After

Washington

from

the spectacular to

the

real

By STEVE ANZALONE
Editorial Page Editor
"He remains eternally hungry, the
critic without strength or joy, the
Alexandrian man who is at bottom
a librarian and scholiast, blinding
himself miserably over dusty books
and typographical errors."
--Fredrich Nietzsche
T HE GREAT EVENT has come and
gone. Its significance and our own
sense of personal involvement will blos-
som now that it's over, providing good
conversational material in what could
otherwise have been a very banal holi-
day season. Yes, it was all very nice and
everyone had a meaningful experience
but final exams are coming, and we will
all settle back to o u r "typographical
errors."
Last weekend was a dazzling success.
It provided those who missed the Pen-
tagon in 1967 and Chicago in 1968 with
the chance to experience one of those
great historical events of the 1960's.
People came off the pages of Armies
of the Night to find some heroism in
themselves as t h e y marched against
death through the rain a n d paraded
through the cold on Saturday. And, a
very fortunate few got to s e e Mailer
himself during Saturday's parade.
Important, too, were the political tri-
umphs. The Mobe made g o o d their
claim to turn out a half million people.
Nixon and his intellectual eunuch Spi-

ro Agnew made themselves look 1i k e
fools again and their attempts to dis-
credit the mobilization by inciting vio-
lence failed,
And of course, there were unintend-
ed delights, like Atty. Gen. Mitchell eat-
ing a little of the tear gas that entered
his office from the melee in front of his
so-called Justice Dept.
The weekend was impressive even in
a day of super bowls, Woodstocks, and
television extravaganzas. It gave many
young people their first look at the na-
tion's capital. It also showed many of us
the joys of camaraderie and the kind-
ness that can still be found in people
willing to house and feed a bunch of
strange kids.
BUT AMID the euphoria and the post
factum glow of it all, perhaps it would
be wise to ask ourselves what the week-
end in Washington really meant. What
did it accomplish politically? Where do
we go from here?
The Mobe organization has now mov-
ed decisively into the forefront of radi-
cal leadership in this country. It has
sought to build around a wide base of
support and has been successful in con-
ducting massive and dramatic protests.
But it is still unclear where this type
of protest will take us. There seem to be
only three ways that these marches on
Washington can be politically signifi-
cant:

- They could act as an unmistakable
expression of public opinion that the
President cannot ignore. But Nixon has
shown us that he has been unaffected
by the events of Oct. 15 and Nov. 15. As
much as we tell ourselves that Nixon
cannot ignore us, we must realize that
he can. He will keep claiming majority
support until he is deposed. The anti-
war movement brags t h a t it already
toppled one President and that it will
topple another. Maybe. But so what, if
it does not lead to fundamental change.
The public opinion route is tactically
unsound since Nixon can choose to hear
what he wants and is not necessarily
bound by it anyway.
- They could serve to enlist the sup-
port of other key people in the govern-
ment. For example, the antiwar hoopla
could convince s o m e Senators to do
such things as filibuster against defense
appropriations and force a speedier
withdrawal. Last weekend, McCarthy
made a speech; McGovern and Goodell
showed up at the rally. But they did
not need proselytizing. What about the
other "liberal" Senators? Where the hell
was Kennedy? It is clear that this kind
of activity is not going to inspire the
Senate which now seems hopelessly tied
to Nixon's snailpace to peace.
- They could lead to the formation
of a mass movement. This movement
can be a permanent radical movement
that will seek total changes in the struc-

ture of government. Or it can be an ad
hoc broad-based movement directed
solely against the war. The latter seems
to be the direction, probably unintend-
ed, that the Mobe movement is heading
toward.
TO FORGE the lasting kind of radical
movement that will be necessary to
make the political, economic and social
changes that will prevent more Viet-
nams, we must shun spectacular events
like last weekend. Radical politics has
thus far distinguished itself by its un-
derstanding that real change must be
made from the grass roots up and not
by tactics aimed at persuading or re-
placing the people at the top.
We must not forget this lesson. We
must not be lured by the prospects of
extravagant publicity and the decep-
tively large support that can be built
around one particular issue. Clearly,
these are necessary preconditions f o r
building a movement but by themselves,
they are not sufficient to make t h e
movement permanent.
The real changes in American so-
ciety must be made by organizing
and educating in the community and in
the factory. It is the slow, ardous task
of bringing people together around the
concept of self-determination. A n d
when there are a half million people who
really understand the question Why Are
We in Vietnam? and are prepared to
act, then the kinds of changes for
which many of us went to Washington
will really be possible.


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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1969

NIGHT EDITOR: JUDY SARASOHN

ROTC: Two out
in the last of the ninth

(T WAS WITH great relief - and gentle-
manly congratulations to all concern-
ed -- that the faculty concluded Monday
its debate on the question of ROTC pro-
grams on campus. It has at last passed to
the Regents a strongly endorsed report
calling for the severance of all financial
and most academic ties between the Uni-
versity and ROTC.
Although most expected the majority
report would meet faculty approval, the
issue remains a highly contested one. The
ROTC question has been worrying - and
still worries-faculty and administrators
not only because of concern over possible
student disruptions, but also because of
the f e a r that a compromise which all
University governing bodies can accept
could not - and cannot now - be reach-
ed, despite extensive efforts.
FOR ALMOST half a year, the Academic
Affairs Committee, chaired by Prof.
Theodore Buttrey, labored over the ques-
tion and came up with a commendable
report which would really (in Prof. But-
trey's words) "modify ROTC into the
ground." The majority report, which
passed through the Assembly almost in-
tact, is really a rather radical report for
the faculty to endorse. It is already being
predicted that this more moderate ma-
jority position will have the same effect
as the more radical minority position.
Indeed, by severing all financial and
most academic ties with ROTC, the Uni-
versity may create an environment for
ROTC which the Defense Department will
not tolerate. The directive h a s already
come from Melvin Laird's office that
ROTC must not be compelled to pay its
own way. And the coordinator of ROTC

programs has flatly stated he would not
urge ROTC units to accept the faculty's
alternative - establishing ROTC as an
extracurricular activity.
The DOD may well pull out of this Uni-
versity -- and all universities - where
they have been doing poorly at recruiting
anyway. They could set up, quite econ-
omically, a p o s t graduate program in
which army bound college graduates
c o u ld enroll and receive the training
equivalent of four years of ROTC in a
brief period.
11OWEVER, the battle to modify or ter-
minate ROTC's relationship with the
University is hardly won. It remains for
the Regents to determine the fate of the
programs, and faculty must be prepared
to defend their action before a critical
board. For the Regents are an essentially
conservative group, influenced by tele-
grams and by the State Legislature's res-
olution urging this University to main-
tain its training programs.
The faculty, and interested students,
must make the same arguments to those
Regents which they made to pro-ROTC
faculty members. ROTC must be shown to
be academically unsound, space-consum-
ing and morally incompatible with the
spirit of the University.
THE STRUGGLE to rid the campus of
ROTC was significantly strengthened
by the support of the faculty's Senate As-
sembly. But the Assembly's vote Monday
afternoon, unfortunately, cannot guar-
antee ultimate victory. That can come
only from the Regents, and only if stu-
dents and faculty members who oppose
ROTC demonstrate their continued con-
cern.

The lie
By LONNIE FOUTY
Daily Guest Writer
H AVING JUST finished reading
the article on my military
career, by Howard Kohn (Daily.
Nov. 17), I am amazed at how
poorly it was done and how in-
accurately it was related to my
actual experiences. It s e e m s
strange that since I had given your
staff documents and a personal
interview, that you would have at
least exhibited enough journalistic
expertise to have correctly related
it to your readers.
First of all, my name is Lonnie
Pouty. I entered the U.S. Coast
Guard Academy after graduation
from high school. I then attended
Ohio University, graduated and
was commissioned as a second
lieutenant, Regular Army, in June.
1968.
Immediately following grad-
uation I reported first to Fort
Knox, Kentucky, 54th Infantry
(contrary to what the article
states)
At this time I was quite upset,
having been placed in the infantry
rather than assigned to a position
where I would have been able to
use my five years architectural
training to serve my country.
I had been told repeatedly by
my superiors in Ohio University
ROTC that the Army was inter-
ested in my ability and training
in my vocation, and that I would
certainly be given an opportunity
to use that training insofar as the
Army had many "missions" in-
volving construction.
WHEN I REPORTED to Fort
Knox, I found most of my men
to be Vietnam veterans, most of
whom were on "profile" for physi-
^al disability due to combat. We
had three major duties: 1) to
provide troops to act as training
personnel and to act as aggressors
during "war games"; 2) to pro-
vide funeral escorts and details for
bodies coming home from Vietnam,
and 3) to provide troops for "do-
mestic disturbance control."
I must clarify one episode from

the article relating to this second
function.
The window mentioned didn't
"rip the flag off the casket and
spit on it." She rather refused to
accept it when it was presented to
her, spit at us, and bitterly re-
buked a country that had taken
her son for nothing. She swore
that President Johnson should
fight his own dirty war.
As reported, the AWOL rate was
unusually high in that unit be-
;ause most of the men were
"short" with six months left to
serve at the cost. To be forced to
lay in the grass and play soldier
"war games" after being severely
wounded in combat is extremely
cruel; most men figured it was
better to go home.
MY ATTITUDE toward the
service became worse not only be-
cause of this initial experience
but also because I was led to be-
lieve that I could resign after
three years of duty as an Regist-
ered Army (RA) officer.
When I entered the service I
found that I could not resign with
less than five years of service, and
that my resignation would not be
considered until I had served two
tours in Vietnam!
This policy was done by directive
from the commanding general of
the Army and applied to all RA
officers in certain combat branch-
es. They don't bother to tell you
this in the ROTC!
My instructors there told me
I had to accept an RA commission
due to some agreement they say
I had made my sophomore year
when I acepted a two year mili-
tary scholarship. I found this to
be incorrect after entering the
service.
I ALSO FOUND that the ROTC
instruction which taught us to
"motivate" our men was impos-
sible to put into practice. In the
Army you are told that concern
for your men is only a tool which
helps you to accomplish your "mis-
sion." If you have to sacrifice
their lives in order to comply with

of ROTC and a

your orders, then that is too bad!
It's all a part of your "duty."
You can't let your personal feel-
ings prevent you from doing your
duty! The minute you put on your
uniform, you are a professional!
As a professional soldier, one does
not have the right to obey his con-
science; he merely complies with
his or'ders.
If he should feel that the na-
tion's policy is morally wrong, he
is reminded that as a soldier he is
a professional and does not have
the right to carry out the political
goals of the country by force. To
make this decision is to impose
military control on the civilian
government.
THE ARGUMENT that ROTC
provides evivilian influence on a
professional military is absurd.
All soldiers are professionals and
are the means by which one state
imposses its will on another. It
was to express this fact that I
allowed The Daily to use my case.
I did not "quit the Army after
four months." I tried to be a con-
cerned officer and one that would
be a "good influence" on the mili-
tary because of my concern for my
men and my dedication to my
country.
As for recruitment policies, I
believe clarification is necessary
to understand Mr. Kohn's article.
A trainee is told that if he extends
his tour, he will be given a choice
of duties or assignment.
Most choose Germany or a nice
quartermaster job. The Army will
then comply with its contract by
sending the guy to Germany-for
three weeks on his way to Nam.
Or if he chooses quartermaster,
they will give him the schooling
for Q.M. but when he reports to
his unit in Nam, he will be in-
formed that the unit does not have
any Q.M. slots available and that
he is now an infantry rifleman
again.
FROM FORT KNOX, I was as-
signed to the Infantry School and
Ranger School at Ft. Benning,
Georgia. During training I asked

civilizec
for a branch transfer to the en-
gineering corps for the second time
since I had entered the Army.
This request led to my discharge.
because Col. Thiel, who has spent
23 years in the infantry and loves
it like his mother, resented a
young officer who did not want to
be in the infantry.
To him, I was a "young punk"
who was "flaunting bars" that I
had gotten because of a fine edu-
cation (which he didn't have),
while he had earned his "the hard
way through the ranks."
According to him, I "wasn't fit
to live in this country 'til I had
earned a gun in Nam." My "blood
wasn't the same color as his," and
they should "take me out to the
ocean and let me swim 'til I
drowned"; I "made him sick."
According to Col. Thiel, the
"communist conspiracy to take
over the world was a threat that
I had been duped into accepting
by pink professors," and the com-
munists were trying to take every-
thing we have. He was frighten-
ingly paranoid. He informed me1
that he "would see me out of the
Army before he'd see me in an-
other branch."
HE THEN assigned me to his
staff where I spent six months
running mimeograph papers for
the base headquarters and playing
hide-and-seek with the Colonel. I
was put into a small concrete room
with my machine "because I
wasn't fit to associate with other
soldiers."
Each day, I was checked on at
11:55 to make sure I didn't take
five extra minutes for lunch. I
used to hide behind the door where
the Colonel couldn't see me when
he looked in. He'd bellow "Where's
Fouty?" and I'd peek out and re-
ply, "Right here, sir!" It got to a
him after a while and he left me
alone.
Every trivial order he gave, like
painting paper flags for each state
to go in the mess hall, I did so
well that it blew his mind. He
really couldn't cope with it.

' army
There were several other lieu-
tenants in our unit, who were re-
ferred to on Mr. Kohn's article as
"non-coms." Two were courtmar-
tialled, two suffered mental break-
downs, and one attempted to com-
mit suicide with sleeping pills.
I RESIGNED in March, 1969.
after 10 months in a military of
"Kill, Kill, Kill!" The ROTC of-
ficers did not get demerits for my
resignation as reported, but as I
told Mr. Kohn, ROTC officers get
career points on their efficiency
reports for getting cadets to ac-
cept R.A. commissions rather than
a Reserve commission. If a ROTC
officer does well during his ROTC
tour he can often remain in his
nice soft ROTC post for more than
>ne tour.
The enlisted man referred to in
Mr. Kohn's article as "another
secretary who 'got so sick of the
half-truths' that he mimeographed
his own handouts . . ." was a
member of the 197th Infantry di-
vision at Ft. Benning who was
printing the truth about Vietnam
to enter enlisted men and was
courtmartialed for his efforts and
given a dishonorable discharge.
THE MOST important issue
here, is that my experience with
the Army and the ROTC program
was one filled with half-truths and
lies. The biggest lie of all is that
ROTC belong on campus because
it is an influence which prevents
the Army from becoming "profes-
sional." The Army is professional.
Soldiers kill when ordered, with-
out question-it is their duty.
Gen. Douglas MacArthur once
closed a statement made about
"Duty, honor, country . . ." which
has become a key-phrase for the
military. Implicit in that state-
ment is that duty always comes
before honor and country.
I am sure that you will see that
an immediate correction of this
article is made and that you will
see that this type of error does
not occur again.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Black accuracy and

the white press

And a foul ball for the bookstore

WHILE THE resolution of the ROTC
question c l e a r e d another hurdle
Monday with the passage of the major-
ity report by Senate Assembly, the de-
velopment of a University discount book-
store took a step backward-almost.
A proposal by which $5 will be deduct-
ed from the September, 1970, paychecks
of only those faculty who do not object
to being assessed met stiff opposition.
Although the assessment would be made
voluntarily and would be refunded if and
when the faculty member leaves the Uni-
versity, the proposal drew criticism both
from longstanding opponents of the stu-

bers admitted that the request for book-
store contributions would be filed with
faculty junk mail; by default, most fac-
ulty would "opt out" of the funding.
It was startling that the faculty would
consider such a move. After having
taken an active interest in resolving the
crisis, after suggesting, refining and
passing a proposal which would have fac-
ulty share control of the store, the faculty
were on the brink of not putting their
money where their votes has been. While
three faculty would sit on the student-
faculty control board, it looked as if little
faculty funding would back the store.
"f_ _ _ _T _ _ _T !T_ _ __ _ FT_ _ _ _ _ __ 1 _ _ .

To the Editor:
I WOULD LIKE TO take issue
with The Michigan Daily in its
coverage of the Black Caucus at
the School of Education's retreat
at Walden Woods. The presenta-
tion that you gave your readers
would lead one to believe that the
School of Education in a moment
of benevolence decided to enlarge
on the token colonialistic practic-
es t h a t presently exist in this
school. I therefore put the Michi-
gan Daily in the same racist bag
as I do the rest of the University
of Michigan.
The Daily like other white press
does not fully nor fairly report the
civil rights movement of b 1 a c k
people and because of this biased
press coverage of the struggle of
blacks to attain the level of or-
dinary human beings, more whites
are conscious of their black neigh-
bors but no real understanding be-
tween the races has ensued and
unfortunately polarization of the
two groups has been enforced.
Because of your ineptness to re-
port accurately what happened at

that if the issue of white, elitist
racism was not a viable issue to
the retreat then the retreat was
irrelevant to black people.
We asked and were granted a
place on the agenda of the next
meeting of the executive commit-
tee in order to present a position
paper and our demands and as
your readers know the executive
committee unanimously accepted
our position and adopted our de-
mands with recommendations that
the faculty do likewise. The ex-
ecutive committee is to be com-
mended for taking positive action
even though it is at least 100 years
delayed.
I CONCUR with Professor Med-
lin's letter that you were erron-
eous in your coverage of this event.
The heartening thing is that good
people in the School of Education
are standing up expressing their
humanistic concerns for black
students and concerned blacks
will rally w i t h these people to
achieve the ends we seek, namely
the equality of educational oppor-
tunity.

the black movement stand in the
way of our goal of self-determi-
nation.
IT IS MY hope that the Michi-
gan Daily can ally itself with the
philosophy of William Lloyd Gar-
rison who stated in his first edi-
tion of the "Liberator" in 1831.
"I will be as harsh as truth, and
as uncompromising as justice. On
this subject, (slavery), I do not
wish to think, to speak, to write,
with moderation . . . I will not
equivocate. I will not excuse, I will
not retreat a single inch . . . and
I will be heard."
My message to you Michigan
Daily is that you must let Black
students know where you are. If
you are where I think you are put
a Confederate flag on your mast-
head, if I am wrong put it in
print.
-James C. Buntin
Nov. 15
Righteous power
To the Editor:
UPON READING Mr. Michael

cise, static terms, thus, revolu-
tionaryblacktfolks, for the 110-
ment, have to define radicalism
as it applies to black folks.
White folks will have to define
radicalism for white folks.
OBVIOUSLY, the immediate
needs of black people demand the
attention of black folks, be they
street niggers or school house nig-
gers. Make no mistake, Mr. Davis,
the power the people seek is a
righteous power, the power to con-
trol the lives and destinies of our-
selves.
White radicalism, when directed
to the political and social human-
ization of white folks in contrast
to this racist, avaricious, and ex-
ploitative system, cannot help but
be a step in the right direction.
If this radical development
manifests itself in a broad spec-
trum of phenomena, one specific
being the assumption of economic
control of a bookstore by students,
then that radicalism cannot be in-
jurious to the goals of black folks.
HOWEVER, when white radical-
ism comes into direct conflict with

Thanks, CR
To the Editor:
I WISH to thank The Daily for
their fine coverage of activities of
the College Republicans this se-
mester. In the past, several mem-
bers of our club, including myself.
have been critical of The Daily's
coverage but this semester has
been different; your paper has
covered all of our activities.
I would personally like to com-
mand The Daily for what I believe
to be an honest endeavor to pre-
senting both sides, not only on this
campus but on national events as
well.
ON DEC. 8 the club is plan-
ning a public program which
should be of special interest to the
campus. State Senator Robert Hu-
ber will be speaking at 7:30 p.m.
in the UGLI Mutipurpose Room.
Following his speech he will an-
swer questions. It will be a public
meeting.
--Glenn Gilbert, Chairman