European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 31, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes columns Martin Gottlieb simple truth is he did t wont to go to Vietnam i was graduated from College toward the end of the 1960s. So was Dan Quayle. I knew i had a problem. Dan Quayle new he had a problem. My problem was that when an unmarried american male was graduated fro College in those Days he lost his student deferment and became prospective Deadbeat. So was Dan Quayle s. I decided the National guard would Benice. So did Dan Quayle. My main reason was that i did not want to be dead meat. Dan Quayle does t give that As his main reason. I Felt a Little queasy in the soul about trying to get into the guard i knew some body would go to Vietnam in my place probably somebody with less reason than i to willingly Bear the Burden of this nation s mistakes. I made the decision that there were some things i would do to avoid Vietnam and some things 1 would t do. I Don know if that makes any moral sense. I d bet that Quayle made precisely the Sam decision. Would i have used contacts can t say for sure. I asked the National guard whether it had any vacancies. It laughed. I went away. Three months after graduating iwas drafted into the army. I was one of the fortunate draftees iwas never sent to Vietnam. I know i have More in common with Dan Quayle than with Vietnam vets. In fact future sen. Quayle and i Bot spent the summer of 1969 at fort Bragg n.c., which As he says is very hot. But not that hot. He says he is proud of having  be thought about whether i was proud the Issue being did i actually serve my country i spent my time writing whatever Boring stuff they told me to write for Mili tary newspapers that having been printed just sat there pretty much like the rest ofus. I did serve mashed potatoes when had Kitchen duty. Before i could decide whether those activities would justify Pride on my part it turned out that what Dan Quayle did in William f. Buckley i. Fox9tf a. A  & cd. A i a -sgfe2 a rot la / / the guard was write Boring stuff for Mili tary newspapers. So i guess i can be proud too. At any rate i did 21 months of Active duty and i certainly would have preferred to do six even with the Reserve require ment he had and i did t. I did t know any retired generals or managing editors. And i certainly did t know a retired general who was the Man aging editor of a Large newspaper owned by my family. Sen. Quayle says i did what any nor Mal person would do at that age. You Call Home to Mother and father and say i like to get in the National guard " hmm. Do you suppose he really thinks that s an option for any Normal person if i had done that my Parent would have told me to Call or. And mrs. Quayle. But i m not mad. Bygones and All  is unfair the higher you Start out the better it s Likely to be. I was fortunate enough to have a degree in journalism when i was drafted which i suppose pretty much guaranteed me a cushy Job. The government should have tried to make the War affect All economic classes somewhat evenly but except for treat ing everybody like scum in Basic training it did t. Dan Quayle and i both benefited from that failure to different degrees. That s life. But 1 though he has discussed this matter again and again Quayle still has not said i did not want to go to  he will apparently go to any length to avoid speaking the simple truth. 2 what i Don t understand is How somebody like Dan Quayle could support a policy of sending other americans non volunteers to die in Vietnam. Why should they have died because it was important if it was important then the Dan Quayle should have gone. Actions speak and Quayle s spoke Audi Bly. He ignored them. C new York times Bush s hesitancy on ski is a cause for alarm something is going on that you and i should know about. The initial explosion hit us on Friday morn ing vice president George Bush s new York times interview aboard his plane on the subject of the strategic defense initiative was the front Page news. It could hardly have been less than that in Moscow. It gets complicated but we learn that in recent strategy sessions the Bush people came to the conclusion that ski Star wars the space shield is not a winning political Issue and therefore should not be Central to the political Campaign. This is a strange conclusion to reach Given a fairly recent poll. It tells us incredibly that 64 percent of the american people Are under the impression that we have already implemented the strategic defense system. And when asked do you want the . Government to protect America against soviet missiles 90 percent an swered yes. Now the conservative weekly human events reveal that there was a strange tug of War during the week be fore the convention in new Orleans. Bay Buchanan serving on the platform committee fashioning the re publican statement on defense was Adamant that the platform should commit the party to deploying a Strate Gic defense system by 1992. Sen. John Tower materialized and said that the Bush forces would prefer As soon As  to this Buchanan replied that he information was that we were already positioned to de ploy a preliminary ground to air system so that to speak of deploying a system As soon As possible when we Are talking about four years was on the order of committing ourselves to painting the White House As soon As Possi ble. It turned out to be a formidable contest but the ayes had it and the platform incorporates that commitment. But then George Bush in his acceptance speech was rather step fatherly in his treatment of ski referring Only generally to our determination to continue to refine our defense technology. That caught the attention of and disappointed those who believe strongly in  were however relieved when As recently As two Days before the explosion Bush said to a rally in Losangeles let me Tell you something the appalling Dan Ger of nuclear missiles is no fantasy it is a Mph Mare. He Dukakis would leave America totally defenceless against missiles and i will not. I will go Forward with the strategic defense initiative and make a safer  but then the very next Day in his extemporaneous interview with Gerald m. Boyd of the new York times Bush said that an ski system would be most awfully expensive and that he thought what we ought to do is simply to continue our research and see where it was taking us. Now Here is a key distinction the critical distinction for anyone who has the least familiarity with the debate. If you use the word research without also using the word testing you adopt Flat out the soviet position. The reason for this is that no research is going to take you where you need to go in the development of a space shield without testing. And the whole argument Over the interpretation of the abm treaty has to do with whether space based testing is or is not permitted. Answer it is permitted in the opinion of the Legal counsel of the stat department with overwhelming historical plausibility. And if it is not permitted then the abm treaty should be rescinded which could be done six months after Bush takes office opponents of ski use the argument that Only research is permissible and their other argument is that the Cost of ski would be outlandish. They like to use the figure one trillion dollars because it has an imperative ring never mind that it has nothing to do with  then Bush said in the same interview in which he used research without using testing that he feared that ski would be very  he gave the ene Mies of the system the two arguments they most frequently use. Those combined with Bush s implied suggestion that the workability of ski is problematic Havethe effect of sinking official approval of the program. The heritage foundation Folk in Washington report that this is very much the doing of air Force chief of staff Gen. Larry Welch who wants the Money for Theair Force. I have seen Gen. Welch in action and i resist any imputation of factional Small mindedness to  then i would say the same thing about George Bush which leaves us asking the question what is going on Universal press Syndicate