ustxtxb_obs_1965_08_20_50_00015-00000_000.pdf

In due course we were admitted to the Executive Offices of the White House, East Wing. I passed several more searches and my wife thrice denied I was annoying her. Finally the fellow who had invited us came to claim his prize. He said he was sorry the red rug clashed with my pink coat, but he knew of no way to quickly change the rug. I thanked him for his thoughtfulness, but said I wasn’t really embarrassed. On the long walk through hallowed halls to his office, I noted he appeared a bit glum. \(It was, as I later explained to my wife, the Awesome BurWe sat in my friend’s office a long time. Nearly two hours. Now and again he would stir from brooding to ask how I was doing. Several times he remarked on how nice a day it was. He looked longingly outside. He kept inspecting a pencil he turned over and over in hands. Along about 3:30 my wife asked what kind of china they used in the White House Staff Dining Room? Lyndon’s man said good china. At 4:15 p.m. I asked my friend if he had eaten lunch. He said on busy days like this he ate at his desk. Early. I said I had not eaten at my desk early. My wife said, “Me, neither.” About 4:45 the White House man asked if we’d like to step across the street with him and “get a hamburger or something.” My bride threw me a murderous look. She was thinking of all morning in the beauty shop, the time spent shopping, and all those telephone calls. I was thinking of the combined cost of all that action. The White House staffer collected his pretty blonde secretary and we left the grounds. A guard stepped in to search me. The staff man waited a few steps away on the sidewalk. We went into the Odcidental restaurant. Its sign said “Where Statesmen Dine.” I tried to recapture my lost feeling, of importance. I said, “Nice place.” My friend said, “Uh-huh.” My wife said, “It ain’t no White House Staff Dining Room.” My friend’s secretary said she had to go to the powder room. We all had club sandwiches which cost $3 each and several drinks which cost about the same each. The waiter laid the check down by me. My friend said he had to go to the Little Boy’s room. My friend’s secretary said she had left her lipstick in the Powder Room. My wife said she was humiliated. My waiter said that would be $33.15 not including tip. I said something too ugly to be repeated in this space. ON THE WAY BACK to the White House I said, “Did you read my piece in the August issue of Harper’s?” The White House man asked what it was about. I asked if he read my articles in the Texas Observer. He said, “The Texas what?” Then I said I thought the Administration’s policy in Viet Nam was short-sighted and wrong. I said I thought we had no business in the Dominican Republic. I said it was a shame the President allowed the Texas congressmen to vote against all his his programs with nary a mutter of protest. I said how about them voting 18-togoddam-4 against repeal of section 14-B of Taft Hartley, and the President standing still for it? I said I didn’t think Abe Fortas ought to be appointed to the Supreme Court. I said to the White House man that I thought the President was overrated, the country was going to Hell in a paper sack, The Observer and the Worker I read the Observer and the Worker. To me their philosophies often seem almost parallel. Am I right or would a customer with a more acute ideallectual perception pick up some fine points of distinction that I have missed? Dr. William H. Brown, Box 1007, Idalou, Texas. This Is Really Livin’ Man, we’ve got ourselves a war going! We’re going to take a big nuclear stick and thrash the jungles in Viet Nam. We’re going to fry ourselves some communists, and some suspected communists, and a whole lot of others who don’t even know they’re communists. The carefree days of World War II, the happiest years of our lives, are going to be relived. We’ll have peace again from all our frustrating problems and complete freedom from our individual responsibilities. Only war can give us these things and gold star mothers, too. Let the lily-livered, weak-kneed intellectuals get out of the way. They never met a payroll or laid a rope on a steer in their life. They can take their mealy-mouthed talk about world peace and go hide some place. Peace in war ; that’s the kind of peace a real man can understand. Man, we’re going to have us a real blast! Don W. Alford, 1505 Cloverleaf, Austin, Tex. Backwards Into War On July 14, CBS broadcast statements that Secretary McNamara and Henry Cabot Lodge made a year ago. Both men \(and that more U.S. ground forces would not be needed in Viet Nam. These men, in making such statements, were either stating deliberate falsehoods, or they are incapable of properly evaluating the U.S. relation to world affairsincapable to the extent that they should not be national leaders with international responsibilities. Again and again we have been pushed backwards surreptitiously into war. We are deceived and lied to until it is too late to control situations. . . . and that I would see him around. The White House man said that he felt about the President the same way Jack Valenti did, and the secretary said she did too. As the bride and I crawled into a cab \($2.60 not counting the nylons she snagdo this again soon.” He called this morning asking me to name a date. It will take a hell of a lot longer than three weeks for him to get it, buster. Did not Congress commit a grave error in voting President Johnson unlimited power in executing war plans to kill, maim, and destroy on another continent in another hemisphere? Who is the aggressor in Asia the nation which sends military forces across an internal Asian boundry line, or the nation which sends military forces across an ocean? Mrs. Eula M. McNabb, 5521 Richmond Ave., Dallas, Tex. Militarism Taking Over U.S. With a feeling of helplessness, fear, and apprehension, countless millions of good Americans wonder what the future holds for them. Like a monstrous deadly octopus we witness militarism becoming bolder every day. It waxes fat off the nation’s limited treasure and lifeblood. There is no reason to believe the military will not soon challenge and defy the President, the Congress, and civilian authority. An all-out nuclear world war three looms. If we continue to drift and do nothing we’re doomed to die.Malcolm A. Green, 108 East 49th St., Austin, Tex. August 20, 1965 15 SUBSCRIBE OR RENEW THE TEXAS OBSERVER 504 West 24th Street Austin 5, Texas Enclosed is $5.00 for a oneyear subscription to the Observer for: Name Address City, State This is a renewal. This is a new subscription.