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# ###.**.srer.####~#####.####~4 ,4 *~#4,44#9##### Dialogue “the guts to stand up. There’d be 30 more if they weren’t a little bit afraid. You could help on that.” And Why Not? The Vietnam war could be ended tomorrow, if our leaders would heed the plan of Miriam Merritt, a Houston writer, whose idea was told to me in Fort Worth at the TLD meeting. What we do is wait for dark to fall one night and pull out all of our troops, leaving behind ‘a message on the beach: “The War’s Over.” Yes, Mr. Freud? “Some 89 Peace Corps volunteers from all over the United States begin a 12-week training session at the guniversity of TeXas next week.” Fort Worth Star-Telegram June 23, 1967 Vol. 59, No. 16 A couple of months ago I noticed that our designating each issue with a volume and issue number had gotten away from us, we had Vol. 58, No. 32, or something like that. Since we only have 25 issues a year you can’t have No. 32. OK, so I went back and tried to figure out the numbering system and found that the volume number had changed at various odd times in years passed. So I dropped the practice of numbering each issue. But a couple of librarians have written to say this fouls up their systems, or something, so, good ladies, let us say that Vol. 59 began with the first issue this year, making this issue Vol. 59, No. 16. OK? G.O. 16 The Texas Observer Strange Development It ain’t true that Don Yarborough is returning from Spain to run for governor of Texas. I predict he will remain in Spain and run against Franco.James Presley, Texarkana, Texas. A Permit from Congress I think a movement should be started to make it unconstitutional for the Unit ed States to engage in warfare on foreign soil without a declaration of war, or at least a permit, from Congress. Of course the Constitution does give Congress the exclusive right to declare war, but it doesn’t prohibit the executive from making war undeclared. I presume the framers considered that prohibition to be understood. . . . The lack of a feeling of responsibility for Vietnam in the breast of the average American is something almost obscene. If their representatives in Congress had been obliged to commit themselves by a vote the atmosphere might be different. We might no be there at all.C. C. Zey, 129 Chicago, McAllen, Tex. Leaflet Offered As the war in Vietnam grows, which is now a day-to-day thing, the American people find that they don’t really know as much about the war as they think they do. An excellent little leaflet, “Insights into the Problem of Viet Nam,” has been published and I would like to send it to any readers of the Texas Observer who will send a stamped envelope requesting it. Richard A. Chinn, 600 Third Ave., South, Providence, Ky. 42450. After You, Boys What do you suppose would happen to the plans for recurring Vietnams if the American mothers should decide that their sons are no more expendable than those of the war makers and profiteers? I hope to teach my sons that it is their “patriotic” duty to become killers or corpses only as follow-up troops for the sons of the elite. In other words, I am teaching them don’t go! Mrs. Lee Dresh, Mesquite, Tex. Austin’s Vigil In the May 26 issue of the Observer it was stated that “peace vigils are continuing in Texas, at least in Dallas, and perhaps in several other cities.” There has been a peace vigil in Austin on 11th Street in front of the Capitol from 1 to 2 p.m. every Saturday since March 18, and we plan to continue the vigils until Americans stop killing and being killed in Vietnam. Although we have been ignored by the Austin press, we feel that we are making some impression on the community through the number of people who pass the vigil in the downtown traffic. . ..Brooks Liston, 2012 Enfield Road, Austin, Tex. 78703. A Strange Madness The U.S. Constitution provides that Congress shall declare war and that all treaties of the United States shall be the supreme law of the land. Yet we are fighting in an undeclared war and we have a treaty with the United Nations to not unilaterally involved ourselves in another man’s war. We are not in Viet Nam with U.N. sanction as we were in Korea. . . . Some people are speaking up. Consider these words spoken last year by retired Gen. David Shoup, recent past commandant, U.S. Marine Corps., Congressional Medal of Honor winner at Tarawa, and an all-time leatherneck hero: “. . . I believe that if we had kept and would keep our dirty, bloody, dollar-crooked fingers out of the business of these nations so full of depressed, exploited people, they. will arrive at a solution of their own, that they design and want, that they fight and work for. And if unfortunately their revolution must be of the violent type because the ‘haves’ refuse to share with the ‘havenots’ by any peaceful method, at least what they get will be their own and not the American style which they don’t want and above all don’t want crammed down their throats by Americans. . .” Distinguished Prof. Jack Peltason has pointed out that wars, as a general rule, do not stop communism; they often accelerate it. The Viet Nam war is a strange madness, indeed. Maury Maverick, Jr., 535 South Main, San Antonio, Texas. Not the First This year’s Boys’ State, conducted by the American Legion, was not, as the Observer suggested [May 26, Political Intelligence] the first in which a Negro participated. Two years ago the Houston delegation included eight or ten Negroes, one of whom was third in the balloting for party chairman and who was elected, resoundingly, as party whip. J. McCarty Yeager, 5095 Fieldwood, Houston, Texas 77027. 0########1~#4#1##~###############~#####11,0411~~1