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 I U N D E R G R O U N D at the Vth Forum 5th Ave. at Liberty, 761-9700 N D E R 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