Viewpoint
BaTtaV*o°
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Thursday
March 1, 1979
fiorrolion
‘Big Daddy’ Amin
may be on way out
By CHARLES P. WALLACE
United Press International
NAIROBI, Kenya — The end may be in
sight for Idi Amin Dada, Uganda’s self-
proclaimed president for life.
“Its just one man’s opinion, but it ap
pears to me that Amin is finished,” said
one diplomat.
The statement is surprising both for its
finality, considering Amin’s past capacity
for survival, and for the sharp change it
suggests has taken place in the last five
months.
Analysts say though the 54-year-old
former British army sergeant’s fall may
eventually be traced to internal forces, his
failure to assess Tanzania’s resolve to fight
once provoked may hasten the end.
“The Tanzanians seem determined to
see this thing through to the end —
Amin’s end, of course,’’ one source said.
“It seems improbable now that they will
give up the fight as long as they have
momentum behind them.”
Amin’s current troubles began in Oc
tober when mutinies were reported
spreading throughout the armed forces
based in southern Uganda.
According to the available evidence,
Amin was forced to send loyal troops into
the area to suppress the disturbances.
In an attempt to cover up the internal
strife and perhaps mollify his uneasy
troops, Amin ordered an invasion of Tan
zania’s Kagera salient, which was annexed
by Uganda for two weeks.
Amin in a characteristic fashion then re
versed himself. He proclaimed affection
for Tanzania and expressed hope there
would be no further hostilities between
the two neighbors.
It was here that Amin erred, the
analysts said. He miscalculated, they said,
the depth of feeling in Tanzania to seek
revenge for the Kagera humiliation.
Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere — a
close friend of Uganda’s former President
Milton Obote, who was ousted by Amin in
1971 — vowed to carry the war to Uganda.
Obote also appealed, from his exile in
the Tanzanian port city of Dar Es Salaam,
to Ugandans to topple Amin for turning
their country into a “slaughterhouse.”
News agencies in Nairobi received a
Telex Monday saying Uganda’s elite
suicide regiment had renounced its oath to
Amin and joined an invasion force from
Tanzania that seized an important town in
southern Uganda.
The Ugandans said the attackers were
composed of Tanzanian troops, Ugandan
exile forces and mercenaries.
Uganda said Tuesday its army had
struck back and recaptured the key south
ern town of Masaka in heavy fighting.
The report, broadcast by the official
Uganda radio, also denied the reports that
the suicide regiment was fighting against
the government.
Analysts said Amin not only underesti
mated Tanzania, but also failed to judge
correctly the depth of feeling among his
traditional friends in the Arab world and in
eastern Europe.
According to diplomatic reports, in
nearly every case they have decided to let
their assistance taper off .
Without outside help and with the
Uganda economy in tatters, Amin found
support within his own army — consid
ered crucial to his survival — is eroding.
Letters to the Editor
Tenant tow-tally disgusted
Editor:
As a tenant in one of the apartment
complexes owned by Metro Properties, I
am totally disgusted with the management
of these complexes. Aside from the exor
bitant prices, a particular incident at
Scandia Apartment complex has caused a
furor among several tenants.
There is an office parking lot directly in
front of Scandia’s main office. During of
fice hours, anyone parked in this area is
subject to towing. Fine. As of Feb. 23, a
new towing contract was entered into by
Metro Properties. Under the new agree
ment, cars can be towed anytime of the
day or night, weekdays or weekends.
No warning was given to the tenants.
Several cars were towed away over the
weekend. Some were towed at 1 and 2
o’clock in the morning last Saturday. Some
out-of-town visitor had his car towed away,
unaware of the parking situation. Another
individual came home from church to
change clothes and within a 20 minute
span had his car towed off.
After the incident occured, he tried to
reach the apartment manager by calling
four emergency numbers posted on the of
fice door. No one answered.
After going door to door, he found the
apartment manager. She informed us that
she could do nothing. The police were
then contacted. They had received several
calls relating to the same type of incident.
According to the wrecking contract, from
what we were told by the apartment man
ager, someone is supposed to be available
during daylight hours in order for an indi
vidual to get his car back.
From 2:00 to 6:00 no one was at the
towing company. One phone number
there was out of order. The other was not
answered.
I feel that the situation has gone far
enough. I am tired of Metro Properties
taking advantage of their tenants and I’m
tired of being taken advantage of because
I am a college student. Paying $45 to re
cover a towed car is absurd.
I know that Metro Properties has lost
one tenant and probably several more.
And all I can say is “good riddance!”
—Mayvic Luby, ’80
Not so ‘unimportant’
New Hampshire
By ARNOLD SAWISLAK
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The first presiden
tial primary of 1980 is supposed to be held
in just one year. It may be too late already
for the candidates, especially the Republi
cans, to decide whether New Hampshire
once again will get far more attention than
it deserves.
Practically every Republican with an
interest in the presidential nomination has
been nosing around New Hampshire look
ing for 1980 support. Reps. Phil Crane and
John Anderson, Sens. Howard Baker, Bob
Dole and Lowell Weicker, George Bush
and John Conally already have shown
enough interest to suggest New Hamp
shire may be in for another primary free-
for-all next winter.
The only real holdout has been Ronald
Reagan. He is the acknowledged GOP
frontrunner for the 1980 campaign, but his
organization has shown little sign so far
that he is going to run in New Hampshire.
At the risk of committng “The Sin of the
Generals” — deciding how the next war
will be fought from the history of the last
one — there is an awful temptation to
compare the developing 1980 GOP situa
tion with what happened to the Democrats
in 1976.
The frontrunning Democrat before the
primaries began three years ago was Sen.
Henry Jackson, D-Wash.
Jackson had collected more money and
hired the most respected professional
campaign staff of any Democratic hopeful.
He was .regarded as the most influential
member of the Senate, a favorite of or
ganized labor and, with the possible ex
ception of extreme doves in the party, a
candidate acceptable to most Democrats.
Planning a campaign that would demon
strate Jackson’s vote-getting power in
states that would count in the general elec
tion, Jackson and his braintrust decided to
pass the 1976 New Hampshire primary.
Instead, they concentrated their opening
effort on the Massachusetts primary,
which was one week later.
There was unassailable logic in their de
cision. New Hampshire is a small state
with only four electoral votes. There were
very few of the traditional Democratic
constituent groups (labor, minorities,
ethnics) in its electorate.
It had only a so-so record in forecasting
the presidential nominee of the party out
of power: in the previous five primaries.
New Hampshire voters had given their
vote only twice to the candidate eventually
nominated by the “outs”(John Kennedy in
1960; Richard Nixon in 1968).
So Jackson passed New Hampshire and
expected the media as well as the political
professionals to write it off as unimportant
because Scoop was not running. He and
his experts watched, with some irritation,
as the likes of Jimmy Carter, Morris Udall,
Birch Bayh and Fred Harris got tremen
dous attention fighting for 17 delegates.
Carter led the field, winning 15 delegates.
The following week, Jackson beat
everyone in Massachusetts, leaving Carter
well behind both Udall and George Wal
lace. The Washington senator won twice
as many delegates in Massachusetts as
Carter had in New Hampshire. Much
good it did him. Carter was on his way to
the nomination and Jackson was on his way
out of the contest.
The world’s first turn-on
By DICK WEST
WASHINGTON — The 1870s surely
must rank as the most creative decade in
the history of this republic, and possibly of
the world at large.
Within a three-year period, to mention
just a few of its shining moments, Alexan
der Graham Bell invented the telephone
and Thomas Alva Edison gave us the
phonograph and the light bulb. In that or
der.
Not only was it ahead of the light bulb
chronologically, the phonograph remained
Edison’s favorite invention. And who is to
say he did not have his priorities straight?
Even today, a century later, the phonog
raph sometimes steals the show. We have
an annual television program, the Grammy
awards, that is a spinoff of the phonograph.
But hardly any honors are handed out for
outstanding performances with light bulbs.
This illustrates the difficulties facing the
International Centennial of Light, which
has charge of planning a fitting observance
for the incandescent lamp’s 100th birthday
next October.
Part of the problem stems from Edison’s
apparent failure to utter a memorable
quote when he turned on the world’s first
light bulb.
You may recall that in 1976, when we
were observing the centennial of the tele
phone, the people in charge of that celebra
tion made a big deal out of the first utter
ance transmitted by wire.
Bell’s immortal words were: “Mr. Wat
son, come here. I want you.”
Then, in 1977, when we were observing
the centennial of the phonograph, the fes
tivities were built around the first recorded
utterance.
Edison’s immortal words were: “Mary
had a little lamb. Which was a cut above
some of the recorded lyrics heard on this
year’s Grammy awards program.
None of the reference books at my dispo
sal mentions anything Edison said on Oct.
19, 1879, when he finally devised a light
bulb that worked. He did, however, origi
nate a tradition the International Centen
nial of Light might be able to feature in its
commemorative programs.
I refer to the fact that Edison left the
world’s first light bulb on all night.
Indeed, it did not burn out until Edison
increased the voltage at 1:30 p.m. on Oct.
21.
This suggests that the most memorable
words attending the birth of the light bulb
might have been uttered by Edison’s
mother.
It may have been she who first uttered
the classic line, “You forgot to turn the light
off, dum-dum.”
In any event, there’s potentially a neat
tie-in between the upcoming celebration
and President Carter’s energy conservation
campaign.
Let the International Centennial of
Light offer an award for the invention of a
light bulb that, like Edison’s phonograph,
won’t work until you wind it up.
Corrections
In the “what’s up at A&M” section of
Wednesday’s Battalion, it was incorrectly
reported that Dan Aypre would be the
guest speaker in tonight’s Political Forum
presentation, “Test Tube Babies and
Human Ethics.” The speaker is Dr. H.
Tristam Engelhardt.
It was also incorrectly reported that
Aggie Cinema will be showing “Patton”
Friday night. “Close Encounters of the
Third Kind” has been substituted and will
be shown at 8 p.m. Friday, and 10:30 p.m.
Saturday in Rudder Auditorium.
Tile Battalion regrets the errors.
Top of the News
CAMPUS
Photographers vie for prizes
Collegiate photographers vie for cash prizes and ribbons in Salon
79, the March 31 photo contest at Texas A&M University. Open to
students of all colleges and universities. Salon ’79 will feature best of
show awards in color and black-and-white and three place winners in
11 categories, sub-divided into color and black-and-white. Information
and entry blanks are available from the Camera Committee, MSC
Student Programs Office, Texas A&M University, College Station,
77843, or by phoning 845-1515 or 845-2768.
Mozart opera tonight at Rudder
One of Mozart’s merriest operas, “Cosi Fan Tutte,” will be pres
ented by the Texas Opera Theater at 8:15 p.m. today at Texas A&M
University. The two-hour production is about two young couples who
fall prey to a cynical old bachelor determined to prove that all women
are fickle. Tickets are on sale at the Memorial Student Center box
office in Rudder Tower and will be available at the door tonight.
STATE
Murder defendant feared for life
Capital murder defendant Linda May Burnett admitted she was
with Ovide Joseph Dugas, her co-defendant and lover, the night of
July 14 when five of his in-laws were killed, but told police she
cooperated with him because she feared for her life. She did not
mention participating in the shooting deaths of five people whose
bodies were later found in a common grave near Winnie, Texas. But
Burnett did tell officers she was afraid she or her children would be
killed if she failed to follow orders given her by Dugas, a 33-year-old
Port Arthur refinery worker.
2 arrested for "selling" aliens
Immigration agents arrested two men for attempting to “self’ 10
illegal aliens to undercover agents and searched for others believed
involved in the ring that smuggled as many as 300 Mexican nationals
into Texas each month. Agents from the Immigration and Naturaliza
tion Service posing as farmers arrested the pair Tuesday at a farm near
Cleburne, Texas after arranging to buy 10 illegal aliens for $100 each.
Polygraph results allowed in court
State District Judge George Walker has allowed the results of a lie
detector test to be admitted as evidence in the trial of a man accused of
attempted murder. Robert Moore, defense lawyer for John Patteson,
said the admission of the polygraph results was possible because
Walker is hearing the case without a jury. The 35-year-old Pasadena,
Texas, defendant is accused of trying to kill a neighbor who was
stabbed last Oct. 10.
Houston oilmen tried for swindle
A government prosecutor said Wednesday that a federal conspiracy
and mail fraud trial, in which several Houston oil executives are
defendants, involved $2 million in bribes and kickbacks from 1973-74
fuel oil sales to Florida Power Corp. The defendants are John L. Burns,
former vice president of Charter International Oil Corp. of Houston;
Walter L. Ballard, a former executive of Signal Oil and Gas Co. of
Houston; James Clark, president of Larcon Petroleum Corp.; Ronald
Pruitt, a Houston attorney and part owner of Larcon, and Richard
Raymond, former senior vice president of FPC. Assistant U.S. Attor
ney Chris Hoyer said the defendants used trusts, dummy corporations
and an intricate web of paper transactions to jack up the prices paid by
FPC.
NATION
Power plant X-rays "doctored"
A former supervisor at a Kerr-McGee nuclear power plant in Cres
cent, Okla., testified in a secret deposition that Karen Silkwood, a
plant worker killed in a 1974 auto accident, showed him falsified X-rays
of substandard welds used in the facility’s construction on Silkwood
Estate, attorneys said Wednesday. Gerald Schreiber, Silkwood’s
supervisor at the Cimarron Nuclear Facility, gave a deposition
Monday to Kerr-McGee and Silkwood attorneys in Los Alamos, N.M.
Schreiber said Silkwood may have implied there were several other
falsified X-rays. He said the X-rays had been doctored with magic
marker.
Police defy court, picket again
Striking policemen in New Orleans defied a court order Wednesday
and renewed picketing at garbage depots, but city officials said the
post-Mardi Gras cleanup of tons of trash was unaffected. In suburban
Metairie, where an estimated 1 million persons watched the biggest
parades of the carnival, scavengers hunting aluminum cans raced
cleanup crews to the garbage. Picketing ended Sunday because police
union leaders told the strikers to obey an appeals court decision
prohibiting the pickets. The picketing resumed without warning or
explanation from union leaders.
WEATHER
Fair skies and mild temperatures with a chance of isolatec
showers Friday. High today 70, low tonight 50 with winds
South Easterly at 5-10 mph.
The Battalion;
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