Clarion-Ledger from Jackson, Mississippi · Page 1

13-run inning gives Mississippi State double-header split with Alabama -page id V . . BAILY NEWS ' N Volume 32, No.! $1.00 JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI 51 SUNDAY, APRIL 28, 1985 13 sections, 132 pages 1 ment spokesman Peter Boenisch said in a television interview. "Our intent was ... to remember the victims of war without considering their nationality, and to pray for peace." He said the government had not been swayed by a U.S. Senate vote Friday calling on Reagan to cancel the May 5 visit to the Bitburg cemetery where 49 members of the Nazi SS are buried along with about 2,000 other German soldiers. SS duties included guarding Nazi death camps and carrying out the extermination of millions of Jews and other victims of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. Boenisch would not say whether Reagan would lay a wreath at the cemetery. "For my taste there has been too much talk for days over protocol detailsand the real sense of the visit has been pushed into forgetfulness," he said. "The president comes as our friend and he comes to make a gesture of reconciliation. I am sure the Germans will understand it, and that especially the Bitburgers will understand it. They will give the president a friendly and hearty welcome." Earlier, the Welt am Sonntag (World on Sunday) newspaper quoted a top official of Chancellor Helmut Kohl's political party as saying he did not believe "that we in West Germany need another de-Nazification program including soldiers' graves after 40 years of democratic growth and in the face of the current threat to our freedom from the totalitarian Soviet system." The official, Heiner Geissler, is general secre tary of Kohl's Christian Democratic Union. After World War II, the victorious allies conducted a "de-Nazification" program in occupied Germany, aimed at removing former Nazis from prominent positions in society. Excerpts from the interview with the Hamburg newspaper were released Saturday to news organizations in Bonn. On Friday a spokesman said the government would not be swayed by a bipartisan appeal See Germany, page 12A West Germany: No whitewash of Nazis intended Bitburg dominates summit. Page 12A Tbc Assort ltd Prcn BONN, West Germany - The West German government, holding firm on its plan to have President Reagan visit a German military cemetery next month, said Saturday the visit is meant to encourage peace, not "to whitewash the Nazis." "Too many Americans and politicians in Washington still think we are trying to whitewash the Nazis, or detract from their crimes. But this was never our intent," govern- A changing of the guard Private school goes Christian, but race questions remain By KEVIN JONES Jackson Daily News Religion Editor A Christian school's impending purchase of a private academy in Jackson will involve more than the transfer of a deed it will be a changing of the guard. The purchaser, Hillcrest Christian School of Jackson, which emphasizes the religious perspective of its curriculum, is bursting at the seams and needs more room. McCluer Academy of Jackson, created by the Citizens Council two decades ago to give whites an alternative to integration, is dying after years of declining enrollment. Closings at other academies over the last two years have contributed to an enrollment reduction of at least a few hundred children in schools affiliated with the Mississippi Private School Association. But the numbers at Christian private schools in Mississippi and across the nation are climbing. These new Christian schools develop for religious, not racial reasons, said James Carper of Starkville, a Mississippi State University education professor who has studied the trend. Many conservative Christians believe the public school curriculum excludes Christian values and instead espouses a secular, even anti-religious, view of the world, Carper said. "They (Christian schools) are different from the old academies because the parents primarily want their children's education to ha ve a conservative Christian perspective. Race is not really an issue," Carper said. Hillcrest and McCluer leaders agree. "We want to build character, teach students right and wrong, Christian teachings and values, along with a quality education and teach them to love our country," said Gary McGee, chairman of Hillcrest's board of trustees. "Religion has nothing to do with this private school," said Dr. Victor Yawn, chairman of McCluer's board of trustees. "I don't understand concerns about things like evolution or humanism," Yawn said. "Our school was there as an alternative to the poor quality of education in the public school. Race was a motivating factor in the early days, but not now." W. J. Simmons, administrator of the Citizens Council of America for the last 30 years, said keeping races separate was the reason for council schools' formation in the early 1960s. "On a massive scale, admitting blacks lowers educational standards. Racial mixing is wrong when it's forced. And if it's not forced, it's not likely to occur," he said. - Even for committed private academy families, the issue of race doesn't always stir emotions the way it did a few years ago. Rose Faircloth of Clinton said her grandson was enrolled in McCluer, but now that the school is closing she's considering putting him in Clinton public schools. "We've always been private school people, ever since the busing and things started," Faircloth said. "In the beginning, having to go to school with blacks was a factor, but after a while, you just get used to things like that" The heavy religious emphasis in Hillcrest's curriculum is giving several McCluer parents second thoughts about staying after the sale. "I think having a kid in Sunday school is great," said Michael S. Gaddis of Jackson. "But there's no need to mix it up that much with school. I'm all for prayer in school, but in English classes at Hillcrest they dissect Bible verses. That's going too far." Yet, even though underlying philosophies may differ, both schools have no blacks in their student bodies. "Since most Christian schools are virtually all white, you can raise the question of whether a school is truly Christian or a segregated academy with a Christian facade," Carper said. "Whether their claim to be non-discriminatory is sincere or just rhetoric will be tested when four or five minority students apply," said Carper, who is white. McGee wouldn't say whether he would object to having blacks admitted to Hillcrest, nor would he speculate on whether Hillcrest's parents would object "It's never come up," McGee said. "I don't know if I'd have a problem, and I don't know if the patrons (parents) would." If a black applied for entrance, McGee said the matter would probably have to be discussed by the school's trustees and a gathering of parents. Although wide-scale integration hasn't reached most See Private, back page this section nam: A decade's .,'.'' ! ' . , '','. - " ' I , t . . . ' " -' ' ' - , ' ' ' . ."-.' T 1 ' - f" ' i- y v"' ,'' , I , v " r ' - - " ' i H il " V -A. ' , ! - v f r -v - i I ' ' t - Kt " t i , , ..o i mwnr : n m i If I V SCOTT MACLAYGannett News Service The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington was built less than three years ago without government funds. Vietnam 10 years later Inside Index Amusements ............. 6H Horoscope 14E Ann Landers ............. 13E Leisure ....................... 1H Books ......................... 3H Perspective ................ 1G Business ...... II . South 1C Classified .... 4C. Southern Style IE Crossword 2H Sports ID Deaths 2B State Metro 1 B Editorial 4,5G TV Log insert WEATHER Chance of thundershowers today. High in mid-80s. Details, Page 20A. The war ended. The memories never will. When Saigon fell to communist rule 10 years ago Tuesday, the United States abandoned Vietnam as a sour, haunting chapter in its history. Nearly two decades of military involvement, which had ended with an uneasy peace two years before, meant little. The nation, torn by an unpopular war that claimed 58,020 American lives, was relieved when its 0n page 4& troops came home. But the debate the war stirred has not waned. The war summoned 66,000 An editorial: searing Mississippians to Indochina. Of those, 636 didn't return. Those who came home never will forget. 0n page sg: On the anniversary of the fall of the South Vietnamese capital, The Clarion-LedgerJackson Daily News reports Mississippi's memories of the Vietnam War. , ON PAGE 18 A: Mississippians' memories. ON PAGE 19A: Veterans, protesters and refugees carry war scars. Famous scenes of the war. ON PAGE 1G: The "domino theory" still is questioned. Vietnam is no better off today than it was in 1975. Cambodia also struggles to survive. Stories by Nguyen CaoKy, Eugene McCarthy and Gen. William Westmoreland. Em ruiiiwi'-mi wt The Soldier 1 E niUt'm ffrifiiTiTfiii 1 A- La v - CALVIN FRALEY JIM STEGALL By DEBORAH SKIPPER Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer Calvin Fraley's second tour in Vietnam coincided with Jim Stegall's first and only tour. Fraley was for the war "because I was for anything American." So was Stegall, except he also had visions of being "a big, bad, tough Marine." When .the two Jackson men left Vietnam in January 1970, both had changed tremendously. Fraley's political views were altered. Stegall became distrustful of the American people. , Fraley, 44, grew up in an integrated environment in New Jersey. "My daddy was a Republican outright ... He believed in the whole laissez faire attitude," Fraley says. "What I See The Soldier, Page 19A The Senator By STEVE RILEY Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer WASHINGTON The desktop sign on the imposing mahogany table urges Sen. John C. Stennis to look ahead. Looking back at the Vietnam War can be painful. Stennis, 83, cringes when he thinks of the disastrous war that was never declared, the quagmire he warned against 31 years ago. "Our government was saying to the people every day, 'We're not going into war unless the people's representatives choose to go,' " Stennis said recently, his eyes narrowing, his fist pounding the table. "We didn't comply with that" On a March day in SEN. JOHN STENNIS 1954, Stennis, then a second-term senator, rose on the Senate floor to denounce President Dwight Eisenhower's decision to send 200 airplane mechanics to South Vietnam. "We are placing our mechanics on duty in the actual theater of war and thus are making them special targets," Stennis said. "Suppose they are attacked? Of course they will fight back. Suppose they are wounded or captured? It is unthinkable that we should leave them to their fate. "We are taking steps that lead our men directly into combat Soon we may have to fight or run. For the good See The Senator, page 18A The Refugee By TONY TIIAKP ClarioB-Ledger Delta Boreal In the heart and mind of Vietnamese refugee Phong T. Mai, the war goes on. Mai was a 24-year-old soldier when the communist troops began their sweep toward Saigon in the spring of 1975. Today he repairs mobile homes in south Jackson and dreams of a victory that would free his lost country. Photographs on the walls of his , mobile home on 1-55 South tell the story of a lifetime spent at war. Over statues of Buddha hang photographs of a brother-in-law killed by Ho Chi Minn's troops in 1968, a father imprisoned by the communists in 1975 and other relatives who stayed behind when Mai, his pregnant wife and three children fled Vietnam on a rickety sampan in 1979. . ..mm ,a,i m u.,. .ii mk ,i i, ,i in.,,, i PHONG T. MAI WITH SON See The Refugee, page 18A i A A