Seventy-Seven Years of Editorial Freedom
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
How To Win the War:
'No-Battle-Victories'
i
Where Opinions Are Free, 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, MICH.
Truth Will Prevail
NEWS PHONE: 764-0552
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1968
NIGHT EDITOR: STEPHEN WILDSTROM
Doyen Hershey's Draft Edict:
The Military Grab for Grads
" JASHINGTON -The Selective Serv-
ice System ruled out yesterday draft
deferments on the basis of graduate stud-
ies in any field except the medical spe-
cialties cited by law."
As Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen.
Earle Wheeler expressed official doubt
that atomic weapons would be needed in
the defense of Khe Sanh and Arkansas
Senator J. W. Fulbright wrangled with
the Defense Department for the declassi-
fication of a $90,000 secret study on how
the United States can "maintain world
hegemony in the future," the world stop-
ped for first year graduate students and
seniors across the country.
In what may prove to be one of the
most underplayed of recent administra-
tion fiats, General Lewis B. Hershey, the
doyen of American militarism, an-
nounced not only an end to draft defer-
ments but also gave local boards discre-
tion over occupational deferments in in-
dividual cases. Students beginning grad-
uate studies after the fall of 1967, except
those in medicine and medically related
fields, are draft eligible.
THE PORTENTS of this move are mind-
boggling. As long as the war continues
-and President Johnson has apparently
decided it will continue for a long, long
time--men will be needed to fight it.
After last year's outcries over the in-
equity of college deferments-complain-
ing that the effect of the existent sys-
tem was to have the poor man fight the
rich man's war-major revisions in the
draft system were undertaken.
Hershey's announcement yesterday
merely puts the crowning touch on those
revisions. Complaints by university ad-
ministrators 1 i k e Harvard president
Nathan M. Pusey that the new priorities
would empty graduate schools have been
ignored once and for all. And when the
new system of drafting graduate stu-
dents goes into effect this spring, the
effects on the students, the draft-defer-
able occupations, the nation and even
the military itself promise to be revolu-
tionary.
Furthermore, attempts by resistance
groups at "boring from within"-con-
verting soldiers to the cause of ending
the war by distributing literature on mil-
itary bases-have been so successful that
in reprisal the generals have resorted to
hounding chaplains and pacifist coun-
selors who meet with soldiers. One group
in Kansas found their apartment under
constant watch; when they went for
drives in their cars they were followed
by helicopters.
To all these difficulties the army will
after this spring have to add the un-
happy prospect of inducting, indoctri-
nating and integrating tens of thousands
of intelligent, intellectually cocksure col-
lege graduates. The spectacle of a gruff
staff sergeant used to cowing timid in-
ductees now faced with confronting those
not so easily disciplined would be laugh-
able were the tragic tones of war and
death not hovering so heavily over it.
YET IT MAY not be so bad for the mili-
tary. At Harvard, a poll of graduating
seniors showed that 55 per cent say they
will go to Canada or jail or high schools
or anywhere before they will go to war.
Of course, talk is cheap; many will un-
doubtedly change their minds once in-
exorable choices have to be made. Even
so, it remains true that more than any
other issue the draft mobilizes dormant
anti-war sentiment and raises knotty
moral questions in even the most apoli-
tical. Already, 11,000 young Americans
have emigrated to Canada and there is
every indication that as the war drags
on more and more will prefer to brave
the cold of the Northland over the heat
of the Southeast Asian jungle. Divinity
school applications are up at some uni-
versities by one-half (divinity students
receive special non-student deferments)..
And in what may be the greatest boon
for American public education since
Horace Mann, thousands of seniors who
never gave teaching a second thought
before are already checking out the
school board before submitting to the
draft board.
For these, the situation is indeed tragic.
What will happen to the political climate
of the nation next summer if graduates
and graduate students in significant
quantities choose jail, however, could be
even more tragic. In one sense, by push-
ing many farther to the left, Hershey's
move is the nicest thing the government
has ever done for the proselytizers of
resistance. The other side of the coin
is that many Americans who are waver-
ing on Vietnam, who are by virtue of age
ineligible to be drafted, and who will
witness with shock the defection from
the system of so many young Americans
-may react by reverting to hysterical
xenophobia.
THE HARD-LINE resisters have calcu-
lated this and they think the risk is
worth it-the administration, they argue,
has not been impressed by the doubts
of "wavering" Americans. Whether they
are right or not will be known with time.
Hershey has made speculation about the
effects of forcing graduate students to
make a choice entirely academic.
-URBAN LEHNER
The Latest Communique From Credibility Gap
Lett(
A thletics
To the Editor:
SINCE THE DAILY has seen it
proper to expose allegations of
athletic rule violations at the Uni-
versity, I feel compelled to com-
ment on the importance and im-
plications of the situation.
First, I should mention that the
accuracy of The Daily report can
not be questioned. Last year I in-
dependently investigated the situ-
ation and found the reported in-
fractiohs to be the least objection-
able of the activities going on.
Anyone who disbelieves the valid-
ity of the story is either extremely
naive and speaking out of ignor-
ance or lying.
I chose to publish no expose at
all because I doubted whether any
of these more serious charges
could be sufficiently proven. Per-
haps it was a mistake in judgment,
but I felt that the minor violations
in themselves should not be ex-
posed.
I FEARED that such a step
would lead to a result that I am
afraid still appears most likely.
This is not to diminish from The
Daily's excellent and courageous
reporting. Rather it is a criticism
of the Big Ten's incredible hypo-
crisy.
I am sure The Daily reporters
will tell anyone it was not difficult
to uncover the violations reported.
They were there for all to see-if
they wanted to look. The Big Ten
chose not to. Now that The Daily
has forced all to look, it will be in-
teresting to see the final outcome.
The initial step taken by the
Board - In - Control - of Intercol-
legiate Athletics is a bad start.
Asking athletes to give restitution
for their unjust enrichment is an
asinine and pompous solution to
the problem.
Admittedly the collegiate ath-
letic world is a slough of sin, and
its leaders apparently are still con-
tent to skim off the top. The minor
infractions are almost understand-
able. Many college athletes are
genuinely impoverished, and it is
sincerely difficult for them to get
along on the Big Ten's stringent
requirements. But do other stu-
dents do it? Very few Michigan
students reach the low economic
strata of some athletes. The situ-
ation is especially bad at Michigan
'rs to the Edi tor
s: The Journalism of Naivete?
infamous as the most parsimonious
in the conferencewhen itscomes
to decent treatment of its ath-
letes.
SINCE THE most serious and
unjustified violations are yet to
be detailed, the schools and the
conference are still content to
punish the players and plug up the
dike wherever The Daily starts a
leak.
If officials truly wanted an hon-
est conference they ought to find
out just how crooked it is. The
where the athletic department <is
chances of that, however, are pret-
ty slim.'
If you are going to be wrong and
lose a lot of friends as a result.
Speaking as an alumnus of The
Daily, however, I'm proud to have
been associated with you, and I'm
proud of the job you've done.
And remember, Bill Reed used
to be Daily sports editor. If you
can keep the idealism that long,
maybe one day you can really do
something about the problems the
"realists" are content to ignore.
-Chuck Vetzner,
Sports Editor 1966-67
By MME. LE THE ANH
Daiy Guest Writer
JHE ONLY military tactic that
has won "successes" in Viet-
nam is the tactic called "Bet
Chien Tu Nhien Thanh" - "No-
Battle-Victory" tactic. It has been
described in Chinese military books
for a thousand years. It is elabo-
rately described by Vo-Nguyen
Giap, the North Vietnamese com-
mander in chief, in his book
about guerrilla warfare, People's
War, People's Army.
The "No-Battle-Victory" tactic
consists in putting oneself in such
a psychological position that one's
enemy-by the weight of his own
wrong doing and his own violence
-is going to work out one's vic-
tory. It is moral judo or jiu-jitsu.
Judo, the "way of softness," con-
sists in letting, and even attract-
ing, your enemy to throw himself
upon you with the full weight of
his violence and just amplifying
the reaction. But the way of soft-
ness does not permit creating a
reaction: you must not allow your-
self to be put in the attacking
position. The opponent will be
defeated only by the weight of his
own rebounding violence. The
more powerful the attacking vio-
lence, the more powerful the re-
bound will be.
This is the principal tactic fol-
lowed by the Viet Cong in South
Vietnam. The Viet Cong gets its
strength from the presence of
U.S. troops using great and indis-
criminate violence which stirs up
anti-American sentiments in the
South Vietnamese population. The
"No-Battle-Victory" tactic consists
in making an enemy look like
"The Evil." The Americans do try
somewhat to use this tactic by
telling the South Vietnamese vil-
lagers that communism is "The
Evil" and by ostensibly allying
themselves with the Saigon army
to protect the people against
communism.
BUT THE Saigon army never
did succeed in identifying itself
with the people and is regarded by
most Vietnamese as the continua-
tion of a traitor army of colonial
reoccupation. As the United States
and its client Saigon army bombs
villages and kills civilians, it works
a multitude of no-battle-victories
for the Viet Cong. Sometimes the
Viet Cong has attracted the United
States to bomb innocent villages.
A goodly number of cruel and cor-
rupt village officials are purposely
left unharmed while they torture
the people-all to further discredit
the Saigon government.
The image of the United States
as "The Evil" is reinforced by its
"outsidedness." The Americans
are linked psychologically with the
white French colonialists, especial -
ly when using the client Saigon
army. The Americans expected
this Saigon army, using the most
modern methods of violence, to
gain military victories against
communism in South Vietnam. To
understand why they have not
and cannot, despite so-much help
from the United States, Americans
must know the history of the army
and how it is constituted.
When the French Corps Ex-
peditionaire returned to Vietnam
in 1945, the small Carde Indigene
had been almost completely dis-
banded. In 1946 the French called
therpeople back into the army.
Every young man with a high
school diploma was forcibly draft-
ed into the military officers' school
at Thu-Duc. Draft deferment was
bought with gold. Young men put
dirt in their eyes or drank chemi-
cals to color their x-rays in order
to escape the draft. Despite the
great material advantages offered.
classes at the Military Academy
at Dalat were empty. Everyone
regarded serving under the French
as treachery to Vietnam. One of
the first graduating classes of
Thu-Duc fled to the Underground
after graduation. Those who did
enroll in that army were men with
little national pride and no dedi-
cation, who could be bought with
money and power into collabora-
tion with the invaders of their
. country. This was the start of the
military buildup in South Vietnam.
Those early recruits under the
French are now at the top of the
military structure.
TO FILL THE ranks, the French
then opened jails, appealed to the
gangs of Ba-Cut (Vietnam's most
infamous gangster) and Nam-Lua
(a gangster warlord).
Now let us consider the compo-
sition of the Viet Cong leadership,
On the one hand, there are na-
tionalists trying to use communism
as an expedient to achieve na-
tionalist aims and, on the other,
communists trying to use national-
ism as an expedient to commun-
ize South Vietnam. Communism
could never have embraced na-
tionalism if colonialism had not
chased the patriots into commun-
ist arms (and it is still chasing).
It was-and still is-the intran-
sigence of the United States (fol-
lowing the French) and of the
many regimes in Saigon that fill
the ranks and provide the cadres
of the Viet Cong. Nguyen-Huu-
Tho, leader of the National Liber-
ation Front, was not trained in
Moscow or Peking-he was a grad-
uate of Diem's jails. Most of the
NLF leaders, including Nguyen-
Huu-Tho, are members of the na-
tionalist wealthy class.
Between the two poles of the
Viet Cong and the United States-
supported Saigon government are
the vast majority of the popula-
tion - about 80 per cent - of
Tao-Buddhist-Confucianist back-
ground. This sector of the popula-
tion, like a chameleon, changes
its degree of identification with
the Viet Cong on a day to day
basis, responsive to various fac-
tors, especially the psychological.
But there is pro-Viet Cong senti-
ment in the heart of every Viet-
namese. To root it out, the Ameri-
cans would have to mutilate al-
most every Vietnamese. The "front
line" in this war, the "battle for
the hearts and minds of the peo-
ple," passes through the body of
every Vietnamese.
TO A VIETNAMESE, the re-
cent events in Vietnam are con-
ceptualized as follows:
The Allied military conduct of
the war has won for the Viet Cong
a great political and psychological
victory. The staunchest supporters
of the war, the,Catholic Bishops,
have turned away from the Saigon
generals. The most radical anti-
communists, the Buddhists, have
been driven into joining the Un-
derground. The destruction of the
historic monuments of Hue by the
Allies has led to popular resent-
ments.
It must be noticed that the
fighting is fiercest in Hue, center
of Buddhist dissatisfaction with
Saigon generals, and around An-
Quang pagoda in Saigon. That
means the Buddhists have made
common cause with the National
Liberation Front against a corn
mon enemy. The complex Bud-
dhist-Nationalist force represent
the third force that is most rep-
resentative of Vietnamese aspi-
rations. That third force had trie
to remain free from polarizatior
either to the Viet Cong or Saigor
side until recently. There are cleai
signs that this force is rallying
now to the Viet Cong. If taking
to the streets and burning them-
selves led nowhere but to re
pression, they have come to ac
copt communism as a lesser ev
to war, corruption and destruction
In my opinion this is the mosi
astonishing "No-Battle-Victory'
ever won by the Saigon kenerah
for the communists, because i
communism is not a threat to na-
tionalism, it is a real threat tc
Buddhism. Atheism and totalita-
rianism are in direct opposition tc
the Tao - Buddhist background
shared by the majority of Viet-
namese. This third force, although
genuinely representative and bear-
ing most of the burden of the war,
has always been denied expression.
THFE NUMBER of U.S. "Allies"
is shrinking because Saigon is no
longer a sanctuary. More and
more Saigon businessmen will feel
the need to have two legs, one in
each camp. Conscription will be-
come even more unpopular, and
many army units, particularly in
the Hue area, can be expected to
join the Viet Cong, unless a third
force is authorized to emerge to
seek an end to the war.
Honest Interpretations Reinterpreted
To the Editor:
LAST SUNDAY in The Daily
there appeared a very stimu-
lating column by Roger Rapoport
making many interesting points.
One line which struck me in par-
ticular was Mr. Rapoport's:". .
we hope you're convinced that The
Daily is serious enough about its
job to print any legitimate story."
From events which I am about to
relate, I have to answer: no, I
am not convinced.
Last Monday, Feb. 12, the U.
of M. Conservative Union spon-
sored a speech by the Honorable
Pham Khac Rau. This distin-
guished gentleman had been in
the Vietnamese diplomatic corps
since 1943 when he served as dis-
trict governor in North Vietnam.
He has since represented the Re-
public of South Vietnam at var-
ious diplomatic assignments
abroad, including being Ambassa-
dor of South Vietnam to the U.S.
(1963-65). He had also been Ngo
Dinh Diem's Public Relations Di-
rector (1958-63). Last Monday,
employing much invaluable first-
hand knowledge, Mr. Pham ex-
hibited a deep insight into the
highly intricate political situation
in Vietnam.
Now it seems to me. of course a
mere layman when it comes to
reporting, that such a speech
would deserve some mention in
The Daily. The Daily had been
notified of the speech five or six
d a y s beforehand. WCBN-radio
found the speech newsworthy and
gave it coverage, but The Daily
did not even send a reporter to
listen to what Mr. Pham had to
say.
Mr. Rapoport stated in his
column that: "Many countries get
around the liability of having
newspapers print too much truth
by having censors, thus prevent-
ing anyone from reading too much
fact." This, of course, does not
apply to the United States where
there is a "free press." But as
Mr. Rapoport states, ". . . a free
press can work only when it is
applied equally to everyone."
Keeping in mind what Mr. Rapo-
port had said, I turned to some
of the back issues of The Daily. In
the last two weeks, there have
been four major articles related to
one, Thich Nhat Hanh, a South
Vietnamese Buddhist monk, poet
and author, whose most impor-
tant "accomplishment" seems to
have been his opposition to the
Thieu-Ky government.
HAVING SET down the facts
of the case, I would now like to
pose a few questions. Why did
Thich Nhat Hanh rate four arti-
cles in The Daily whereas Pham
Khac Rau was not even men-
tioned? Did this maybe have
something to do with the respec-
tive views of these two men on
the question of Vietnam? Where
in thisrcontext can one see a
"free press" being ".. applied
equally to everyone?" Is there
maybe after all some sort of cen-
sor or group of censors ". . . pre-
venting anyone from reading too
much fact?" If so, whom do these
''censors" represent? And finally,
is The Daily really providing its
readers with what Mr. Rapoport
labels ". . . an honest interpreta-
tion of what is going on?"
-Michael Modelski, '71
Strange Coincidence at MSU
IT IS AN ODD coincidence that MSU
Vice-President Philip May has decided
to take his first sabbatical leave in 21
years-just when he is under investiga-
tion by the attorney general's office for
a possible conflict of interest.
The investigation, initiated by Attor-
ney General Frank Kelley last November
after The Daily published a lengthy
article describing May's dealings in East
Lansing real estate, is likely to be com-
pleted while May is on leave.
The MSU vice-president insists that
the six months of sabbatical leave at full
pay have "nothing to do" with the im-
pending attorney general's opinion.
It is just because he has "been so busy"
over the past two decades that he has
never requested such a leave. "I think
that now is a good time," he said, noting
that "things will ease off" now that the
MSU construction program is slowing
down and the Legislature "probably will
get to appropriations earlier this year
than before."
MAY IS LEAVING in two weeks but
hasn't "made any set schedule" yet
for his sabbatical "to study business
management at other universities.",
Coincidently, when the attorney gen-
Fall and winter subscription rate: $4.50 per term. by
eral's investigation is done, May prob-
ably won't be in East Lansing. If the
attorney general rules a conflict of in-
terest does indeed exist, there will be no
messy scenes. May just turns in a quiet,
in absentia resignation and never
bothers to return.
If it works that way, it's really very
tidy. Somebody at MSU must be using
his head.
-JENNY STILLER
Same Old Song
From the DOD
YESTERDAY the Defense Department
refused to make public the "Pax
Americana," a two-year old, $90,000 study
of ways to maintain United States world
power.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Chairman J. William Fulbright read the
study and asked that it be made public,
especially since most of the material
gathered by Douglas was public informa-
tion anyway. He even asked for a release
of the report with the "classified" infor-
mation deleted. But the Defense Depart-
ment refused, saying that they did not
want the policies and conclusions of the
rpnnrt to h taken a sdnartment nolicv.
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