The Texas Observer Nov. 25, 1966
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The Texas Observer Nov. 25, 1966 A Journal of Free Voices A Window to The South 25c EMI my RC is all the sums he has not counted: subtract us into nakedness and night again, and you shall see begin in Crete four thousand years ago the love that ended yesterday in Texas. The seed of our destruction will blossom in the desert, the alexin of our cure grows by a mountain rock, and our lives are haunted by a Georgia slattern, because a London cutpurse went unhung. Each moment is the fruit of forty thousand years. The minute-winning days, like flies, buzz home to death, and every moment is a window on all time. Photograph and design: Bill Bridges Trrfigil MOSE Alpine, Texas Ranch Road 385 Alpine is a fresh lust, Was fine in the afternoon of November 2nd Undesiccated steer, Because the bright sun shone on the sheen of green Air of a spatial dust, In the leaves of the stunted sideroad trees, and brought Discovery of Coors beer, Fire from the tips of the leaves the very last night's Freezing air had barely nipped and reddened, and Place where eroded rocks A docile family of deer stood blending Are seldom touched by rain On the left into the land of caliche crops, And local saddlejocks Gnarled junipers, and tufts of bleached buff grasses, And a single deer in the right roadside turned Seldom meet a train, Its tail and incredibly gracefully flowed as I slowed Yet Sunset Limited Over a patch of the endless barbed wire fence, Can intersect full moon And the road rolled, and distant mountain vistas Appeared and were framed and unframed by shifting mesas Rising, as if a dead And my car gleamed rubiest red as it went forward Man met himself at noon, From above Mountain Home past Harper to under London. And a man can go from there Then clouds took hold, took over. Cautiously Passing a Brahma bull stolidly standing Down to Big Bend, then back Broadside across my lane near the Llano River There, and for six days swear (One side of most Cattle Guards one finds Loose Livestock), He has no inner lack. I took dull roads toward home. —Thomas Whitbread An editorial: Mood and eitterneoo And when people are entering upon a Hanson Baldwin has now made another science of the Senate for many decades, war they do things the wrong way round. prediction. "Military men in Saigon and but not, alas, on Vietnam. In Oregon Mark Action comes first, and it is only when Washington," he said, estimate that the Hatfield, who is against escalation, won. they have already suffered that they begin total U.S. troops "that will ultimately be But we also know General Curtis LeMay's to think. needed [in Vietnam] vary from 600,000 to solution — that we bomb the Vietnamese Athenians to the Spartans, in Sparta, 750,000 men." back "into the Stone Ages." before the outbreak of the Peloponnesian The other way is to determine to nego- War: Thucydides. 4 tiate; to want to negotiate, as Eisenhower President Lyndon Johnson of Texas has wanted to negotiate peace in Korea, and In June, 1965, Senator Fulbright went arrived now at a crisis in his and his na- did. 0 melancholy fact!—but there it is: into his office in Washington one morn- tion's life; a crisis, too, in the life of the The evidence stretched from here to the ing and read, "with quickening interest," world, if he now once again makes this Gulf of Tonkin declares that up till now his biographer Tris Coffin says, a story still "a wider war." President Johnson has not wanted to by Hanson Baldwin, The New York Times' His own crisis is•both political and per- negotiate, but only to win on the mili- military writer, predicting that American sonal. Unless the Vietnam fighting has tary's terms; or if, sporadically, he has troops in Vietnam would be increased to stopped by 1968, he will be in deep trou- wanted to negotiate, he has not been a full battle army of 250,000 to 300,000 ble for re-election. Personally his whole serious enough, or patient enough, in that men. hurricane-like self has been committed desire, to give negotiations time to get That was incredible. It had been holy to the course of the war's escalation and ahead. The closest, coolest scholars of the writ in Washington that we must never victory without concessions. How, then, history of the last three years conclude get bogged down in a land war in Asia. is the fighting to be stopped by 1968? that just as the climate has warmed up Even MacArthur said so. This news Only two ways suggest themselves. The for negotiations, each time the Johnson meant, as Coffin said, "a drastic change first is the way of passion, the second, Administration has blasted away with new of policy and a new escalation — without of reason. escalation, new bombing. [President Johnson] consulting Congress The far right wing and the military men President Johnson must now, for his or its leaders." Only a year earlier Secre- Hanson Baldwin is quoting want escala- country and for his own sake, achieve tary McNamara had said no one in gov- tion, and more escalation. They seek that more self-detachment than he has had be- ernment believed the addition or intro- "wider war." They believe in it. They lust fore. Yes, if he negotiates now, there will duction of U.S. ground combat troops in for it. Among the important winners in be some "I told you so's," and men he has South Vietnam "would favorably affect the elections just concluded, only Ronald berated and despised will feel that they the situation there." Yet Hanson Bald- Reagan in California is suspected of still have been shown right. But only by pul- win's prediction was right. wanting to turn Vietnam into a parking ling back from the brink—only by seeing In the Times of November 12, 1966 — lot. In Illinois Charles Percy was more that he has been acting out a Frontier just a flick of days past the off-year elec- restrained about the war than Senator way of thinking about the great, good tions so disastrous for the Democrats — Paul Douglas, who has been the con- world—only by refusing to risk the life of this world in nuclear holocast to prove himself right — can Lyndon John- THE TEXAS OBSERVER son reclaim his career and his nation from © Texas Observer Co., Ltd. 1966 tragic disaster. A Journal of Free Voices A Window to the South 60th YEAR — ESTABLISHED 1906 4 Citizens may be able to take heart at Vol. 58, No. 22 November 25, 1966 new signs that President Johnson may Incorporating the State Observer and the selves written, and in publishing them the edi- now be more serious about peace in Viet- East Texas Democrat, which in turn incor- tor does not necessarily imply that he agrees nam than he has been before. James Res- ported the State Week and Austin Forum- with them, because this is a journal of free ton writes: Advocate. voices. We will serve no group or party but will hew "He did not pick Llewellyn Thompson hard to the truth as we find it and the right Subscription Representatives: Arlington, George N. Green, 416 Summit, Apt. to go to Moscow as his ambassador in as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole -41, CR 7- 0080; Austin, Mrs. Helen C. Spear, 2615 Pecos, order to articulate a more belligerent poli- truth, to human values above all interests, to HO 5-1805; Corpus Christi, Penny Dudley, cy. It is understood that he personally the rights of man as the foundation of democ- 1224% Second St., TU4-1460; Dallas, Mrs. Cor- racy; we will take orders from none but our dye Hall, 5835 Ellsworth, TA 1-1205; Denton, decided to offer to get all US troops out own conscience, and never will we overlook or Fred Lusk, Box 8134 NTS, 387-3119; Ft. Worth, of Vietnam after the fighting stops, misrepresent the truth to serve the interests Dolores Jacobsen, 3025 Greene Ave., WA 4-9655; against the advice of some of his aides. of the powerful or cater to the ignoble in the Houston, Mrs. Shirley Jay, 10306 Cliffwood Dr., human spirit. PA 3-8682; Lubbock, Doris Blaisdell, 2515 24th Also, it is reported that in recent weeks Editor and General Manager, St., Midland, Eva Dennis, 4306 Douglas, OX 4- the President has been questioning Secre- Ronnie Dugger. 2825; Odessa, Enid Turner, 1706 Glenwood, EM Partner, Mrs. R. D. Randolph. 6-2269; San Antonio, Mrs. Mae B. Tuggle, 531 tary of State Rusk and Secretary of De- Associate Editor, Greg Olds. Elmhurst, TA 6-3583; Cambridge, Mass., Victor fense McNamara more sharply about Business Manager, Sarah Payne. Emanuel, Adams House C112. where this war is leading. ." Associate Manager, C. R. Olofson. The Observer is published by Texas Observer If these signs mean that the President Contributing Editors, Elroy Bode, Bill Bram- Co., Ltd., biweekly from Austin, Texas. En- mer, Larry Goodwyn, Harris Green, Dave Hic- tered as second-class matter April 26, 1937, at is considering whether he may have been key, Franklin Jones, Lyman Jones, Larry L. the Post Office at Austin, Texas, under the Act wrong in his Vietnam policy and is looking King, Georgia Earnest Klipple, Al Melinger, Robert L. Montgomery, Willie Morris, James of March 3, 1879. Second class postage paid at for a way to extricate himself and his Presley, Charles Ramsdell, Roger Shattuck, Austin, Texas.