May 1979

THE RECORD

No. 62

LYNDON B. JOHNSON SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

EDITOR: Marilyn Duncan

Modernization, North-South Dialogue Focus of Slick Conference

The explosive triple collision of modernization, tradition, and equity in the developing world and its impact on the "North-South" dialogue was the theme of the 1979 Slick Conference held April 19–20 in the East Campus Lecture Hall.

Sponsored by the Distinguished Tom Slick Professorship of World Peace of the LBJ School, the conference was organized by Harlan Cleveland, current holder of the Slick Professorship.

In his opening address on April 19, Professor Cleveland discussed the "collision" in terms of its general relation to the dynamics of development. Developing nations need to attract technological information from industrialized countries but they must first learn "to scrape the ideological barnacles off the usable information," he said. "Less advanced nations are exposed to an "information bombardment" from industrialized nations that is mostly "one-way."

"Information penetrates in all its modes—as imported science, imported technology, imported values, and imported forms of social authority and organization (parliamentary, military, Marxist, corporate, financial, religious)," he pointed out.

"Each developing nation has reason to be alarmed by the information bombardment from the outside," Professor Cleveland noted, "only if it has not itself developed the capacity to cope," which he said involves having educated people, a clear-headed value system and the mechanisms of social mobilization and control which make it possible to have a coherent development strategy.

However, he added, if the leaders in a less advanced society simultaneously reach out to include a nation's own traditional technologies and values and social authorities, "then there is essentially no limit to the technological information that a developing nation can afford to bring in from the outside."

Professor Cleveland said the central problem in most developing countries is that each is two countries—one fiercely traditional, the other pseudomodern. "The key to a dynamism that doesn't blow itself apart is to stir the two together, without losing either the essential value structure of the one or the hospitality to technological change of the other," he said.

"A prerequisite to dynamism in development is therefore to link the two parts of the national system," he went on to say. "That's what didn't happen in Iran. That's what could yet be done in Mexico."

The dynamics of development are produced first by information. Professor Cleveland observed, "whether it's carried by Admiral Perry, the Northrup Corporation, a soft-drink salesman, the Rockefeller Foundation, or a returning student."

Such information, he continued, is frequently accepted by a "modernized" enclave within a developing nation which consumes, dresses and talks—but does not produce—the way "advanced" people do. Meanwhile, he explained, the more traditional sector of the society more or less rejects the imported ways and carries on life in a "static equilibrium" that is "much more durable in its structure, values and leadership than was earlier believed."

Thus, the information bombardment, he maintained, internalizes the encounter between the dynamic and static systems of information, "creating in a hundred countries a marked duality—in levels of technology, in economic and social activities, in patterns of development, in attitudes and behavior and values, and in social organizations."

Disruptions in developing countries caused by the information bombardment from outside are only partly the responsibility of the "outsiders," Professor Cleveland explained. "The prime responsibility for changing the system to its own advantage lies with each developing nation's leaders, planners and entrepreneurs," he said. "The framework for bargaining with the outsiders is for the insiders to design. And in the bargaining process, the insiders have the extraordinary advantage which national sovereignty confers on even the least affluent nation."

Professor Cleveland reported on several examples of how the modern and the traditional are being reconciled in China. Among them are the combining of Western and traditional medicine, promotion of village bio-gas and centralized power generation, and the attack on schistosomiasis by "sophisticated laboratories linked to a mobilized citizenry."

"Such creative combinations," he said, "make it possible to borrow technologies from the outside without having to buy, as part of the bargain, whole value structures or copies of social organization or even personal leadership."

The remainder of the first day's program looked at the "collision" in two different areas of the world—Iran and Arabia; and Mexico.

The panel on Iran and Saudi Arabia consisted of Professor John Duke Anthony of the Johns Hopkins University; Edward F. Henderson of Abu Dhabi, retired British Ambassador to Qatar, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates; and Professor James Bill, associate director of the UT Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

Dr. Anthony listed different factors at work in Saudi Arabia that he contends will keep that country from experiencing the recent failures of Iran. Among such factors were:

- The Iranian dynasty that was overthrown had fewer than fifty members, while the ruling dynasty of Saudi Arabia includes seven thousand members.

- The Iranian dynasty deposed as incompetent did not last two generations, but the current ruling family in Saudi Arabia has lasted two centuries.

- The religious establishment of Iran constantly challenged the credentials of the Shah, while there is an interlocking directorate in Saudi Arabia between the rulers and the religious establishment.

- The Iranian monarchy, which relied on "pomp and ceremony, glitter and glamour," created almost a caste system in dealing with the populace, but the Saudi Arabian regime has an "egalitarian ethos at its center" whereby the "poorest of the poor has outlets to voice grievances."

- The Shah of Iran was "cut off from the best minds" of his country, while in Saudi Arabia the rulers are "accessible and accountable" and "look for majority sentiment."

- Iranian oil production and reserves are dwindling, but Saudi Arabia is discovering more oil than it can produce.

- A massive exodus in Iran from rural areas brought laborers to the cities where there were "no jobs,"while Saudi Arabia has "a huge demand for labor and a capacity to absorb it."

Dr. Anthony predicted for Saudi Arabia a "far less troubled present" than some presume and a "bright future."

He said Saudi Arabia, unlike Iran, was concerned about a "measured pact of modernization," less ostentatious trappings of the monarchy, and more self-reliance. The Saudis say, "Yes, we're modern, but we're concerned with tradition," Dr. Anthony reported.

The Johns Hopkins scholar also mentioned a number of American-held attitudes that irritate the Saudis. For one, the Saudis take umbrage, he said, at the notion that America might come to "defend" Saudi oil fields. Dr. Anthony said the Saudi reaction to that is: "We're a country, not an oil field."

Dr. Bill somewhat took issue with Dr. Anthony's exposition of Saudi Arabia's virtues, saying he found it "hard to believe any country could be that stable or that good." He advised caution in counting on Saudi Arabia as continuing to be one of the "pillars" of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.

An authority on Iran, Dr. Bill said that Iran had been America's oasis of stability for thirty years, but that the U.S. had misjudged the political unrest in that country for years and had backed two losers—the deposed Shah and his immediate successor. Prime Minister Bakhtiar, "who lasted a month."

"The modernization in Iran," he said, "meant the Americanization of Iran. The West was mesmerized by growth rates and the physical and financial transformation that took place before its eyes. There was no discussion of equity—who gets what, when and how."

Dr. Bill noted that the chaos occurring in Iran after the demise of the Shah "is testimony of the colossal failure of the old regime." The chaos is marked, he said, by a "famine of leadership, disarray of the military machine and collapse of a flashy but fragile economy."

Lack of quality news reporting about the years'-long unrest in Iran and the lack of critical analyses of the Iranian system by scholars are partly responsible for America's failure to see the signs of impending collapse in the country. Dr. Bill said.

Suggesting ways to improve America's "dismal record" regarding Iran, Dr. Bill suggested that:

- America drop its proprietary view of Iran as "our Iran."

- American commentators stop rationalizing about our past mistakes in Iran.

- Americans make more effort to understand the Iranian religion and culture.

- American statesmen persuade the new Iranian government the U.S. has no intention of sponsoring a revolution to restore the Shah to power.

- The U.S. government give aid to the new Iranian government in the form of education, agriculture, economics, technology, science and food.

- The U.S. send new kinds of representatives to Iran who have a liking for the country, are fluent in its language and sensitive to its problems.

Ambassador Henderson voiced the opinion that the Arabian regimes will stand or fall on what happens in Saudi Arabia, but he said he did not think the Iranian situation "will affect the other Arabians too much."

He labeled as "hopeful signs" the degree of cooperation in areas of education, development and industry that are being extended between the states of the Persian Gulf. He also said he was hopeful the Persian Gulf states, with the Saudis, will take a moderate policy regarding their oil resources as they work out cooperative agreements with Europe, America and Japan.

"I hope they will see their energy and our industrial areas must combine and unite," Ambassador Henderson added.

He also called for greater understanding of the Arab culture and the Islamic religion. However, he noted: "One fears the whole of the West is unready to conceive of what an Islamic society is. It is incumbent on us to learn more about them."

The afternoon panel on Mexico was concerned primarily with the relationship between that country and the United States.

The United States needs to get over its "China syndrome," suggested Dr. Miguel Wionczek of El Colegio de Mexico, and he didn't mean the movie.

"You say, we lost China in 1948, we lost Vietnam, and then we lost Iran, but you didn't lose them because you never owned them," the economist asserted. "Being the most important country in the world doesn't mean owning the planet."

Mexico is a country in the midst of great internal change, and there is growing concern with dependence on the United States, according to a former Mexican ambassador to the U.N., Antonio Gonzalez de Leon. He said that some consequences of inefficient development in his country have been linked to pressures from the United States.

Ambassador Gonzalez de Leon's suggestion for lessening the triple collision of modernization versus tradition versus equity is for the United States "to leave Mexico alone in many senses."

"Let Mexico organize socially, economically and politically as it is necessary according to Mexican views, with the conviction that no matter what plans and programs are designed, the relationship with the United States will continue," he stated.

If the pressures from outside on the emerging reorganization are too strong. Ambassador Gonzalez de Leon cautioned, internal crisis might result which would not be in the best interest of either Mexico or the U.S.

"The best thing to do is to let Mexico take whatever steps she takes," he reemphasized. "Even in the worst years of the cold war, it was better to get more Yugoslavias than to get more Albanias.

Even if Mexico seems to be leaning "to the left," he advised that the U.S. should let it lean because Mexico will not be a "suicidal country" and the relationship with the United States will continue.

Herbert Thompson, diplomat-in-residence at UT Austin and former deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, responded to the distinguished panelists from Mexico by emphasizing the "special relationship" between the two nations and expressing optimism for the future despite the sensitivity and complexities of the relationship. He said that both geography and history have decreed that the countries must live together and that literally leaving Mexico alone was not an option available to the U.S.

"What it seems to me we can do is exert our best efforts to find areas of mutuality of interest so that we can not only improve the content of our own bilateral relationship, but together we can make a fuller and more meaningful contribution to the broader global community."

He did agree that there has been great overemphasis on oil in the sudden "rediscovery" of Mexico, but he felt that the U.S. becoming even partly aware of Mexico was better than totally ignoring Mexico.

Dr. Stanley Ross, UT Austin professor of history and director of the Mexico-U.S. Border Research Program, also took issue with the "hands-off" policy, saying that countries can't operate in vacuums and that placing blame on the U.S. for the failure of policies in Mexico was unwarranted.

"I think there is some looking at home to do for both of us rather than excusing our failures by saying it's the other fellow's fault," he suggested.

In the final session of the conference, participants discussed the impasse in "North-South" economic negotiations as this problem relates to the "triple collision" theme.

Donald O. Mills, Jamaican Ambassador to the U.N. began the discussion with the claim that his Third World nation now gets seven times the price it did in many previous years for the bauxite it sells to corporations from industrialized nations, an example of how Third World countries over the years have experienced inequities in international trade in dealing with developed nations of the North.

Referring to the New International Economic Order, a proposal made by the Third World and adopted by the U.N. in 1974 calling for a revision in the rules of international trade and finance, Mr. Mills said the Third World "is not asking for reparations" for past inequities but a removal of present barriers to equity.

"The help we need is the help to a better world—we are not looking for a handout," he said.

The ambassador noted that while the "rhetoric" of the North, concerning equity for the South, is converging with that of the South, what is lacking from the North is "performance."

He cited as the greatest weaknesses in North-South dialogue the fact that not enough of the political leadership in the two sets of nations is involved.

"Only presidents and prime ministers know about the New International Economic Order," he declared, adding that too much of the discussions about the matter have been left "in the hands of diplomats at the U.N."

Dr. Sidney Weintraub, Dean Rusk Professor at the LBJ School and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, agreed that the "South has valid grievances; products of the South are the most discriminated against in international trade."

Dr. Weintraub noted, however, that major growth changes have been taking place in the underdeveloped nations in the past twenty-five years but he said North-South debates on economic issues in large multilateral organizations such as the U.N. have been successful only in a peripheral way.

"What is important," Dr. Weintraub said, "is what happens in underdeveloped countries," the policy changes that occur therein.

Dr. Walt Rostow, UT Austin professor of economics and history, echoed Dr. Weintraub's views that the North-South dialogue engendered by the U.N. has not been particularly fruitful.

He said he would like to see a North-South concept that calls for a process of economic growth for both the North and the South, with the South's growth being faster. Both the rich and the poor nations should try to agree on "what they can do together not to frustrate the process."

Further, Dr. Rostow said, the approach to growth of the North and South should not be viewed in the context of negotiation, but rather as a set of common problems to work on—energy, food, population, raw materials, environmental degradation. He said, for example, no one is working on the problem of what the energy base will be in developing nations when conventional oil and gas supplies are depleted.

Dr. Rostow suggested that persons who should be devising new economic orders should not be diplomats but rather the economic counterparts in countries of both the North and the South. "Those who deal with tar sands in the South should work with those who deal with tar sands in the North," he said, noting that then an "authentic partnership" would flow from such a relationship.

Disagreeing markedly with Dr. Rostow's proposals for economic planning was Dr. Charles Kindelberger, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist, who opted for "open markets" throughout the world "because we don't know how to plan nationally."

Markets may not be perfect, he suggested, but like "marriage, honesty, and democracy, they are better than the alternatives."

"Our job is to make markets work better," Dr. Kindelberger stated, adding that "every commodity agreement in the world has broken down—except diamonds."

He said that the South not only wants stabilized prices, "which we can't achieve," but it also wants the North to insure markets for its goods. He said he viewed as an "obscenity" that the "consumer had to being his own hand rope."

The MIT scholar said he would like to see developed nations make markets as. open as possible, stimulate aid to less developed nations by the transfer of technology and let the developing nations "do what they like about holding prices up."

Perdita Huston, a journalist who is regional director for the Peace Corps for North Africa, the Near East, Asia and the Pacific, took to task the "blindness" on the part of the press to the processes and trends occurring in the Third World.

"The Third World is irritated," she said, "by the dismissal of their problems by the press. A drought isn't news until it's a famine."

She asked the whereabouts of "the good positive stories" about what Third World nations are doing to improve themselves. What attracts press attention, she went on, is "dictators, cataclysms, coup d'etats."

Regarding the North-South dialogue on economic issues, Ms. Huston expressed the opinion that "the risk is not in a new economic order; the risk is in a new economic 'deal' among the elites of the world."

If the "deal" prevails, she said, it will merely be a "patching up of the old economic disorder."

(Derived from reports by the UT News and Information Service)

Cohen to Appear in Distinguished Lecturer Series

Wilbur Cohen, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1968, will present a public lecture May 9 at 4:00 p.m. in the East Campus Library Lecture Hall. Mr. Cohen appears in the Distinguished Lecturer Series sponsored by the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and the LBJ School of Public Affairs. He will speak on "Why Social Security Must Be Saved."

The former HEW Secretary currently is professor of education and public welfare administration at the University of Michigan, where from 1969 to 1978 he was dean of the school of education.

Mr. Cohen has extensive knowledge of the workings of social security. In 1960, he served as chairman of President Kennedy's Task Force on Health and Social Security. Currently, he is a member of the National Commission on Social Security. He also is chairman of the National Commission on Unemployment Compensation.

During his career as teacher, administrator, researcher and policymaker, he has been asociated with broad fields related to human well-being.

He is author of books and articles in the fields of social security, unemployment insurance, health, welfare reform, national health insurance, social services, and education. Among his books is Retirement Policies Under Social Security.

Mr. Cohen's experience with HEW began in 1961 when President Kennedy appointed him Assistant Secretary for legislation. He held that post until 1965 when he became Under Secretary of HEW, serving in that role until 1968 when he was appointed Secretary by President Johnson. He is the only person to have been HEW's Assistant Secretary, Under Secretary and Secretary.

Mr. Cohen has a degree in economics from the University of Wisconsin and honorary degrees from twelve other universities. He is a past recipient of the Rockefeller Public Service Award, Jane Addams Award, and the Bronfman Prize for Public Health Achievement.

(Derived from a report by UT News and Information Service)

Commencement Set for May 19

Commencement ceremonies for the 1979 LBJ School graduates are scheduled for Saturday, May 19, at 10:30a.m. in the B. Iden Payne Theatre (Drama Building).

The commencement address will be delivered by Professor Barbara Jordan, Lyndon Baines Johnson Public Service Professor. DeAnn Friedholm, LBJ School graduate, will introduce Professor Jordan.

The Emmette S. Redford Award for Outstanding Research and the LBJ Foundation Award for Academic Excellence will be presented by Dr. Jared Hazleton, Associate Dean, LBJ School, and (tentatively) Frank C. Erwin, Jr., Chairman, Board of Directors, LBJ Foundation, respectively.

Elise Mayfield and Bill Hagleman will present the class gift.

'ON THE RECORD'

Dean Elspeth Rostow will give the principal address May 13 at the honors convocation of Pennsylvania State University.

This convocation is to recognize undergraduate students for superior academic achievement. Approximately 300 students are to be honored.

* * * *

Professor Jurgen Schmandt was invited to present results of the NASA Meal System Demonstration at the Thirty-First Annual Conference of Southwest Foundations in Houston, April 18–20. A School Policy Research Project worked with NASA and the Texas Department of Human Resources in 1976 to design and evaluate the system.

In 1977 the potential of the concept of single-package shelf stable meals for social services, disaster relief, and international aid was explored at a School-initiated conference in Washington, D.C. Two commercial enterprises have since developed the meal-system idea and are offering meals nationwide to social service organizations, citizens groups, and individual consumers.

* * * *

Corky Hilliard, training specialist in the School's Office of Conferences and Training, was elected Chairperson of the Austin Area Intergovernmental Training Council.

The Council was formed in 1976 to enable trainers from every level of government to share resources through coordination and interchange of programs, research, training materials, and facilities. The organization now has a membership of about 175 independent professional members.

* * * *

Professor Barbara Jordan was recently appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the Presidential Advisory Board on Ambassadorial Appointments.

* * * *

The Nutrition Policy Research Project will host a workshop on May 8 in the West Conference Room of the LBJ Library. Results of research conducted during the year will be presented to a panel of experts consisting of Wilbur Cohen (University of Michigan), Dr. June Hyer (Texas Senate Interim Committee on Human Service Delivery), Dr. William McGanity (UT School of Medicine, Galveston), Barbara Taylor (Texas Health Department), Zy Weinberg (Community Nutrition Institute), and Dr. Eleanor Young (UT Health Science Center, San Antonio).

Interested faculty and alumni are welcome. Programs and times are available from Lilas Kinch, SRH 3.224.

* * * *

Among the speakers appearing at the School during April were Donald G. Morrison of MIT, who spoke on "Inequality: Relationships Between Perceptions and Realities"; S. David Freeman, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Tennessee Valley Authority, who discussed America's energy future and the TVA; Robert H. Wilson of Cidade Universitaria in Brazil, who spoke on "National, Economic, Regional, and Urban Policies: Lessons from Brazil"; and Denton Kent, Manager of Metropolitan Government, Portland, Oregon, speaking on the metropolitan service district in Portland.

* * * *

Elizabeth Hall, Director of the Lyndon B. Johnson School's Office of Admissions and Counseling, will receive a service award from the University of Texas May 4 for ten years of service at this institution.

A member of the LBJ School staff since 1975, Mrs. Hall worked previously in the UT Office of Admissions.

* * * *

The Natural Areas Survey project of the LBJ School has released its latest report, Enchanted Rock. Publication of the report was timed to coincide with the dedication on April 7 of the Enchanted Rock as the state's newest park and third designated Natural Area.

* * * *

Shelley Caldwell, typesetter in the LBJ School Office of Publications, was elected president of the University of Texas Employees Union in early April. UTEU is Local 3626 of the American Federation of Teachers, affiliated as an educational workers' local.

* * * *

Melissa Friedland, second-year LBJ student, presented public testimony in April before the Texas House Committee on Government Organization.

Ms. Friedland testified in behalf of two bills before the Texas Legislature providing for public membership on state regulatory commissions. She acted in behalf of Common Cause, for whom she has been working as a legislative advocate.

Consulting Workshop Held Here

The School's Office of Internships and Placement conducted a workshop on public sector consulting in the East Campus Lecture Hall April 27.

The workshop was arranged in response to the LBJ School students' growing interest in the field of consulting in the public sector. Two panels provided the basis of discussion, one on the institution of public sector consulting and the other on the management consultant as a person.

The first panel, moderated by LBJ School Professor Victor Arnold, included remarks by five participants on a variety of subtopics.

Bob Campbell, LBJ alumnus and manager of Touche Ross & Co. of Austin, spoke on "The Field of Consulting and What is Different about Government Consulting."

Chris Burpo, manager of Arthur Young & Co. of Austin, discussed the topic, "Types of Firms Providing Consulting Services to the Public Sector."

Mary Breuer, supervisor of the Management Consulting Service Department of Ernst & Ernst, St. Louis, Missouri, provided insights on the business of consulting, including remarks of types of service and clients and the development of clientele.

Bill Stotesbery, LBJ alumnus and consultant with Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. of Austin, offered comments on external and internal constraints and regulations in consulting.

The final participant was Doane Kiechel, senior vice president and unit manager for the Institutional Consultant Division of Booz-Allen & Hamilton, Washington, D.C. Mr. Kiechel described a typical engagement in the public sector.

The afternoon panel was moderated by LBJ School Visiting Professor David Welborn.

Participants and their topics were: Darwin M. Winick, President of LWFW, Inc. of Houston, on "Being a Management Consultant—Pros and Cons for the Person"; Warner Croft, Manager in Charge of Administrative Services for Arthur Anderson and Co. of Austin, on "Career Tracks and Patterns for the Consultant, and Inservice Training"; Jim Ray, local independent consultant, on "Starting Your Own Firm"; and LBJ alumni Cindy S. Ballard, senior associate with Planergy in Austin, and Frank Sturzl, Texas Municipal League (formerly vice president of Research and Planning Consultants in Austin), both on "The MPA/LBJ Graduate as a Consultant."

The industry representatives indicated in their remarks that the firms are also increasingly interested in recruiting new employees from public affairs schools.

Wilda Campbell, Director of the School's Office of Internships and Placement, said she felt Friday's sessions were successful in providing a greater understanding of the wide range of assignments available in the field of public sector consulting as well as what the career path experience is like for the consultant.

ALUMNI FORUM

May 17 Continuing Education Session

The Alumni Association is presenting an "Off-the-Record" session with alumni who work in and around the Texas Legislature. The discussion will be held on May 17 at 8:00 p.m. at Malcolm MacDonald's home, 1706 Rabb.

This will be an informal, open discussion with a wide range of potential topics, among them: the status of the Sunset Commission and its suggestions; the effect of the new Governor on the Legislature; the flow of information among agencies and the Legislature.

The Alumni Board extends a special invitation to members of the 1979 graduating class to attend this gathering and to become members of the Alumni Association.

Message From the Alumni Association

The Alumni Association of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs has the potential to become a viable organization which meets our own professional needs, expands our awareness of social needs, and provides assistance to the LBJ School.

The LBJ School has a strong academic reputation and the alumni have an impressive professional performance record. It is to the advantage of both the people we serve and ourselves to ensure that the LBJ School and the alumni continue to pursue excellence.

Therefore you are encouraged to become an active member of your Alumni Association, either by serving on the Board or by participating on a committee. If you are interested in serving on an alumni committee or becoming involved with a project of the Association, you are welcome to contact any of the Board members. If you are interested in serving on the Board of the Alumni Association, you should become familiar with the election process discussed below.

The annual process of electing persons to the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs Alumni Association Board commences in mid-May. An amendment to the Alumni Association's Constitution concerning eligibility was approved by the alumni last autumn. All graduates of the LBJ School, as of June 15, 1979, are eligible to serve on the Board, regardless of their current or previous Board service. The nomination period extends from May 15 to June 15. All nominations must be endorsed in writing by the nominee and postmarked no later than June 15. In an attempt to reduce expenses, we are not providing nominating ballots this year. Election ballots, however, will be provided to the alumni by July 1 and are to be postmarked no later than July 15.

No person may be nominated to more than one position on the Board. The positions are: president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, and placement/internship. The position of information director is filled by appointment as are chapter representative positions.

Your comments and suggestions concerning your Alumni Association activities are welcomed.

--Malcolm MacDonald

Pre-Session Conference Proceedings Published in April

The LBJ School's Office of Publications recently released the proceedings of the 66th Texas Legislature Pre-Session Conference, a working conference held here November 29–December 1, 1978 in the Thompson Conference Center.

The conference is sponsored biennially by the School's Office of Conferences and Training and the Texas Legislature for the purpose of informing newly elected members about matters of legislative organization and providing for all legislators a forum of discussion of major substantive topics concerning the upcoming session.

The volume consists of the numerous papers and panel discussions presented at the conference, all centered around four major policy areas: Energy and Utility Rates, Tax Relief and Reform, Products Liability, and Public School Education.

Also included are addresses by Governor Bill Clements, Lt. Governor Bill Hobby, Speaker of the House Billy Clayton, and former Attorney General John Hill.

The proceedings are published for the benefit of members of the Texas Legislature, and others interested in the issues examined at the conference. Copies are available from the Office of Publications.

Hardeman Competition for Top Research on Congress Initiated This Spring

Three University of Texas faculty members will be judges for a new competition sponsored by the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library to encourage scholarly research on Congress.

Entries for the D.B. Hardeman Prize for the best book on the U.S. Congress in the 20th Century will be judged by Barbara Jordan, LBJ Public Service Professor at the LBJ School, Lewis L. Gould, Professor of History, and Lawrence C. Dodd, Associate Professor of Government.

Among the types of works eligible for the $1,500 Hardeman Prize are histories, biographies, political science monographs, and comparative studies. Although the prize will be awarded on a biennial basis, it will be given initially to the best entry published between January 1, 1976 and December 31,1978. The winner will be announced at an event at the LBJ Library in January 1980.

The prize, funded by a grant from the LBJ Foundation, is named in honor of D.B. Hardeman, a former associate of the late Speaker Sam Rayburn and Mr Rayburn's biographer. Mr. Hardeman has been active in the Congressional Fellows Program for many years and is a noted authority on the U.S. Congress.

He recently donated his collection of 9,000 volumes on that subject to the LBJ Library, where it will serve as the basis of a center for the study of Congress.

Copies of books to be considered for the Hardeman Prize should be sent before September 1, 1979, to each of the judges in care of their respective departments. The University of Texas at Austin 78712.

(Derived from a report by UT News and Information Service)

First LBJ-Fulbright Program for Visiting Fellows Ends, Preparation for Second Underway

The Fulbright-LBJ Program for Visiting Fellows, which began in 1978 under the auspices of the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the United States International Communication Agency, concludes its first academic year in May. This nondegree program for mid-career Latin American professionals allowed participants to spend nine months at UT Austin to do graduate-level study and research in areas of their special interests.

The Fellows were sponsored by their agencies or employers in Latin America, to which they will return upon completion of the program. This year's participants liave included Rene Arreaza, Caracas, Venezuela, employed by the Venezuelan Ministry of Energy and Mines; Roberto Alves, Sao Paulo, Brazil, who was sent by the Commission for Finance Production at the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture; Luis Miranda, Lima, Peru, an employee of COFIDE, the Financial Development Corporation of Peru; and Roberto Posso, Quito, Ecuador, of the Central Bank of Ecuador. Mr. Posso has been accepted by the LBJ School as a Master's candidate and will remain at the School for one more year to complete the MPA.

The application process for the 1979-80 program is almost completed, and eight applicants are pending the final approval of the International Communication Agency. These include Maria Almenara, Lima, Peru, who works for the Fiscal Department at the Central Bank of Peru; Luis Bohorquez, Bogota, Colombia, financial and administrative consultant for ICETEX; Jorge Del Busto, Lima, Peru, of the Central Reserve Bank of Peru; Olga Gaviria, Bogota, Colombia, sponsored by the Energy Company of Bogota; Carlos Lagos, Santiago, Chile, of the Agricultural Investigation Institute of Chile; Juan Jose Piedrahita Pedraza, Bogota, Colombia, an employee of the Commission for Industry and Trade; Roberto Martins, Sao Paulo, Brazil, of the Finance and Administrative Departments at the Dabi Atlante Co.; and Guido Meller, Valdivia, Chile, Vice-President of Economics Administration at the Chilean Agricultural Experimental Center.

Former Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford Lectures Here on Peace

"The Pursuit of Peace: The Personal Recollections of a White House Adviser to Four Presidents" was the topic of a public address given March 30 in the East Campus Lecture Hall by dark Clifford, former U.S. Secretary of Defense.

Mr. Clifford, now a prominent Washington, D.C. attorney, appeared as part of the Distinguished Lecturer Series sponsored by the LBJ Library and the LBJ School of Public Affairs.

At various times an adviser to Presidents Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, and Carter, Mr. Clifford was Secretary of Defense in 1968–69 during the final year of the Johnson Administration. He is believed to have influenced President Johnson in his decision in 1968 to limit bombing raids on North Vietnam and to begin peace negotiations with Hanoi.

Mr. Clifford also helped devise political strategies for the election of Mr. Truman in 1948 and the election of Mr. Johnson in 1964. He was an author of the Truman Administration's Middle Eastern policy that helped create the State of Israel in 1948.

For the Carter Administration, he is a leader in the effort to enlist public support for the SALT treaty proposals.

In his lecture here, Mr. Clifford's primary focus was on the pursuit of peace through active avoidance of war. Before the U.S. ever goes into armed conflict on foreign soil, he said, it must only be if our national security is involved.

He said he would view as a threat to national security the shutdown by enemy forces of the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf to the U.S. The economy of the U.S. runs on petroleum, about half of which comes from the Persian Gulf, he said. Without that oil, Mr. Clifford went on, "our economy runs down and our military operation is affected."

"We cannot stand by and see our supply of petroluem interfered with," he delcared.

Regarding America's involvement in the Vietnam War, Mr. Clifford said the analyses of history may provide the answers as to "why," but his own theory is based on the lessons of failure and success which the U.S. learned, first, prior to World War II, and second, in the Korean War.

Before World War II, he noted, "the free world stood back and did nothing" to halt the rise of Hitler and the Third Reich. "Each time he moved (against a European country) we hoped that would be the last time he moved." Mr. Clifford observed, "we learned we must never do that again."

Then, after World War II, when the Communists started an aggressive period of expansion as exemplified by the invasion of South Korea, "profiting by our lessons" of World War II, he said, "we moved against the Soviets and stopped them in their tracks."

Mr. Clifford said he felt sure the lessons from those two conflicts were "in our minds" when the U.S. went into Vietnam. The feeling was one of "move now, not wait, Communism is on the march again," he said.

That attitude was much like that of a physician's decision about a malignancy, to "excise it now before it spreads," he explained.

One important lesson the U.S. learned in Vietnam, Mr. Clifford pointed out, was that while the principle of wanting to thwart Communist aggression may have been "right," the U.S. needs to exert "extraordinary care about where to apply that principle."

In discussing America's pursuit of peace, Mr. Clifford listed several areas where the U.S. cannot afford to shirk its responsibility. In addition to stopping interference with its flow of oil, he said the U.S.:

- Must maintain a strategic nuclear balance with the Soviet Union. "The element that keeps peace today," he said, "is that we have a nuclear balance, a 'balance of terror'." He said he strongly favors the proposed Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty, for it will maintain or even reduce the current nuclear balance.

- Must maintain a strong North Atlantic Treaty Organization. "Our ties to Europe are so close, we cannot exist free if Europe is not free."

- Must maintain the safety of the Western Hemisphere under the Monroe Doctrine and "not permit a foreign power in that area to threaten the security of the U.S."

Mr. Clifford assessed some of the current criticism of President Carter's foreign policy as a "throwback to a time (after World War II) when we had the power to change the course of history in any country in the world." That power no longer exists, he maintained.

(Derived from a report by UT News and Information Service)

Egyptian Ambassador Discusses Treaty at Brown Bag

His excellency Dr. Ahmed Esmat Abdel Meguid, Egypt's Ambassador to the United States, spoke at a School brown bag lunch April 3 during his visit to the University.

Ambassador Meguid told the large group in attendance that the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty is only the first step in what will be a long process of peacemaking. He noted that although 99 percent of the Egyptians are in favor of the treaty, the normalization of relations between the peoples will take many years.

Dr. Meguid said the reactions of other Arab countries had been expected, but that these cannot reverse the trend toward peace now in motion.

Ambassador Meguid's visit was arranged by the U.S. Executive Council on Foreign Diplomats.

Army War College Panel Discusses Defense Issues at Brown Bag

At a brown bag seminar on April 18, a panel from Army War College discussed the role of the military in national defense policy and some of the problems faced by today's military establishment.

Among the issues discussed were peacetime ethics, which they said is still a nebulous area and requires clarification; the impact of the. volunteer army; and the debate on whether to use defense funds for civil defense or for nuclear deterrence.

Panelists said it is still too early to assess the full impact of the volunteer army, but that presently there are gaps in the forces due to failure to attract members of certain groups. This, they felt, is an economic problem, as the government cannot offer competitive salaries to certain types of professionals.

On the issue of civil defense vs. deterrence expenditures, one panelist noted that the Soviets give civil defense a higher budgetary priority than does the U.S. because that country has experienced war in its own boundaries.