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
The Day They Bombed The Bronx
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Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1967
NIGHT EDITOR: MARK LEVIN
The Regents Meetings:
Let the Students Be Heard
ONE OF THE hardest things about be-
ing a Regent at the University is that
it's difficult to find out what the students
have to say. The only regular communi-
cation chahnel the Regents have is
through the administration.
Basically they must rely on two days
of meetings a month with the administra-
tion plus mail and phone briefings to
find out what is happening on campus.
There are obvious limitations in trying
to understand the student body in this
way. The President of the University has
virtually no contact with student leaders
or students in general. He hasn't granted
an interview with this newspaper in over
-a year and a half.
The Vice-President for Student Affairs
also seldom sees students and considers
top student leaders to be partners in a
leftist conspiracy to overthrow the school.
The Vice-President for University Re-
lations regularly disparages the student
newspaper and discredits national news
reports on campus activities as the pro-
luct of irresponsible student stringers (as
opposed to responsible publicists).
Indeed, the last time the administration
;excluding President Hatcher, who was
gut of town) made an effort to talk to
large numbers of students was when
there was a sit-in over classified research
in the lobby of the administration build-
ing.
When the Regents come to Ann Arbor
for their monthly meetings they have
little formal contact with students. Take
this month's meeting for example. The
Regents arrive today and begin with a
closed .meeting at lunch continuing into
the afternoon. Friday morning they will
have another closed session starting at
9 a.m. and continuing through the noon
hour.
Then at 2 p.m. there will be an hour
long public meeting. But at no point is
there any formal apparatus for letting
the students communicate with the Re-
gents.
ALL THIS points up the obvious neces-
sity of setting up some sort of regular
communication channel between the Re-
gents and the students. Both Student
Government Council and The Daily have
long backed the idea of setting up a con-
stituents time during Regents meetings
where students could address the board.
The Regents have wisely agreed to
examine the matter. Properly admin-
istered, this idea could turn into a valu-
able way for the Regents to learn what
the student body is thinking.
The Regents have no reason to fear
that, students would abuse this privilege.
There is no reason to expect such a ven-
ture to become a raucous exercise. In-
deed, the students might have some lively
ideas that could help the Regents in their
job.
Three Regents-Mrs. Gertrude Hueb-
ner, Frederick Matthaei, and Otis Smith
-have all indicated interest in this idea.
Hopefully the other Regents share their
enthusiasm.
THIS EXPERIMENT could lead to a
number of other improvements in stu-
dent-Regent communications. One idea
would be to open up the morning Regents
meetings to the public. Another would
be to schedule press conferences after
the meeting. And there is no reason why
the Regents might not profit from on
and off the record briefings to the press.
The Regents will find such an approach
giving them a chance to find out more
about what students are thinking, while
also enabling their own views to receive
a wider airing.
-ROGER RAPOPORT
Editor
By MICHAEL FRAYN
The following article is reprinted
from the London Observer, Nov. 5,
1967.
N O R T H VIETNAMESE jets
operating from carriers off
New Jersey attacked Washington
and New York again yesterday
for the tenth day running.
In the closest approach yet to
the centre of either city they de-
stroyed Brooklyn Bridge, and
attacked strategic targets in
Queens, the Bronx, and Hoboken.
The Americans claim four air-
craft shot down.
There have been world-wide
protests over this latest extension
of the bombing, and it is thought
that the gravest misgivings have
been expressed in private by even
Hanoi's most loyal supporters.
But the American Government is
known to take the view that the
raids must be allowed to continue.
Nothing has shaken its utter
determination to protect the right
of small nations to pursue their
own course and determine their
own destiny. The cardinal aim of
American foreign policy, - it is
pointed out, has always been to
enable the less fortunate peoples
of the world to enjoy those free-,
doms which Americans themselves
have won so hard and prize so
highly - and it can scarcely be
denied that the freedom to bomb
other countries into submission,'is
one of these.
AMERICAN DEFENCE chiefs
have felt for some time that es-
calation was probably inevitable.
They point out that with most of
the other targets within range,
from Boston to Miami, destroyed
already, North Vietnamese pilots
were being asked to take, ever-
increasing risks for ever-dimin-
ishing returns. This was clearly
a situation which no reasonable
American could expect the North
Vietnamese to accept indefinitely.
Variousallegations have been
made in America by the peace
lobby that the North Vietnamese
have been deliberately attacking
hospitals and other civilian tar-
gets. These allegations are dis-
counted by United States Air
Force chiefs, who see them as a
propaganda trick intended mere-
ly to discredit the Communist
bombing programme, and by im-
plication the American bombing
programme too.
From a careful analysis of
bombing patterns, they are cer-
tain that the North Vietnamese
are aiming purely at strategic tar-
gets such as bridges, railway sta-
tions, war plants, road junctions.
etc. They are confident that the
objects of the bombing are purely
to reduce the flow of men and
materials to South Vietnam, and
to persuade America to come to
the negotiating table - both, as
they point out, entirely legitimate
and humane war aims.
THE BELIEF that the North
Vietnamese are directing their
attack against civilian targets may
have arisen, they suggest, through
a simple confusion of results with
intentions. Where strategic tar-
gets are in the centre of popu-
lated areas-as Brooklyn Bridge
was, to take an obvious example
-there must inevitably be some
attendant risk to the civilian
population.
They feel that Americans must
be realistic about it - they can
scarcely expect the Communists
not to attack these targets simply
because civilians might get hurt!
The whole bombing programme
would become impossible if con-
siderations like this were taken
into account.
.In fact many observers in
Washington are impressed by the
scrupulous care which the North
Vietnamese are taking to limit the
conflict._ Theyhave not bombed
north of the-49th Parallel, in spite
of what must be very strong pres-
for-the freedom of discussion. It
it just this freedom-the freedom
to put our arguments to the ordi-
nary people of North Vietnam-
that the Communists are fright-
ened to admit, and which they
deny by every means in their
power, up to and including
ground-to-air missiles.
"AS HANOI has told us time
and time again, the heart of the
matter really is this. North Viet-
nam is ready to stop all aerial and
naval bombardment of America
when they are sure this will lead
to productive discussions. The
North Vietnamese have done
everything humanly possible to
stop the raids, except stopping
them, which in the circumstances
we could scarcely expect them to
do.,
"It's purely our own difficulties
which stand in the way of nego-
tiations. The Communists natu-
rally don't want to stop bombing
long enough to allow us a genuine
breathing-space-and we natural-
ly don't want to negotiate while
we are being bombed, in case it
looks as though we are negotiat-
ing from weakness! It's just our
own stubbornness and pride
which are holding things up.
"As we have always insisted, in
these affairs the victim must
bear not only his suffeting but
also full responsibility for allow-
ing it to be inflicted on himself."
BUT THE AMERICAN Govern-
ment has highrhopes that on
humanitarian grounds the Com-
munists will order a brief pause
in the bombing over Thanksgiv-
ing.
The general feeling in America
is that the whole business goes to
show once again how terrible it is
to be a Great Power;. you're ab-
solutely at the mercy of any little
nation that comes along.
"Inevitably, some risk to. the civilian population"
sure from the military, and they
have with some precision avoided
hitting foreign vessels in the port
of New York.
PRESIDENT JOHNSON de-
fended North Vietnamese bomb-
ing policy in a speech at El Paso,
Texas, yesterday. No one deplored
the suffering that the raids were
causing more than he did, he
told his audience. But the U.S.
had always recognized that sys-
tematic aerial bombardment was
a right and proper means to get
foreign policy across in difficult
circumstances.
Indeed, it was the United States
which had been the first to intro-
duce this technique in the South-
East Asian confrontation, and to
see it adopted by others in the
area was an encouraging sign of
American moral and intellectual
leadership.
"Much as we may detest the
Communist philosophy," said the
President, "we must admit that
the Communists have the right to
put their case to us-and to put
it just as forcefully and persua-
sively as we attempt to put our
case to them. This, after all, is
one of the things we are fighting
e
Letters: If Anthrax Can't Kill, Humans Can
SRC's Progressive Report
AS THE Presidential Commission plods
along to complete its "definitive" re-
port on student decision-making, the fac-
ulty and students are moving at a pace
which could make the Commission's con-
clusions out-dated by publication time.
For since the term began, housing units
have taken authority for their own con-
dluct rules, students have abolished Uni-
yersity driving restrictions, and Joint
Judiciary Council, the students' supreme
court, has agreed to only try students on
student-made regulations.
This week, the Faculty Assembly ap-
proved a frank report by its Student
Relations Committee which recognized'
student authority in the non-academic
arena and gave voting power to the four
SRC student representatives.
The SRC report, printed in Tuesday's.
Daily, is one of the most coherent and
fair evaluations of the confusing student
power movement. The report cuts through
.most of the cliches that student leadera
and administrators have been throwing
at one another in the maneuvering for
power. For instance,- as the report ex-
plains, neither students nor administra-
tors now hold the trump card on regulat-
ing behavior:
"The situation at present is one in
which the legal authority over non-
academic misconduct resides in one
place, while the mechanisms with which
to exercise authority over nonacademic
misconduct reside in another. In such a
state of affairs it is difficult and may
be legally impossible to discipline stu-
dents for misconduct unrelated to aca-
demic behavior."
The report goes on to draw some reser-
vations about unlimited student power,
recognizing the authority of the Regents.
But despite the expected academic hedg-
ing, the policy motion states: "The Stu-
dent Relations Committee believes that
students at the University have the pri-
mary responsibility to develop sets of
rules affecting their personal conduct."
Furthermore, SRC acted to implement
its philosophy with the move to grant
votes to the four student members.
And although the final SRC report may
niot contain everything some anxious cam-
pus leaders desire, there are indications
that students realize they have found
an ally in gaining rights they have so long
been denied.
-ROBERT KLIVANS
Editorial Director
To the Editor:
I DO NOT know whether research
into the "Pathophysiology of
Anthrax" might yield information
which, if creatively applied by the
military, would result in the death
of civilian populations, as well as
their livestock. Nor do I know,
since I am a layman in these areas,
what the military utility of much
of the exotic research conducted
under the "classified" rubric is, or
what killing potential it suggests.
On these matters I can only specu-
late with dread.
I, however, and most of us who
have lived as adults over the past
two decades, do know something
about the kinds of attitudes that
can kill!
The attitudes of a Donald C.
Fish, Army Biology Researcher, (as
reported in The Daily of Nov. 14),
insofar as they reflect the position
of a considerable segment of the
scientific community, seem to me
as deadly an any instrument they
could consciously develop.,
-"I have no knowledge of what
my work is being used for."
-"Oppenheimer did not drop
the bomb on Hiroshima."
-"We scientists do not concern
ourselves with political decisions.
It is up to the politicians to decide
whethertor not to use a weapon."
THE SHADES OF Adolf Eich-
mann and his cohorts must be
having a good chuckle over these
statements. Wasn't it they who
disclaimed any responsibility for
the "decisions of their superiors"?
Wasn't it they, (and a fair seg-
ment of the German people), who
disclaimed "any knowledge of what
his work was being used for"?
It is not only the notion of the
secret or classified nature of some
scientific research, i.e., that it pre-
cludes the free and open exchange
of knowledge and information
among scholars, that troubles me.
Important as this is, it pales into
insignificance beside the implica-
tions of the attitude expressed by
Mr. Fish and those who share his
r +;
"I PONT MEND C ( T1M, DEN, UT MAST THEY FPIK ON IH FLAG?
Einstein's secret military research
while a member of the Institute
for Advanced- Study? Obviously he,
at least, had no hesitation. Though
a man of peace, he knew what was
happening to the millions of Jews
in Germany and probably he had
access to intelligence reports on
German and Japanese efforts to
develop a nuclear bomb. What if
he and Oppenheimer and other
academics had repudiated'all sec-
recy as unworthy of scholarship
and had put the' enemy on the
right track to develop such a
bomb? What if Hitler had had
such a weapon and we did not?
Can anyone seriously doubt that
he would have dropped the bomb
on us? By now we would probably
have precious little freedom to do
any .disinterested research or to
decide how the results should be
used.
PERSONALLY I BELIEVE the
manner in which we used the bomb
was a tragic and unnecessary mis-
take. All I am concerned with here
is that we had the winning card,
developed by academics in utmost
secrecy, and that the enemy did
not have it.
Obviously we are now engaged
in a technological race with the.
Russians, and they seem to be
'overtaking us in the development
of military science and weapons.
No doubt all their academic re-
sourcesbare contributing to the
military effort and everything is
done with utmost secrecy. Should
we help the Russians by refusing
to contribute our academic knowl-
edge and skills to our own govern-
ment's defense effort? Should we
insist on broadcasting information
useful to the enemy?
I am sure Einstein would advise
against such a course. He had seen
the disappearance of freedom in
Germany, including free inquiry.
It could happen here.
-George H. Forsyth
Director, Kelsey
Museum of Archaeology
Rental Policy
To the Editor:
THE ,FOLLOWING remarks are
taken directly from a recent in-
formation bulletin issued to the
tenants of Apartments Ltd.:
". .we know not whether you
plan to renew your lease. The fol-
lowing policies have been designed
to aid you in the event you wish to
renew.
. At this 'time all persons re-
newing will be required to place
forty dollars ($40.00) per person
on deposit, with your present de-
posit returned next September."
THEN THE BULLETIN con-
cludes:
"We realize this leaves you with
just a short time to decide, but
with the present demand we have
no alternative.
Sincerely,
APARTMENTS, LTD, INC.
KB/dg"
I BELIEVE it is unjust to re-
quire the commitment to such a
lease so far in advance of occu-
pancy. This includes the damage
deposit which will promptly be re-
turned to the student in Septem-
ber of 1969 (bearing no interest to
the 'lender). Since the risk of not
filling suitable apartments in Ann
Arbor is infinitesmal, there is an-
other alternative. Such an early
date need not to be chosen.
But it must be obvious to the
student that "Sincerely" should be
interpreted as 'Sincerely for our
own interests and not yours'.' Only
by taking advantage of the Stu-
dent Mediator Service under the
auspices of SGC can the student
voice attain a position of influence.
If student sincerity is strong
enough, future rental policies will
change.
-Robert P. Morris, '68
4
position; namely that selfconsci-
ously "not concerning one's self
with," or "not knowing about"
the uses to which one's knowledge
and skill are being put thereby
exempts one from any responsibil-
ity for the disasters which follow
from their employment.
--Jules Schrager
Assistant Professor
School of Social Work
About Einstein
To the Editor:
I WOULD LIKE to contribute to
the current debate on classified
research in the University an anec-
dote which seems relevant. More
than 25 years ago I was a neighbor
of Einstein. Those of us in the
neighborhood were impressed by
his fondness for walking, round
and round the block and always.
with an attentive companion or
two. We had no idea what they
talked about. Fortunately the Ger-
mans and the Japanese had no
idea either.
It turned out later that final
victory in World War II was being
assured right there in our quiet
academic town. Einstein was dis-
cussing the theoretical possibility
of constructing .an atomic bomb,
and he was doing it in utmost
secrecy-the secrecy of casual
sidewalk conversations. Later his
conversations were held'in Wash-
ington with President Roosevelt..
What are our own reactions to
4
A
The Darkest Horse of All
FE IFFER
FOR THE.SEVENTH time since 1940,
Harold Stassen-who seems destined
to share the laurels of being a national
joke with Wrong Way Corrigan-has an-
nounced himself as a candidate for the
presidency, much to the mirth of the
political pundits. Choruses of Senate
minority leader Everett Dirksen's incred-
ulous reaction-"Are you kidding?"-
may be expected forthwith.
Yet Stassen's prima facie chances seem
better now than in any year except
1948, when he swept the early state
primaries only to be KO'd in Oregon
by University alumnus Thomas E. Dewey.
Stassen's serious political credentials are
hot' unimpressive-three-time governor
of Minnesota, member of the 1945 U.S.
delegation to the founding conference of
the United Nations in San Francisco,
Pennsylvania. And Republican moderates
are going to be in a real bind for a
candidate next year.
They expect Romney and Nixon to
ruin each other in the primaries. They
find Reagan completely unacceptable.
Rockefeller is the man they really want,
but it is becoming increasingly evident
that Rocky is dead serious in his inten-
tions not to run. Already many Republi-
can governors-Rhodes of Ohio, Volpe of
Massachusettes, Evans of.Washington, for
starters-are planning to attend the con-
vention in the capacity of favorite sons.
NEVERTHELESS, Stassen's move raises
serious questions for next year's War-
ren Harding hopefuls to ponder. For the
ubiquitous Philadelphia lawyer has an-
nounced himself as "the peace candi-
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