European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 31, 1969, Darmstadt, Hesse Friday january 31, the stars and stripes William f. Buckley or. Page ame 1 the Navy has replied to in critics by insisting that after the regulation stipulates a,.arid the commanding officer does a to Tail you have to have a court martial even if the purpose of it is to demonstrate that regulation a i Oreali Sulc. The reasoning sounds Good but there is. Static from a bad connection that traces to the widespread suspicion that the Navy is Les interested in regulation a than1 in saddling cmdr Bucher with the blame leh properly should it on the of Navy brass. Regulation in question says i officer should surrender hit. Command without resisting with every Means a hit disposal. A ques Tion that logically Arliw is what is the meaning of the term Selth every Means at his disposal Winston Churchill once John p. Roche Gale anted a nation by talking of fighting on the beaches with Beer bottles. But that was rhetoric and Navy regulations should not Deal with rhetoric or if they do said rhetoric ought hot to cont Lute the basis of courts martial. Cmdr Bucher pointed out that he had at his disposal exactly two so Caliper machine guns that his men could not have mounted the stations without be to instantly demolished by the heavy artillery of the Pur Tuung gunboat is that in a we the Odds wire such As David himself would not have accepted. The corollary question is Why was the Pueblo thus in equipped the record apparently shows repeated requests by cmdr. Bucher to give him additional Arma ment requests denied on the grounds of insufficient funds. Lbs globalism merely a myth a number of resumes of the Johnson administration have re iterated the cliche that president Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of state Dean Rusk shifted from John f. Kennedy s Calm prudent approach to the cold War to messianic anti communism and irresponsible Rusk has Long been a particular target for his alleged refusal to recognize that communism is no longer Arthur Schlesinger jr., Richard Goodwin and John Kenneth Galbraith have had u grand time delivering variations on this theme. Initially the Case is impressive until one real izes that they Are really citing one another. Perhaps it is time to break out of this conjurer s Circle and look at the record. I hate to bore readers with Mere facts but sometimes myths become so Well established that there is no other Way to Cut through the Mist. While it is Clear that Kennedy s rhetorical style was vastly differ ent from Johnson a i submit that in substantive terms Johnson was no More or less messianic or Globa Islic than his predecessor. Here As a first example is president Kennedy addressing the Secretary general of nato on april 3, 1961 the years ahead will demand of us All Cour age sacrifice and the will to seize every Opportunity to secure and to Advance human Liberty. In cooperation with one another and All those around the Globe who believe in the Freedom of Man we can and we will Suc later in the year before the american society of newspaper editors Kennedy discussing the Bay of pigs invasion really turned on. Stating flatly that the United states was prepared to the opinion Jap Preed in the column and cartoon m this pane a prent Thoie of the author and Are in no Way to a con uttered a repro Entink the View of the Star and Stripe Ruelf or of the United 8tate government. Act unilaterally if necessary to prevent communist penetration of the Western hemisphere he continued should that time Ever come we do not intend to be lectured on intervention by those whose character was stamped for All time on the bloody streets of Budapest the defeat of the anti Castro invasion is not the first time that communist tanks have rolled Over Gal Lant men and women fighting to redeem the Independence of their Homeland. Nor is it by any Means the final episode in the eternal struggle of Liberty against tyranny anywhere on the face of the Globe including Cuba itself. It is clearer than Ever that we face a relentless struggle in every Corner of the Globe that goes far beyond the clash of armies or even nuclear on May 25, 1961, John Ken Nedy Laid it on the line to a joint session of Congress. We stand for Freedom he said and continued that is our conviction for ourselves that is our Only commitment to others. No Friend no Neutral and no adversary should think otherwise. We Are not against any Man or any nation or any system except As it is hostile to Freedom. Nor am i Here to present a new military Doc Trine. I am Here to promote the Freedom whether or not one agree with this posture is irrelevant. The Point is that the scope of John Fitzgerald Kennedy s anti communism was never surpassed by Lyn Don Johnson for the simple Rea son that it was impossible to be More explicit in stating our world wide obligation to the cause of Freedom. I defy anyone to find any where in the Johnson Canon statements of american purpose More comprehensive than those of Kennedy. The question of whether they were based on simplistic anti communism or naive globalism will be explored on an other occasion. Of Tow King feature Syndicate whose fault then was the derivative disaster and then the strange question Ariter Why was t the ship scuttled the answer Given was that it would have required 2 a hours to sink the ship. I find this Datum fascinating since As a Small boat skipper i have spent considerable Energy. Over the year keeping boats afloat the sinking of which i have always assumed would be extremely easy to contrive should the spirit Ever move me. Why want the Pueblo equipped with a manhole sized sea cock which when unscrewed would have let in korean water at a Speed sufficient to sink the Pueblo in a few min utes the further air Gumell that the depth of the water was a Mere 180 feet or so that not even the sinking of the Pueblo would have provided the ultimate before the fiasco purity is hardly a Complete explanation. To begin with it in t All that easy to raise a boat from 110 feet of water. More Over much of the extra delicate equipment would be ruined beyond recognition after the Brief est sojourn under water. For a third even if the ship had been exhumed the net psychological situation would have been far better the commander and his Crew having clearly done their Best under the unhappy Circum stances. What seeps out of the sordid and poignant Story is structural incompetence. Sending out the ship without adequate Protection the hours of delay in get Ting direction from Washington the absence of effective Protection surely they might have car ried on Board an Lentsy Weensy atom bomb or a James Bon the absence of effective scuttling devices the incredible absence of self destruction devices. All of these failings Are Thole of naval engineers and naval authorities not of men who command ships. Cmdr. Bucher s ordeal began after he was taken captive and it is my own notion that face to face with men he described As animals which is a Mark of the residual generosity of or. Bucher he behaved As heroically As any Man who Ever won the medal of Honor. The special sadness of the situation lies in the publicity being Given to one aspect of the drama at the expense of the other. To suppose that or. Bucher is guilty of delinquent conduct in handing Over the Pueblo to the enemy is Akin to blaming one s local electrician in new York for the great blackout of 1965. C Washington Star Syndicate pfc in Lii gift pm 111 w r m a. V Jar Var you mean you be forgotten already Clayton Fritchey republicans Are losing is the United states of Amer Ica a Republic rather than a democracy was that the intent of the founding fathers does the growth of democracy doom the Republic yes answered or. Lloyd Bailey the faithless elector from North Carolina who cast his vote for George Wallace though he was elected on a slate committed to Nixon. Bailey a member of the John Birch society gave his views to a Senate subcommittee holding hearings on legislation to abolish the electoral College and elect the president by direct popu Lar vote. The notion that the . Is not a democracy because it is a re Public struck some of the senators As nonsense but this idea is by no Means confined to Bircher. Many americans perhaps Mil Lions share the Bailey View in one degree or another. It has been expounded by such articulate advocates As columnists William of Buckley and James a Kilpatrick. For rears West Wott Pegler carried on a crusade against the new Deal on the grounds that it was trying to convert a Republican form of government into a democracy. Ours is not a democracy Kilpatrick said. It never has been and the myth that we Are governed by majority Rule is Fust that a he tells of a woman asking Benjamin Franklin what the new Constitution would provide and the Good doctor re plying a Republic if you can keep it that it is True that the word Republic was much in fashion in the late 18th Century As a term de scribing governments opposed to autocratic Rule. To that extent the . Is and always has been a Republic but from the begin Ning it has also been much More than that for the founders Cre ated at Philadelphia in 1787 the world s first constitutional democracy. Today the term Republic sometimes like democracy has been appropriated and corrupted by so Many modern totalitarian governments that it has lost much of its meaning and flavor. Dictatorships throughout the communist world Are nearly All called republics As Are most of the Mili tary tyrannies of latin America. It is argued that the . Is not a democracy because the people speak through elected representatives rather than directly and be cause the founders put some limitations on suffrage protected minorities from abuse by the majority and created the electoral College to help elect the presi Dent. Through the amendment machinery however the framers of the Constitution made it possible to enlarge the democratic process As the Young nation gained experience. So every adult has now been enfranchised by the abolition of slavery women s suffrage direct election of senators and the introduction of primaries. Soon the 18-year-Olds probably will be added and if Congress and the people approve a pro posed new amendment to eliminate the electoral College pop ular government in the . Will be at its Zenith. Most of the Republic fanciers oppose he Extension of popular government. Or. Bailey for in stance told the Senate thai our founding fathers went to great lengths to keep us from having a democracy because they knew no democracy in history had sur Vived. If the electoral College is abolished or emasculated we will be transformed into a Politi Cal
