(1 icbiAlra mEITaiy 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 mow. 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. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 1968 NIGHT EDITOR: STEPHEN WILDSTROM Dienbienphu Day: Time to Get Out of Khe Sanh TODAY IS THE 14TH anniversary of the siege of Dienbienphu. On March 13, 1954, Viet Minh regulars, under the command of Gen. Nguyen Giap, attacked the French jungle fortress at Dienbienphu, near what is now the North Vietnam-Iaos border, with infantry and heavy artillery. Sixty-six days later, the remainer of the fortress garrison surren- dered and the French presence in Indo-. china came to an end. Today, the American fortress at Khe Sanh, just south of the Demiliterized Zone (DMZ), lies surrounded- by North Vietnamese regulars under the com- mand of the same Gen. Giap, now, as then, commander-in-chief of the North Vietnamese People Army (NVA). While the situations of Dienbienphu and Khe Sanh are not directly analogous, the Americans now appear to be making the same mistakes the French made 14 years ago. Like Dienbienphu, Khe Sanh was originally conceived as a "mooring point" -a home base for "search-and-destroy" missions designed to block infiltration. It has been some time since Khe Sanh sent out a successful reconnaissance party; only last week, an American platoon was attacked, suffering heavy casualties, only a few hundred yards outside the base. JHE SANH has ceased to fill any valu- able strategic function. There have been two major reasons promulgated for a defense of the base. One is that the fall or evacuation of Khe Sanh would open all of South Vietnam to infiltration from the north. The second is that if Giap chooses to attack the garrison, his army will be by decimated American air strikes. The first reason is patently absurd. The NVA does not rely on conventional supply lines; its thousands of coolie sup- port units can circumvent Khe Sahh just as they circumvented Dienbienphu. The evacuation of Khe Sanh would be pri- marily a psychological, not a strategic blow to the United States. Those who hold that we can annihilate the NVA in a set-piece jungle battle at Khe Sanh are forgetting Gen Giap's basic maxim: "Strike to win, strike only when success is certain; if it is not, then don't strike." Giap will attack when he is good and ready to attack and not before. As out- lined by the late Bernard B. Fall in his analysis "Hell in a Very Small Place," Giap worked against the French by very slowly moving against Dienbienphu, ever tightening the NVA noose around the isolated base. He attacked only after his artillery had the fortress' air strip within artillery range, effectively preventing supply or evacuation of the base. HERE IS a good deal of evidence that Giap is using the same tactics against Khe Sanh. The surrounding NVA troops have slowly been moving in on the base and their fortifications are now within 50 yards of the outer fortress walls. By the time NVA positions are discovered for air strikes, they may be on top of U.S. and South Vietnamese soldiers, rendering air power ineffective. NVA artillery has also begun to hit the airfield with deadly accuracy. Khe Sanh has become increasingly dependent, upon air drops for supplies. By the time the #French considered evacuating Dienbienphu it was too late -the airfield was useless because of the deadly artillery fire. Time is running out for the Americans and South Vietnamese at Khe Sanh. THE U.S. AND SOUTH VIETNAMESE forces at Khe Sanh are headed for a defeat or, at best, a Pyhrric victory. The base is simply not worth the enormous toll in lives an all-out battle with the NVA would undoubtedly take. The base should be evacuated now while evacuation is still possible. -STEVE WILDSTROM Managing Editor ,". t. .. .. t0., ,. t f 77- S 4 s;r IE RI t-A tie " } Ty y JY i' y ' h . +r l l 1'VCl V {i" M1 * j,, r,1 y C'f 'y*' "' "t 7: ~ 4 tT - 1( . ;^ t "'ik r: 1YO {",,Sa ' ,I, y ty 1 , ; I _ ,' .'TkY',p L 4 s 7 i l J5 , q 4'F ' - r 1 1, e l i4 j t + "r rtY'kJ l;Eat"',+r i , t, w, k r r cy : iE t t f a lI *wk ? + ,.. " ;4A y. s., i°"7 " !NR'w"..r;"F, ! } .:. :? l ?n. .t . .r . a it, .. "f" A (Inaugural) Analysis EDITOR'S NOTE: Following are excerpts from President Robben Wright Fleming's inaugural ad- dress delivered Monday at Hill Auditorium. I MUST, at the very outset, ex- press the great sense of honor which I feel at being invested with this high office. My earliest memories _ of The University of Michigan stem from a childhood in Illinois where, as a small boy intensely ' interested in sports, I was conscious of the famous phrase "FTMriedman to oosterbaan" and of the rhythm of "Hail to the Victors" as the Wolverines marched past my more favored Illini. ' - It was later, when I was myself a college student, that I first be- came acquainted with the emin- ence of Michigan as an academic institution. And it was still later, when my own career turned to- ward the academic world, that I fully realized the respect and ad- miration which scholars every- where hold for The University of Michigan. It is easy for me to say that this is one of the truly great uni- versities of the world, for I have had nothing to do with building that reputation. If future his- torians can record that I had some small part in maintaining and ad- vancing that reputation, I shall be content. University inaugurations are touched by a sense of history. The ceremony Itself, with the aca- demic procession, the colorful robes and hoods, the presence of our colleagues representing the proud world of scholarship - all sug- gest an awareness of and respect for the past and its traditions. PERHAPS it was natural, there- fore, that in preparing for this occasion I turned to Professor Howard Peckham's recent history of The University of Michigan, published last year as part of the observance of the University's ses- quicentennial. The book is organ- ized around the various presidents who have served the University, 1 and it is not long. before the gigan- r tic figure of President Tappan strolls across its pages. Let me read a brief passage about Tappan : n Henry Philip Tappan ar- rived in Ann Arbor . . . in the summer of 1852, fresh e from Europe. He was forty- n seven years old, six feet tall and handsome, with side and underchin whiskers. In the The President's F y Robber W. Fleming the function of the public univer- sity. Despite the tax outlay for education, students and their , families, ,are being asked to bear more and snore of the total ex- pense. With this goes an aggra- vated form of economic isolation- ism in which legislatures, aware of the fact that there is a sub- sidy for every student who at- tends a university, raise the tariff wall even higher against taut-of- state and international students. The. virulent fallacy that the out-of-state student somehow imposes an unfair burden on the taxpayers particularly plagues The University of Michigan because it 'has. from its earliest days, been a national university. I have spoken of this in the past, and I shall do so again. For today, I simply say that, in my judgment, 'there is no econ- omic and certainly no education- al justification for this kind of isolationism. In the long run, it can only be detrimental to the progress of the state. The free exchange of students across state lines is just one as- pect of the problem of main- taining excellence. Another, in the words of my colleague Alan Smith, "is the challenge for education, to find a way to. justify, preserve and foster genuine excellence in a society Heavily' committed to an egalitarian philosophy." There is pressure, on both state and na- The Military Bit, Advertising I wtse IN THIS AGE of flowered hippie- mobiles and traveling-band micro-buses, it's nice to see that the armed forces of our country are keeping up with the trend. Walking across the parking lot between the Union and the SAB last week, I was surprised 'to, see a U.S. Navy recruiting micro-bus with the words "Go Navy" scrawl- ed in large yellow and blue letters on the side. Underneath was the catchy slogan, "In the, air, on the sea, under the sea." With such persuasive advertising, I reflected, who could resist rushing down to the nearest Navy recruiting office and enlisting immediately? Fascinated by the idea that the previously stodgy Navy might be embarking on a Madison Avenue style campaign to create a - new public image, I called up the local recruiter to find out what the Navy has up its blue and white sleeves. ACCORDING to the recruiter, the Navy and its sister branches have no plans for future publicity drives done in this imaginative genre. That's too bad, because there are a number of fascinating possibilities they could toy around with. For example, 1 "Go Navy' streamers to be flown over the football stadium; 0 "Support Your Local Recruit- er" buttons to be circulated wide- ly on campus. david duboff ,A Psychedelic posters-designed by Peter Max--commemorating the Navy frogmen as they dive for bombs off Greenland; 0 More extensive coverage of military events. There could be a 2-hour weekly Sunday afternoon program on ABC called "Wide World of War." It could be joined during the second season by an NBC spectacular, "Battle of the Week." ! More TV testimonials, follow- ing the, format of the currently popular Savings Bonds ad ("They buy savings bonds where they work . . . shouldn't you?"). A "Marine of the Week," chosen by popular vote of the troops, would take a two-minute battle-break to tell why he decided to enlist. For the Army and the Ma- rines, shortie battle dramas with a television commercial format. One could be patterned after the Katy Winters Listerine series: Setting: the jungle around Khe Sanh : A battle-weary private calls to the sargeant in the next bunker : Private: "Gee, Sarge, I just don't get any kick out of shooting VC anymore." Sarge "'Ja ever think it might be that old rifle you're using? Here, try this new M-16, w1Dri-Slide." A week later, during a lull in battle. The sargeant comes over and offers the private--looking very refreshed-a cigarette from his pack of "Wings." Sarge: "Nice job you've been chin', kid." .Private: "Thanks, Sarge, I owe it all to the Army and modern technology." 0 Replacing the traditional Military Ball with a benefit light show rock concert featuring "Sgt Barry Sadler and the Special For- ces" with such hits at "Rifle, Don't Ever Fail Me" and "Dear John I'm in love with your mortar," while pictures of. contorted GI'; flash on screens overhead in tempc to the music; *Postage 'stamps commemo- rating the Tonkin Gulf incident; *Feature-length films depict. ing the trials and tribulations of university researchers as they work long hours trying to perfect neu radar sensing devices. AH YES, even the military coulc benefit from an injection of Madi- son Avenue techniques. After all with thousands of young Amer- icans in the next few months de- ciding that maybe Canada would- n't be such a bad life after all General Westmoreland is going tc have, to get those 240,000 troop: from somewhere. The Ox-Ford Incident .i t t. 't i, :, S a ;; f d y l fs {?:{iC{<;' r: ::v?'p}}^,.;{{{ .:v,.;.}:"yv."}%{{-?g:"i"{v:{t{"}:":": {{:":"::":":"Y.r,"h":: ; }eg:{"::{b;.c:":";{":...,:}.'."g'{"'L. '{o.":r""'{-'rfi ";"-{"}"tifi:"p:{{+"} "}} .;::' ~.v.,a : ,{ .+ .1:{"}}:V: f:J "}::";: }:{"1:ti"}}:%2 ...". l}i .YL: i'.'i }::Vi::1"::1} {{.;{ll:::".,A:'}:{.:{45:; ;":d"X{ r.'"::"}!h°v.'+Cv}n stiti":4:,7w~.":":{w'dti { vF:yY:ti":"fisC0.4:y: :.v;"::""r+:{{Yr. 4"I t is often easier for critics of the present gen- eration of students to fulminate against their bad manners, which are frequently, displayed, than. to- accept the fact that underlying the bad manners may be a dedication to human well being not found in their critics . ." ,r{ ,; :;:{}r,"" ei 4:;:v:{{r:::.";"":;?:""';R;:i::.{'"t'}},Y":w:ti{}?:;}:;;;iv:"Y.+:}. q}:{"i .Yr};."m .".;r{.:vk}:":::"{:{": ?:vti"':."."}T;%{""i Sy. c;{: ...".:Y.";{a}}:,r { :3 : {".:.:.:":"F"i:.r. n....:":":":":: ::}.{vn":":": :":{".:":.+.{"i.".: ::::{{"::": :".{:n{:{{}.{i"?h}:'i:K.'":1:'r:'.Ei :"f:"}:":dd"';"}her{.:":"::YY'.":":":":":C 'r:i+; S:" r < "e'{"::d"'Lr} :k:{Sf">::+.i. IT IS DIFFICULT to understand the University's,-reasons for offering two sororities space in Oxford Housing. University H o u s i n g Director John Feldkamp contends that by allowing the two Negro sororities, Delta Sigma Theta and Alpha Kappa Alpha, to occupy Van- denberg and Goddard Houses of Oxford, the University will have made a "gesture to make Michigan more attractive to Opportunity Award students and to Ne- groes." He claims that most of the mem- bers of the two sororities are Opportun- ity Award students,. By signing up the girls as individuals rather than sorority members, the Uni- versify conveniently circumvents its policy that it is not responsible for pro- viding housing for Greek groups. Unfortunately, the policy which Feld- Vote? IF YOU didn't get a chance to vote yes- terday in the SGC election, you can still vote today. Please do. -U. L. Second class postage paid at Ann Arbor. Michigan, 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48104. The Daily is a member of the Associated Press, Collegiate Press Service and Liberation News Service. Daily except Monday during regular academic school ygear. Daily except Sunday and Monday during regular summer session. Fall and winter subscription rate: $4.50 per term by carrie: ($5 by mail); $8.00 for regular academic school year ($9 by rmail). Editorial Staff MARK LEVIN, Editor STEPHEN WILDSTROM URBAN LEHNER Managing Editor Editorial Director DAVID KNOKE. Executive Editor WALLACE IMMEN .... ............ ... News Editor PAT O'DONOHUEN.. ........ .... .. News Editor DANIEL OKRENT,.................... Feature Editor LUCY KENNEDY ...... .... Personnel Director CAROLYN MIEGEL,....... Associate Editorial Director WALTER SHAPIRO,....... Associate Editorial Director NEAL BRUSS...................... Magazine Editor ANDY SACKS ......................... Photo Editor ROBEm RTHWFTT..........................Lab Chief kamp evades is far sounder than his rationale for evading it. jF THIS IS a gesture to make the Uni- versity attractive to Opportunity Award students, it is a strangely inconsistent way of going about it. Are all the girls in the houses Oppor- tunity Award students? If not, why isn't the gesture made to those who are as individuals? Are there other Opportunity Award students not members of these two soror- ities on campus? Why aren't gestures being made to them? The problem here is that the gesture is being made toward sororities, not to Negroes or Opportunity Award students. Sororities are selective, expensive groups. That the University aided two Negro sororities constitutes a rather sorry calling card for University recruiters in the ghettoes. Most of the promising Negro students they approach cannot even af- ford to go to school here, much less join a sorority. PERHAPS AS Feldkamp says, there were vacancies for next year in Oxford before the, sororities were offered the spaces. But the University has overreact- ed. Not only will two of the houses go to the two sororities, but a third, Noble House, has been converted to men's hous- ing. This means that many girls now liv- ing in Oxford will not be able to return next year. Again, the University's policy of allocating University housing spaces by seniority has been ignored. The University's efforts to attract Ne- groes and assist them deserves commen- dation; its efforts to subsidize sororities do not. The Univesrity's policy not to pro- vide housing for fraternities and soror- ities should be enforced consistently. While Feldkamp claims that this policy sets no precedent, it would not seem un- reasonable for other sororities to de- mand the same privileges. Kappas in Stockwell, for example? T 1, Ut, .n rm 'flTtr a n r Letters to the Editor The Riot Comm issiori Revisited To the Editor: YOUR RECENT editorial, "The Riot Commission Report: Who's Afraid of White Racism?" con- fuses many issues and, adds very little to a realistic discussion of this nation's racial problem. There are four items that need clarifi- cation. First, you intimate that the Riot Commission's report calls for a continuation or expansion of many existing welfare programs. A care- ful review of the Commission's re- port indicates ; that it questioned the present welfare and housing programs and found they had fail- ed to accomplish their ends. The report called for fundamental changes in the welfare system, a complete reorientation of housing programs and major revisions in the system of federal support for education. It is unusual for a commission, appointed by an incumbent presi- dent, to arrive at so many con- clusions which challenge that pres- ident's basic domestic 'programs. The Riot Commission's report is a very anti-establishment docu- ment, perhaps without precedent in our history. SECOND, your editorial claims that existing federal programs have failed to solve anything. An investigation of the characteristics of blacks indicates there have been lacked plumbing decreased from 44 percent to 29 per cent. Since 1964 not only has Negro income gone up, but the white-black in- come discrepancy has narrowed. . It is true that racial differences in social and economic status re- main quite large. But it is clear that some improvements have been made. There is good reason to be- lieve that many of the existing government programs have played a 'sole in improving the status of blacks in our society. Third, in proposing solutions you suggest that there is some type of homogeneity within black com- munities. You indicate that if black neighborhoods were to con- trol welfare agencies or educa- tional facilities at least one step would be taken toward solving ur- ban problems. This represents a kind of stereotype thinking. Why should there be this agreement within the black community? Would blacks, any more than whites, agree about what the sig- nificant, social problems were and how they might be solved? Is it possible to imagine four spokes- men as diverse as Senator Brooke, Mr. Stokley Carmichael, Mr. Asa Spaulding and Dr. Martin Luther King agreeing about how a black community should be run? FOURTH, I think your suggest- ion of urban decentralization de- dition, a tradition which severely handicapped blacks for many de- cades. The more financially able white ghettoes would enact zoning laws which would have the consequence of keeping poor whites and blacks out. I think that further frag- menting of the central cities will help to separate the rich from the poor and blacks from whites. Per- haps a better solution would be to establish national standards for housing welfare, medical care and education and provide federal monies wherever a city could not provide these services. The Riot Commission's suggest- ions may not solve racial problems but they do lay out one sensible approach. The merits and liabili- ties of these suggestions need to be evaluated. Your editorial befud- dles these important issues. --Reynolds Farley, Prof. of Sociology Sports for All To the Editor: IS THE DAILY Sports staff so engrossed with its current cru- sade against Michigan athletes getting 10 per cent off on a cup of coffee that it has forgotten its past crusade about the gross in- adequacies of the intramural de- partment? The Fleming revision nf the Raves r,'t1Y2 mittP.P. renorts semirural, parochial town of Ann Arbor, he was unmistak- able ... Outdoors, he carried a cane and was invariably accompanied by one of his huge St. Bernards, Buff or Leo. In a day of stovepipe hats, he wore a felt hat tipped to one side. He walked briskly among the stores not unlike the lord of the manor in the marketplace of the peasants. He looked and acted like a university president. The stu- dents were not merely impres- sed, they were almost over- whelmed. Some of them more than fifty years later remem- bered him with awe. Their comments paint him best: "He was an - immense person- ality. It was a liberal educa- tion even for the stupid to be slightly acquainted with him." After reading that far, I stopped for contemplation -- and to won- der about my own qualifications. Aside from being six feet, tall, my image seemed inappropriate. In place of the two huge St. Ber- nards, I possessed only a small dachshund who had never learned .to walk with a :leash and who therefore protested every step of the way, making choking sounds designed to attract the Humane Society. I did not own a cane nor a top hat, and the whiskers were all on the students. Instead of walking through the marketplace like the lord of the manor; I found myself dodging both pedestrian and vehi- cular traffic just to stay alive. And if students .were awed by me they had most extraordinary ways of showing it. As a matter of fact, in per- suading my own children to come to this ceremony, I thought it best to describe- it as my "thing" THE COST OF supporting the educational aspirations of so many young people frightens some of us. Dollars are important, and I have no doubt that I shall have occasion many' times to talk of them. But today, I suggest that what should be bothering us ,even more than rising costs is the fact that almost half of all youngsters who rate in the top seven per cent of the student population on the basis of ability still do not pursue tional legislatures to expand ed- ucational opportunities and equal- ize funding formulae among in- stitutions. More opportunities for higher education we must have if the expectations of people are to be fulfilled, but some kinds of edu- cation are enormously more ex-, psensive than others. Neither the needs of society, the resources of the country, nor the talent avail- able permit or require that all of higher education be funded alike. The valleys are not less beautiful than the peaks, but far distant horizons, which will benefit both are more visible from the peaks. IT IS'rREDICTABLE that strong differences of opinion will divide us. Is it too much ' to hope that in this home of the intellect we can conduct ourselves with dignity and restraint? Or will we have to concede that the humanizing in- fluences and values which we be- lieve abound in the.university are always betrayed in a time of stress?-,My dream, my belief, my -commitment is that on this campus we can and will preserve our community and its time- honored values. ' As an aside to this point, how- ever, I am impelled to add that those of us who. urge dignity and restraint must not put these qual- ities ahead of human welfare. It is often easier for critics of the .present generation of students to fulminate against their bad man- . hers, which are frequently. dis- played, than to accept the fact that underlying the bad manners may be a 'dedication to human well-being not found in, their critics. WE KNOW a great deal more about methods of injecting infor- mation into students than we do about how to make them civilized human beings. In part, at least, this is becasue it is )easier to pack- age knowledge than it is to pack- age humanity. We know Just what kind of courses to give to produce competent scholars and practition- ers in linguistics, physics, law, or mathematics. We know °a good deal less about teaching tolerance, compassion, and the responsibil- ities of the civilized citizen. And there are some who doubt 4k