European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 04, 1980, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 2 George the stars and stripes thursday september 4, 1980 Money spent on defense could Aid world poor the incredible idiocy of inc human race is never More dramatically illustrated than in our obsession with killing each Oiher. We arc the Only species of Ani Mal that engages in mass killing of our own kind. At the present time the human race spends about half a trillion dollars a year on weapons of War hat s about a million Bucks a minute and we arc upping that figure every year. In America s Case we arc now planning on doubling our military expenditures Between now and 1985 and both leading presidential candidates arc trying to outdo each other Over military spending. Beyond spending All that wealth we Are also using up valuable Mineral resources that arc in limited Supply. Ten percent of the chromium Nickel Lead Copper and manganese used in the . Is used by our military. The mind boggles at the thought of what could be done with All that Money for peaceful enterprises. It could help to stamp out infant death starvation illiteracy con 1 2? laminated Waler terminal illnesses and in adequate housing and nutrition. The irony is that much of the military might of the world is used to keep dictators in Power because of popular unrest from the have not within a nation or to keep have not nations from taking things from the have nations. Yet the wealth might better be spent in helping the have not be orc haves. If for example he military dictators in  America Africa and much of Asia spent All thai Money on giving their people Mary Mcgrory a decent life the dictators would not have to be in constant fear of revolution. The same of course could be said for the two great Powei of the world Russia and the . And yet their leadership is even More juvenile in its refusal to abandon la toys of War and iry to live in peace. Looking at Mankind s Long history of warfare it May be impossible for us to kick the genocide habit what a tragedy when you consider what might be in its place. C los Angelet Wiiret Reagan could t leave Vietnam War buried what is Ronald Reagan doing an Why is he doing ill Jimmy Carter is anxious to pin the warmonger Label on him and Reagan is backing right up to him. At the vow convention in Chicago the Republican candidate predictably launched an attack against Carter s failure to main Tain the margin of safety in defense. It was also to be expected that he would launch a new slogan peace through strength to resurrect the arms race. He knows that the Blue Collar vote is out there spoiling to fight the soviets and to regain respect through arms. But Reagan did t leave it at that. He opened up the subject of Vietnam again. George will stealth does t replace by Gap the George Brett trophy for terrific batting by a presidential candidate Ina gust is not going to be awarded. Ronald Reagan who knows that Jimmy Carter s Campaign consists almost entirely of charges that he is Bellicose antiquated and flip managed in one week to Praise american involvement in the Vietnam War voice scepticism about the theory of evolution and use China to dramatize a ticklish problem of diplomatic recognition would he could he should he establish normalized relations with his running mate Reagan said correctly that our cause in Vietnam was Noble. But that subject like the subject of evolution is Large enough to deserve More than Brief off the cuff Venti lation. Our cause was the defense of a Small ally from aggression it was an attempt Lopre vent the horrors that have in fact followed our failure. Reagan understands that Large events cast their shadows Forward and that re assertion of american strength depends in part on americans rejecting the shame they have been told to feel about Vietnam an undertaking that actually was in the words of Eugene Rostow legally morally and strategically. Identical with the korean  regarding Taiwan Reagan s explication was careless but his instinct is sound which is More than can be said for inc  understands that Carter has acted As though peking was doing us a favor by accepting normalized relations a favor for which we should pay much and ask nothing. Such relations arc at least As important to peking As they Are to us. So peking can Jolly Well pay the Price of tolerating decent relations Between the United Stales and an old ally. Instead Carter allowed peking to dictate terms that made the United states party to a Range of niggling humiliations of Taiwan. Regarding Vietnam and Taiwan Reagan has a better Case to make than he has taken care to make. Regarding both he has at least been or re concerned with Honor than politics. The reverse is True of Carter s Campaign. Many americans schooled in cynicism by Carter s manipulation and exploitation of the Iran tragedy and other foreign and defense matters for political gain expect october surprises foreign policy adventures timed to influence the election. Certainly Carter s August surprises were remarkably reckless. His revised nuclear targeting strategy surprised republicans it plagiarized Page 55 of the Republican platform and concedes Reagan s Point about the vulnerability of our land based die rent. It surprised the Secretary of stale who would have liked an Opportunity to shove his oar Inlo the policy making process. It surprised the russians who know Carlsr is not taking the procure ment and other measures necessary to make this new policy More than a campaigns Kneuver. Carter surprised the american legion and anyone else who knows the record he 5 struggling to obscure when he said that instead of building the by bomber he decided to accelerate development of air launched cruise missiles. The truth is that after he killed the a he continued to re Tard the Alum program and has delay edit at least two years. Now the administration has leaked and wildly misrepresented information about some of the most closely kept defense secrets since the Manhattan project. For Security reasons some civilians working on inc invisible aircraft technologies Nave had to agree to allow the government of la their phones actually i Csc new programs some of which May enable aircraft to absorb or otherwise defeat radar detection Are not new. Carter did not Start them and their fruits arc not imminent. But considerations of truth and National Security must Bow to the demands of the Carlsr Campaign. The useful life of any weapon is a function of the enemy s Speed in devising countermeasures. In its desperation to blur its record by advertising hypothetical weapons the administration May have shortened the useful life of any weapons utilizing the so called stealth technologies. Had Carlsr not killed the by there would now be operational squadrons of b is. Because he killed it the United Stales can have nothing comparable until the 1990s. The administration May have con trived to give the impression that it has plans to utilize stealth technologies for an aircraft that will fill the Gap of vulnerability created by its by decision. It do snot. Still Harold Brown the compliant secres Hek says preposterously. Thais Ca the technology for hypothetical air Craft Hal do not exist cannot exist in this decade and probably will never exist if Carter re elected alters Brown uses the present tense for Pete s Sake alter the pm Leary  in is ennui siciely right that the Carter and Mims Lvalion which has killed or delayed every strategic program it inherited and has initiated none now brags about invisible aircraft. What Pray is the audience for that there May be in the vow some overage and overweight warriors who would have no objection to sending the sons of the poor to fight another Jungle engagement when National Honor seems at state. But beyond his immediate audience Are millions of voters who think the War is finally Over. Calling it a Noble cause now is perhaps intended to console those whose sons died in it. But it also  Poison Ous enmity of the years when the country was told by two presidents that . Peace Niks were stabbing our Brave boys in the Back and causing in Dean Rusk s phrase Joy in  does Ronald Reagan want to resurrect that debate Jimmy Carter supported the War while it was going on but ultimately called it  John Anderson came to speak against the War but never to vote against it a record he has since deplored. But who. Except Reagan wants to relive those years does t the Campaign Promise to be negative and hate filled enough with out recalling the burned draft cards the smashed Heads the hurled obscenities the marches the vigils the barricades the generational clashes of the most divisive an detested War in our history to Reagan the lesson of Vietnam is this if we Are forced to fight we must have the Means and the determination to prevail or we will not have what it takes to secure the peace. And while we Are at it let us Tell those who fought in that War that we will never again ask Young men to fight and possibly die in a War our government i afraid to let them  but the question will arise Why is he trying to rehabilitate a limited War unless he wants to prepare the country to fight another one people May be fed up with Carter but not with peace. At least that is one interpretation of the booing received by the freshly minted nominee when he mentioned draft registration at the democratic convention. The lesson for some politicians is that the Vietnam War Cost two presidents their jobs. Lyndon Johnson who prosecuted it pm forced out of the fight for re election by opposition within his party. Richard Nixon who succeeded  have finished out his second term in m peace if he had been willing to end the war3 and thus avoid the wiretapping 0r& i plumbing and the dirty tricks that i were required to prolong it. A Reagan has of course no Hope win people who will be most offended by �., reopening of old wounds although Tome lit i reals cynically talk of the possible Adan. S tags As one of them put it of bar j mindless Lazy 70-year-old in the Vii House who will keep 9-to-5 hour Tad Inot do much harm but Tell them they Are wrong about a Nam and you set them raging and i thinking almost kindly about Jimmy