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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 19, 1978)
Viewpoint Nem The Battalion Texas A&M University Wednesday July 19, 1978 Top of the State Transsexual sues Air Fom SCO Nixon’s folly Richard Nixon s first major public speaking appearance since his resignation from the presidency in disgrace left us with only sadness. It would be folly, we believe, for Nixon to misread the reaction from that hand-picked, select crowd that turned out to hear him speak at Hyden, Ky. The American people have not forgotten that on the whole he debased the presidency as no president before him. There is no chance that Nixon will ever be accepted in the role of an elder statesman, whose counsel and advice are eagerly sought on national and world issues. That carefully-selected crowd of 4,000 whooping, foot-stomping Nixon hard-core followers in the mountains of Kentucky last Sunday certainly is not representative of the vast majority of Americans who have not forgotten this country’s long night that was experienced during the ordeal of Watergate. Wheeling (W.Va.) News-Register ress i ogy. ropoli A transsexual civil service worker at Kelly Air Force Basejsity, Antonio is suing for $50,000, claiming officials will not allow ogy a dress as a female during working hours. Dorothy Parker, wk;s. tified himself as a transsexual, said physicians and psychologies of University of Health Science Center had instructed him todft.ippor woman in preparation for a sex change operation in the center am in ri der dsyphoria program. Air Force officials prohibited Partinves wearing female attire <m grounds that tins mode of dressie pm appearance would contribute to a nonproductive or disrupt nd ho environment.” ;re ag Nation HUD falls short ;re s t, no aid 1) •ofe.ss s stuc es t ( Guessing what’s on Carter’s mind In a self-examining report, the Department of Housing and aiic Development in Washington said it has faih^d in its respons fno y e provide housing and communits development assistance to r a,1< areas. The new report, issued hy HUD’s Task Foret* on R 1 ' 5 Non Metropolitan concluded that rural \mrrica, *jf ru » v gently needing housing and development aid. was not gettingi°Ty eai assistance from HUD that it shoulu. ” ie x tore a Rape law unconstitutional By DAVID S. BRODER WASHINGTON — A most disquieting description of the way in which foreign pol icy is made in the Carter administration was given last week, not by one of the Pres ident’s external critics, but by a Carter political appointee whose work gives him first-hand knowledge of the process. The official in question was talking to a group of reporters under ground rules that prevent any of us from using his name. He was asked a question about the instructions Secretary of State Cyrus Vance had been given for his Geneva meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko on the strategic-arms limitation treaty. “WE DON’T KNOW,” he said. That was surprising, because the discussion was tak ing place at mid-day last Monday and Vance was scheduled to leave early the next morning for talks on the most important issue in U.S.-Soviet relations. The explanation, the official said, was that the President’s special coordination committee on arms control, a part of the National Security Council apparatus, had met the previous week (without the Presi dent, who was vacationing at Camp David) and had sent him alternative policy op tions. But the papers had not reached the President until the weekend, and on Monday his reply was still being awaited. While the specific circumstances of this situation were unique, the officials said, there were four general characteristics of the Carter presidency that made it any thing but unusual for senior officers to be unaware, on the eve of major negotiations, of what the Chief Exeeiiti\.'y wantedlclonu.- ... approaching that exercised in the past by a George Marshall, a Dean Acheson, a John Foster Dulles or a Henry Kissinger. Rather, authority has been divided among Vance, national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezihski and Secretary of De fense Harold Brown, with U.N. ambas sador Andrew Young, arms control negotiator Paul Warnke, trade negotiator Robert Strauss and Secretary of the Treas ury W. Michael Blumenthal having a major voice on some of the international issues as well. Vance has been asserting himself lately, the official said, but he has not been able to pull together the authority that Carter de liberately subdivided. — SECOND, CARTER’S APPROACH to decision-making has tended to inhibit these officials from doing much politicking among themselves to build support for a particular decision. The inhibitions are weakening, the offical said approvingly, but most of its 18 months in office, the administration’s senior foreign policy offi cials have been reluctant to lobby, each other, or to use the techniques of backscratching and persuasion needed to push the President in a particular policy direction. The Carter administration has been as non-political internally as it has in its external dealings with Congress, the interest groups and other external power- centers. — Third, there has been a similar inhibi tion on carrying any internal arguments to the point of bureaucratic bloodletting, the official said. There are as many policy dis agreements within this administration as is normal, but Carter inhibits full-scale per sonal or bureaucratic war. The advantage is that there is less personal venom inside the Carter administration than is usual. law u neons litutiouul hex'll inst* it pn But on the other hand, he said, since no unde r 14 b ut not women who hav one ever feels the deep cuts of defeat in the prose ■cutor said his office* would a| battle for the President’s mind, there is Doi 1 H*cau> ;t* young girls need mo never any real certainty among those who law F ’riday in dismissing three coi prevail about how final any particular pol cited a fedt •ral appeals co urt rulinj icy victory may prove to be. violated th e equal protec ■tion clan \ Honolulu circuit court judge has ruled Hawaii’s statute inishes men who have sexw f e sex with Iniys under 14. A ppeal the decision hy Judge >re protection. Doi tints against Franklin S g that a similar New Hi jse of the Constitution Dn a oticec t fo re-b< itk 4 — First, unlike most of his predecessors, back to Harry Truman, Carter has not clearly designated a single center for foreign policy decision-making outside the Oval Office. There is no one with authority YOU’RE IN SALT TOO?. SAYI5NTWAC0INGPENCE. MR.5HCHARWW! — Fourth and finally, this official said. Carter, unlike most other politicians, feels no great need to “harmonize” all his policy ideas and puts no great stock in consis tency. Rather, he is quite comfortable in holding simultaneously to strongly conflict ing notions and in allowing others to see that he changes his mind about which ideas to make predominant at any given mo ment. This is, the official said, linked to Carter’s habit of looking on foreign policy, not from the perspective of a diplomat seeking to mediate intractable and long-term interna tional rivalries, but rather from the viewpoint of an engineer seeking through experiment to find the right solution which will dispose of the problem. AS A RESULT of this rather unusual way of making policy. Carter frequently leaves even his most senior advisors uncer tain until the last moment where he is going to come down on a question. Not surpris ingly, the official said, when the word does- come down from the President, there is often a last-minute scramble to adjust plans to his command, or to persuade him to alter the just-completed decision. There has been abundant evidence available to reporters and other outside of Carter’s handling major domestic issues..— from energy policy to urbu.u policy — in. this fashion. To hear, from the lips of one of his own foreign policy officials, that the most sensitive international issues are handled in much the same way is, to put it mildly, unsettling. (c) 1978, The Washington Post Company U.S. playing 'shell game’ with missiles By ROBERT KAYLOR United Press International WASHINGTON — Perplexed Pentagon planners, puzzled over how to deal with a force of 6,000 Soviet missile warheads in the 1980s, have devised several schemes, including a “shell game,” to hide U.S. strategic weapons from the Russians. The “shell game” approach includes hid ing each U.S. intercontinental missile in one of as many as 20 holes in the ground, and a plan to move the ICBMs on tracks in 13-mile underground tunnels. But some of the plans could hit snags during Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. Others that seem acceptable under SALT may not work. Such questions caused President Carter last year to put off deciding how to counter-act the growing accuracy and numbers of Soviet warheads. By 1982 they will threaten U.S. Minuteman ICBMs, even in their blast-resistant underground silos. The Soviets are expected to have around 6,000 warheads in the mid-1980s. A decision is now set for October, but defense sources say a final choice still may not be possible then. Military U.S. military planners say diere’s little likelihood such nuclear weapons as nuclear-armed ICBMs with their power to wreak unimaginable destruction would ever be used. Their very existence is sup posed to be a deterrent to war, but to do that the warheads themselves must be able to survive an attack without warning. All the schemes now being considered would do that by using “mobile” or move- able bases for missiles. In Pentagon jargon it’s called MAP, for “multiple aim point.” The aim is to keep Soviet spy satellites from finding exactly where the U.S. ICBMs are, so the Soviets would have to use all 6,000 warheads in an attack with no assurance of success. Gen. Lew Allen, Air Force chief of staff, calls it “designing a great sponge to catch all these warheads.” The tunnel plan appeared workable under SALT and was the Pentagon’s No. 1 choice until tests raised doubts whether it would give enough protection. It also could be costly, running as high as $30 billion. Extra holes or “silos ’ in the ground are now the favorite plan. They would not have the heavy protection of Minuteman silos and the cost would be perhaps $20 billion or less. Advocates say if the Soviets built still more warheads it would be fairly cheap to add a few more holes and thus keep the safety factor. But this scheme has SALT problems since every hole could serve as a missile launcher. U.S. sources say Secretary of State Cyrus Vance sounded the Russians out on it last week in the Geneva SALT talks. There would have to be a means of verify ing that extra missiles weren’t being sneaked in. Allen says this is possible hy periodically opening up “X” number of holes to show there’s been no cheating. But if the Russians built a similar system, they might not be so cooperative. At least two other schemes are under consideration. One recently offered by De fense Secretary Harold Brown’s Defense Science Board, would put missiles on spe cial truck-type launchers that would either keep moving on regular highways or on special road systems. But high costs could knock this plan out of the running. Slouch by Jim Earle Outlaw skivvies >> it jsseryt smahted L<soro»Dee. TU'ffcfiSSj 0OT IT'S COOLGZ rzon) ,,t By DICK WEST United Press International WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court having ended its 1977-78 session with such a flourish (by handing down a decision on the “seven dirty words” case), many citi zens are wondering what the justices could possibly do for an encore. Well, there’s nothing definite on this yet, but it’s quite likely that by the time the court meets again next fall it will have on the docket a case involving seven dirty T-shirts. Although the older media still are more pervasive, T-shirts are moving rapidly into the front ranks of communications. I know I ve spent more time this summer watching T-shirts than I have watching television, and I suspect I’m not far from average. Without making any indivious compari sons, I would say that both pictorially and verbally T-shirts come close to the cultural level of summer television fare. It is, however, an unfortunate fact that much of the material seen on T-shirts is X-rated — or at the least calls for parental guidance. I feel certain even before a test case arises that the Supreme Court will rule that T-shirts are protected by the First Amendment. Nevertheless, certain factors make one wonder whether this newest form of mass communication shouldn’t be subject to some type of regulation. For one thing, dirty T-shirts are worn indiscriminately and thus appear in public places at times when children may be watching. It may be argued, of course, that the nasty-minded owners of lewdly inscribed skivvies have a right to express their sexual proclivities, peculiarities and perversions freely and openly. It also may be argued, however, that other citizens have a right not to be exposed to their vulgar affirmations. Just as freedom of information is a right to be cherished, equally precious is the right of freedom ^rom information. If people insist on flaunting what should be private details about their sordid habits, I shall insist with equal vigor that such data The Tighter Side not be dumped on me. There are some things about strangers that I desire not to know, and I shall defend to the death my right not to know them. The best approach might be that taken by the anti-smoking lobby. Just as we now have smoke-free areas on airplanes and certain other public places, some government agency could establish smut-free zones where dirty T-shirts would be prohibited. Surely the Supreme Court would uphold such a limited restriction. For if the constitutional guarantee of free speech doesn’t include the right to shout “Fire!” in a crowded theater, neither does it sanction bawdy bosom banter across the front of a crowded T-shirt. Stapleton protests Evangelist Ruth Carter Stapleton said she laid Ic speaking engagements in the wakt* of a Newsweek nu view she claims misquoted her, causing “the most dt perience of my life.’ Stapleton, the sister of Preside Denver said the article contained a total of 21 errors, w| claims she rarely goes to church except to conduct a v that she (Lilly talks with tarry Flynt. the paralyzed puhl tier magazine*. su m i •reas \ nod ] '/ears dually • Penn ge th t pr< ie Lii intrys r thei •onon ] Reef prices down mg up on lists b Natic iug du il Cat I •getable I P' Summer shoppers stc economically add beef to tJ dropped from June levels, th Denver said Tuesday. "After ri of the year, lx*ef prices decreased in late Fun NCA President Richard McDougal. "Beef prices go up. And the past lew weeks have been one of th prices have declined." d fnA in me Ie men t of the oci& » As first sit * •irlv lult, By FI Battali It 300 and si Dod in id Th t gove ga Ph t ser\ time f'Hg ‘ n wit House to aid Vet loans is A£s: 224 ai to 5 ] •e tim ular I he House wants to make it fai easiei foi Vietnam era \eti'l* a con) get government backed home loans lie House imanim<>tislj n t col proved a hill Monday reducing the qualification requirementytuddn boosting the maximum guarantees for home loans. Veterans Adsl e mi (ration chief Max Cleland estimated an additional I68.(XX) Yjc hy M era veterans would he eligible for guaranteed loans if the hill ispis, U hy the Senate and becomes law. World First chess game a draw The first game in the world chess championship lietweenAm Karpov of the Soviet Union and challenger Viktor Korchnoi, a 1 sian defector, ended in a draw in Baguio, Phillipines Tiiesda)' only 18 moves. World champion Karpov offered the* draw andi chnoi angrily accepted. Karpov apparently was pleased win draw, and stayed on at the championship site to discuss thep with Philippine chess officials. But Korchnoi, who had been by* most outgoing of the two until Tuesday, angrily stalked out<< hall. Weizman may have torn poste\ Israeli newspapers reported Tuesday that Defense Minister! Weizman tore up a peace poster outside the office of Prime Miw Menachem Begin in Tel Aviv and declared that some people ii government do not want peace at all. Government sources Weizman was not quoted correctly hut they did not deny thi ripped the large, pale blue poster off a wall and shredded it in presence of a few other ministers and employees. Cuba suffers combat losses Cuban forces have suffered as many as 1,4(X) combat deal! African fighting, the Washington Star reported Tuesday. Quo# senior U.S. intelligence official, Star reporter Jeremiah O Lear 1,000 Cuban soldiers have been killed in Angola and 400 dif fighting involving Ethiopia and Somalia. In addition, the Star' three or four times that many Cubans were wounded or rep 1 missing. If this rate continues, O’Leary reported, one of every ni 1 the 40,000 Cuban troops said to be serving in Africa can expe become a casualty. Weather Partly cloudy and hot today and tomorrow. High today ne 100, low tonight mid-70s. High tomorrow near 100. VW from the south at 10-15 mph. The Battalion Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editor or of the writer of the article and are not necessarily those of the University administration or the Board of Regents. The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting enterprise oper ated hy students as a university and community newspaper. Editorial policy is determined by the editor. 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Address: The Battalion, W McDonald Building, College Station, Td* United Press International is entitled!' use for reproduction of all news dispatch? Rights of reproduction of all other matter^ Second-Class postage paid at College St^ MEMBER Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Con^ Editor I Sports Editor $ News Editor City Editor Campus Editor Photo Editor Copyeditor Reporter Lee I* Student Publications Board: Bob G. Rtf Joe Arredondo, Dr. Gary Halter, Dr. Ch^ Dr. Clinton A. Phillips, Rebel Rice. D'rf 1 Publications: Donald C. Johnson.