U
Opinion
Page 2/The Battalion/Wednesday, May 23, 1984
Warp
Soviets trying to close
Olympic boycott gap
Politics/
The Official Sport
of the
By DICK WEST
Columnist for The Los Angeles Times Syndicate
WASHINGTON — It is conventional
wisdom from the White House almost to the
Kremlin that the Soviet boycott of the 1984
Summer Olympics in Los Angeles is a retal
iation for the American boycott of the 1980
Olympic games in Moscow.
Generally overlooked, however, are the
strides the Soviets have made, demonstrated
by their ability to mount a full-scale withdra
wal, toward closing the boycott gap.
! It must now be recognized that Russia has
the ability not to take part in athletic con
gests anywhere in the world. Their disen
gagement capacity raises the question of
how long they will continue a policy of
! merely reacting to inaction.
Sooner or later, probably sooner, we can
expect them to seize the initiative by launch
ing a preventive boycott on their own. Then
it will be too late for us to deploy American
gymnasts in Western Europe or come up
with a new basketball basing mode.
The next thing we know, Third World
countries will be lured into signing Olympic
non-participation treaties. The best bet to
keep the boycott situation from getting out
of hand is immediate resumption of the
Strategic Abstention Limitation Talks.
Under a new SALT agreement, unilateral
boycotts could be banned, with neither side
permitted to avoid sending athletes to the
Olympics.
The “build-out” proposal first advanced
by the United States offers possibly good
grounds for negotiation. Here is an illustra
tion of how it would work:
For each new world-class platform diver
the Soviets withdrew from international
competition, they would have to enter one
or more aquatic events they had previously
passed up.
Our side, of course, would be bound by
the same rule, with verification procedures
solidly in place.
The result would guarantee both coun
tries as many Olympic medals as they had
won in the past.
1984 Olympics
In other words, theoretically neither the
Soviets nor the Americans could pull out of
a relay race without entering long distance
runners, male or female, in the place of the
proscribed contestants.
Whatever the formula, it is essential that
both countries give up a bit of their boycott
power. Deterrence has had its place, sure. It
is almost axiomatic that the Soviets wouldn’t
dare have boycotted the Olympics first, if
they were certain the Games would be hit by
an American boycott of equal force.
That premise no longer is valid, however.
One of the worse dangers is the prospect
that one country might misjudge the other
country’s intentions.
There could, for example, be a case
where the Soviets might mistake American
disqualification of the steroid-taking weight-
lifter for an all-out boycott. They would
then feel compelled to stage a counter-boy
cott of their own.
As a worse case scenario, we can envision
at least a television miniseries based on the
devastation that would occur should the
United States and the Soviet Union autho
rize boycotts simultaneously.
If you think scenes from “The Day After”
were horrifying, wait till “After the Starting
Blocks” appears on the screen.
Letter
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teSPONi
gOLUTIO
Fan appreciat
Chandler's ei
Editor:
As one who has f(|
all the sports teamsaij
A&M and attended!
the games involving!)
jor teams, I believe ij
be proved statistical!
the baseball team
best winning percent
all during my 13 year,
(since 1970).
'olle
One force has reii
constant during those'
That force is the toad
Tom Ghandler. His
coaching is exhibited
fielders who actually
to the cut-off man, infs
w ho tu rn over the
play regularly, catdieij
truly oversee the games
hitters who always
make contact. Allofi
not be happenstance.
Ghandler must be
credit for those 26y
painstaking drilling
fundamentals and suit)
of baseball.
Unive
Minorii
from thro
ill receiv
flee don
at Texas /
summer
fcponsoret
iciences.
The fiv
ae progi
lortunity
ilh a fac
United
Ivashin
This fan would h •
prices Clll
thank < oat It Chandla U l ,| t | 1(
his teams — particukflaid Tue
present one — fot ma
absorbing afternoon
evening. I wish them
luck in the NCAA I
ment.
Richardi nnual ini
Department of In ent.
Mongolian attitudes on the Olympic boyco
sed cars
nd many
res growi
The ri
rice Inch
tie that ii
By ART BUCHWALD
Columnist for The Los Angeles Times Syndicate
It was admittedly a body blow to the
West when the Soviets pulled out of the
Olympics, but it was nothing compared
to what happened when the news
reached Mongolia.
While the Soviet athletes had to accept
their government’s decision whether
they liked it or not, it wasn’t easy to per
suade Outer Mongolia’s only long-dis
tance runner that he wasn’t going to Los
Angeles.
Ghengis Kahn was jogging out on the
Gobi Desert when his track coach, Yurt
Temujin, rode out on his camel 20 miles
to break the tidings.
“How am I doing?” Ghengis asked,
hardly puffing.
“You’re doing fine. But we just got
word from Ulan Bator that Mongolia is
withdrawing from the 1984 Olympics.”
Kahn was flabbergasted. “You’re put
ting me on.”
“I’m not, Ghengis. We just got orders
from the KGB to tell you to stop run
ning. The Russians are pulling out, and
they told us we have to support their
boycott or else.”
“You mean I’ve been pounding bare
foot on this hot sand for four years for
nothing?”
“What can I tell you, Ghengis? The
Kremlin says they’re doing it for your
own good. They were afraid if you went
to Los Angeles your life would be in
danger.”
Kahn said, “Who would want to hurt a
Mongolian in Galifornia?”
“Ghengis, it isn’t for us to question the
decisions of Moscow. But if the Russians
don’t field their team, we can’t send
ours.”
“Why not? We don’t have any quarrel
with the United States.”
“If we showed up and they didn’t, it
would be a signal to the West that the So
cialist nations are in ferment.”
“Good. Let’s go.”
“It’s not that simple. They won’t fly us
out of the country.”
“Maybe I could run to the Gaspian
Sea and pick up a foreign freighter? It
would be good practice for me.”
“I’m sorry, Ghengis, but you’re going
to have to live with the idea that you
won’t be competing this year.”
Tears formed in Kahn’s eyes. “This
means I won’t see Lana Turner. You
promised me if I trained real hard I
could meet her in Galifornia. My dream
for four years was that she would be in
the stands cheering for me when I
crossed the finish line.”
The coach dismounted from his
camel and put his arm around Kahn. “I
know exactly how you feel. I was hoping
to meet Glaudette Golbert. I loved her
last movie, ‘It Happened One Night,’
which just showed in Mandal Gob last
week. But there is nothing we can do
about it. The Politburo is getting even
for what the United States did to us four
years ago in Moscow.”
“If they weren’t going to Los Angeles,
why didn’t they tell us in 1980, so I
wouldn’t have calluses all over my feet?”
“I can’t answer that question, Ghengis.
You know the Kremlin never tells Mon
golia anything.”
Kahn put his head in his hands. “I
could have been a contender. I could
have won a gold medal. I could have
seen Disneyland. I might have even been
invited by Joan Grawford for a weekend
in Malibu.”
“You must never mention those capi
talist thoughts when you get back to
Ulan Bator.”
“Why do 1 have to go to UlanB;
“The Soviet Minister of Ai
wants you to hold a press conferem
Soviet television telling the Russian
pie how happy you are that their
leaders have chosen not to particip
the games in Los Angeles. He wain
to profess solidarity with all thew«
peoples of the world who will not
pete against the capitalist lackey
Anothe
ieport si
ower of
ir worker
lor inflatii
lenl in Ap
ember U
Mo
wit!
Valter Y
rressure 1
are threatening world peace ini ^ arl f or
part of the globe. If you say wha®e
tell you to, they will give you
Olympic gold medal they’ve mint! nt * — an
compt
seeing
every athlete who doesn’t
Los Angeles.”
“It’s not the same
Turner,” Kahn said.
“But it will still he better thamn
for the next Olympics in a Ulaant
Gulag for four years.”
Democratic runoffs cut both way
United
smocratr
ales in N
pier one
I’m cal
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Whee
asked if h
nd Jesse
inia.
Hart rei
lenge Mon
lay night
iis schedi
By ARNOLD SAWISLAK
Columnist for 1 he Los Angeles Times Syndicate
WASHING TON — A note to Jesse Jackson: Don’t
mention Katie Hall when you argue that runoff primaries
discriminate against blacks.
Hall, the first and only black ever to represent Indiana
in the House, won’t be around next year because she ran
second in the first and only Democratic primary May 8.
In 1982, she replaced a white, Rep. Adam Benjamin,
ILL BE GIAP tWW THIS CALIFORNIA PR/MW/5 ME?.-
FAIRYTALES CHANGE YOUR
CAN COME TRUE, NAME ANP
IT CAN HAPPEN VOUR AGE,
TOYOLUFYQURE NEW IPEAS
‘ " >T ARE THE RA<jE„
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WHART
BUT If YOU W THEN HERE IS
THE BESTRART,
WmimnwY' REALMS NOT
Aff COU PON T Too SMART.
TAKEAP1VE HE MIGHT UNPER-
UUST TO KEEP ESTIMATE a
who died after the primary. She was appointed the Demo
cratic nominee and won with 56 percent of the vote.
This year, she had primary opposition from both Peter
Visclosky, who was Benjamin’s aide, and county prosecutor
Jack Crawford. Visclosky got 35 percent, Hall 33 percent
and Grawford 32 percent.
Under the system of second or runoff primaries, held
when no candidate has received more than 50 percent of
the first primary vote. Hall would still have a chance, how
ever slim in a white majority district, to retain her seat. But
under the plurality system used in Indiana, she became a
lame duck on May 9.
Another test of Jackson’s unwavering contention that
runoff primaries are a device to deny political power to
blacks is coming next month in Mississippi.
Two years ago, the 2nd District became the first in the
state with a majority black population, although its voting
age population was estimated to be 48 percent black. The
Democrats nominated black state legislator Robert Clark;
the Republicans white former Judge Webb Franklin. In
November, Clark got 48 percent of the vote; Franklin 50
percent.
This year, Clark is running for the Democratic nomi
nation again with three opponents, two blacks and a white.
As pointed out by Richard E. Cohen of the National Jour
nal, it is conceivable that the three blacks will split the June
5 primary vote enough to put the white candidate in first
place.
If that happened in a non-runoff state, the white could
get the nomination with as little as 26 percent of the total
vote. In Mississippi, the odds are high that one of the three
blacks will have a second chance to win the nomination.
None of this is to say that the runoff system is perfectly
fair to blacks. Jackson likes to cite the 1982 case of North
Carolina black legislator H.M. Michaux, who was first with
44 percent of the first primary vote in the 2nd District.
In the runoff Michaux lost, 54 percent to 46 percent, to
Fim Valentine, a white, who won the seat in November.
Jackson contends that the second primary gave whin
chance to gang up on Michaux and deny him thei
nation.
This year, Valentine got another strong challenge
a black Democrat, Kenneth Spaulding, but won them
nation 50.6 percent to 48 percent in the first primary.
The only lesson from all this is similar to theont
Senate liberals have learned about filibusters. Fori
senators trying to pass civil rights legislation were si"
by Southerners who held the floor until the sponsors
up on their bills. The liberals tried, and to some extern
ceeded in making it easier to stop filibusters.
But recently it has been the liberals as much astk
servadves who have resorted to the filibuster toblod
they considered odious legislation. They found outtln
filibuster was a two-edged weapon. Jackson maydis
that the runoff primary also cuts both ways.
impaign
s Jackson
in the deb;
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