THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Thursday, October 31, 1968
Paige Three
Thursday, October 31, 1968 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Three
NO SIGHT OF VICTORY
Vietnam war situation on eve of election
EDITOR'S NOTE: The long shad-
ow of a distant war will reach into
voting booths Tuesday as Ameri-
can$ decide on their leadership.
What 14 the situation in Vietnam
*now? What is the, outlook? An
AP writer who has spent more than
three years in Vietnam, including
many months in the field, sums up
the prospects in the following
analysis.
By JOHN T. WHEELER
SAIGON (1)-Despite months
of unprecedented battlefield
*savagery, the allied war ma-
chine in 1968 has been unable
to ramble within sight of vic-
tory.
There have been many plus
signs in the military and politi-
cal spheres, butsenior U.S. of-
ficials believe they can forge
ahead to victory only if given
time, a lot of time.
Thus, as the American elec-
tion campaign draws to a close,
diplomats, U.S. sources and gov-
ernment officials say the Viet-
nam war still defies a simple,
quick solution for Washington,
short of a U.S. pullout or \a
conference table agreement.
Duerrenmatt's
"The Visit"
presented by
THE ANN ARBOR
CIVIC THEATRE
OCT. 30, 31
NOV. 1, 2
8:00 P.M.
Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre
Diplomats and allied officials
alike here have said that with-
out a convincing and clearcut
victory on the battlefied, there
can be no optimism over suc-
cess at the conference table.
In fact, President Johnson's
latest peace offensive has put
considerable strain on the U.S.-
Vietnamese alliance.
The major ' concern voiced
here by Vietnamese officials is
that the war may be lost in the
United Statesnand that the new
administration may bow to in-
ternal pressure to settle it
quickly at the best price pos-
sible.}
U.S. officials always have been
optimistic about the war, some-
times without too much basis,
as events later proved. No one is
making public predictions here
now, but optimism is voiced in
moderate terms from many
quarters.
The Tet offensive launched
during the lunar new year ceae-
fire caught the allied side badly
off balance.
A second general offensive in
May was less successful and
about as costly to the Viet Cong
in terms of dead. The third push
in August never reached Saigon
and several Viet Cong regiments
CINEMA II
"TH E
LOVED ONE"
JONATHAN WINTERS
ROD STEIGER
were chrushed in the provinces
west of the capital. The fourth
offensive, will result in over-
whelming Viet Cong casualties
without giving them any per-
manent military advantages.
A senior American, who has
spent years in Vietnam, believes
the Viet Cong leadership blun-
dered, perhaps fatally, in 1965
when it opted for massive at-
tacks in conventional warfare
that favored American fire-
power.
This official was one of the
sharpest critics during the days
the war was going badly here.
Now he sums things up this
way :
None of the old problems has
been solved. The government is
weakened by nepotism, corrup-
tion, incompetent officials, tim-
id field commanders. What has
improved the situation is that
the war has changed from an
insurgency, with which Amer-
ican troops never could come
to grips, to a North Vietnamese
invasion. The North Vietnamese
are disliked in the South, stran-
gers to the country they must
operate in, weak in both strate-
gic and tactical intelligence and
wholly dependent on conven-
tional lines of supplies. When
they hit, they hit in mas where
American firepower can tear
them to bits. Their morale has
fallen and leadership is vastly
weakened by battle casualties.
American senior officers be-
lieve SouthVietnamese troops
at last are improving. The im-
provement is spotty and uneven,
-AssoiteU Pres
ONE OF FOUR BADLY WOUNDED Vietnamese Rangers who survived a Viet Cong ambush is carried
to a first aid station by a fellow Ranger.
but there. Even
ragtag groups
weapons, has
statistically, if
curate.
U.S. tactical
grown steadily
since the Tet
the militia, often
with outmoded
turned around
figures are ac-
intelligence has
better, especially
offensive. Using
Nov. 1-2
FRI-SAT AUD
75c
A, 7-9
m
NO 2-6264
- --Next--
BARBARELL k
Fla
SHOWS
AT
7:10& 9:30
1-.3-5
3rd
WEEK'
long-range patrols and elec-
tronic gear once dismissed as
gimmicks, U.S. intelligence now
is seldom caught off guard by
any significant Viet Cong move.
Some of this is due to clan-
destine teams working in Cam-
bodia and Laos.
The Viet Cong, on the other
hand, still has not tapped its
big regular units in the North
to any extent. Its divisions in
the South are made up more of
quickly trained peasants than
career riflemen. If the veteran
units move South, the com-
plexion of the war could change
rapidly.
The Viet Cong has run no
major countrywide offensive
since the U.S. Command shifted
from Gen. William C. West-
moreland to Gen. Creighton W.
Abrams. Abrams is rated a more
aggressive if less flashy com-
mander than Westmoreland.
One of Abrams' accomplish-
ments, thanks to added troops,
has been the stabilizing of the
demilitarized zone front, but at
a cost of tying down one-third
of his trigger pullers in two of
Vietnam's 45 provinces. Another
third is, tied down ii the mul-
tiringed defense of Saigon, the
Viet Cong's number one target.
Abrams is a staunch booster,
of the pacification program, the
plan to win the coutryside over
to the South Vietnamese gov-
ernment. Despite impressive
statistics from the American
advisory system; pacification is
making doubtful headway.
A key man in the program
says in fact there is little paci-
fication per se, but rather mili-
tary occupation. Heavy enemy
pressure in any region inevitably
scuttles whatever progress has
been made. The program has
been weakened because Saigon
has not given either its best
men or full cooperation to the
venture.
Security has declined in much
of the countryside and more and
more land is being abandoned
by farmers as too dangerous to
till.
The most glaring failure in
p a c i f i c a t ion, knowledgeable
sources say, has been the gov-
ernment's inability to root out
the Viet Cong infrastructure, or
s h a d o w government, that
reaches into virtually every vil-
lage and hamlet. The program
to deal with the infrastructure
was kicked off two years ago,
but one senior American source
says it has not gotten off the
ground.
Robert W. Komer, outgoing
head of the U.S. pacification ef-
fort, says that more than 9,000
Viet Cong cadre have been kill-
ed, but other sources say this
does not include any significant
number of key functionaries.
One of the brighter spots is
on the political front. Each of
the many regimes that have
come and gone since the French
defeat started with all the pop-
ularitv it was to achieve, went
into decline and finally was re-
moved, usually violently. Presi-
dent Nguyen Van Thieu reversed
this trend by entering office in
a weak position and steadily
improving his political base.
However, Thieu's regime has
not carried out any major re-
forms in areas which spawned
the popular discontent that has
fed the insurgency. Current land
reform, for instance, involves
no new land but acreage ear-
marked under earlier regimes.
Much of the land being passed
out is in areas /where the gov-
ernment lacks real control. Not
a little of the land involved is
being parceled out in confir-
mation of land reform previous-
ly carried out by the Viet Cong.
Many officials have been re-
moved as corrupt and ineffi-
cient, but usually they tripped
somewhere in the political laby-
rinth and were replaced with
men very like themselves.
Nonetheless, there has been a
dramatic turn around in pop-
ular sentiment toward the Viet
Cong, and the National Libera-
tion Front. Figures made avail-
able by an American official
never known as an optimist
show that in 1964 more than
half the population willingly
supported the Viet Cong and
far more foresaw Viet Cong vic-
tory. Now about 15 per cent of-
fer their support and fewer be-
lieve victory is inevitable.
the
new s today,
b ) he I' Associated Press and College Press Service
SAIGON AND PARIS continued to seeth yesterday
with rumors of an impending halt in U.S. bombing of
North Vietnam.
Although neither side would officially confirm or deny
reports of an imminent breakthrough, one allied diplomat,
who requested anonymity, told a newsman: "Everything is
settled."
In addition, Thailand's foreign minister declared in Bang-
kok yesterday the U.S. and North Vietnama have entered "final
stages" of bargaining for a halt in the bombing and a move to
full-scale peace talks,
Despite the hopes for peace, U.S. bombers pressed their
heavy raids on supply routes in the southern panhandle yes-
terday, and a U.S. spokesman said raids were being planned
as usual for today.
No obvious progress was made at the brief official meet-
ing of negotiators in Paris yesterday. In a news conference af-
ter the session, a representative of North Vietnam restated
Hanoi's rejection of reciprocity as the formula for a bomb
halt.
CHARTERS CREATING autonomous Czech and Slo-
vak states within Czechoslovakia were signed yesterday.
The two states will exist in a new federation, still called
Czechoslovakia. The Slovaks make up about 4 million of the
14 million populants of Czechoslovakia, and have long been
treated as-an unequal minority.
"We are crowning the efforts of many generations of the
Slovak people and in unity with the Czechs, are bringing to a
conclusion the long quest for equality," said Czech president
Ludvik Svoboda.
The new charter, which will go into effect January 1, will
insure "the full rights of both Czech and Slovak nations and
the fulfillment of our national needs," Svoboda continued.
STRIKING NEW YORK CITY TEACHERS rejected a
peace plan proposed by State Education Commissioner
James E. Allen.
The peace plan had piovided for the reinstatement of the
79 white teachers whose ouster by the local governing board
of the Ocean Hill-Brownsville district originally brought on
the teachers strike.
The plan, before rejection by the teachers, had been okay-
ed by the experimental school district.
SOYUZ 3, the Soviet manned spaceship containing
cosmonaut Georgy Beregovoy, parachuted back to eath
today.
The end of the four day mission, which was relatively
routine; gave rise to speculation that the Soviets are now
ready for something more spectacular - perhaps a manned
circumlunar flight.
However, some signs of failure persisted throughout the
mission, especially when Soyuz 3 failed to accomplish an or-
dered linkup with another unmanned orbiting Soviet craft.
The Russians have never duplicated the U.S. feat of manned
docking in space.
TWO AMERICANS received the 168 Nobel prizes in
physics and chemistry.
Luis W. -Alvarez, of the University of California at Berk-
eley, won the prize in physics. Lars Onsager, of Yale Univer-
sity, was given the one in chemistry.
The awards gave the U.S. a clean sweep of all the Nobel
prizes in science this year. The third science award, in medi-
cine and physiology, went jointly to three American professors
for their work in cracking the genetic code.
Alvarez was cited by the Swedish Academy of Sciences
for his discovery of hitherto unsuspected particles in the
atom. His discovery was called one of "the decisive contri-
butions to elementary particle physics."
Onsager won his award on the basis of his theory of "re-
ciprocal relations," which it called the "foundation" for some
further studies in thermodyamics. Thermodyamics is vital
in the chemical industry, and Onsager's work primarily is an
analysis of the change in the structure of molecules when the
heat of the molecules is raised or lowered.
0 0 *
HUBERT HUMPHREY appealed to workers in New
York's garment district to prod their friends, relatives,
and neighbors to the voting booths next Tuesday.
"I need every vote I can get," said Humphrey, in his fifth
campaign visit to New York City. He told the crowd that both
Harry S. Truman and John Kennedy had appeared "at this
same spot" to seek help in winning uphill campaigns to the
White House.
Humphrey called ,"bunk" a report in the Chicago Tribune
sayingthat courthoue records showed he had accepted six
lakeside lots in Waverly, Minnesota from a wealthy patron of
the Democratic Party.
SPIRO T. AGNEW'S campaign manager said last night
he will advise the Republican vice presidential candidate to
file a libel suit against the New York Times Co.
The Times, in an "editorial, has charged Agnew with con-
flict of interest while holding the office of Governor of
Maryland.
Both Richard Nixon, Agnew's running, mate, and Agnew
himself have demanded a retraction from the Times.
However, in a rebuttal to charges of libel yesterday, the
Times refused to make such a formal retraction, stating, "The
Times unequivocally rejects the charge of libel." The Times
rebuttal went on to say that nowhere had they accused Ag-
new of violating the law, but simply had pointed out that
he had put himself into positions where his ethics could be
questioned.)
We 'Heart is aGlnel Hunter
THURSDAY and FRIDAY
FORBIDDEN PLANET
Directed by Fred Wilcox, 1956
"The best of the inter-stellar science fiction produc-
tions of the 50's."-Pauline Kael
7:00 & 9:05 ARCHITECTURE
662-8871 IC AUDITORIUM
(r
UNION-LEAGUE
Free Halloween Movies I
"The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad"
in Super-Dynamation!
and
"Midsummer Mush"
with CHARLIE CHASE
THURSDAY, Oct. 31, 1968
8-10 P.M. UGLI Multpurpose Room
TONIGHT at
"Is There Racism
in the
Ann Arbor School System?"
speaking-PAUL JOHNSON
(Conservative school board member)
O
i
MIXl
I
2452 E. Stadium at Washtenaw
Ann Arbor
DIAL 663-8800
1421 Hill St.
8:30 P.M.
ing blues, ballads,
panied by guitar,
guitar and har-
FRIDAY and SATURDAY
PAMELA MILES
returning by overwhelming popular demand to s
contemporary, and original folk music accom
recoder, and harp-with Dave Johns playing
monica.
I
I
NEW HOURS Doily6:30 AM to 10 PM. Till 1:00 AM Fri. & Sat. Night
Now serving Mediterranean Cuisine
featuring
Chef Theodoros from Athens
1!
II
,S
E -
_ .. _
r
'I
El
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U N D E R G R O U N D
at the Vth Forum
5th Ave. at Liberty, 761-9700
N
D
E
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G
R
0
Thurs., Fri., Sat., Sun.-11 :00 P.M.
-separate admission required
ANNOUNCING
INTER NATIONAL ISSUES m '68'
NOVEMBER 1-CHINA
"CONTEMPORARY CHINA"-developments since 1949, the cul-
tural revolution, unrest in Hong Kong
Dr. Albert Feuerwerker-Professor of History, University of
Michigan
Dr. Andrew T. Roy, Vice President of Chung Chi College, Hong
Kong
Dr. Allen Whiting, Professor of Political Science, University of
Michigan
First Presbyterian Church, Social Hall, 8 P.M.
NOVEMBER 12-13-LATIN AMERICA
MONSIGNOR IVAN ILLICH, Cuernavaca, Mexico, will give a
series of addresses in Ann Arbor. Msgr. Illich is founder and di-
rector of the Intercultural Documentation Cente, an organization
dedicated to the study of social and economic structures in Latin
America with a view to social change.s ,
Tuesday, Nov. 12-Noon Luncheon-Discussion, International
Center
Evening =Rackham Auditorium "The Danger of the School
System as a Belief System."
Wednesday, Nov. 13-Noon-Discussion, Canterbury House. Dr.
Eric Wolf, Professor of Anthropology,,will join in the pre-
sentation.
8 P.M.-St. Andrews Church. "Christianity and Marxism:
Conflict or Coexistence." Dr. Albert Meyer, Professor of
Political Science, will participate.
NOVEMBER 15-VIET NAM
"VIETNAM DIALOGUE"-the filmed story of the U.S. involve-
ment in Vietnam and the Paris Peace Talks as told by journalist-
historian, David Schoenbrun. The affect of the war on American
domestic issues, such as racism and the political scene, are also
included. Responses to the film and discussion will follow.
First Presbyterian Church, Social Hall, 8 P.M.
MAD MARVIN PRESENTS IN ANN ARBOR:
CORRUPTION OF THE DAMNED-George Kuchar-One of the great film-makers presents a
FEATURE LENGTH unforgettable Underground Comedy. "A wild orgy-filled odyssey. Seethes
with violence and sex." -Village Voice
Plus these great short films:
VIVIAN-Bruce Conner-A study of a beautiful woman.
SAN FRANCISCO TRIPS FESTIVAL-Ben Van Meter-A psychedelic documentary of the San
Francisco Trips Festival and the Opening of the Psychedelic Shop.
WORD MOVIE-Paul Sharits-Highly experimental. Fifty words visually repeated in varying se-
nuential n ositional relationships.
Moth young and old delight in 41
the Great Sound of
DRONNI FROSS & CAROLE WALLERO
D & THE CIRKUS
Appearing night y Mon.-Sat, at the
I
in