r Ampen &idi 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 Explaining the Radical-Liberal Dichotomy Where Opinions Are Free, 420 MAYNARD S'r., 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, NOVEMBER 4, 1967 NIGHT EDITOR: MARK LEVIN i Laboratory Helps Ferret Out North east Reds THE GOVERNMENT has developed, with the assistance of scientists at the University of Michigan, an aerial reconnaissance laboratory designed to help find jungle hiding places of com- munist terrorists in the Northeast, a high-ranking official connected with Air Force activity against the commun- ists reported yesterday. The laboratory has proved "very suc- cessful in locating bands of terrorists in the jungles," he said. When the bands are found, joint civil-police military units are sent in t6 capture them. Details of the laboratory and its operation cannot be divulged at pres- ent. MEANWHILE, in a dispatch from Ann Arbor, Michigan, AP reported that the Michigan Daily, the university stu- dent newppaper, carried a front-page story of the work of the university scientists in developing the laboratory with Thai officials. The story was the first of a four- part series outlining what it said were the kinds of work done by the univer- sity under 21.5 million dollars (430 million baht) in U.S. Department of Defense contracts. It said about 9.7 million dollars (144 million baht) of this work is clasified as secret. In addition to working with Thais in Thailand, the paper said, university scientists have been training "twenty to thirty" Thai military men in re- connaissance techniques both at the university and in Thailand. ABOUT A HALF dozen scientists, led by project director Joseph O. Mor- gan of the school's infra-red physics laboratory, reportedly made several trips to Bangkok to help develop the laboratory. --THE BANGKOK (THAILAND) POST, FRONT PAGE, OCTOBER 20, 1967 Bp PETER STEINBERGER The author is a graduate of the Eniversity Law School, and is pres- ently the chairman of the Joint Judiciary Committee and a grad- uate student in sociology. MR. WASSERSTEIN'S letter, in Thursday's Daily, makes sev- eral points I have heard before, in The Daily and in conversation. I think that they are incorrect, and that they reflect the academic's voice which comes from lecturing others for a living, and to which VIr. Wasserstein, as ex-editorial writer, has perhaps succumbed of too much complacency before the °acts). If I understand him, he says that radicals have "a mental block": they see themselves as faultless; they hypocitically com- plain of police brutality or Na- tional Guard segregation while hemselves advocating violence and lacking Negro support; they do not know how to construct a political program with mass ap- peal, and so they' turn in frustra- tion away from party politics and toward violence. One at a time. Do radicals, as distinct from >ther humans, see themselves as flawless? The statement can't be wholly true, for I myself (of ra- dical sympathies, at least) am ut- terly reasonable, modest, and ready (when the facts demand it) to admit myself wrong. My friends think otherwise, but that's bacause they have a "mental block." On the other hand, I have argued with Mr. Wasserstein, and, quite ob- jectively, found him pig-headed. Are radicals'. hypocrites (more so, that is than nonradicals) ? If someone is a hypocrite (or pig- headed) on a point we disagree with, we spot it; if we share his views, we don't. I think this is a partial explanation of the Wasser- stein findings. (I have found, on the other hand, that all liberals are hypocrites, by which trait they distinguish themselves from me and my radical acquiantance.) An- other possible explanation is this: that Wassersteinian investigators tend to think, "If a set of words would be hypocrisy when I say them, with my beliefs and mean- ings, then they must mean the same thing, and so be hypocrisy, when others use them." Thus, one might "decide" that when the Dai- ly reporter referred to the "Na- tional Guard (all white)," his point was that Guardsmen are bigots for not recruiting Negroes; to say this, and hide mention of the mostly-white character of the protesters, and the well-integrated federal combat troops, would be hypocrisy. True enough. But sup- pose the reporter meant to suggest that the combat troops, who are sent to die, are one-third negro, but the sons of middle-classwhite America stay in the National Guard, and defend the flag against -flower children. HIS REFERENCE, if this was its meaning, would not be hypo- crisy. Similarly for a criticism of police brutality coupled with praise for protesters' violence: if one sees a qualitative identity in the two, this is hypocrisy. But not so, when one believes the two are qualita- tively distinct. If course I suppose even radi- cals may speak hypocrisy. But you have to be a conceited fool to con- demn them for it before you know what they meant by what they said. Have radicals turned to violence because they are frustrated by their failure at party politics? First, what failure at party poli- tics? I fear that Mr. Wasserstein believes that radicals aren't in the Great Consensus because they don't know how to get there. Oth- erwise stated: "If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?") Radicals, like other people, know how to build a program which would, un- der present conditions, "appeal to a broad spectrum of the American people": you build it out of Gallup polls and racism. IF RADICALS are unpopular, it is because at the current rate of exchange they cannot afford the price, in political content, of pop- ularity, and not because they are too stupid to sell out. And the evils in American society that ra- dicals do try (however spastically) to cope with are deeply embedded in our popular attitudes, our feel- ings toward authority, and our economic and political structures; they are not going to be changed by Dr. Spock's election to the pres- idency. Second, who is frustrated? Lib- eral Democrats surely have cause to be, (and I hope they are), but the radicals have far more influ- ence on events today, slight and ambivalent as that influence is, than they had a few years ago. Mr. Wasserstein is perhaps sug- gesting that radicals have gone. sour because they have failed to win a mass following. I can't think of any who expected even the suc- cess they now have; if anything, radicals are grown r ather too sanguine. At least the supporters of the frustration-aggression theo- ry of radical politics could offer us their evidences (we see none) of radical frustration. Third, who is violent? Mr. Was- serstein has decided that lifting your own arm against your fellow man is violent. (The radicals are violent.) Letting the police do it for you, however, is nonviolent. (Mr. Wasserstein is nonviolent). THIS VIEW of things, however satisfying to him, must seem in- complete to others. For surely Mr. Wasserstein would not last long, if the poor, the angry, the "crim- inal," the "psychotic" and the rest of his fellow citizens who don't make it to Harvard Law hadrwea- pons and confronted him free of the police and soldiers who now do his fighting for him. Mr. Wasserstein is violent, and (to paraphrase the main point of his letter), does not seem to realize that the violence he uses against others may be turned around and used against him. Protecting the Inner Sanctum of the Pentagon NO! 4 40 By HARVEY WASSERMAN The author was Editorial Direc- tor of The Daily in 1966-67 and is presently a graduate1student in history at the University of Chi- cago. SINCE MANY people continue to confuse me withnBruce Was- serstein I find it necessary to grace his recent letter on this page with a reply. The self-proclaimed point of Mr. Wasserstein's letter is that "the radicals of the campus seem to lack a sense that the vio- lence they advocate can be used against the peace movement just as well, if not better, than in furthering its cause." Inherent in that sentence are Mr. Wasserstein's two basic and wholly unsurprising miscompre- hensions. First, as a liberal and like most liberals, he does not understand what the radical cause is. My own purpose in going to Washington was for more than to end the war in Vietnam (which, I presume, is the liberal conception of what the march was about). I went to the Pentagon to express my right to talk to the men in- side. Since those men may soon attempt to force me into their army, I did not fel unjustified in meeting their force in keeping me from even talking about it to them. Much as I detest the war in Vietnam, I somehow don't see the point in stoping it just so we can start the next one in Bolivia, South Africa, Greece and, of course, the next door neighbors in Thailand and Laos. So I felt it was necessary to say more than "Vietnam." The troops were there to stop the dialogue and until we can get through them I don't think there will be any. MR. WASSERSTEIN'S limited perception is not surprising how- ever. Its consistent recurrence in liberal circles, in fact, indicates that we have probably struck to the core of the problem-the lack of popular control over the Federal government and the use available to the federal government of "law and order" to keep itself above that control. The later is a long and involved point. Suffice it to say that a government that misleads its pub- lic, employs widespread and loosely defined police enforcement to quell dissent, and systematically domin- ates the media to promote its own partisan point of view cannot be, termed a nonviolent participator in the democratic process. It has the power to define what is law- ful and what is not, and we have witnessed a particularly ruthless exploitation of that power by a particularly ruthles group of men perpetrating a particularly ruth- less administration of a great number of peoples' lives, both foreign and domestic. They, quite simply, have broken the rules of fair play often enough to mortally distort the system of checks and balances; it requires a redefining of "rights" as well as a force of some sort to restore it. SINCE Mr. Wasserstein was not at the march himself, his state- ments about demonstrators spit- ting on the troops is understand- able. In fact, with few exceptions the troops were talked to in earnest. The U.S. Marshalls, as brutal and mindless an organiza- tion of professional bodyguards as ever existed,, were spit upon. The troops, most of whom were draftees of our age, in fact became the point of the march. We talked to them about the war, about ourselves, about their rotten lot in the armed forces for twenty-four solid hours. Once camped in the parking lot we real- ized who our potential allies were; three of them risked God-knows- what punishment to drop their weapons and join us. And that's where it ended. The Pentagon didn't want to talk to us so we either left, got our heads busted in, or were arrested. The piddling "violence" of breaking through loosely held troop lines (how many men in uniform were seriously injured through the weekend?) was met by beatings of those submitting to non-violent arrest, of those camping under permit, of those walking alone and unarmed around the area. BUT NOTHING compared to the liberal press of Mr. Wasser- stein's vein-the N.Y. Times halv- ed the actual number of people there, the Washington Post printed as fact that that marchers used gas on troopers. James Reston shed alligator tears that no one might preceive a situation where people.were "engaged in actual revolt." I can only conclude then, that Mr. Wasserstein's comments are indicative not of friendly advice, but of self-defense. We went to Washington to confront those in power. Liberals denied the right and efficacy of our access to those in power. Could it be that liberals are in power too, and no more desire accountability than the "right-wing generals" whose war this is supposed to be? It is easy to say "I agree with your motives but not your tactics" when in fact your own motives are different and the tactics pose a threat to you. A group of white college , students, in the process of building a constituency, as part of that process engaged in the most meaningful action available -they threatened the Established Order. Part of that threat was in- deed a "cataclystic break-out of violence to reassert our identity" -given the state of our mass and over-regulated society that is a productive act of revolution in it- self. THAT THE liberal insight is to rather run a new presidential candidate of a more palatable strain seems to indicate just how dedicated to maintaining the pres- ent system as is the liberals really are. You don't save a half-sunken ship by changing captains-unless you've got an interest in selling the salvage. Looking Beyond the Sit-In WEDNESDAY'S SIT-IN protesting war research may be an indication that the University community is on the way to solving the twin problems of protest and power. Unlike the many other campuses in the country which recently experienced vio- lence in protest of various aspects of the war and the war machine, the University was not only restrained in disbanding the protestors, but apparently, sincere in discussing the issues. The University community used non-disruptive discus- sion and peaceful protest in what was a teach-in rather than a sit-in. Administrators at the University must realize the students and faculty here have attempted alternatives to violence. The fact that Vice-President for Research A. Geoffrey Norman and Engineer Dean Van Wylen and others were willing to discuss the issues may -be indicative that the administration, too, realizes the fact that they must open up the democratic channels of power and communication and allow the students and faculty to have a voice in University policy-making. Frustrated students who find doors locked and vice-presidents tight-lipped may have no alternative but violence by which to express their dissent. And if de- bate is only to delay action and if dis- cussion is backed by one-sided power, then it means nothing. Frustration fer- menting in time tends to curdle liberals into radicals. The role of a student is not that of an administrator, nevertheless, he should be able to ensure that when University policies infringe on his personal or aca- demic rights he has an effective way of asserting his views. The success of the teach-in shows that this University has valid channels in which one can do this. But the student must be more than just heard, he must be given a role in re- viewing university policy. NOW, IT IS incumbent on all parties to find a working power structure in which the debate and conclusion which arise from communications can be ossi- fied into concrete policy. Advisory committees such as Vice- President Norman's will not work: they tend to become stagnant unless they are a part of the working government struc- ture. They must be more than just tem- porary discussion groups called arbitrarily to discuss a transient issue. Dr. Norman's committees have stag- nated and so will other committees that are set up in such fashion. There must be a permanent student group with power and representation that can deal with issues such as war research when they arise. Letters: Clarifying the AA UP's Stand To the Editor: I THINK the statement of the American Association of Uni- versity Professors of last Satur- day needs no defense, but as one who participated in the delibera- tions preceding its issuance I think a brief comment on your editorial of Nov. 1 is appropriate. , The editorial criticizes the AAUP statement on a misreading of its words and a misunderstand- ing of its purpose. The statement did not say that "all demonstra- tions are inherently evil" and did not condemn the demonstration planned for Wednesday afternoon as "necessarily disruptive - ergo intolerable." The AAUP Council stated its conviction that "action by indi- viduals or groups . . . to disrupt the operations of the institutions in the course of demonstrations . . . is destructive of the pursuit of learning itself and of a free society." Demonstrations that do not disrupt "the regular and es- sential operation of the institu- tion" are neither within the words nor the intent of the resolution. IN THE OPINION of those at- tending the Council its statement was not only consistent with its traditionally "liberal" position but required by it. The AAUP has spoken out against restraints of universities and professors which interfere with the "free search for truth and its free exposition," without regard to the commit- ment or sincerity of those who would impose such restraints. If one man's academic freedom and freedom of choice do not necessarily end where the next man's begins, it does not neces- sarily follow that no man or in- stitution in the name of exercis- ing his own freedom. When differences develop in the University community as to what the institution and its faculty should be engaged in-a process is required which permits a full expression of the points of view held by members of the commun- -JIM HECK -RON LANDSMAN Humphrey Must Go Too IT WOULD BE indecent and egregiously unfair if, in the attempt of dumping President Johnson, we neglected to dis- pose of the former senior senator from Minnesota as well, According to the most recent Gallup Poll, 46 per cent of the American people wish we had never gotten involved in the, internal affairs of Vietnam. But not Vice-President Humphrey. His statements Thursday before a reception in Malaysia evince a virulent jingoism which only a slightly besotted American Legion con- vention could match. The Daily is a member of the Associated Press and Collegiate Press Service. Fall and winter subscription rate: $4.50 per term by carrier ($5 by mail); $8.00 for regular academic school year ($9 by mail). Daily except Monday during regular academic school year. Daily except Sunday and Monday during regular summer session. Second class postage paid at Ann Arbor, Michigan, 420 Maynard St, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48104. Editorial Staff It is hard to know where to begin an analysis of Humphrey's attack on Vietnam critics. The lack of logic inhering in assertions like "I don't think you prove yourself to be an intellectual by pointing out all our mistakes," is too obvious to deserve mention. But a more subtle irrationality is per- ceptible when Humphrey blandly states, "I don't care how many demonstrations you have . The nation is committed." The fact of a growing number of demonstra- tions encompassing a larger and larger percentage of the population would in it- self seem to contradict the contention that "the nation is committed." Or maybe the vice-president defines "the nation" differently. IF HUMPHREY'S logic may be faulted, his lack of any command of history is insufferable. What can one say to gen- eralizations like "The United States is not what it is today because it was managed by fools and because everybody made mistakes. It is what it is today because we did what we thought was best. If ity and resolution after a deliber- ate consideration of the issues. It appears to me that the pro- cess does exist here. In any event its existence does not depend on the responsiveness of the admin- istration to demonstrations and ultimata by particular individuals or groups. -Frank R. Kennedy Professor of Law Lampoon To the Editor: CONGRATUATIONS are clear- ly i ordr tothat brilliant satirist writing under the pen- name of "John J. Carey, Professor of Electrical Engineering." His letter in the Tuesday Daily was the best lampoon I have seen of the old, guard's pathetic attempts to discredit student groups like SDS. While sections are somewhat overplayed ("p u n k s," "profes- sional agitators," etc. are a little too obvious, and give away the facetious nature of the letter too early), these blemishes are more than compensated for elsewhere. The call for administrators to ",live up to your responsibilities to the Regents, to the State of Michigan, and to the people of the State of Michigan"-baldly ignoring the faculty and students of the University-is priceless. Again, the crocodile tears over the "inconveniencing" of the de- fenseless ones from Washington by Voice members are sheer in- spiration. Likewise, the jibe about increased student participation in University Affairs eliminating the "need for paid administra- tors" must have struck uncom- fortably close to home in more than one Vice President's office. All in all, the letter was a top- notch example of political farce. Whoever this "John J. Carey" really is, I look forward eagerly to chuckling along with him in Bonehead To the Editor: BONEHEADED critics like Mr. Shister should only be turned loose on movies like "Von Ryan's Express" or the latest John Wayne flick. Certainly not on "The Sand Pebbles." He may be such a con- firmed hawk that he can see nothing but violence. Could The Daily possibly afford $1.50 to send him back for a second showing? Tell him to think this time instead of munching popcorn with the kiddies. --John Siegmund Research To the Editor: THE DISCUSSIONS at the re- cent campus sit-in seemed to center around reasons for and methods of entirely exercising war research from our campus. This is both impractical and un- realistic. First of all, some classi- fied research is almost a prior, necessary to the security of our nation. For example, if we cannot perfect an anti-missile screen, our existence is imperilled. Despite the cries of the pacifists,- tech- nological inferiority to any ad- versary is extremely dangerous and cannot be allowed. Nor, for obvious reasons, can all discover- ies be made public. Secondly, the university is the only place capable of conducting this research. It is only on the campus that the minds and facili- ties necessary can be found. Con- sidering this, and the extremely minor amount of classified re- search that is being done com- pared to nonclassified, it is unfair for the university not to shoulder a part of the vital burden. The debate, then, should center about the desirability and meth- ods of screening-selectively lim- iting-classified research rather than discontinuing it altogether. -Robert S. Loewenstein '71 '44 r 1, 1~. "Help! I'm Getting Burned Again!" ~ JLA ;