
in a vacuum—robbed of oxygen,
and their bloodstreams suffused
suddenly with air bubbles
similar to the fatal “bends”
that deep sea divers suffer.
The cosmonauts were not
wearing pressurized space
suits.
They had set an endurance
record of 23 days, 17 hours, 40
minutes and had ushered in the
new era of manned Soviet
space laboratories by linking
their Soyuz with the Salyut
stations.
The three men lived aboard
the 65-foot-long, 25-ton Salyut
for more than three weeks,
testing the ability of man’s
heart and respiratory system to
withstand weightlessness more
thoroughly than any spacemen
before them.
The Soviets hailed the
achievement as the first in
what would become a “Space
City” of permanently manned
laboratories.
Weekend
traffic
kills six
By United Press International
Six persons died in separate
traffic accidents in Georgia
over the weekend.
The latest victim reported
was Horace Blackwell of Roth
ville. Officers said he was driv
ing north on Interstate-75 about
11 p.m. Sunday when he lost
control of his car, which struck
an abutment. Blackwell was
thrown from his car into the
path of another vehicle.
Robert Louis O’Neal, 18, of
Rt. 1 Alvaton, died early Sun
day when the car in which he
rode crashed on Georgia 85
north of Alvaton.
Sixteen-year-old Mark Curtis
Floyd of Smyrna was fatally in
jured Sunday on Interstate-285
near College Park.
Phillip Stewart, 26, of Mem
phis, Tenn, was reported struck
by a car at the intersection of
UJS. 84 and Georgia 38 in Semi
nole County.
Dorothy Green, 54, of Bogart
died Saturday in a two-car
wreck on U.S. 78 near Athens.
A 2-year-old Augusta child,
identified as Sabrina England,
was struck and killed by a car
in Augusta Friday night.
Legislative
high lights
From the national and international wires of United
Press International to the Griffin Daily News and our
readers:
Agnew visits in Kenya
NAIROBI — Vice President Spiro T. Agnew arrived
from Ethiopia today for a three-day visit to Kenya and
talks with President Jomo Keyatta.
Hollings to wed
CHARLESTON—Sen. Ernest F. Hollings, D-S.C., plans
to marry Rita Louise Liddy, a research assistant in his
Washington office, the bride-to-be’s mother announced to
day.
Hollings, 49, was divorced laste October by his wife of 24
years. Miss Liddy, active in local politics for several
years, joined Rollings’ Washington staff in 1966.
Billie Sol Estes out
EL PASO — Billie Sol Estes walked out of jail today a
free man after serving slightly more than six years of a 15-
year sentence for his part in a multimillion dollar swindle.
Estes was granted parole on the condition that he
refrains from “promotional activities”. His wife said this
means “keeping his mouth shut”.
New jobs created
SAN CLEMENTE — President Nixon today signed into
law legislation designed to create up to 200,000 new jobs
for some of the 5.5 million unemployed Americans.
Nixon vetoed another job-creating bill June 29, but at
that time promised he would approve the bill he signed to
day.
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PAUSE FOR PRAYER before training maneuvers
near the Jordanian border absorbs an Israeli soldier.
He is wearing the traditional skullcap and phylactery,
small leather boxes containing strips of parchment
inscribed with quotations from Hebrew scriptures.
THIS REPAIRMAN COMES TO
YOUR HOME. DOES HIS JOB. AND
NEVER SENDS YOU A BILL FOR THIS
SERVICE. NOT EVEN FOR FARTS AND
LABOR.
CAN YOU GUESS WHO HE IS?
shUHYI
Answer: your Southern Bell
telephone repairman. Who else?
Southern Bell
Griffin Daily News
Blasts mark
Orange Day
By DONAL O’HIGGINS
BELFAST, Northern Ireland
(UPI) —A series of bomb
blasts caused damage and
injuries in Belfast early today
but failed to dampen Protestant
enthusiasm for their traditional
Orange Day celebrations mark
ing a 300-year-old victory over
the Roman Catholics.
British forces —II,OOO of
them —were on guard through
out Northern Ireland to try to
stave off trouble between the
two religious groups at parades
and celebrations underway in 19
cities. More than 100,000
Protestants were taking part in
the various celebrations.
Seven blasts rocked* Belfast
before dawn today, destroying
two drapery shops, kocking out
the doors and windows of a
Chinese restaurant and demo
lishing a row of telephone
booths.
In the Bryson Street area
where both Protestants and
Roman Catholics live, a bomb
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Monday, July 12,1971
ripped through a private home,
injuring a young girl. Another
bomb destroyed an electricity
transformer at Finaghey Field,
where thousands of Orangemen
were gathering later in the day
for the mains parade celebrat
ing King William’s victory over
the Roman Catholic King
James n in 1690 at the Battle
of the Boyne.
Belfast’s Protestant neighbor
hoods were alight with bonfires
and crowds were dancing and
shouting anti-Catholic slogans
when the explosions went off.
The crowds scattered in many
places and there were some
souts of “It’s the IRA” —the
outlawed Irish Republican
Army —but they later re
grouped and the celebrations
continued.
On the political front, Jack
Lynch, the premier of the Irisih
Republic to the south, called for
the reunification of the North
and South.