Basic HTML Version
I~~-
slfi4
by
Stanley
R. Rader
· Cairo,
April 22:
·
This moming's Cairo newspapers an-
nounced that President Thieu had re–
signed and: brealcing bis almost stoic
silence, placed the blame for the agonies
of bis countrymen squarely on tbe
United States. He. charged the U.S. had
been "deaf and blind" to bis appeals
concerniog the Nortb.
Vietnam~se
buildup in flagrant violation of the P4ris
Peace Accord - vlolations dating fr9m
January 1973.
Yesterday, we llew over Saigon
as
we
headed for Cairo after departing Ma–
nila. Captain Black, our pilot and
former Lieutenant Colone\ in the U.S.
Air
Force, ealled our attention to Saigon
below and mentioned that we almost
surely would not ·be passing · that way
again in the foreseeable future (we
~re
not granted clearance over North Korca,
North Vietnam, tbe U.S.S.R., the
People's Republie of China and Caro·
bodia). Captain Black later informed me
that the air controUers were unusuaUy
solicitpus and almost "wistful" as they
wished
us
a
good
•triP'
to yet·•anotber
troubled': spoF on this
aJJ
too troubled
globe.
lt is hard for us not to feel particularly
concemed about the fate of President
Thieu and many of tbe govemroent.
education and culturalleaders wbom we
Tbe s1arving people carne toward that
road from the remole arcas. Many never
rcached it; they díed of starvation and
discase on the way. Many wbo did reacb
it Iay down beside it and died. Others
packed into the villages and perisbed
in
abject conditions. Some drowned
in
the
streetS when the rain carne because tbey
were unable to
lift
themselves from the
ftooding pavements.
1
went to Ethiopia and saw hundreds
of wretcbed feUow human beings in
"camps" whicb were so horrifying as 10
defy description.
Part
of the ground on
which 1 stood was just a shallow cov–
ering for pits in whicb the ghasUy ema–
ciated corpses bad been piled in
hapbazard fashion, unknown, uniden–
tified. 1 saw places where graves of chil–
dren had been ripped open by ravenous
byenas w,ho tore the cloth covering off
tbe bodies arid pieked the carcasses
clean.
1 saw men, women and children
stripped of every vestige of human dig–
nity.and self-respect - and 1cried at my
inability to do anything meaningful
about it. After the grief carne the night–
mares.
Tbe terrible thing is that, from a.\1 the
evidence, the deaths need never bave
taken place on the scale that tbey did.
Let us not delude ourselves. Famine
bappens, and famine talcos a frigbtful
toU. But in the. case of Ethiopia, there
were warning signs which went, un-
WEEK ENDINO MAY 24, 1975
knew, as weU as the millions of ordinary
men, women and childrenofSouth Viet–
nam - an arca we visited frequenUy as
we pla!'ned educational projects for tbe
future.
lt
has been of sorne relief to leam
today that Presiden! Ford has been em–
powered by the Congress to send Ma–
rines and to use air power to evacuate
sóme Vietoamese as well
as
Americans.
Many of the· world's política! lcaders
are now astutely concemed about the
debacle in Cambodia and South Viet–
nam
and the disequilibrium or vacuum
that may result from a dirninished U.S.
presence in the Far East, as weU as the
reliability of the United States in the
future.
President Marcos.of the Philippines
is
o¡¡e
such concomed leader. On our arri–
vallast weck in Manila, we were able to
hear ltis address at the
Unive~Sily
of the
Philippines. )ie called for. an urgent and
intensive exarninatiol) of the prospects
for the security of the area as
a
wbole
and the individual nations which com–
piOSe"tbe ·regi~frem-.Japa~'llS!rália.
He referred to the dcvelopmentS as
grave and unexpected and stressed that
they raised policy· questions of utmost
importance to the
worldas a whole.
Will the U.S. mainta.in the presence
necessary to offset the growing power of
beeded al the :top. Outside help could
and should llave beco sought sooner.
lnside Ethiopia, sorne of !hose who
could see the . approaching disaster
alerted officials ,wbo could bave done
something to diminisb the seale of the
tragedy. But carelessness, neglect, and,
inevitably, sorne degree of cupidity saw
to it lhat tbe warnings were ignored
so
that when at last help was sougbt, it was
too late. Add to that the fact that the
main responsewas too late in coming.
So
the people and the animals died by
the tens of tbousands. Tbe vultures be–
carne
so
satiated that they grew fat and
choosy, and eorpses and carcasses. !ay
wbere they feU and rotted
so
that the
síencb filled the air.
Cenainly heroic volunteelS tried their
best as they worked under the most de–
II)-O.ralizing difficulties and livlng condi•
tions. But tbe tide of disease and death
swcpt through the land in the north and
central arcas - and in Addis Ababa for
a long time the wcalthy werc untouched
and unmoved.
Tbe efforts of the lheo govemrnent
under Emperor Halle Selassie were no
doubt weU meant. But they, too, were
pathetica'Uy late and patbeticaUy in–
adequate. Finally carne the evidence of
the so-ealled creeping coup.
For a few moñtbs it seemed to many
of us that a modero miracJe mjght be
about to happen in Ethiopia - a blood–
less -revolution in . which necessary
tbe U.S.S.R. and China? Can a positive
response to aggression be expected from
a nation leaning more toward isolation–
ism and concerned more about its eco–
nomic problems at home? Will the U.S.
live up to itS existing treaty obligations?
Will Congress
try
to limit the j>ower of
future presidents in other arcas
as
it did
in Augus\ 1973 in lndochina? Will fu–
ture presidents, and
Mr.
Ford, choose to
exercise tbeir powers under the Consti–
tution or under an e>tisting treaty in the
face of an election or a bostile Congress?
How would the U.S. act, for exarnple,
if
the Philippines were suddenly con–
fronted by a major foreign inspired and
supported effort to overthrow '!be gov- ·
ernment of the . Philippines? These are
tbe questions that Presiden! Marcos has
raised, despite repeated asswances (rom
Presiden! Ford and Mr. Kissinger.
But do these concems not secm legiti–
mate
1
when Presiden! Ford has just
ealled for a "new agenda
for
the fu–
ture
...
u
and stated that
.....
we can and
should help olhers to help thernselves,
but the fate of responsible men and
women .everywhere in the 6nal deeision
restS in their own bands"? The U.S. has
not abandoned the world nor has it lost
its place in the world as a resúlt of the
suocess of the Communists in IodOGhioa.
Furtherrnore, the nations of the Far Easl
have been immeasurably strengtbened
during the past two decades and are
much better prepared to resist interna!
pces_sures .as a .result 9.f economic and
social reforrn.
In
fact. it see!D5 t,bat
pe~-,
baps too mueh
emphasis
has been placel!
oo lhe recent developments in ln–
docbiná by our own govemment and
media when one realizes that many in–
formed leadelS throughoul the world
bad written off Soutb Vietoam a.nd
chango would be effected without the
needless talcing of life..
Kenneth Kaunda, President of Zam–
bia, had said in 1965 that tbe "inability
of thqse in power to stiU the voices of
their
own
consciences is the great force
.Jcading to desired changes." One had
hope of the púracle happening
in
Ethiopia.
But then carne the executions, the
me.rciless slayings that once again
shocked thinking people the world over.
Wbat took place, and the reasons,
can
be viewed and interpreted in many
ways. My own eonviction is that no mal–
ter bow well-meaning the original archi–
tects of the overthrow may have been,
they suddenly found tbernselves in pos–
session of a power they did not know
bow to use - political power.
They were military pelSOnnel, un–
schooled in the craft and art of politics,
untutored in political morality, and
na'ive in their plans for restructuring tbe
política! machinery needed to steer the
affairs ofa nation.
Tbeirs was a nation in awful travail.
Its problerns were deep-rooted, highly
complex and widely diversified. Bieker–
ing, frustratioo, impatience and in–
eptitude exacted their price. PelSQnaJ
ambition, the need for revengo, the sim–
plistic idea that force bf arms and terror
tactics could rorce througb solutions
compounded and quiekened the deterio-
. ration of an already desperate situation.
And the idea lhat the Eritrcan "prob-
Carnbodia long ago and were more con–
cerned with our preoccupation with
Soutb Vietn.am and its éffect on our own
social fabric.
Rcalists for the most ¡>art reeognize
that the January 1973 París Accord sig–
nalled tbe inevitable ceding of the area.
Furthermore, no informed person ever
doubted that we cpuld have achieved a
military victory at any time (even now)
but for self-imposed política! restraint.
But for Mr. Kissinger's band wringing
and declarations of despair over the fail–
ure of bis work in the area eoupled with
a similar failure in.the Middle East, tbe
situation over al! would be seen more
clearly.
Last evening in Cairo, Mr. Arm·
strong, however, continued bis efforts to
show 'tbe
WAY
to W.orld pcace. Spealcing
before a distingui.s!led group of govern–
ment, educational and conununity lead–
CIS,
iAcluding the former deputy prime
minisler, four justices of the Supreme
Court, membelS of the various national
councils, ministers and former ministelS
of the govemment, and a group of out–
standing univelSity students, Mr. Arm–
strong inspired his audience and showed
them how there wi.ll be world peace - a
world peace that must eome before man
is permitted 10 destroy himself.
As
the
April 23rd editorial of the
Egyptian Ga·
zette
stated: "Evew,jf there
is
a renewal
of momentum,
if
iiideed there ever has
been any momentum, it would have· to
be,on a different basis from the abortivc;
~six¡g~r
r.nission . for there
ÍQ
be ,any
prospect ofsuccess:
1t
eould therefore be
in no seose a contiouation of the mis–
sino. Not only did its failure end a chap–
ter.
lt
really ended a book since any new
development
wi/1 need an enllrely
changedapproach."
O
l~m"
could be rapidly aod 6oally solved
by guns, bombs, bullets, 1anks, aircraft,
straJings and bombings merely showed .
up the nalveté of some of the country's
new rulers.
So now Ethiopia is a land of multiple
r.nisery. It is a v8St backward coantry the
bulle of wbose
26
million population
(most of whom are illiterate) live in con–
ditions little changed from the times of
tbe Middle Ages. Tbe people are suffer–
ing the convulsions of revolution and
famine brought together in a terrible
twinning. Tbe rulelS are impotent to bah
the one (whicb they thernselves brought
about) and alleviate the otber (whicb is
due to nature, ignorance, poverty and
neglect).
·
,
B!Jt though we who now look from the
out§ide may attempt to analyu wbat
went wrong on the inside, we ought oot
point the accusing 6nger ofblame.
Rather, we ought lo encourage thooe
who are- now in positions of leadelSbip
in Elhiopia to achieve workable and hu–
manitarian solutions to their diffieult
in–
tema!
p~blems.
Tbey bave a fresh
opportunily.to help beal the wounds in–
llicted by famine and war.
Tbe world is watcbing and hoping -
and we trust, willing to lend a helping
hand. We cannot and should oot at–
tempt to get out from under our colle<>
tive responsibility - not, that is,
if
we
are ever to demonstrate our eoncern for
the brotherbood ofman. o
IS