Contested Ground

In a small hut on a dry plain near the Adriatic, seventy men are working feverishly to prove to the world that they are the legal government of their republic. On a mountain near the plain near the Adriatic, another hundred men insist they are the true, Communist government for the same republic. Instead of missiles the antagonists are hurling insults, but for all else, San Marino today is a microcosm of the world.

Within an area smaller than Cambridge, these men are fighting bitterly for the right to rule fewer people than populate this University. The Communist force atop Mt. Titano claims virtual control of the country, while the anti-Reds, holed up near the Italian border, maintain that the Communists hold power solely through force, fear, destruction, and fraud.

What happens there doesn't matter terribly much. Nobody's going to hold many more marbles when the game's over. Yet, we can't help feeling a certain admiration for those few who are trying to maintain the freedom of the world's oldest republic. We hope they make it.