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Qfi 51r414an sain
Seventy-nine years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan
Pompidou and French
foreign policy
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.
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 oil reprints.
Tuesday, February 24, 1970
NIGHT EDITOR: LYNN WEINER
The ease for
minority admissions
THE DEMANDS of the Black Action
Movement ( BAM) for increased minor-
ity admissions certainly merit the sup-
port of the University community.
Although the black student community
at the University has increased drama-
tically during the last few years, the
overriding impression of the University is
still one of a school for rich white stu-
dents as the Green report characterized
it in 1965.
The BAM proposal for changing this
condition is reasonable if not a bit con-
servative. In a University of more than
30 thousand students, it demands that
only 900 black students be admitted next
fall-450 freshmen, 150 transfer students
and 300 graduate students. The demands
also give the University three years to
increase the proportion of blacks in the
University to 10 per cent - more than
enough time:
The demands also take into considera-
tion the desirability of supportive services
to insure that the admitted students
graduate.
UNFORTUNATELY, it is becoming in-
creasingly apparent that the admin-
istration and the University community-
at-large are unwilling to give enthusi-
astic support to the program. The admin-
istration argues that although the pro-
posals are theoretically desirable, the
necessary financing is not available.
It is noteworthy that the same admin-
istration has proposed that students be
assessed $15 per term for 30 years to
finance the construction of two IM build-
ings. They considered that this request
would be reasonable, yet they are unwill-
ing to consider seriously a similar pro-
posal to finance minority admission sub-
mitted by Students for Effective Action
(SEA).
THE ADMINISTRATION'S lack of sup-
port could be expected but the failure
of the so called "liberal" University com-
munity to provide significant support is
disturbing.
One of the major objections to the pro-
posal is that they. also feel that financing
is simply not available. Several methods
for finding adequate financing have been
proposed. A simple reversal of University
priorities would help the situation a great
deal, and a good start would be giving
admissions a higher priority than the IM
building.
The BAM proposal for providing tuition
waivers also is a possible solution to fi-
nancing difficulties. But the final pro-
posal by SEA is one that would show how
willing the community really is to support
minority admissions. It proposes that stu-
dents and faculty assess themselves $15
and $25 respectively. Self-assessment is
not a new idea, students will almost sure-
ly vote for such a proposal in order to
finance a student bookstore.
ARGUMENTS THAT minority admis-
sions is unfair to the poor whites, or
that the real problem is the secondary
and elementary level miss the point en-
tirely. They are perfectly lucid arguments
for saying that minority admissions is not
itself enough to solve the problem, but
they do not justify defeating the minor-
ity admissions proposal.
Other poor should be helped to get into
the University, but although the minority
admissions proposal does not do that, it
does help some of the poor and that is
desirable. And while the problem lies at
least in part with the lower educational
system, it is unacceptable to ignore the
people who are already victims of that
inferior system. Instead, people should
push for educational reform while also
trying to help the victims of the system
as much as possible.
TWO OTHER arguments, that the qual-
ity of the University will suffer and
that it is unfair to lower admissions
standards are merely examples of aca-
demic elitism.
The only real question in admissions
should be whether or not the students
can succeed at the University, not what
type of creditials ,he has to get in. The
inate ability of the students that would
be admitted under the minority admis-
sions program is no less than that of the
majority of students already here. With
the help of supportive services to fill in
the gaps that were caused by poor aca-
demic backgrounds, not lack of intelli-
gence, the majority of the students should
be able to succeed.
The quality of a university should be
measured only by its abilty to provide
people who are going to make significant
contributions that will somehow change
the society for the better. If this is the
standard against which the University is
measured, its quality certainly will not
suffer, and perhaps it will be improved.
E -ALEXA CANADY
Editorial Page Editor
(EDITOR'S NOTE: As France's President
Georges Pompidou begins his statevisit to
the United States today, Bill Lavely, a re-
porter for Tihe Daily currently studying in
France presents some views on Pompidou's
foreign policy objectives.)
NICE
By BILL LAVELY
W HEN GEORGES POMPIDOU sold 110
Mirage Jets to Lybia early this year,
he put Richard Nixon in an embarrassing
position. How could Nixon now avoid sell-
ing to Israel the planes that Golda Meir
requested during her visit last fall? How
could he thwart Israeli arguments that the
military balance of the Middle East had
been upset by this massive transfusion of
arms to an Arab side?
In effect, Pompidou put Nixon in a
dilemma: refuse to sell to Israel, and dam-
age American-Israeli friendship (and the
political dividends;that go with it), or sell
to Israel, and tempt the increasingly edgy
Russians to arm the Arab world in ernest;
something that they have not dared-nor
wanted-to do.
While the Middle East situation con-
tinues to deteriorate, and Nixon continues
to flounder this quandry, he will at least
be offered some diversion today during
Pompidou's visit to the U.S.
At that time, Nixon will try to forgive
Pompidou's recent sins, speak gravely of
the "differences" that exist between him-
self and the French president, and then,
amidst the flourish and fanfare of the
Marine Corps Band playing the "Marsell-
laise," Nixon will likely invoke a "new era"
in Franco-American relations, but speak
glowingly of our harmonious friendship
with France.
THE SITUATION is certainly paradox-
ical; but the contradiction is a superficial
one. For in Pompidou, and French foreign
policy, Nixon doubtless sees a perfect com-
pliment to his own "low profile" world
strategy. Despite the current differences,
Pompidou, in the long run, will prove to
be a valuable partner in the new, Nixon-
led western world.
Since General De Gaulle faded away last
spring, French foreign policy has lost its
tempermental personality. No longer does
the French president criticize American
Vietnam policy. No longer does he oppose
British entry into the Common Market.
Nor does he agitate French Canadian
seperatists.
Pompidou has reversed all of these
idiosyncrasies-except perhaps, in the case
of the French Canadians, where the agita-
tion has at least taken on some subtle and
respectable clothing. Pompidou, like Nixon,
seldom mentions Vietnam, and British en-
try into the Common Market is now fever-
ishly hoped for in Paris.
These changes do not represent mere
elimination of old Gaullist quirks. Pom-
pidou's philosophy of France's world role
is basically more modest than the expansive
view that caused so much friction not
ong ago.
De Gaulle saw France with a spiritual
mission. Rejecting the two super powers,
he dreamed of forging an independent third
power by unifying Europe under a Franco-
German partnership.
DE GAULLE SHUNNED NATO in favor
of his own "force de frappe," worked for
real European economic integration in the
Common Market, and vetoed British entry
which would jeopardize France's key posi-
tion in the European community. This in-
dependent attitude also translated itself
into ties with Eastern Europe and the
People's Republic of China-two vast
markets ready for European exploitation.
Pompidou has no such ambitions. The
French mission from now on is not power
and prestige but dollars and francs. Pom-
pidou sees no necessity to oppose British
entry in the Common Market because
European leadership is no longer fund-
amental to French policy. A corrollary to
this notion is Pomipdou's disinterest in
European economic integration and unity.
ONE FEARFUL SPECTRE for Pompidou
and France's leaders determines French
foreign policy. With the new Socialist-
Democrat government in West Germany,
the prospects of an economically united
Germany seems at least less impossible
than a short time age. Such unity, if
achieved, could leave France stranded
without the vast German market that
she now enjoys.
Partly as a cautionary move against such
a development, France has pushed for en-
try in the Common Market, and also con-
tinued its explorations in Eastern Europe.
In the search for markets, Pompidou has
initiated his Mediteranean policy. Under'
this policy, the French have carefully re-
newed and cultivated relations with the
former French colonies the Maghrebs
(Lybia, Morocco, Tunisia), notably thaw-
ing the Franco-Moroccan freeze that has
existed since the Ben-Barka slaying in
1965.
To the South, French troops are giving
Vietnam-style aid to the Chadian govern-
ment harrassed by guerrilla activity, there-
by insuring a beachhead of French in-
terest in the heart of Francophonic Africa.
Closing the ring is Lybia.
TO SAY THAT POMPIDOU made a mis-
take when he sold 110 warplanes to Lybia
would be like saying that Jesse James
made a mistake when he robbed a stage-
coach. In the Pompidou cash register diplo-
macy, old Gaullist moralism such as the
arms embargo have lost their sanctity.
Taking their place are watchwords such
as "balance of payments" and "profits."
To Pompidou, the plane sale was a fine
business maneuver. It repatriated a sixth
of the five billion francs that France last
year agreed to pay Lybia for oil in the next
ten years. It also put France in the position
of being the Arab's single ally in the west.
Incidentally, Lybia, in the bargain, agreed
to stop aiding the guerrillas that the
French are fighting in Chad.
No amount of justification on Pompi-
dou's part could ever convince the world
that the planes will not someday be used
against Israel. In a word, Pompidou is hard
put to explain why a country like Lybia
would want 100 warplanes if they were
not to be used in the Arab-Israeli war.
But Pompidou is correct to point out that
this danger is at least not immediate: the
planes will be several years in delivery.
SALVAGED FROM THE fiasco is the
fact that Pompidou is the one western
leader that has influence in the Arab
world (if none at all in Israel). As the
conflict boils down to a pull and tug be-
tween the U.S. and the Soviet Union, a
French middle force may be useful.
That middle role isrthe one in which
Pompidou now feature himself. When
Moroccan King Hassan II talked to Pom-
pidou in Paris two weeks ago, Hassan
argued that the only workable solution
to the Middle East conflict would be a
separate Arab state in Palestine next to
Israel. Pompidou was reported to be not
entirely unsympathetic to the idea, and it
is not unlikely that he will fall into some
disaccord with Nixon over plans for ending
the conflict.
But we can expect the two presidents to
play down these differences for the mo-
ment. And the only other point at which
Pompidou and Nixon should disagree is
over NATO. Here the dispute is largely
rhetorical. What is done is done. The last
thing that Nixon wants is to have Pom-
pidou request the return of American
troops to France. The laAt thing that Pom-
pidou wants is for American forces to
leave Europe. Pompidou will likely pledge
cooperation with NATO-a policy he has
already initiated, and Nixon will no doubt
accept the French "force de frappe." "Dif-
ferences" expressed over NATO will likely
be perfunctorily expressed for the edifica-
tion of the other treaty members.
THE POMPIDOU VISIT will be the oc-
casion for Nixon to welcome France back
to the fold. No longer will the U.S. run into
French resistance at the far corners of
the world. Nixon, persuing a foreign policy
in which Africa has nearly been forgotten,
will be content to let France build bridges
to the \Sahara and the South. The Nixon
"low profile" will be complimented by an
amicable France quietly persuing nearby
markets, rather than a maverick with
global ambitions.
As for the Lybian problem, the sore-
point of U.S.-French relations, Nixon will
have to Anake the best of a bad situation.
The Kosygin letter might well be taken as
a warning to Nixon not to do to the Rus-
sians what Pompidou did to Nixon. The
Soviets have so far withheld the sophis-
ticated MIG-23 from the Iraqis, Syrians
and Egyptians, choosing only to arm them
to their pre-1967 strength-a force in-
ferior to Israel's by definition.
If Nixon feels the French Mirage sale
compels him to sell F-105 fighters to Is-
rael, then the Soviets will no doubt feel
equally constrained to arm the Arab world
in like manner. For this situation, the
French president carries a large part of the
blame. And there will likely be some
awkward moments for Pompidou when he
explains his action to Nixon.
4
1
-etters to the Editor
Politics and the environment
THE CAUSES of environmental decay
are deeply rooted in the present po-
litical, economic and social system of this
society. This realization, intuitively ob-
vious to some but shocking to others, is
the problem and the promise of the "save
the environment" movement.
While the symptoms of over-popula-
tion, air, water and noise pollution can
be papered-over with advanced techno-
logy and huge sums of money, little per-
manent improvement in environmental
conditions will come until basic societal
reforms are made.
A competitive growth economy en-
courages planned obsolescence while dis-
couraging large corporations from mak-
ing anti-pollution efforts voluntarily. The
pioneer ethic itself, still prevalent in
American society, sees nature as some-
t h in g to be conquered and exploited
rather than carefully protected.
ANSWERS TO environmental issues, on
the surface uncontroversial and non-
partisan, strike to the heart of what is
wrong with American society - a gov-
ernment removed from its constituents, a
competitive economy that molds the de-
sires of the people it exploits and a col-
lective mentality decades behind today's
realities.
The problem of the environmental
movement is that many in its ranks are
by up-bringing and education politically
conservative. Sincerely interested in pre-
venting ecological disaster, they find to
their dismay that the only adequate so-'
lutions are radical solutions.
sity's environmental teach - in, have
found out, this process is not an easy one.
If a change in attitudes is the environ-
mental movement's problem, it is also its
promise. Some radical leaders see organ-
izations like ENACT as a plot to divert
attention from what they consider the
more serious problems of Vietnam, rac-
ism and imperialism.
THg ISSUE of the environment, in fact,
may turn out to be one of the most ef-
fective radicalizing influences around to-
day, politicizing the apolitical and forc-
ing conservatives and moderates to the
left.
Of course politicians and corporations
have tried to co-opt the movement with
money and claims of support. And many
"middle Americans," sick of protests and
vandalism, see the environmental ques-
tion as something to get the kids out of
the streets.
The nature of the problem and the on-
ly adequate solutions to it defy such ef-
forts, however. People who.get deeply in-
volved in saving the environment inevi-
tably see the need for basic reforms and
become increasingly radical when t h e y
are blocked.
THE SITUATION in Santa Barbara,
California, is a good example of what
can occur. Santa Barbara was an essen-
tially conservative town with public of-
ficials to match until January, 1969, when
thousands of gallons of oil began leaking
from off-shore drilling rigs.
When government and industry offi-
ENACT apologizes
To the Editor:
THERE HAS BEEN some recent
controversy over the relationship
of ENACT to black students. Ori-
ginally, we had planned for our
program to relate to urban condi-
tions and the concerns of blacks, as
well as the conventional clean air
-- clean water problems, but, as
Mr. Randy Davis pointed out to us
in a recent steering committee
meeting, our efforts amounted to
no more than tokenism.
WE ADMIT that , we failed in
coming to grips with the real is-
sues involved, and ENACT wishes
to formally apologize to the Black
people for not giving the neces-
sary attention to the problems of
blacks in our Environmental
Teach-In. We hope that we will be
able to accomplish some of the
necessary changes in our program,
and especially that the implica-
tions are not lost on the national
environmental movement, so that
the questions of social equality
and of the environment do not
work at cross purposes, but become
complimentary.
-David Allan
-Douglas Scott
Co-Chairmen, ENACT
Feb. 19
Fleming and GE
To the Editor:
LAST WEDNESDAY, President
Fleming issued acstatement in at-
tempt to justify calling the police
to "protect" GE recruiting. It was
distributed on the Diag and drop-
ped in dorm mailboxes the fol-
lowing morning. The essence of
the letter was this: the University
will tolerate so-called dissent so
long as it is of no consequence.
"Dissent" will be tolerated - no,
praised! - so long as the pro-
cesses basic to the University are
not seriously threatened, i.e., so
long as it is dissent, only. The po-
lice will be called to crush opposi-
tion when that opposition gets
serious, when the people are no
longer satisfied playing under the
rules which are designed to render
them impotent.
FLEMING'S MESSAGE is clear:
the processes at the very heart
of therimperialist University -
counterinsurgency research, RO-
TC, social control research, mili-
tary and corporate recruiting, etc.
i, T e .gt-e
Poll reports more Americans disturbed over My
} :J::ALJAM SWE4IHSLER=m
Nixon is insensite
to black America
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL and emotional gap between the Nixon
Administration and a large sector of the nation's 20 million
black citizens - among others - is ominously widening. Initially
the White House seemed fatalistically reconciled to the breach;
now it increasingly appears to be 'cynically aggravating the ad-
versary relationship in pursuing the favor of- George C. Wallace's
constituents (Northern and Southern branches).
Peculiarly insensitive - and inflammatory - is the apparently
deliberate avoidance of any symbolic acts that might help "bring us
together."
On the occasion of the recent observance of Dr. Martin Luther
King's birthday, Mr. Nixon conspicuously refrained from any ack-
nowledgement of the date. For those who may have believed that this
was merely a lamentable oversight amid the many distractions of the
Presidency, there is evidence at hand to dispel such illusion. It *is
embodied in an exchange between Bronx Borough President Robert
Abrams and the White House.
ON JAN. 20, FIVE DAYS after the widespread commemoration
of Dr. King's birthday - an event that stirred visibly deep outpour-
ing of sentiment in the Negro community as well as other areas -
Abrams sent a letter to President Nixon urging that steps be initiated
now to convert the anniversary into a national holiday by 1971.
Adreply, signed by Noble M. Melencamp, staff assistant to the
President, recently arrived. It read in full:
Thank you in the President's behalf for your recent letter sug-
gesting that steps be taken to authorize the observance of Jan. 15,
the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, as a holiday.
Compliance with your suggestion would require action by the
Congress and by the legislatures in those states joining in such
an observance. I an glad to' assure you that should the Congress
pass such legislation to present it to the President for official
action, the matter would receive his most thoughtful attention."
Commenting on the correspondence, Abrams observed that "Presi-
dent Nixon is too closely tied to Southern racists even to have the
decency to say he would approve such a bill if Congress took the
initiative and thrust it upon him." In some affairs of state the simplest
explanation may be the most valid.
IF THE COLD BRUSHOFF that Dr. King's image evokes at the
White House were an isolated instance of indifference, one might
plaintively implore reconsideration. But the tone of the Melencamp
reply is ,wholly consistent with too many other things that have oc-
curred to confirm the fear that Mr. Nixon is surrendering to the
spirit of George C. Wallace in ostensibly seeking to outflank him.
There arrived recently the latest edition of "Human Events,"
the rightwing newsletter that represents a spiritual marriage of the
Goldwater and Wallace platoons. One of its major missions is the
exposure of liberal heretics within the Nixon domain, and a notable
target in its current. edition is Leon E. Panetta, a key official in
Robert Finch's Health, Education and Welfare Dept.
Reading the latest "Human Events" blast at Panetta, I recalled
that, during the bitter strike of hospital workers in Charleston, S. C.,
last year, Moe Foner of Local 1199 had often mentioned Panetta as one
of the few men in the Nixon Administration who privately manifested
symnathv for the embattle~d black workers in their cuest for union
.i
Lai publicity than My Lai
describe any of these things would
indeed be "inflammatory" and
Fleming knows it; hence, it is sup-
pressed. Let's check out GE:
GE is the second largest war
contractor, it builds part for the
engines which propel the B-52's
which drop 10,000 lb. bombs over
Laos and VietnAm.
GE is an integral part of the
imperialism it is helping to de-
fend; for profit's sake it exploits
the labor of black South Africans
kept down by a fascist regime, and
the labor of Indians in Bombay,
paying 7c an hour. Soon GE will
open a plant in Saigon to exploit
the labor of the Vietnamese who
have been driven from the coun-
tryside by the bombs dropped by
the B-52's.
GE has a sordid history which
persists to the present day: it has
been involved in the heaviest
price-fixing scandals since the
New Deal.
Today GE persists in exploiting
workers domestically-the recent
strike settlement was a farce; the
massacre itself.
-News Item
est jobs, as are women. Women
are paid up to 80 cents per hour
less than what men are paid for
the same work.
Fleming tells us that "the Uni-
versity must always be a world
of Ideas." In fact, the University
in its practices gives concrete aid
and support to GE. The University
is the service and skill center for
a corporate capitalist empire
which denies men and women
their freedom all over the world.
WE SHALL not confine our-
selves to "dissent," nor will we be
content to express our dissatis-
factions in the "world of ideas"
while the University persists in
its practices as an arm of GE and
other corporations. Our struggle
will be carried out by any means
necessary.
-Mark Mayer
-Frank Hammer
Ann Arbor SDS
Feb. 20
a