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J. "" i~ "".f "y "'r ,'eI ° ' ' ". G ' sy+-TGj +.s, _ '° . -fir r
TUESDAY, AUGUST 1, 1967
NIGHT EDITOR: LUCY KENNEDYI
Violence in the Ghetto:
No Solution for Bigotry
c" , -
"Y y . iv r:. r7C ' 'as''s: r J . ii.
READING OF RIOTS in the papers is,
one thing. Having it happen in your
own city is something else. And it seems
that most of the people in this country
will have experienced that "something
else" by the end of the summer.
The count so far has reached 35 riots
and no doubt will continue to climb.
Clearly, the importance of these out-
breaks transcends any particular causes
they may have had in any one city. First,
the significance of the chain reaction
effect must be considered. Riots spawn
other riots, just as with other social phe-
nomena; Negroes. in one city see that
their "soul brothers" elsewhere have riot-
ed more or less successfully and feel more
inclined to try it themselves. The effect
snowballs until some relatively climactic
stage is reached. We may be nearing that
point now.
Explanation of the riots takes two gen-
eral trends: (1) There is a "conspiracy"
of hidden inciters who prompt these
"spontaneous" outbreaks. (2) The riots
actually are unplanned, having common
cause in the social and psychological
.conditions under which the Negro must
live.
THE FIRST EXPLANATION attempts
to put the blame on something other
than white society. It sounds too much
like the Southerners' old charge of "out-
side agitators" and "Communist infiltra-
tion" as the cause of the civil rights
movement. Now, however, since it is hap-
pening in the North, the failures of the
present powers can't be admitted. No
doubt' there is leadership in some of these
riots, but it is more likely a spontaneously
generated leadership, as individuals real-
ize the possibilities and take advantage
of them.
The second explanation would be valid
even if the first were true, for leaders
alone do not make a riot-they must have
issues and emotions to play upon. There
exists, as has been shown, deep discon-
tent among the Negro community, and
as long as it exists they will serve as
grist for the rabble-rousers' mill. The
riots, in a sence, are by-products of the
failure of the civil rights movement; had
the movement never begun, or had it
succeeded, we would not have these riots
today.
Thus, even though the riots are mark-
ed by wholesale looting and indiscrimin-
ate violence 'whose irrationality upsets
the white community, and even though
its relation to civil rights themselves
seems most dubious, the riots are still a
result of the civil rights movement.
SOLUTIONS ARE SOUGHT. The anti-
riot bill is an absurdity below con-
tempt, but there really are- two possible
"solutions," that is, measures which
would make peace the normal state of
affairs. The first, commonly used in the
South and now more commonly accept-
ed in the North, is to shoot the first few
rioters, or as many as are necessary to
end the disturbance. Lurleen Wallace did
this in Alabama, and her people loved
her for it; the insurgents were cowed
into submission, the peace was main-
tained, and the Negro was "kept in his
place." This is unsatisfactory and would
merely provide temporary relief.
The second solution is somewhat more
difficult, most probably impossible-the
successful completion of the civil rights
movement. The fact is, however, that the
reason for its slack up to now is intended
and will lead to continued, unending de-
mands for patience. The reason: deep-
rooted, uneradicable bigotry. As long as
he is able, the white will stall the Ne-
gro's advancement. The result, which has
evolved, is the Negro reaction of violence.
It can hardly be expected that the white
power structure which refused to force
Negro rights up to now will suddenly bend
over backwards in the face of violence,
when in fact it has the far superior abil-
ity to use violence.
The resort of no small minority of
Negroes to rioting and armed, though
sporadic, insurrection is in actuality a
tacit admission of failure. Guns will not
succeed where words have failed, espe-
cially when the foe has the bigger guns.
And the riots also cause the expected
"backlash," slowing up civil rights prog-
ress even more. But that slowing up is
irrelevant, since the movement as consti-
tuted would not and will not succeed any-
way; it was never really intended to.
--R. M. LANDSMAN
e
r
&
.- TRAN VAN DINH-
U.S. Allhies Skeptical
-Two White House special emissaries, Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor and
Clark Clifford, left recently for a tour of Southeast Asia to convince
the U.S. allies in the war to contribute more troops. In Saigon, they
met with success; General Ky, Prime Minister of South Vietnam, after
meeting with White House representatives, announced on July 27 that
65,000 men would be added to the South Vietnamese army, raising the
ARVN strength to 685,000 men. But considering the performance
in the past of the leaderless and the purposeless ARVN, this success is
in many ways meaningless.
While General Taylor and Clifford were in Bangkok on July 27,
the U.S. Embassy in Thailand announced that the two envoys had
cancelled their trip to the Philippines at the behest of the Philippine
President Ferdinand E. Marcos, who earlier made known the Philippine
decision not to send more military personnel to South Vietnam. The
Philippines now has a 1,000 man contingent in the war.
Marcos' refusal to meet with the White House representatives was
a significant failure of the U.S. plan to have more "Asian boys" fight-
ing in Vietnam. Many people in the U.S. have taken the Philippine
alliance for gratitude. But the Philippines in the last few years has
been searching for an identity-a national one, not an American one.
The participation of the country's forces in the war in Vietnam, al-
though small, is not popular with the Philippine Congress and the
Philippine intellectuals.
THIS REBUKE TO President Johnson's mission is an indication
of the less and less anti-Communist attitude of many Southeast Asian
countries. This attitude is motivated by a resurgence of nationalism,
a certain amount of fear of China, now a nuclear power, and especially
by the realization that anti-communism has become, on the govern-
mental level, synonymus with corruption and prq-Americanism. Anti-
communism has been used to attract American aid, and has been
therefore discredited. This attitude was most visible during the meet-
ing of the Asian and Pacific Council in Bangkok, during the first
week of July. The Asian and Pacific Council (without China, India,
Pakistan, Indonesia-the most important and most populous Asian
nations) was formed last year in Seoul, South Korea and is composed
of: Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Thailand, the Philippines, Formosa.
South Korea, South Vietnam, Malaysia. When ASPAC was initiated
by the U.S., it had a decisively anti-communist tone. But this year's
meeting was quite different. The word "anti-communist" was avoided.
Said Mohamed Khir Johart, Minister of Education of Malaysia: "This
is not an Asian anti-communist league. If that happens, the next thing
will be an anti-imperialist league." The 14 point communique released
on July 7 after a three-day meeting (the second annual meeting) re-
flected the feeling of Mr. Johart. It pointed out that "ASPAC is not
intended to be an exclusive body or one directed against any state
or group of states." Even the, usually anti-communist Thai Foreign
Minister Thanat'Komand declared: "We don't want to be anti-any-
thing."
THE LESS AND LESS anti-communist attitude taken by the
Southeast Asian partners to the U.S. efforts in Vietnam was also
generated in great part by Japan, the most important member of
ASPAC. And Japan today does not want either to be dominatedby the
U.S. or to lose sight of China.
It Is often said by Washington that the U.S. show of military
might in South and North Vietnam is strengthening the Southeast
Asian resistance against communism. But the reality is different. Any
decent Asian would think twice before asking the U.S. to intervene if
he looked at the picture of-the dead Vietnamese peasants, of the devas-
tation by napalm and artillery of the rice fields in North and South
Vietnam done in the name of "democracy" and "anti-communism."
No peasant in Asia would value "democracy" highly when he knows
that his "democratic leaders" have done nothing to him,. but are busy
sending money to foreign banks and spending their time in air-con-
ditioned clubs and restaurants, sharing their newly acquired wealth
with the newcomers: the Americans.
FILM S
4
A6,
42! At.- cl it:r
i LOE L RE511MT i-lAS WALAM140-IME FROM (AMOA
r Y" .a t.Y .. '"J S .".X:
Chief KeesYslniCalm
By STEPHEN BERKOWITZ
YPSILANTI -- In many ways,
Ray Walton is the last person one
would expect to be a police chief:
a soft-spoken, middle-aged, rath-
er shy sort of man. Although his
problems are not terribly differ-
ent from theirs, he shares hardly
anything with the classical image
of tough, cynical, big-city cops.
He lives simply, in a small white-
frame house in an integrated area
near the Ypsilanti police station,
sokes cigars, waves to people as
he drives around town, and likes
to take care of his garden-all-in-
all an improbable combination.
But Ypsilanti, Michigan, is a
rather improbable town: during
the rioting which broke out last
week in Detroit and spread to
many other parts of the state,
Ypsilanti imposed a curfew, clos-
ed down its liquor stores before
the governor's proclamation, and
sat tight.
Nothing much happened. De-
spite a population which is sub-
stantially Negro and southern
white, there were no outbreaks
of racial violence and only a
few incidents of window breaking
-hardly anything out of the or-
dinary for a largely industrial city
of 25,000.
A large part of the credit for
what happened-or didn't happen
-in Ypsilanti is attributable to
the attitude adopted by Chief
Walton and his 38-man force, four
of whom are Negroes. Although
residents of the area-like those
of any growing industrial city-
are not without complaints re-
garding their police department,
there seems to be none of the
seething resentment of the police
one encounters so frequently in
ghetto areas. In addition, there
seems to be a prevalent attitude
among the people of Ypsilanti
that, as one Negro resident put
it,. "Ray Walton is a good man
and this rubs off on his men."
CHIEF RAY WALTON
havior relevant to race relations-
others, if they don't agree with
the department's policies, leaves.
Despite this, the Ypsilanti Po-
lice Department has a much lower
turnover rate than many depart-
ments its size.
"My men's attitude is that we've
got enough problems without
fighting with law-abiding citi-
zens," the chief continued, "and
that's the way it should be."
Chief Walton's beliefs are also
shared by many of Ypsilanti's city
fathers. Mayor John Burton, long
active in city affairs, and City
Prosecutor Booker T. Williams, are
both Negroes and belong to a long
established Negro community,
parts of which have been in Ypsi-
lanti since pre-Civil War -days
when the city was a terminal for
the underground railroad. Indig-
enous leadership is strong, and
well-spaced throughout the resi-
dential area.
YPSILANTI IS, of course, ex-
periencing some of the problems
faced by every urban or urbaniz-
ing area: some of its housing is
old or poorly kept-up and should
be replaced. A small urban renew-
al project and several city-oper-
ated, OEO projects have tried to
cope with a substantial amount of
youth unemployment and the need
for job retraining. These projects
have been small and hampered
by lack of funds. Recreational
area, despite several good city
parks, is in short supply-espe-
cially in the Negro section of
town; and this may be a source
of long-term problems. Roads In
some parts of the city are poorly
paved and in need of repair in
others.
In the short term, however, Yp-
silanti seems to be on top of
many of the sources of potential
violence and unrest and has tak-
en a substantial step towards cop-
ing with the future.
I
*
Back to Vietnam:
Enter the Gallop Poll
THE NATION'S ATTENTION was tem-
porarily diverted from the war in
Vietnam by the domino-like spreading of
violence in major U.S. cities. But it is
heartening to read in yesterday's New
York Times the following dispatch:
'PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S handling of
the Vietnam situation had the dis-
approval of 52 per cent of the American
people as of mid-July, according to a
survey by George Gallup. Only a third
expressed approval, Mr. Gallup said.
"He said this was the highest level,
of criticism reached so far and repre-
sented a sharp rise in disapproval since
the previous survey in mid-June. Public
opinion in the earlier survey was evenly
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Sunzumer Editorial Staff
LAUiENCE MEDOW ....,.............. Co-Editor
STEPHEN FIRSHEIN ........ .........Co-Editor
MARK LEVIN ........,Summer Supplement Editor
NIGHT EDITORS: John Gray,_Wallace Immen, David
divided on the President's policy in Viet-
nam.
The latest survey also showed:
! Forty-one per cent of the people
think the United States made a mistake
in sending troops to Vietnam in the first
place-the largest percentage in the sur-
veys so far.
! Fifty-six per cent now think the
United States is either "losing ground"
in Vietnam or "standing still," compared
with 51 per cent who held these views at
the beginning of the year.,
" Forty per cent favor a proposal to
step up the United States troop commit-
ment in Vietnam by 100,000 more men,,
but 49 per cent are opposed.
"The reasons given most frequently
for opposing an increase in troop
strength were that there were enough
men there already to do the job or that
there were too many there now.
"Others expressed the belief that the
South Vietnamese ought to take more re-
sponsibility for the fighting."
In the few instances where
problems have arisen between the
people and members of the police
department, residents report that
these have been rectified quickly,
and this may be a clue as to
why things are as they are. "Over
a period of time if your position
is proven right, it tends to have
a big bearing on how your men
act," the chief said. "My depart-
ment has always wanted to have
people's respect so that they can
work in the community," and this
equitable treatment of Ypsilanti's
citizens has paid off in good
morale and an easier job for the
police department.
CHIEF WALTON, according to
his own testimony and that of
other citizens, is accepted in the
city as a good neighbor and friend
-and this sets an example for his
men. During the chief's three
years in office, he has had to
terminate only one man for be-
Undynamic Duo
.1
McNamaraY One-a Disaster'
PRESIDENT .-JOHNSON'S
consensus
seems to be cracking. This latest sur-
vey was taken before the riots in the
U.S.; now people may be even more con-
vinced to turn their attention inward
from Vietnam. When your home is on
fire, you worry less about the affairs of
another household.
--S.F.
Riot Aid
It was not necessary for Robert
Strange McNamara to go all the
way to Vietnam to be wrong once
again. His track record so far is
perfect. On every one of his trips
to Vietnam he has brought back
some sort of totally false impres-
sion or wrong decisiion. After so
much practice, you'd think he
could stay home in his office, dis-
cuss it with his regiment of pub-
lic relations men and come out
with some wrong conclusions with-
out wasting tax money on a long
trip.
After trip Number Eight, just
last year, McNamara came back
and said that there were no plans
to step up the war. Since then, of
course, troops have gone over in
ever increasing number, bombings
have stepped up, and so forth.
NO MATTER WHAT you think
of Lyndon Johnson, he doesn't de-
serve a secretary of defense who
has been as consistently and dis-
astrously wrong at Robert Mc-
Namara. How long will the Presi-
dent put up with it?
The outlook isn't too rosy when
you recall that, to cite another
example, Robert McNamara's sec-
ond Vietnam trip produced the
statement that the Diem govern-
ment had worked "a miracle,"
that the Communist drive had
been "blunted" and that the drive
against them was "successful."
Trip Number Three, in Decem-
ber, 1963, found McNamara reg-
ularly ducking questions about the
famous prediction that the war
would be over in 1965, so far as
commitment of Americans troop
would be concerned. By trip Four
it until almost too late. He watch-
ed our helicopter program almost
destroy itself on Vietnamese losses
before reluctantly admitting his
past mistakes. He has regularly
been reported as the leading ad-
vocate of bombing pauses-pauses
which reguarly have permitted our
enemies to regroup and resupply
and thus be ready to kill more
Americans when the pause ended.
THERE IS NO KNOWN in-
stance of Robert McNamara
having exercised effective judg-
ment in regard to Vietnam and
there is absolutely no reason to
believe that the actions followed
his current trip will prove any
better.
One reason, of course, is ap-
parent on this trip as on every
other one: Robert McNamara has
By ANDREW LUGG
Film-makers seem to experience
all sorts of problems when they
make films in countries that they
are not intimately connected with.
When Polanski made "Repulsion,"
now showing at the Campus, with
"The Collector," he was a com-
parative newcomer to England,
and the film seems to suffer be-
cause of this. Polanski, fascinat-
ed with the surface 'look" of the
country, indulgently photographs
some of the things he finds novel.
This, which is natural, is very un-
fortunate, since his early films-
"Knife in the Water," in partic-
ular - showed that he was a
young film-maker of extraordinary
talent. Our observation is further
highlighted by his last film -
"Cul-de-Sac." In this, also made
in England, Polanski has got over
the novelty of his new homeland,
and has reopened his penetrating
study of horror and the "neuroses
of everyday living."
THIS IS NOT to say that "Re-
pulsion" is not a film which deals
with these subjects. He certainly
was interested in investigating this
-"Repulsion" shows the subjec-
tive horror of the "crack-up" of
Catherine Deneuve, resulting from
her overwhelming fear of being
touched.
The opening scene is shot in a
beauty parlor where Miss Deneuve
works. Polanski films this in such
a way that a woman "being done"
looks like a mummy. This is just
horrific. But it is a failure in terms
of the rest of the film, because Po-
lanski did not set up the shot as
And this is not just a single in-
cident, where Polanski uses very
obvious black and white state-
ments to make his point. In addi-
tion he relies on a large number
of hackneyed symbolsand cine-
matic cliches. Miss Deneuve con-
stantly isaware of a convent
nearby, into which she looks down
to see groups of nuns, chatting,
playing ball, etc. Clock ticks. She
views a motor car accident, There
are long pregnant pauses.
After all this, it becomes a
little difficult to accept the hor-
hor-fantasies: walls cracking, men
molesting her and the like. Polan-
ski, in this film does not manage
to blend together symbol, fantasy
and the ordinary. Buskers playing
on street corners does not equal
the ordinary. And the cliches we
mentioned above do not equal the
subjective world of his heroine.
THE OTHER FILM showing, Wil-
liam Wyler's "The Collector," is
another very thin work. Miranda
(Samantha Eggar) is kidnapped
by a young butterfly collector
(Terence Stamp). He apparently
has been "in love" with her since
his youth and simply wants to
own her. It takes Wyler an amaz-
ingly long time to recount her
efforts at getting away from him.
Toward the end of this film
too, there is a nice little duality:
either Stamp can get a doctor
for the very ill girl, allow him
to be with her and probably get
caught, or let her die. He chooses
the latter course.
Thus,,"The Collector," in its
I