Viewpoint
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Tuesday
March 3, 1981
Slouch
By Jim Earle
“With spring vacation around the corner, it's never too early
to get ready just in case my ride leaves early. ”
Rebels losing appeal
for Thailand radicals
By PAUL WEDEL
United Press International
BANGKOK, Thailand — Some 1,500
Thai intellectuals, politicians and labor
leaders have defected from Thailand’s bel
ligerent communist movement in a victory
for the government of this pro-Western
Asian nation.
More than 3,000 left-wing Thai leaders
joined their country’s communist forces in
the jungles after bloody right-wing violence
in 1975 and 1976 that culminated in a milit
ary coup.
Five years ago it seemed they might well
return to Bangkok at the head of a victorious
communist army.
In two years the number of communists
carrying arms jumped from 9,000 to 13,000,
the first such leap in more than 30 years of
party recruitment, according to Comman
der Prasong Soonsiri, secretary-general of
Thailand’s National Security Council.
Most of the new recruits were motivated
by hopes for democratic revolution, fear for
their own lives, and a desire to avenge
friends killed in the rightist crackdown.
But in the years that followed, many of
the radicals found themselves angered by
their Chinese-educated communist leaders
who followed Mao Tse-tung to the letter,
and increasingly frustrated by an inability to
influence party strategy.
The radicals had little chance to leave the
communists until the Thai military, behind
Gen. Kriangsak Chomanand, quietly de
posed hardline rightist Premier Tanin
Kraivixien in 1977.
Several months later, Kriangsak
announced an amnesty and appealed to the
radicals to come out of the forest. At the
same time he began to improve relations
with China and Vietnam, the two main
backers of the Thai communists.
Labor leader Therdpoom Jaidee said,
“We all listened to the Kriangsak amnesty
announcements on the radio and began
thinking about getting out.”
“The bombers striking at us were fueled
Warped
Love leaves quickly, silently
He came to me on Valentine’s Day. I met
him at the foot of the stairs. He was strong,
dark and handsome, with gentle brown
eyes.
He didn’t say anything when our eyes
met — he was the silent type. He moaned a
little bit and looked lost and alone. I stroked
his face and asked if I could help.
He still said nothing.
He turned to walk away from me and I
called after him, “Come back!” but he con
tinued down the hallway inside the dorm at
a slow and steady pace. He was ever so
handsome in his gracefulness.
He moved through the first floor of
Mosher Hall, and I was close behind him. I
couldn’t let him get away.
He quickened his pace through the
breezeway and into the Commons where
everyone and his uncle were playing pool.
For a moment I feared that he, too, would
want to shoot a game, and I certainly could
never chase a pool shark.
I was relieved that he passed by the pool
tables. He was too sleek, too handsome to
play the rough and rugged pool shark
anyway.
No one seemed to notice how much I
wanted to catch him. A few people looked at
handsome him and desperate me, but no
one offered to help.
I had to catch up to him.
Coffee breaks
By Jane Brust
He finally stopped a few feet beyond the
pool tables and turned around to face me. I
quickly — yet gently — grabbed his neck
and asked him to come back with me.
We walked together around the pool
tables and back through the breezeway. He
would not say a word.
My goal was to take him out to the first
floor balcony, inside Mosher’s quad. He
wanted to stay in the breezeway.
I lost all sense of pride. I begged, I
pleaded. Please come to the balcony with
He refused to move, he refused to speak.
I was desperate. I couldn’t abandon him
he needed me.
Sometimes a woman has to do what she
has to do.
I took a deep breath and with both my
arms outstretched, I lifted him up and car
ried him out to the balcony.
There he opened his mouth and
He couldn’t carry a tune in a bucketsul?
knew he wasn’t a singing valegram.
didn’t even come with a red ribbon.
His whining echoed inside the quae
everyone in the dorm could hear him.
I left him for moment. I ran upstairsli
my room to get a cracker — anythi
make him shut up. But when I came
he was gone. He had disappearedfromi
life just as suddenly as he’d come. ]
It was just as well. We can’t leej
Doberman pinschers in the dorm anyw
He made me think of my own pets
home.
My family’s maintained a grand totald
four dogs, five cats, two turtles and assoitd
rats and tropical fish in my 20 years. Fori
years we had three dogs and three cats
the family menagerie.
Now we’re down to one of those dogs
two of those cats, and they’re all s[
rotten. They even send their love in
prints every time my mom sends a k
Life is different in a dorm withoutb
legged friends around to listen to eve
problems.
Dogs aren’t allowed in the dorms,
accept that. Just the same, I’m
Doberman and I had a chance to meet*
become friends. I even hope he comesti teps, at she
visit again some time.
It’s your turn
Escala tion not independen t of U. S.
By NAN
Batta
They’re eve
anks, in do
he Memorial
It’s the an
jirl Scouts, st
iidents of Br
with seven
with Chinese oil, Kriangsak was warmly
greeted in Peking and still the party fol
lowed the rear-ends of the Chinese,”
Therepoom said.
The exodus began in 1978 and increased
greatly in the second half of 1980.
Therdpoom made his break with 39
armed followers while communist head
quarters was being moved.
Other radicals were given party permis
sion to leave.
“If they killed us, it would have des
troyed the party’s chances of ever recruiting
more intellectuals,” said student leader Pri-
di Boonsue. “If they let us remain, we
might have infected the others.”
Thai counter-insurgency experts treated
the defectors carefully.
“We welcome the students with open
arms,” said one counter-insurgency official.
He said more high level dropouts from com
munist ranks are expected.
Several of the best known radicals, like
Sekson, have gone abroad. Others meet
regularly in Bangkok to discuss their experi
ences and problems. All insist they will go
back to the communists.
“The communists are far from defeated.
The leadership and the hard core of suppor
ters remain loyal,” Cmdr. Prasong said.
“But they had a chance to really expand and
they missed it.”
Among the defectors were a young cou
ple, Seksan and Jiranan Prasertkul, both 32.
Seksan was the best known student leader
in Thailand. Jiranan is a former university
beauty queen-turned-feminist activist.
Four months ago they were carrying
Chinese-made AK-47 assault rifles in the
Thai jungle.
Last month they boarded a flight to the
United States to continue their studies at
Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.
“When I was a student leader, I fought
for democracy,” Seksan said. “And with the
communists I found I still had to fight for
it.”
Editor:
In his guest column, Richard LeVieux
was correct in stating that the North Viet
namese were responsible for the escalation
of the Vietnam War. The statement,
however, is incomplete in the sense that it
leads us to believe that the North Viet
namese escalation was carried out entirely
independent of American activities. No
thing could be further from the truth. The
fact of the matter is that we had the means
to thwart escalation and only through our
failure to exercise these means was the war
allowed to expand.
The North Vietnamese decision to esca
late in 1965 presented numerous logistical
problems for them. First and foremost
among these problems was the task of get
ting supplies to N.V.A. (North Vietnamese
Army) forces in South Vietnam. To resolve
this dilemma the N.V.A. established a
series of supply depots just inside the Cam
bodian border. These depots had the dual
advantages of shortening the length of their
supply lines and, more importantly, of
being protected by the boundary of a neut
ral country.
With their supplies safely nestled behind
the sanctuary of the Cambodian border, the
North Vietnamese began waging war in ear
nest. The magnitude of the Tet offensive in
1968 and the steep rise in American casual
ties during the span 1965-1969, attest to the
frightening efficiency of the N.V.A. supply
routes. For all practical purposes the North
Vietnamese had annexed this strip of the
Cambodian border.
For four years the U.S. permitted the
North Vietnamese to use Cambodia as a
base of operations. By March 1969 the
situation had grown intolerable. We were
losing men at a rate of300-500 per week. It
was at this time that Richard Nixon issued
the order to begin bombing N.V.A. stron
gholds inside Cambodia.
The bombings had the effect of letting
the air out of the N.V.A. escalation strategy.
American casualties dropped of towards the
end of 1969. In 1970 Nixon made the deci
sion to supplement the bombings with a
border incursion of Cambodia. Though this
action came under intense fire in the U.S.
(remember Kent State) it succeeded in
bleeding N.V.A. supply lines even furth
er. The net effect was to reduce the number
of 1970 casualties to less than half of their
1969 level.
The success of U.S. border incursions of
1969-1970 lead one to speculate as to what
might have happened had we implemented
them earlier. My thoughts on the matter
are as follows. If the U.S. had shut off the
Cambodain connection in 1965, the N.V.A.
would have had much more difficulty sus
taining large forces in the South. Supply
lines extending down from North Vietnam
would have been considerably more preca
rious than their Cambodian alternative. In
the end, the North Vietnamese would have
been unable to escalate the Vietnam War to
the level it eventually attained in the late
sixties. And, perhaps, the number of Amer
ican casulaties in South East Asia would not
have reached such tragic proportions.
Mark Howell ’82
jooey-sweet c
»ol mints,
'anilla and p
wich cookies
butter patties
granola cooki<
And respo
The girls in
4, i i »> rr troops i
reasonable enort to ensure an improva St a tj on h ave
environment. | han5,700cas
Mike Saw 24th annual s;
Besides the
plish this, the directors of the Univeri
must show commitment to make even
Thoughts on purity
his sale — ]
11.50 box goe
rest to the di
[he cookie co
profit emotio
roop leader e
year-old-scout
As a parent
Commitment needed
Editor:
Let us face a few facts about fire safety on
campus, interviewing a marshall (who has
no authority on the A&M campus and can
not even repress violations within his own
jurisdiction) that sites deviations in code
compliance without plausible solutions is of
little value, except for filling newspapers.
As if this was not enough he further states
the fallacy that “. . . if they had one place
where all hazardous chemicals were stored,
then things would be fine. ” If the fire mar
shall has a plan which would work for a
university as large as A&M — tell the
Nation; we will all sleep better!
The Safety Office on campus made the
true but regrettable statement that the
campus is not in full code compliance,
which there are few universities across the
nation that are exceptions.
Codes constitute a minimum of the de
gree of protection needed, whether it be
Fire Prevention or Life Safety, so just mere
compliance sometimes is not enough nor is
it adequate. The answer to A&M’s prob
lems lies not in pointing our violations and
ensuring the potential for a vast conflagra
tion. Only through constructive programs
of education, engineering, and enforce
ment of Fire Prevention and Life Satety,
can A&M offer the protection to which the
students and staff are entitled. To acom-
Editor
I would like to respond to David Witze!
letter of Feb. 24, and also commentate f ntlus l astic f
the general attitude of the student body! ' m ^. C n ><) 1( 7) c
his letter, Witzel, alongside of badntt ent | lu ^ iasin y r f
thing a few other organizations, adm see the motive
nished the med students because tk develop a sei
“seem more interested in graduating tin and aceompl
in joining the “Aggie Fraternity. Tam#;what the Girl
of those students who does put graduate, toward — a si
at the top of his priority, because if I ami* 1 pent and invo
mistaken, acquiring an education is til ,
main purpose in going to college. • e gir s
I would also like to state that I havej year . old 8nw
desire to become a member of any prejuij en j oys se }j jn g
cial body, such as the “Aggie Fraternity,pk e t 0 talk to
who’s main goal is to remain “pure ”!
cizing and excluding any person who dofi
not think and act as they do.
cookies
But 14-year
she finds i
irti “Wouldn’t you
thousand of you (less 2 percent ofcourtf ra ssing, se
call me a “damn two-pedeenter”
struct me that “Highway 6 runs both way 1
but I won’t be leaving because theres
good education to be found here and nooin
can force me to go elsewhere if I
sire to. All of the talk about keeping “AM
Cookies?”
Another G
cels the sarm
hinks the re;
nake up for s<
tion.
The cam]
pure and eradicating the “several subvewolly Britton
sive groups,” as Witzel puts it, remindsU'lfthem more, b
about the ideals of “Aryan Supremecy ’i
the need to wipe out the “Demon Jew
Nazi Germany. The diversity of people
right of the individual to hold and exp;
independent thoughts is the foundation!
America. If Texas A&M does not resy
these ideals, it has no right to exist aslj
public institution. Remember, ifitw
mandatory that all students coming herek]
exactly alike, it would not be possible
more than one student to attend
versity at a time.
David Wade'S
By Scott McCullar
The Battalion
MEMBER ISPS 045 :56()
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