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“That printout that showed an enrollment of400 instead
of 40 in your class turned out to be a misprint, didn’t it?”
Reagan aims to curb
Soviet expansion
by Helen Thomas
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President Reagan
has approved a major strategic policy
document aimed at curbing Soviet ex
pansion and changing East-West rela
tions by the end of the decade.
The paper, prepared by the National
Security council and foreseeing the end
of the Brezhnev era, sets forth major ob
jectives of U.S. military, political, diplo
matic, economic and propaganda policy.
An NSC official, who asked not to be
identified, put the policy in the strongest
terms possible: that the United States is
dedicated to the “dissolution or shrink
age of the Soviet empire.”
The little publicized goals are enunci
ated at a time when Reagan is optimistic
that negotiations on nuclear arms reduc
tion will soon begin with the Soviets.
A year ago a member of the NSC staff,
Richard Pipes, told a reporter that the
Soviets would have to reform; in effect
change their communist lifestyle, or
there would be war. His remarks were
quickly repudiated by administration
spokesmen, but it now appears he was
reflecting Reagan’s determination to
challenge the Soviets on many fronts in
hopes of bringing about a softening of
the communist system.
“The president believes that the East-
West relationship will be fundamentally
changed by the end of the decade,” the
official said.
Reagan began his administration by
calling the Soviets “liars and cheaters,”
but he lifted the grain embargo, keeping
his campaign promise to the wheat far
mers.
Reagan’s ambitions in terms of prom
oting a turn-around in the Soviet Union
are great and there is little talk of coexist
ence or detente. But at the same time, he
has faced the reality of no winners in a
nuclear war and is pushing for arms re
duction talks.
Although Reagan is willing to abide by
Reagan also is seeking a summit meet
ing with Soviet President Leonid Brezh
nev and says if it comes about he would
not rule out of discussion any of the
points of friction between the superpow
ers. At the same time, Reagan has aban
doned the policy of “linkage,” which he
set earlier — that is the United States will
not negotiate with Russia until it pulls its
troops out of Afghanistan and eases up
on Poland.
The Battalion
USPS 045 360
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference .
Editor Diana Sultenfuss
City Editor Bernie Fette
Sports Editor Frank L. Christlieb
News Editors. .. Tracey Buchanan, Dan Puckett
Diane Yount
Staff Writers Cyndy Davis, Susan Dittman,
Terry Duran, Colette Hutchings,
Hope E. Paasch, Joe Tindel Jr.,
Rebeca Zimmermann
Cartoonist Scott McCullar
Photographers David Fisher, Peter Rocha,
John Ryan,
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Address all inquiries and correspondence to: Editor,
The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald, Texas A&M Uni
versity, College Station, TX 77843, or phone (713) 845-
2611.
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The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting news
paper operated as a community service to Texas A&M
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pressed in The Battalion are those of the editor or the
author, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of
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bers, or of the Board of Regents.
The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper
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Questions or comments concerning any editorial mat
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77843.
Words can be misleading
Words are wonderful creations. Just a
few letters put together symbolize a com
plete idea or thought. Words communi
cate the ideas and thoughts of one person
to another.
But, sometimes words are used to
gloss over ugly truths or cover up the
harsh realities of life.
According to Webster’s New Third
International Dictionary, 1971 edition, a
euphemism is “the substitution of an
agreeable or inoffensive word or ex
pression for one that is harsh, indelicate
or otherwise unpleasant or taboo; a po
lite, tactful or less explicit term used to
avoid the direct naming of an un
pleasant, painful or frightening reality.”
Death is a popular candidate for
euphemisms. Passed away, went to
heaven, kicked the bucket and bit the
dust are just a few of the euphemisms for
death.
rebeca
zimmermann
The term chemical educationco
up a mental image of a chemistn
True, drugs and alcohol aredi
and, therefore, education abom
would be “chemical education."
A few years ago many occupations re
ceived new, euphemistic titles. A garbage
collector became a sanitation engineer. A
housewife became a domestic engineer.
This kind of occupational renaming
could be used for almost any career.
Poor people become the underpri
vileged. Slums are low-income housing.
Many euphemisms seem justified if
they help ease someone’s suffering.
However, a misleading term appeared
recently during the College Station Inde
pendent School District’s efforts to solve
drug problems in the schools.
Last year, the district’s school board
established a chemical education advis
ory committee to review drug policies
and give recommendations for revisions.
But, this is stretching the
euphemisms just a bit too far.
A chemical education advison
mittee sounds like a curriculumci
tee for the district chemistry
instead of a group intended to hel
drug abuse.
by Col
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It is admirable that the district!® The M
ling the drug problem,
euphemisms to refer to the
tantamount to running away fro!
problem or pretending that
exist.
the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty
(SALT II) negotiated by three presidents
— two of them Republican — he is not
willing to seek its ratification. Instead, he
prefers to go the long route of years of
negotiations, while both sides build up
their nuclear arsenals as bargaining
chips.
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Drug use is a “frighteningreal|o film-go
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make it go away
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Asked to describe his administration’s
relationship with the Soviet Union when
he dropped into the White House press
center earlier this month, he said:
“I think it’s a very realistic relation
ship. We know that there is an adversary
relationship there that has been brought
about by the Soviets’ policy of expansion
ism. And we’re not so naive as to ignore
that in any dealings that we have. And
yet, at the same time, we ourselves are
proposing such things as arms reductions
and trying to improve chances for peace
in the world and reducing the possibility
of war.”
“We are willing, realistically, to sit
down with the Soviet Union and try to
elminate some of the friction points that
are there,” Reagan said.
“But basically, the primary problem
today is reducing the store of nuclear
arms that threaten the peace of mind,
certainly of all the people in the world
and that do pose a threat to all of us
physically,” he added.
And so while taking a very tough line
against the Soviets, Reagan has decided
that he will be forced to do business with
them.
ISNTTHArcml, JUNIOR KEEPS WRIT1N6 All THOSE M
NOUS lb JODIE. FOSTER,„
For closer Third World ties
by Jacques Clafin
United Press International
NEW YORK — David Rockefeller
strides across the globe, picking up oddly
liberal-sounding ideas for a man whose
name many consider synonymous with
good old-fashioned American capit
alism.
You might expect to see the retired
Chase Manhattan Bank chairman in the
vanguard of a campaign to get Japan,
with its trade surpluses, to open up its
markets to its trading partners.
Rockefeller, in fact, thinks America is
leaning too hard on the Japanese.
“The Japanese are very important
partners of ours both in trade and in
other ways,” Rockefeller said. “I would
be very sorry to see us allow ourselves to
get into an antagonistic position with
them.”
You might think a man with a vast
fortune would wince at the prospect of
close ties with a Marxist, revolutionary
country whose government is propped
up by Cuban troops.
But Rockefeller recently traveled to
such a country, Angola. He met with
President Jose Dos Santos and believes
the time has come for Washington to rec
ognize the Angolan government.
He also thinks Americans are need
lessly put off by Marxist rhetoric from
some capitals and wants to see less im
portance attached to the ideological
labels African governments give them
selves.
“I am convinced that in the vast major
ity of cases, our ideologies may differ, but
our ideals do not.”
Rockefeller said in an interview he
would not presume to tell the govern
ment what to do. Still, he comes across as
a man offended by harsh public language
and rigid foreign policy analysis, a believ
er in international cooperation at a time
of nationalistic selfassertiveness.
The 66-year-old grandson of Stan
dard Oil Company founder John D.
Rockefeller sat at a marble coffee table in
his 56th floor Manhattan office recently
and talked about travels, looming dan
gers and opportunities.
He had just returned from five days in
Japan and a meeting of the Trilateral
Commission, which he helped create in
1973 to give political, business and pro
fessional leaders from North America,
Europe and Japan a forum for confiden
tial discussion of world problems.
The world’s sagging economy was a
prime topic at the April meeting.
“I think everybody agreed one thing
that would be sure not to solve our prob
lems is to have a round of protectionist
legislation which would be a vicious circle
which had an $ 18 billion surplus w
United States last year, has kept
good many” American and Eurtf
goods, often using various ploys
than open tariffs and quotas.
You might think a man with a vast
fortune would wince at the pros
pect of close ties with a Marxist,
revolutionary country whose gov
ernment is propped up by Cubati
troops.
similar to what one saw in the 1930s,
which only exacerbated the great de
pression,” he said.
Bilateral arrangements, like Japan’s
reluctant cuts in car exports to the United
States, do not provide long-term answers
to trade imbalances, Rockefeller said.
A better idea — one he indicated was
espoused by the Trilateralists — is work
ing through the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade by updating the rules
where necessary and monitoring adher
ence, he said. GATT, an international
trade code of conduct, provides for mul
tilateral discussion about trade problems.
Rockefeller conceded that Japan,
“On the other hand, I do
they have recognized in recent yeat
need for a change on their part
think there are some significant^
change,” he said, citing relaxed r™
tions for foreign banks.
Rockefeller said the Japanese
“both the Americans and the Euroft
have been beating on them pretty 1
and this in a place like Japan, theyf®
be humiliating and embarassin^.
“I think at the moment there isa!
dangerous building up of hostilif
ward Japan on this issue of trade
said.
The danger: “A trade war with pi*
tionist moves on both sides.”
There is a missionary element in
efeller’s vision of better American
tions with the Third World.
In a lecture at a New York centet
foreign students recently, Rocked
said the United States should bewil
provide the support that would help
veloping countries discover theeatf
growth and independence they seeks
not lie in communism.
“To achieve this, though, require;
we be more attentive to and morel®
ant of the vast differences in culture
ideology that separate us from ourne 1 :
bors in the world,” he said.
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