Page 2/The Battalion/Monday, March 3, 1986
Opinion
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. A LUMP IN YOUR THROAT
Some Lone Star
heroes forgotten
Texas turned 150 Sunday. The state is celebrating 150
years of independence. It is celebrating a proud history of
strong-willed people toughing it out through tough times. It is
celebrating its own particular brand of everything-is-bigger-
and-better-in-Texas pride.
Texans are proud of their heritage, but they overlook parts
of it. They are proud of rugged heroes such as Davy Crockett
and Sam Houston, but they often overlook others who played a
role in the founding of Texas.
Myths sometimes get in the way of reality. Texas children
are being taught romanticized versions of Texas history in
schools. They aren’t taught about Texas’ rich ethnic — partic
ularly Mexican — heritage. The role of minorities in the devel
opment of Texas is often overlooked.
The Lone Star state does indeed have a history to be proud
of. But Texans aren’t doing themselves or their children a serv
ice by portraying all the state’s founders as John Wayne-on-the-
range types.
Television and books aren’t telling children the real Lone
Star story. Texas was built by not only Anglo-Americans but also
Mexican-Americans. People of all races fought for the same goal
— the independence of their land.
Children today should be learning about the diverse group
of people that fought to free Texas from tyranny. It’s about time
Texans acknowledged their debt to a//ethnic groups.
The Battalion Editorial Board
Public-relations firms getting
into Angola fight
ice is helpir
t and also i:
dents now
crested in o
The commi
The war in An-
go 1 a is getting
meaner and
meaner. On one
side is our ally,
Jonas Savimbi and
his UNITA gueril
las. The immedi
ate target of their
fighting (freedom
will assuredly
come later) is the
Marxist government which is supported
by Cuban troops and Soviet advisers.
Now both sides have escalated the fight.
They have hired Washington public-re
lations firms.
For something like $600,000, Savimbi
has armed himself with Black, Mana-
fort, Stone 8c Kelly, which not only does
public relations, but lobbying and, for
all I know, windows as well. In an inter
view, Savimbi said he was waiting to see
how well Black, Manafort, Ston & Kelly
perform before signing a contract with
them, but he claimed — almost patting
his pocket — that his movement con
trolled 80 percent of Angola’s diamond
production. The check is all but in the
mail.
The Angola government has re
sponded in kind. The Marxist regime
has secured the services of Gray & Com
pany, whose chairman, Robert Keith
Gray, headed President Reagan’s inau
gural committee and once worked in the
Eisenhower White House. The An
golans are, for the moment, going
month-to-month with Gray, at an initial
rate of $20,000 per. Diamonds may be a
girl’s best friend, but it’s likely Gray in
sisted on cash.
We may assume that this fight be
tween Washington’s premier Republi
can PR firms will be a bloody and pro
tracted one. Roger Stone, a partner in
Black, Manafort, Stone 8c Kelly, is not
known for taking prisoners. It may
come down to some desperate restau-
rant-to-restaurant eating along K Street,
N.W. We may also assume that, di
amonds or no diamonds, should the
United States resume aid to Savimbi,
some of the money will come right to
Black, Manafort, Stone 8c Kelly. And, fi
nally, we may assume that when Wash
ington’s most illustrious Republican
public-relations firm takes a Marxist
government as a client, something has
gone seriously off the tracks.
That something is U.S. policy in
southern Africa. It is so chaotic, so con
fusing and so illogical that not only can
our national interest not be discerned,
it’s possible to break bread on either side
of it. President Reagan mentioned An
gola in his state of the Union speech —
“You are not alone, freedom fighters.”
But he did not mention that his free
dom fighters were allied with South Af
rica and had, on occasion, served as Pre-
toria’s bounty hunters in nearby
Namibia. The flowery rhetoric failed to
mention that Savimbi is viewed else
where in Africa as South Africa’s stooge.
Like details concerning the budget, such
information was probably deemed not
quite ready for prime time.
Indeed, the administration’s reflexive
anti-communism has all but obliterated
familiar political labels. Liberalism ar
gues that U.S. policy should be indepen
dent of corporate interests. In Angola,
though, it is the conservative adminis
tration that makes the case. It has sug
gested to Gulf Oil that it get out of An
gola. Poor Gulf. Once the corporate
personification of the conservative Mel
lon and Pew families, now it must turn
to liberals for solace: Gan’t it stay in An
gola and make a buck?
No, says the administration with nary
the suggestion that it appreciated the
irony of its answer. In its anti-unist zeal,
it has asked American corporations to
do in Angola (get out), precisely the op
posite of what it has asked them to do in
South Africa (stay in). Constructive En
gagement in South Africa becomes De
structive Engagement in Angola — all
the more destructive since South Africa,
with the alleged help of UNITA, has at
tempted to destroy Gulf’s Angola instal
lations.
Richard
Cohen
New chapter in U.S.-PhiHppines relations begins
Looking ahead with Aquino government
The fall of Ferdi-
nand Marcos opens a “
new chapter in U.S. Barry
relations with the Schweid
Philippines even AP News Analysis
while the circumstanc
remain unclear.
The new chapter begins with relief —
that Marcos relinquished power instead
of trying to fight it out on the streets of
Manila and the provinces.
It also begins with hope that Corazon
Aquino, the new president, will form a
cabinet with moderate views, know how
to revive the Philippine economy and
keep the Clark and Subic military bases
open to the U.S. Navy and Air Force.
While looking ahead, State Depart
ment officials are not being all that clear
about the circumstances of Marcos’ res
ignation and the U.S. offer of safe ha
ven and medical care.
WUEW YOU
ABSOLUTELY,
POSITIVELY,
UAVE TO GET
OUT OVERNIGHT,
“We observed the realities on the
ground,” a senior U.S. official said
Tuesday night. He referred apparently
to the fact that the Filipino people had
decided they wanted to be led by Aquino
and not by the man who ruled them for
20 years.
But no one in the U.S. government is
willing to say what constitutional proce
dure, if any, was followed in the tran
sition. Legal questions remain about
Aquino’s mandate.
Nor has it been explained how Mar
cos was eligible for sanctuary in the
United States if his government carried
out the human rights abuses that were
catalogued by the department in its an
nual worldwide report Feb. 13.
“I don’t intend to get into a debate
about the issue that you raised,” the se
nior official told a reporter who pressed
him. “I’m saying that President Marcos
is the leader of a country with whom
we’ve had a long friendship, and we’re
providing him safe haven.”
The agreement negotiated with Mar
cos to use the Clark and Subic bases is
good until 1991 and would be extended
automatically unless the U.S. or Phil
ippines government raised objections.
The Reagan administration has not
sought assurances from Aquino that the
Navy’s Pacific fleet and the Air Force’s
tactical and reconnaissance planes —the
biggest U.S. military complex outside
the United States —would be allowed to
remain.
Secretary of State George Shultz told
the Senate Budget Committee a week
ago that democracy has priority over the
bases. Still their strategic importance is
obvious.
Historically, the turnover in the Phil
ippines is nearly unique in U.S. relations
MAA6UUES
Umilmd Ft tun S/rndtctl*
with friendly governments.
When dictators fell they often were
succeeded by authoritarian military re
gimes or radicals whose anti-American
ism was fueled by resentment over the
support the United States gave the old
regime.
Critics of Marcos, seeking U.S. sup
port in recent years, had to cope with a
phantom: Iran. Comparisons were con
stantly being drawn to the downfall of
the Shah and the disorder and hostage
taking that followed.
Would Marcos be succeeded by a ver
sion of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Kho
meini?
Or would a dangerous vacuum de
velop in the Philippines — to be filled by
communist insurgents who would turn
the country away from its traditional
friendship with the United States?
The critics of Marcos argued the suc
cession in the Philippines would be
peaceful and democratic if he could be
persuaded by the United States to yield
power.
Taking office, Aquino declared in
Manila that “a new life” had begun in
her country.
In Washington, officials were already
praising her skill in uniting a frag
mented opposition to Marcos during
the election and her use of the Roman
Catholic church and various volunteer
groups to get her message across to the
electorate.
The United States is willing to help
with financial assistance. But, officials
say, it will be up to the Aquino govern
ment and the Filipino people to deter
mine if the country is caught up in the
new prosperity in Asia.
Its political future is in their hands, as
well.
Barry Schweid is a diplomatic writer
for The Associated Press.
orn
Much of the world must look at
performance with consternation
seems that what really gets the Uni
States angry is not raw, repressive
ists, but Marxists — even those
(iulf credit cards. Especially in bladl w
1 , , ; Media cov
rica, we are proving that given a cn s j tua
between racism and Marxism, we'Qiequate be
choose racism anyday. At the verylelfent’s attitm
we know more about it. i rmer ^
dent, who w
The fight between two of WasMT
ton’s better-known public-relatiofi, 1 ou 8‘)
firms is an apt metaphor lor a | igshington
that’s degenerated into confusi n months c
Where the administration prodaipns are still
universal rights and wrongs and
moral obligation to underwrite an inn
gency, PR men will take you tolundi
argue just the opposite. Like mostoi
Washington issues, the war in An|
has become tax deductible. A freed
fighter’s got to eat, doesn’t he?
ibanon. Oi
rtedly bee
Richard Cohen is a columnist fork
Washington Post Writer’s Group.
G
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Michelle Powe, Editor
Kay Mallett, Managing Editor
Loren Steffy, Opinion Page Editor
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Staff' Writers Tamara Bell, Jay Blinderman,
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Karl Pallmeyer
Staff Artist Mindy Casper
Photo Editor J°hn Makel)
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Anthony Casper, DeanSaito,
Michael Sanchez
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office
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