Friday. January 27, I967

ICAILE‘I’ AND ILACK

Howard Motfett. Vietnam War Correspondent.
Writes First Article of War Evaluation Series

By Howard Moltetl
The Collegiate Press Service

15]). NOTE: Howard Mol-
lett, 1965-66 editor at the Yale
Daily News, has, for several
months, been a full-time cor-
respondent in South Vietnam
for the Collegiate Press Serv-
ice. This article is a compila-
tion or his early impressions.
His report will appear period-
Ically in the 5&3.

SAlGON (CPS) — Last year
at this time I was writing edi-
toriols calling the American
war in Vietnam unjust, illegal,
and antidemocratic. I could
Still make a case for the last
two (it has occurred to me
since that a just war is a con
tradiction in terms). But alter
a month in Vietnam 1 am clear
on one thing: nothing here is
that simple, nothing is that
black»and-white.

Those who talk about Viet-
nam in these terms, and on the
other hand those who mouth
cliches about defending democ<

racy and treedom against Com-
munist aggression, have re-
duced one of the most compli-
cated and agonizing situations
in modern history to shihbo»
leths. Worse, they have suc-
ceeded in making these Shib-
boleths virtually the only terms
of the public debate on Web
nam.

There is a struggle going on
in South Vietnam between two
groups of people, each of them
numbering several million.
Two separate societies coexist
within the same national boun«
daries. Each is trying to or-
ganize, strengthen and sank
tion itself while weakening or
destroying the other.

Saigon Life

Saigon itseli is a jaded city
oi 2.5 million people crammed
into space meant tor halt that
numberr There are no innocents
here, not even little kids. Ev-
erything happens in the streets.
and a ten-year-old Vietnamese
girl is likely to know more
about the way adults behave in
the dark or under Stress than
a zoyearold American college
boy.

For lack of private toilet fa-

cilities, many urinate or defe-
cate in alloys and streets A
year ago piles of garbage lay
rotting on Saigon’s main boule-
vards, and even now in some
places the trucks can’t can it
away last enough.

Saigon wakes early. Curlew
ends at 4 a.m. and the ten great
markets of the capital open tor
business A stream of peasants
brings chickens, pigs, rice,
vegetables and lruit into town.
By noon all the food has been
bought, the central market is
deserted, and rats the size ol
kittens scuttle along the cement
gutters gnawing on vegetable
nuska and other refuse.

G.I. Burs

0n Tu Do (Freedom) Street,
once a fashionable office and

shopping district, scores of bars
now cater to American 51's.
The dull, inevitable pump of
Nancy Sinatra or the Beatles
lasts lrom three in the after
noon to eleven at night, when
military police move through to
hustle Iingerers home beiore
curfew.

Inside, a young air cavalry-
man down from An Kile tells
a sadrlooking girl the same
war story he told another girl
last night, and wishes he were
telling it to the girl back home,
For her part, the bar girl tells
him in broken English about
her divided iamily — maybe
the same story she told last
night, maybe not — and won-
ders it he wtll take her home.
She made more money last
week than her lather did last
year. Prices are higher now
though

Outside, teenage boys peddle
pornography and young men
with motor scooters and old
men With pedi b5 offer a ride
home, and a “nice young girl
— cheap."

Refugees
The refugees and the poor
live in their alleys on the per-
imeter oi the middle-class city.
These thoroughtares, some ol
them all at three feet wide,
wind in interminable mazes
wherever there is ground to
build a house. Despite the wear-
iness, the closeness and the
heat, Saigon’s culture has a

 

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spontaneity that twenty years
or war has not stamped out.
French influence is still evi-

dent everywhere. These city
boys who have managed to
avoid the draft oiten affect
French styles in dress, hair-
cuts, and speech. Well-stocked
French bookstores hear testi-
mony to a large class of people
who continue to enjoy European
literature for its own sake. At
this moment. controversy rages
over whether to permit the
French to maintain their pres-
tigious lycees, and whether or
not (0 substitute Vietnamese ——-
or English — tor French as
the language of instruction in
the universities.

Performing Ans

The periorming arts have
been hit hard by the war, but
every week or so a concert or
recital is announced, and Viet-
namese plays draw large audi-
ences.

Buddhist activity has waned
considerably since Prime Min-
ister Ky‘s successiul crackdown
on the smigglc Movement in
Hue last spring.

Political Interns’
Applications Due

Grihhell students interested
in practical politics may apply
for two internship programs in
the near future. Students whose
home residence is in Iowa are
eligible for one of sixteen politi-
cal internships providing tor an
expense-paid week in Washing—
ton, DC, at some time between
March 15 and September 1,
1967. As guests of Iowa Con-
gressmen, the interns will ob-
serve activities in congression-
a1 offices. attend committee
meetings and sessions of the
U.S. Congress, meet political
leaders of the legislative and
executive branches, and visit
the national headquarters of the
party or their choice. The dead-
line tor applications is Feb. lo.

Juniors and seniors interested
in a career in local government
are eligible to compete for 20
internships in city government
ottered by the International
City Managers’ Association {or
this summer. The internship
will he designed to provide a
meaninglul work experience in
actual operations of city gov-
ei‘nment. Applications should he
submitted by March 1.

For turther inlormation stu<
dents should contact C. Edwin
Glimuur (political science).

 

 

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