The sun. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1937-1972, October 19, 1967, Image 2
I’AfiK 2 —'Fhc Newberry Sun, Newberry, S. C., Thursday, October 19, 1967
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COMMENT
on
Men & Things
By J. K. BREEDIN
‘‘Listen, mv children, ami you
shall hear of the midnight role
of Paul Revere," a.^ you will
rememlic
r something in s
chool,
as chi bin
.■n.
N o w 1
will
tell you a
story
that goi’S
; back
to the days
when
I had ret
•ently
ceased to be fed
with a >
poor),
more of le;
ss.
In F. b
rua ry
INKS the 1
'niti d
State-- b;
attles
hip Maine
was
sunk in
Hava
itia harbor.
A
court of
inquiry declared
that
the ship
was
sunk by S|
>a ui'h
author.t u
*1
i.ai n ow ning
and
con; rolling < ‘uba.
The r
lilted
State> de<
dared
wa.- on I
•q>am
and sent a
fleet
to cruise
a bo
ut Cuba.
Spa: n
a 1'" sent
a fb
eel.
In the
course of time
the
Spanish
fleet
entered the
bar-
harbor ol
r Santiago in the
east
ern part
of <
'uba.
William McKinley was Pres
ident and Theodore Roosevelt
was Assistant Secretary of our
Navy.
Our people were somewhat
uneasy because one of our mo.-t
powerful battleships, the Ore
gon, was m or nai San Fran
cisco, on the Pacific coast of
our country.
Now here was the problem:
our fleet was blocking the fleet
of Spain in Santiago harbor
and which impht steam out at
full Speed and escape or do
preat damape to our fleet.
Youi 1 prandfather may recall
that Lt. Richard Hobson of our
Navy, a pallant son of Alaba
ma. undertook a dannp effort
by sailinp bis ship into Santiapo
and sinking - it to block the fleet
of S |
[lain. Unfortunately t. h e
turn
of the
tide caused bis
ship
to swirl
a little, leaving
room
for the
Spanish fleet to
come
ollt.
We
Were in
R overwhelmingly
superior to the Spaniards and
we knew that a dozen heav_\
shells could do preat damapt
to our ship-'.
We m-.-ded more warships,
but the battleship Orepon was
more than ten thousand mile-
a u ay. If the (Uepon could only
pet thir<'! It would have to >aii
all ar.mud ' eiitral and South
America and then .-ai! north
a'nout an eipaa.l distance m or
der to join in r nupht to that
of tin fleet She did SO, but
t hat w as \ e; \ | . p. foils and ris
ky, but In r a: rival seemed ti
make ..re une e p"W er !ban t In
Span : a i'd pad
Look at you) map and ob-
'-eiAi the I'outt of tin 1 Orepotl
and ponder w hat In r arrival
meant. Fuithermore to (trepon
was ppobably our most power
ful ship and if the Spaniards
had overtaken or cut her off
it would have been a disaster.
What isthe difference today?
The Battleship could come thru
the Panama canal from the
Pacific to the Atlantic.
I have passed thru the Pan
ama canal five times, coming
from and pomp to Peru. ll
there were no canal the trip
would be from New York down
to the tip of South America
and then northward toPallao
Most shippinp now comes and
poes thru the canal.
Americans built the canal
and paid t vet y doPar of the
cos!
And thereby hang.- a taby
as they used to say.
North, Central and South
America form a vast wall be
tween the Atlantic and the
Pacific oceans. Men had talk
ed for years about slitting a
canal thru the wall in order to
shorten the distance from Fast
to West and to facilitate trade.
Our uneasiness during the
voyage of the Oregon probably
silenced opposition.
Now where should the canal
be cut? Several routes were
studied. As you will observe
the Isthmus of Panama is a
long narrow arm in the Carib
bean sea.
While all this was under
study and discussion the Pres
ident of the I'nitet States was
oud illustrious Rough Rider,
Theodore Roosevelt, who ac
cording to Mr. I) ooley, tlie
humorist, led the American
Army in Cuba and single hand
ed drove the Spaniards out.
'That, of course, is a bit of
exaggeration.
The people of the Isthmus of
Panama, probably strongly
encouraged by Aemricans de
clared their independence.
Strangely enough Americans
indicated that we would op
pose any effort by the Republic
of Colombia to (|uell the up
rising.
The strip of Panama hen
made a treaty with theUnited
States by which we were per
mitted to cut the canal.
I magine that!
Panama owes her liberty, her
independence, hep very exist
ence to us, but we pay a heav_\
annual rental.
Ponder this: all that region
was a death hole of yellow fev
er. We spent millions of dollars
making Panama safe and sani
tary and Panama calls for
more and more rental money.
Panama is a rich trading ter
ritory today, drawing com
merce from Furope and Asia,
as well as America and South
A merica.
We are about to negotiate
another treaty, in true Amer
ican extravagance; will prob
ably pay more to Panama or
cut another canal at a cost of
a hundred million dollars, prob
ably repeating this same story
with any country of South,
Central op North America with
which we deal.
1 n travelling from N. V to
Callao, Peru, a- I dal a times,
the time now is about nine
days, instead of about ‘JO days
if travelling around South Am
erica anil then coming north to
Callao.
You may be sure, this coun
try. as usual, will pay heavily
exoi bit ant ly ext i a vagant ly.
1 recall the proposal that we
pay for land occupied and re
deemed in France, although we
spent hundreds of millions of
dollars to dpive the (iermans
out.
The Congress holds the purse
—whatever the Congress or
dains will be the law. However
we’ve seen the Fxeeutive
plunge us into a war in Asia
which has cost up to now
about 50 billion dollars, a hun
dred thousand men, and for
what ?
When I read what some good
men say, in defense of our for
ay in Vietnam, I marvel at the
vagaries of men and t h e
idiosyncracies of some men of
sound thinking; ordinapily.
The difference of opinion
may indicate vigorous men
tality; or perhaps mentality
sometimes run off the track.
SENATOR
STRO
HURMOND
Reports
PEOPLE
OTEPKA AND ROSTOW
A brief just Filed before a
- State Department hearing of
ficer for Otto Otepka reveals
that this career State Depart
ment security officer first ran
into trouble in 1960 when he
expressed reservations about a
proposed clearance for Walt
Whitman Rostow.
Twice before, under the Eis
enhower Administration, Ros
tow had been denied a State
Department clearance to handle
sensitive data, and Otepka in
dicated to Dean Rusk and At
torney General Designate Rob
ert Kennedy that he would
probably still evaluate Rostow’s
file in the same manner.
DIFFERENT EFFECTS
This episode had a decidedly
different effect on the careers
of the two principals involved
Rostow was given immediate
clearance as a White House aide
where the only security criter
ion is the President’s say-so; he
moved under this clearance to
the State Department Policy
Planning Council, and is now,
ironically, Special Assistant to
the President for National Se
curity Affairs
; Otepka became the victim of
a scheme which involved per
jury, wire tapping, and charac
ter assassination, in an effort to
remove him from his important
post. Security procedures spelled
out in law and regulation vir
tually collapsed, as “emergency
clearances” and high-level say-
so approvals superseded objec
tive review. In the brief tiled
before the hearing examiner,
Otepka is lighting not only to
get his job hack, hut also to
keep American defense secrets
from the enemy.
There are those today who
hold that the concept of security
clearances is out of date. The
necessity for rigidly adhering to
security procedures should Ik?
obvious, in view of the continu
ing efforts by the Soviet Un
ion to undermine the free world,
and particularly in view of re
cent disclosures. Even as Otto
Otepka’s case comes to a head,
Pritish newspapers have been
Filled with accounts of the dam
age suffered by both Britain
and the United States from the
work of just three British trait
ors. Facts never made public
before show that the Soviet
Union had more access to our
secrets in both World War II
and the Korean War than pre-
\ lously realized.
As a rase in point I refer
to the repeated effort to in-
crea.-e our taxes. Doesn’t it
impress you as conrinonsense
that we should i ( trench, rather
than add to our hurden?
Have
not
we ]•
eai be
(1
a i
1 ime
u
iieli til
e G
ovcnmient
1 s
g!
OSS-
ly
nii'le
ad i n.
g tin
peo|
ile
in
e\-
t r
avagance
1 IVC.
all
what
I’ve
qu
oted
fr
equent
ly:
S e n t ! i
lo ( ‘o
mun I
’ Fs
e!
mas
ran
i lie t
Olios
s.
■nt i
[ill IS,
1 borrow that from the Span
ish, so 111 translate it: ‘‘Com
mon Sense! It is the rarest of
till the senses."
Yeti, verily; it certainly is
not common, for only a few
have it.
It may be noted, in passing,
that our splendid little State
seems to have fallen into the
hands of go-getters. Yes, and
they tire about to get every
thing.
I’m reminded of the story of
the promt, but humble father
who said to a friend, “My boy
has finished college.” And the
friend, asked: “What did he
take.” Everything I had,”
said the proud, but impoverish
ed daddy.
A MASTER SPY
It is now revealed that the
Soviet master spy, Harold Phil-
by easily inFiltrated the highest
levels of British intelligence be
fore he defected to the Soviet
Union. A life-long, dedicated
Communist, Philby posed as a
British patriot to become the
head of the Soviet bureau of the
British intelligence office. In
reality, Philby was spying for
the Soviet Union.
Later he became the trusted
liaison between British intelli
gence and the F.S. Central In
telligence Agency—thus putting
himself in a position to give the
Communists knowledge about
all the general operations of
both major Western intelligence
operations.
Philby’s role was not revealed
even when he tipped off Guy
Burgess and Donald MaeLean,
enabling them to flee to the
Soviet Union. Later on he vol
untarily left Britain and went
to the Soviet Union himself. Al
though officials here and abroad
had passed off Macf^ean’s work
as non-sensitive, the British
newspapers now reveal that a
secret 1956 State Department
report made it clear that Mac-
Lean was the primary channel
for Soviet espionage during the
Korean War.
MAC LEAN AND KOREA
MaeLean was first Secretary
in the British Embassy in Wash
ington, and later head of the
American Department of the
Foreign Office in London. Mac-
Lean had full knowledge of the
fateful American decision to
confine the fighting to Korea
itself, and to permit Red sanc
tuaries above the Yalu River.
General MacArthur complained
bitterly that this hobbling de
cision, and all his strategic
troop movements, were known
immediately by the enemy.
Lax security by the British
thus was one important factor
that led to the indecisive stale
mate in Korea. Moreover, our
failure to win the war in Ko
rea is the chief reason why we
are being forced to fight the
Communists again in Vietnam.
The British experience illus
trates that strict security prac
tices must be kept up contin
uously. It is not necessary to
assume that a person denied a
.security clearance is disloyal.
As long as human beings handle
sensitive secrets, the element
of risk is always a factor.
Nevertheless, that risk in
creases in direct proportion as
known elements of risk are ig
nored. The granting of a secur
ity clearance to anyone with
out a full field investigation is
contrary to sound and accepted
practices and is a conscious
flouting of the Nation’s security.
Otto Otepka has laid his entire
career on the block in a cour
ageous effort to make America
understand this danger.
New rules for
game hunting
A revised system of regula
tions for the game manage
ment areas will allow some
small game hunting on Hunt
Units One and Two, the Wild
life Resources Department has
announced.
Small game seasons in man
agement areas of Unit-One-
Uhester, Fairfield, Laurens,
Newberry, Lancaster, Union,
Kershaw, York and Spartan
burg counties-will be the same
as those for the counties, ex
cept that there will be no small
game hunting during the big
game season.
In Hunt Unit Two-parts of
Edgefield, McCormick, Green
wood and Abbeville counties-
tho original game management
areas of Forks-Key Bridge and
Parsons Mountain will be clos
ed to small game hunting until
the big game season opens.
After the big game season
opens, the season on small game
will lie open except during the
big game hunts.
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