University of Virginia Library

As an officer of the SSOC, I
would like to assure the gentleman
whose letter appeared in
Thursday's Cavalier Daily, that the
SSOC is very much able to believe
that Dow manufactures napalm.
As for the effects of napalm,
whether it makes the body explode
or melts human skin so that
it drips off the victim, the result
is the same. If this gentleman
is really interested in seeing
and exploring the effects of napalm,
I suggest he contact the
American Friends Service Committee;
they have several movies
and much literature which vividly
depict the experience of napalm.

But this is a very trite point.
The Dow Chemical Company,
along with a multitude of other
companies, is supporting the war
on Vietnam. Why should this pose
a moral question to Dow? The
answer is very simple: human life
is involved. Any time that human
life is destroyed, the question,
which is usually considered to be
of a moral nature, is raised whether
or not such destruction was justified.

As for wars, and other such
games that national leaders play,
hurting our supply of "cannon fodder,"
as our soldiers are referred
to in the letter, visit the Arlington
National Cemetery sometime.
How do we know that these games
have not deprived the world of a
thousand George Washington's and
Albert Einsteins? The fact is we
do not because they are dead.
The loss that a war inflicts on
humanity can never be truly
measured.

Quite true in all past wars there
has been protest but this war of
American imperialism is "the most
unpopular war ever waged by the
United States," to quote Senator
Fulbright and a host of others.
It does not reflect any supreme
enlightenment on the part of the
President to be able to predict
these protests. In fact, he would
have to be considered rather naive
if he had not predicted them. I
do not feel degraded since such a
prediction praises the freedom that
is left in this country.

It makes me want to cry that
the author of his letter could not,
for some reason or another, sign
his name to what he believed, as
manifested in his letter.