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Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily ex press the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
3ATURDAY, JUNE 17, 1967 NIGHT EDITOR: JENNIFER RHEA
Congress Quashes Hopes
For Draft Reform
FEW MONTHS AGO, the country was
bright with hopes that the archaic,
nefficient and unjust Selective Service
System that has been in effect since
World War II would at last be reformed.
After the most perfunctory treatment
m the floor, a conference committee
has worked out and the Senate has pass-
ed a slightly reactionary version of the
Jniversal Trainng and Service Act. Final
Iouse passage is certain and the military
iraft will be extended in more-or-less
its present form for four years.
The hopes of the reformers have been
utterly smashed.
THE ONLY REFORM written into the
bill by Congress is a policy of taking
youngest men first. While this would be a
audatory step when coupled with other
changes, attached to the present bill it
>nly serves to aggravate injustices.
Against the advice of the National
Commission on Selective Service, a num-
ber of leading educators and the wishes
>f many students, the new bill extends
student deferments.
backwards in the field of conscientious
objection. The bill specifically restricts
CO status to conventional religious rea-
sons. In recent years, the courts have
been liberalizing the meaning of the Se-
lective Service Act to allow conscientious
objection on the basis of individual moral
grounds. Congress has taken the treat-
ment of conscientious objectors back to
its pre-World War I brutality. Hopefully,
the Supreme Court will view with dismay
this particular feature of the new act.
There are still two bright features to
the measure. One is that it has, in effect,
dissolved the abominable role of the uni-
versities as handmaidens to the draft.
Students will be deferred regardless of
how the colleges feel about it and the
colleges will no longer feel compelled to
dutifully administer draft tests and send
rankings and transcripts to draft boards
either in accordance with or against the
wishes of their students.
Another promising feature relevant to
this area was that Sen. Philip A. Hart
(D-Mich), who has often appeared to be
not the most independent and courageous
if~~~~~~~~f A1,,j~kj~L _____
AR L-
~' h ~'RED
-- J7h e~ v-Twe
~' NOBODY
BUYS
IT ANY MOR1 *-
The Arrogance
Of American Purity
Letters to the Editor
In the past, there was at least some member or the seae, tuis a star
pretense-although it was seldom more the floor against the bill and the
than pretense-of basing student defer- whelming majority of his colleagu
ments on merit. Students were deferred both sides of the aisle.
only if they obtained standing in the
top of their college classes. Under the THE REFORMERS who had such I
new law, any and all college students hopes for the new draft law c
will be deferred. Since, for the most part, reckoned without the silent but awE
colleges are open ~only to students who political power of middle class
can pay, and since any student who has America. The draft was not extend
the money can find a college somewhere, its present form, not because most
this policy of deferment is the most gressmen are overly fond of it, bu
blatant form of economic discrimina- cause they did not have the guts to
tion. America's battles will continue to be the boat.
rich men's wars and poor men's fights In fact, Congress, whose membei
moaning about losing their power t
MOST PEOPLE concerned with the executive branch of government, gat
draft felt that if Congress did noth- impression of not really giving a
ing else, it would clean up the snake pit about what sort of bill it passed.
of local draft boards and put the entire True, extensive hearings were
system under some sort of unified cen- but the bill was rushed across the
tral control. Congress paid at best only of the House like a personal relie
lip service to the concept of uniform The House gave its original versi
control in the conference committee bill. the bill after less than five minu
The national Selective Service System can debate. The Senate was little b
"recommend" uniform standards but it although it may be excused since i
cannot make them mandatory, which is to faced with more important matter
say there will be no uniform standards. the campaign financing filibuster
A draft lottery, far and away the fair- the anti-flag burning bill. The acti
est means of choosing who shall go and Congress in the entire matter have
who shall not, was rejected outright by a mockery of justice, the Consti
Congress. President Johnson asked for the and the legislative process.
authority to institute a lottery and Con-
gress flatly denied him that authority.
The new bill also takes a massive step -STEPHEN WILDSTR
Israel: On the Road to Disaster?
nd on
over-
es on
bright
learly
esome
white
led in
con-
t be-
rock
rs are
to the
ve the
damn
held,
floor
f act.
on of
tes of
better,
t was
s like
and
ons of
made
tution
ars.
OM
Vietnamese Student
Nguyen Thanh Trang, in the
letter to the University of Mary-
land daily paper reprinted by Tran
Van Dinh in his column in your
June 16 issue, has hit the nail on
the head. He sees the U.S. need
to keep its present economic sys-
tem going by priming the pump
through colossal military expendi-
tures as the main reason for the
war in Vietnam, all pious U.S. gov-
ernment allegations to the con-
trary notwithstanding.
But all that is not the whole
truth. As Carl Oglesby (resident
at the University of Michigan sev-
eral years ago) points out in his
(and Richard Shaull's) brilliant
book Containment and Change,"
another reason is our need to iso-
late South Vietnam from North
Vietnam and mainland China so
that South Vietnam's rubber and
rice will be marketed by us and
available to Japan. The alterna-
tive-Vietnamese control of her
rubber and rice and trade between.
her and China and Japan not
controlled by us-we will do every-
thing in our power to prevent. For
that would foster a regional eco-
nomic system in Asia not depend-
ent on the U.S., and not at the
mercy of U.S. businessmen seek-
ing higher profits in impoverished
countries abroad than they can
make in the affluent society at
home, and above all seeking an
outlet abroad for the overproduc-
tion of the U.S. economy which
we havenot yet found a way to
use to alleviate poverty at home.
IT IS COLD comfort, but I hope
Nguyen Thanh Trang is aware
that a considerable and increasing
number of Americans-and not
only American students-are deep-
ly ashamed of, and sickened by,
U.S. military activity in Vietnam.
How willingly the U.S. joined a
few years ago in deliberations
about German guilt for World War
II. Perhaps the present U.S. in-
volvement in Vietnam, disastrous
for Vietnam in all ways and dis-
astrous morally though not, alas,
economically for the U.S., is a
punishment visited upon us for
the sin which has beset Americans
from the beginning of our his-
tory-namely self-righteousness.
-J. A. Bailey
Department of Near Eastern
'Languages and Literatures
Rallv Controversy
I wish to reply to the potshots
called "homage") taken at Ju-
daism by Mr. Soudek and the
perhaps correct but inconsistent
ire of Miss Dick regarding the Is-
rael Rally.
First, Mr. Soudek's remarks were
both unclever and unfair. He as-
serts that "(Judaism) has turned
an objective professor into a my-
popic (sic) rally maker." Here Mr.
Soudek confuses being objective
with having no opinion. This is
a great and not uncommon error.
Objectivity is a way of arriving at
opinion, not the absence of opin-
ion. A philosopher, like anyone
else, is entitled, having arrived at
an opinion, to voice it. Indeed, if
the issue is an important moral
one, he has the duty to do so (we
are assured by the anti-war peo-
pie). To assume, as Mr. Soudek
does, that Prof. Kaplan's pro-Is-
rael view is biased and a function
of his being a Jew is as unfair
as calling every Gentile who takes
Semite (although both of these
an anti-Israel position an anti-
are possible). Does Prof. Kaplan
have to come out against Israel
to demonstrate his "objectivity?"
I am sure that if he did that, Mr.
Soudek would have found him
"unbiased" since his view and Mr.
Soudek's would then agree. But
this is not objectivity.
TO MISS DICK, although I do
not support the treatment of her
or the Arab speaker at the rally,
I merely wish to point out that
rallies are not usually conducive
to opposing viewpoints. In specif-
ically "liberal" functions, how
would the following people fare:
l) a Klansman at a civil rights
rally, or 2) a "hawk" at an anti-
war rally? Indeed, the treatment
of the pro-administration (and
even neutral) factions at our fa-
mous Vietnam teach-in were hard-
ly "polite." Rallies are not sem-
inars. They are loud shows of
support for opinions previously ar-
rived at. And their participants
are not at the moment emphasiz-
ing their rationality. This is true
(however unfortunately) of rallies
for Israel, for civil rights, for SDS
-or anything else. If someone of
the opposition tries to get the floor,
he is. asking for trouble, and Miss
Dick should know it. If she con-
demns the actions at the Israel
rally (as well she may) she must
denounce all rallies for the same
reasons. And her comparison of
actions at the rally and Israeli
military tactics was ill-consider-
ed and juvenile.
There is a great propensity for
indignantly calling -°"objective"
what we agree with and "biased"
what we do not agree with. The
letters above mentioned are ex-
amples of the pomposity which is
the hobgoblin of both extremes of
the political spectrum.
--Joel Hencken, '69
By HOWARD MOFFETT
Collegiate Press Service
SAIGON-We have been taught
that our history, beginning with
the Puritan fathers, has been
deeply influenced by the early
Americans view of themselves as
a morally pure and righteous peo-
ple-by contrast with the deca-
dent, corrupt sons of Europe.
I didn't really appreciate what
this meant until I had been
in Vietnam for several months.
What finally brought the idea
home-and left me depressed and
scared-was a series of interviews
with Army and Air Force chap-
lains.
There are over 400 American
chaplains in Vietnam. All are vol-
unteers. I interviewed 13. Almost
to a man, their consciences were
aggressively clear about the moral
rationale for the U.S. military
commitment.
That might be expected of chap-
lains. But what surprised and de-
pressed me were the glowing terms
they used to describe what is bas-
ically an agonizing, dirty business
of making many people suffer in
order to prove a political point.
In their view of the world, Ameri-
cans are still the standard bear-
ers of morality in the battle
against evil. Cotton Mather would
have recognized his descendants
instantly.
On the basis of these chaplains'
interviews, a disinterested observ-
er would have to characterize the
American approach to war as (a)
saintly and (b) child-like, Con-'
sider the following four assump-
tions:
1) We are here to save the Viet-
namese people from the evils of
Communism. This theme was
sounded by at least 10 of the 13
chaplains. The following quotes
are representative, and in my
opinion the complete contexts
would not change their import:
"The Viet Cong are misguided
zealots who have been given the
wrong information all their lives.
What would you believe if you
had been taught all your life that
Americans are the aggressors? "-
Chaplain Ross C. Wright, Conserv-
ative Baptist from Los Angeles.
"I see China as an emotionally
disturbed society." - This from
Chaplain Jack Keene, United Pres-
byterian, who believes the U.S.
has an obligation to protect South
Vietnam from foreign domination.
"I'm not so concerned about the
democratic process, but I think
the clergy should be on the side
of right. Maybe the majority of
the Vietnamese people do support
the Viet Cong, but if so. they do
it out of ignorance and fear
It's like our American race riots.
The police at Watts weren't very
popular, but they were right." -
OrvillekMcCormack, Assemblies of
God, Oklahoma City.
McCormack, an Air Force chap-
lain, says some of the men who
come back from bombing missions
break down and cry over mistakes
they have made in hitting the
wrong village or striking.innocent
civilians. He concludes, "But to
compare these accidents with cold-
blooded Viet Cong atrocities is to
compare a man who has had a
car accident with a killer who goes
downtown and machine guns 20
people .. . . GI Joe is a healer, not
a killer. We're not here to kill
people but to keep them from
being killed, not to conquer but to
free, not to take but -to give our
lives in order that they might have
. 'Greater love hath no man
than this, that a man lay down
his life for 'his friend'."
Lest the lighthearted laugh too
loud, it should be said that there
is some ground for the attitudes of
most of these men, some truth in
what they say. But when all is
said and done, in many parts of
this country saving the Vietna-
mese from the evils of Commu-
nism boils down to saving them
from themselves-whether or not
they are Communists.
The Viet Cong may be zealots,
but few Vietnamese would call
them misguided. Personal freedom
and human dignity may be more
important than life to Americans.
but Saigon and Washington are
asking many Vietnamese to trade
their lives for a freedom and dig-
nity they never had. China may
be an emotionally disturbed socie-
ty, but at the moment-many Viet-
namese are more frightened of the
United States.
McCormack's comparison be-
comes a little fuzzy when we re-
call that the policy of widespread
bombing is itself no accident, and
his eloquent statement of Ameri-
can intentions might not sound
quite so convincing to Vietnamese
widows and orphans. Christianity
has always thought of itself as
fighting to aid the oppressed, but
even in America there have al-
ways been those who didn't see it
qiethat way; can we blame a
Vietnamese Buddhist for not get-
ting the point?
2 We n. d..hIA 1. .
cerely wanting to help the Viet-
namese people. Most American of-
ficials in Vietnam like to talk
about how America is helping the
Vietnamese. The chaplains were
no exception; they referred most
frequently to the military's civic
action programs.
It is true, there are a staggering
number of hopelessly altruistic
Americans running around Viet-
nam. By old colonial standards,
they are shedding much blood and
many tears with little to show
for it in the way of dollar profits.
GI's build orphanages, support
poor families, put hundreds of
kids through school, hand out
chocolate bars the length and
breadth of Vietnam, and often
make considerable personal sacri-
fices in the process.
But with child-like naivete and
almost total ignorance of what a
century of colonialism has taught
the Vietnamese. they expect to
be thanked.
3) The Viet Cong should not
use sneaky tricks to kill Amer-
can soldiers. The thought cari-
catured here runs just below the
surface of many American conver-
sations. The implication is that
war ought to be played by the
rules. as defined in the U.S. Code
of Chivalry.
Chaplain Wright, with quiet in-
dignation, told of a Viet Cong
mine that had inflicted five cas-
ualties on a 1st Air Cavalry Di-
vision unit the week before. A
whole platoon had walked over
the mine without touching it off.
but somehow one of the last men
unwittingly detonated it. The
chaplain told the story as if the
Viet Cong had deliberately lulled
the Americans into a false sense
of security and then attacked from
behind.
He also showed me - in the
midst of an explanation of how
people at home have a distorted
view because the press never tells
about Viet Congatrocities-a UPI
story of a Viet Cong atrocity. A
young American captain had been
killed trying to. clean out an
enemy cave in the Central High-
lands. A North Vietnamese soldier
had come out of the cave, pushing
a, woman and child in front of
him. Not wanting to hit the hu-
man shields, the American low-
ered his gun, whereupon the North
Vietnamese shot him point blank
in the head.
It was a dirty thing to do, and
I like it no better than the young
American's mother would. But to
suggest that it wasn't fair, and
that the North Vietnamese sol-
dier was an evil ogre because he
took unfair advantage, is to make
war into a child's game. (Tit for
tat: within minutes the cave had
been blown with explosives and
one GI estimated over 100 Viet
Cong and North Vietnamese were
buried alive inside.)
4) The Vietnamese should be
more responsive to our benevolent
but firm approach to pacification.
I depart from the chaplains' script
at this point to discuss the Amer-
ican way of pacification, which
refers to making hostile peasants
friendly.
The Marines have been pacify-
ing villages in I Corps (Central
Vietnam) for a year and a half
now, and their example has been
followed by many other American
units engaged in civic action pro-
grams. The basic formula is to
move into a village, maintain or-
der by intensive patrolling and
hunt down any stray guerrillas
with the left hand, while setting
up medical aid programs, build-
ing dams and spillways, and giv-
ing out candy, soap and tooth-
paste with the right.
Often the GI's make friends,
especially among the kids. But
observers who live in I Corps say
the hard facts are that most of
these villages are less pacified than
when the Leathernecks landed.
The lessons we learn from the
American experience in Vietnam
will be largely conditioned by our
view of ourselves. If the foregoing
is at all to the point, it suggests
there a lot of psychological cob-
webs that will have to be cleared
away first.
Some may object that the chap-
lains' views are not representative.
Chaplains, after all,- would be
bound to come up with moral
reasons for a war. But the pro-
tests of many civilian clergy sug-
gest that the issue is not so sim-
ple. (Indeed, they raise the in-
teresting question of how a single
church inspired by one Lord can
produce such different answers to
such fundamental problems.)
Furthermore, the language of
the chaplains is the language of
many-not all, but many-Amer-
ican officers and enlisted men
who have -served in Vietnam.
(Would you believe the language
of Dean Rusk?) These are the
4
E
IF WE HEED the lessons of our own his-
tory, cocky, little Israel may be headed
for disaster. There are striking parallels
between the adamant posture of the vic-
torious Israelis and the United States'
actions in Korea.
Seventeen years ago, against his bet-
ter judgment, President Truman allowed
'himself to be convinced by General Doug-
las MacArthur to order U.S. troops (under
the auspices of the United Nations) across
the 38th parallel into Communist North
Korea. MacArthur repeatedly assured
Truman that under no circumstances
would the Chinese enter the conflict on
the side of the North Koreans.
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Within weeks over 800,000 Red Chinese
volunteers massed and attacked UN forc-
es just north of Tokchon in North Ko-
rea. The Communists were not about to
surrender what they felt to be part of
their sphere of influence. The United
States, swept up in a victory complex dur-
ing the summer of 1950, was then forced
to conduct a painfuland expensive three
year conflict in Korea.
THE SOVIET UNION tends to feel for
the Arab nationalists as the Chinese
felt for the North Koreans; the Middle
East, while non Communist, falls under
the Soviets' sphere of influence. But Is-
rael, fully impressed with her quick vic-
tory, has been victimized by a marked
role-reversal in her foreign policy out-
look. Whereas only 10 days ago Premier
Levi Eshkol disclaimed any desire for
territorial expansion, Minister of De-
fense Moshe Dayan, Israel's "Desert
Fox," has since repeatedly stated that
under no circumstances would . the Is-
raelis part with Old Jerusalem, and may
even be forced to retain control of Sinai
and. all of Jordan west of the Jordan
River for "security" purposes.
The Soviet Union may be compelled to
react. Already under pressure within the
Communist bloc for its inaction in South-
east, Asia, it can ill afford to sit by idly
in the Middle East. Increasing pressure
is being heaped upon the Russians, so
much so that Premier Kosygin is person-
ally attending an emergency meeting of
....c.. .p:'.......,x......J... ...... . . . ..... .. .. . ....
Social Upheaval in Mexico
"HERMOSILLO, Mexico (RP-
Federal troops controlled this
city; the capital of Sonora state,
Thursday after three days of
street fighting caused by politi-
cal disagreements left at least
one person dead.
"The troops took over without
resistance at the University of
Sonora, where students have
beenron strike 63 days demand-
ing the removal of state gov-
ernor Luis Eneinas Johnson.
"About 400 paratroopers and
800 infantrymen were posed at
government buildings, utility
plants and offices after martial
law was declared in the state."
-Detroit Free Press
May 19, 1967
By HENRY B. GOSTONY
Daily Guest Writer
There's a revolution going on
in Mexico today that no one
knows about. It involves students,
peasants, government workers and
almost everyone in the country.
I just returned from that coun-
try last month and it takes a
whil +o aliz what.is gning on.
cars of government officials were
stolen and burned, newspapers
were bombed, students killed,
buildings destroyed and martial
law declared.
IT ALL STARTED two months
ago when to3e government in Mex-
ico City declared Faustino Felix
Serena, the winner of a primary
election held todetermine the
PRI candidate for governor of
Sonora (of which Hermosillo is
the capital) for the August elec-
tions. He had finished a poor
third.
This was too much for the ideal-
istic students of the University of
Sonora, in Hermosillo. When they
staged a hunger strike in the town
square Felix Serena's private body
guards-some call it an army -
opened fire and killed several of
them. The student body then
unanimously voted to leave class
in protest. Their example was fol-
lowed by every public elementary
school, grade school and high
school in Sonora.
For two months not one child
attended public school. Their par-
enough to be caught off universi-
ty property.
FINALLY, on May 17 President
Dias Ordaz ordered 1200 troops to
regain control of the city. Their
first act was to enter and secure
the university, an act permitted
under the Mexican Constitution
only in times of revolution. But
the strike continues and 5000 uni-
versity students will probably lose
all credit for the school year.
Many people, including Consu-
late General Barney Taylor, be-
lieve that the trouble has only be-
gun. And it seems that unless the
Mexican government makes con-
cessions to a people now demand-
ing some voice in their govern-
ment, the people once again will
take matters into their own hands.
For five days I lived with these
students and accompanied them
in their "work." To me it is obvious
that as long as Mexico continues
to produces uch dedicated, self-
less, highly idealistic people her
situation can only change fore the
better.
Having attended two American
universities, the University of
I