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current issues related to the Playboy philosophy. Last month he had an item about Dr. Harry C. Hermon, the Austin psychiatrist who was arrested for possession of marijuana despite having a federal license to do research with the weed. Helmer’s first book is due out in mid-November, from Macmillan: The Gun That Made the Twenties Roar. It’s based on a master’s thesis he wrote at UT-Austin on the Thompson submachine gun. While in North Texas recently I met Grand Prairie writer Benjamin Capps, whose work is causing increasing notice. Capps’ latest book, The White Man’s Road, was issued last month by Harper and Row, his first with that prestigious publishing house. He specializes in recreating, as authentically as possible, the old West. His previous titles include Hanging at Comanche Wells, The Trail to Ogallala, Sam Chance, A Woman of the People, and The Brothers of Uterica. A. C. Greene, the former Dallas Times Herald editorial page and book page editor who now lives in Austin, has a book coming out from Alfred A. Knopf this fall, A Very Personal Country, about life in Greene’s native West Texas. Doubleday is issuing a work of William A. Owens Three Men: Dobie, Webb and Bedichek. Owens was a friend of each of the three men of the “Texas triumvirate.” His book is made up largely of letters each of the three men wrote the other. Joseph Goulden of the Marshall Gouldens last month had another book published. Rand McNally has issued his 16 The Texas Observer Truth Is the First Casualty, a study of the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Goulden, whose journalism education was acquired at UT-Austin, worked for several years with the Dallas News before joining the Philadelphia Inquirer, which he still serves. John Howard Griffin, the Mansfield-Fort Austin Reading for the Thanksgiving season from the New York Times: General William C. Westmoreland says that “No more than ten years should separate us from the automated battlefield.” There will be a diminished need for foot soldiers as machines take on more of the jobs of killing. The new devices include sensors to keep track of enemy movements, tactical computers to evaluate the intelligence reports, and heavy firepower to act on this information quickly. Says Westmoreland: “I see battlefields on which we can destroy anything we locate through instant communications and almost instantaneous application of highly lethal firepower.” In Vietnam, he said, “over two-thirds of enemy casualties” were the result of bombardment by artillery and tactical aircraft. “On the battlefield of the future, enemy forces will be located, tracked, and targeted almost instantaneously through the use of datalinks, computer-assisted intelligence evaluation, and automated fire-control. With first-round kill probabilities approaching certainty, and with surveillance devices that can continually track the enemy, the need for large forces to fix the opposition physically will be less important.” Isn’t that great? Boy! The Moratorium The best aspect of the Vietnam Moratorium in Texas was the activity on most of the smaller campuses in the state. A college or university without vigorous diversity of debate among the students is deadening and fraudulent. However tentatively, the Texas campuses “out yonder” from the big one in Austin showed their liveliness on October 15. It was moving to be part of the march from the university to the Capitol in Austin. The crowd filled the street for many blocks and you could see the people ‘moving into the Capitol area while you were still near the university. I walked along with Gary Cartwright, the novelist; David Richards, the lawyer, and his wife Ann; Sue Randall, a housewife who helped Worth writer who caused such a stir with Black Like Me \(the account of Griffin’s posing as a black man travelling through biography of a noted Trappist monk, Father Thomas Merton, to be published by Houghton Mifflin. G.O. the ACLU monitor the schools that day to keep them from punishing students for wearing armbands. I’d guess the crowd at 8,000. I heard a student say it was bigger than a pep rally. Oh Yeah? Governor Smith’s statement for the day was a stirring appeal to Texans’ independence of spirit, pride of individuality, and contempt for tyranny. Follow the leader, he said. Expertise The questions raised about Judge HaynswOrth in Washington have been dismissed by President Nixon as “character assassination.” However dubious some of Haynsworth’s judicial conduct may seem to us, we should pay attention to Nixon on character assassination. He’s an expert. R. D. Dialogue From Dr. Kamerick There is a point I should clarify in your article on me in the Observer dated October 24. North Texas State University did not receive a $5 million budget cut. NTSU was granted an increased appropriation compared to previous years. There was a cut in the appropriation request which was prepared before my appearance on campus. The appropriation request follows, in general, guidelines prescribed by the Coordinating Board. The appropriation received by the university was the largest in its history. North Texas received approximately the same percentage of its request as other Texas universities. I am sure you understand, too, I have been willing to appear on campus with speakers of all political convictions, not just Senator Yarborough. Please accept my thanks for the article. John J. Kamerick, president, North Texas State University, Denton, Tex. 76203. Observations ‘Automated Battlefield’