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September 12, 1965 - Image 4

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Michigan Daily, 1965-09-12

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Seventy-Sixth Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS

U.S. Foreign Policy

To Be Dissected

Where Opinions Are Free, 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, MIcH.
Truth Will Prevail

NEws PHONE: 764-0552

Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1965 NIGHT EDITOR: JUDITH WARREN
A Remnder for LBJ: Freedom
rIs Part of Any Great Soiet'

ALTHOUGH THE AIMS of the Great
Society may be laudable, a large ques-
tion remains as to the feasibility of real-
izing this society by President Johnson's
present methods.
From all that can be discerned, the
Great Society is supposed to be a place
where men can live and develop freely,
without the fears of poverty, discrimina-
tion and destruction constantly present.
But a contradiction seems to exist be-
tween these goals and the means being
used to achieve them. The President
seems to be working under the assump-
Roek N Rolle
Propaganda,
Possibilities
THE ROLLING STONES and even the
Beatles are being displaced by Barry
McGuire and Bob Dylan as the leaders
on national pop record surveys.
Although some people claim that social
protest singers who transform themselves
from folk to rock and roll style are pros-
tituting themselves, the singers' rise in
popularity will also touch off a higher
degree of social consciousness among the
masses of America.
For example, think of local teenagers
in Oshkosh, Wis., walking down the
street in their customary flying wedge
formation singing McGuire's hit, "Eve of
Destruction." Although one can claim
that their degree of social consciousness
does not attain very much depth from
the song, it does espouse them very bas-
ically to some pressing issues.
ENTAILED IN THE SONG for instance
are such issues as atomic warfare,
civil rights, and bigotry. After chanting
its lines as a kid, it would be sort of hard
for an adult several years from now to
vote for a Goldwater type candidate or
endorse Dulles type brinksmanship.
Taking another example, "Home of the
Brave" emphasizes the problems of non-
conformity. With the punch line, "Why
can't you let him be what he wants to
be," it makes the listener conscious of
the artificiality of prejudice based on
appearance and the necessity of toler-
ance.
For those people who wish to trans-
form America into the homeland of those
noble ideals which seem to be lacking
here but which are espoused verbally as
our basic philosophy, rock and roll rec-
ords are a valuable propaganda technique.
Prejudice and bigotry are a product of
one's environment. It is possible that mu-
sic blammed into teenagers' ears for
hours on end will be able to partially off-
set the effects of the notions of parents.
RECORDS CAN IN FACT be a more for-
midable influence on public opinion
than any teach-in, sleep-in, sit-in or ar-
ticle in periodicals such as Dissent. If
one wishes the American public-not the
aristocracy of intellectuals but the broad
mass of the people-to exert the latent
pressure of their votes to bring about
needed reforms and to change their atti-
tudes on certain social issues, rock and
roll is the most accessible and one of the
most effective media available.
BESIDES, I never liked Herman and the
Hermits-
-BRUCE WASSERSTEIN .

Editorial Staff
ROBERT JOHNSTON, Editor
LAURENCE KIRSHBAUM JEFFREY GOODMAN
Managing Editor Editorial Director
JUDITH FIELDS......... Acting Personnel Director
LAUREN BAHR.......... Associate Managing Editor
JUDITH WARREN .. Acting Assistant Managing Editor
ROBERT HIPPLER .......Associate Editorial Director
GAIL BLUMBERG................Magazine Editor
LLOYD GRAFF................Acting Sports Editor
NIGHT EDITORS: Susan Collins, John Meredith,
Leonard Pratt, Peter Sarasohn, Bruce Wasserstein.
ASSISTANT NIGHT EDITORS: Michael Badamno,
Clarence Fanto, Mark Killingsworth, Robert Moore,
Dick Wingfield.
Business Staff

tion that only he and his staff are com-
petent and knowledgeable enough to put
the Great Society in working order. Every-
one else-congressmen, labor leaders, big
businessmen, professional men and com-
mon laborers-are to be pushed and forc-
ed into doing what is ultimately good for
them.
THE EXTENT of Lyndon Johnson's ma-
nipulations of Congress, the press and
the nation at large will perhaps never be
known, but the observable manipulations
are too blatant to be overlooked.
The recent settlement of a possible steel
strike was a direct result of presidential
interference. The White House negotia-
tions clearly indicated the President's de-
termination to avoid a strike at any cost.
It will never be known whether repeal of
Section 14B of the Taft-Hartley Act was
fentioned to the union leaders, or wheth-
er, perhaps, juicy government contracts
were dangled in front of the industries'
negotiators.
The fact that a major steel strike would
not have been in the best national inter-
est economically is not to be questioned.
The President, however, might have re-
stricted himself to the issuance of an
executive statement appealing to the un-
ion and management for a settlement. If
there were still no response and a strike
developed, it would have been far better
for the conflict to be settled by an un-
flinching confrontation of the basic is-
sues and basic differences of opinion
than for the contending sides to be ma-
nipulated, as if there were no real differ-
ences, and forced by a "superior" author-
ity to accept a superficial compromise.
AND ALTHOUGH FEW involved would
call the President's actions concern-
ing the District of Columbia's home rule
bill arm-twisting, there is strong evidence
Johnson pulled out the stops in the game
of political favor swapping.
Rep. H. R. Gross (R-Iowa) sail of a
petition circulated by Johnson support-
ing the DC home rule bill, "There had to
be a lot of wheeling and dealing to get
this job done. It was the kind of pressure
you don't often see out in the open."
Another example of Johnsonian tactics
was his order to Bill Moyers, presiden-
tial press secretary, to "fix" a televised
press conference - adding fuel to the
many current charges of press control.
Only those reporters were asked whose
questions could be answered by prepared
answers that would show the administra-
tion in its best light. Most newsmen asked
complied, hoping perhaps for later presi-
dential favoritism.
News released to the public concerning
the war in Viet Nam is often misleading,
ambiguous and contradictory. The Amer-
ican public has not; for instance, been
given any indication of the number of
American casualties in the war since early
July. How well can a war be going if the
government is afraid to release casualty
figures?
IN ALL, the American public is left in
the dark about too many issues vital
to its existence as an informed, rational
citizenry, and it is fed easily-digestible
presidential pablum on too many others.
What will the finished product of the
Great Society look like if it continuestto
be built on such foundations?
In the first place, the Great Society
can never be realized in its entirety be-
cause it depends at least partially on in-
dividuals' freedom of choice. One cannot
make any sort of free choice if the alter-
natives available are limited and confused
by a governmental agency. Under such a
system there would be only one choice-

any others would be considered unpatri-
otic.
The form which the Great Society
would take-granted the elimination of
poverty, ignorance, sickness, blight, dis-
crimination and even, perhaps, the threat
of nuclear destruction - would have
Americans pursuing little more than sens-
ual satisfaction, gratification and physi-
cal comfort. Without freedom of choice,
there could be little of those goals en-
visioned by Thomas Jefferson when hi
spoke of "life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness."
The tme has cnme for Americans to say

By ROGER RAPOPORT ,
THE TEACH-IN will return to
its birthplace next week, and
many professors here must feel a
sensehof satisfaction over what
they have wrought.
Beginning Tuesday, Ann Arbor
will host a four-day International
Conference on Alternative Per-
spectives on Viet Nam. Present
from a score of countries will be
notables ranging from Arthur
Miller to a Japanese Buddhist
Monk.
Since the first teach-in here in
Ann Arbor last March, the revo-
lutionary concept has spread
throughout the nation and the
world. The message is simply that
some Americans believe there
must be a better way to resolve
the conflict in South Viet Nam.
IRONICALLY, much of the
credit for the teach-in must go to
the Michigan State legislature, for
the "teach-in" was conceived out
of necessity.
Last winter a small group of
professors here announced plans
to cancel their classes for the day
and devote their efforts toward
special classes on Viet Nam. The
outcry against the plan was fast
and vociferous. University Presi-
dent Harlan Hatcher received
what he later described as the
greatest amount of public pres-
sure he could remember over the
matter. The Michigan State legis-

lature past a resolution censuring
the teachers for their plan.
"I think they should send those
teachers to the University of
Hanoi," one senator remarked.
Bowing to the overwhelming
pressure, the teachers decided to
hold their classes on Viet Nam
after school.
THE UNIVERSITY gladly co-
operated by donating classroom
space for the all-night affair and
giving girls all-night permission
to attend the event (the later
concession was an important
stimulant to the event).
The ranks of the professors
swelled, thousands of students
stood in 10 degree cold on the
diag, and then attended classes,
lectures and seminars.
Since that day last March the
teach-in has grown until today
it is common knowledge that in
academic circles there exists con-
siderable doubt about the wisdom
of our current policy in Viet Nam.
The conference this week illu-
strates the fact that the teach-in
movement is primarily a construc-
tive one. It is not primarily con-
cerned with castigating American
foreign policy.
In effect the teach-in movement
is saying, "Present policies are not
working, let's find a new way to
solve the problems."
Specifically, this week's confer-
ence plans to "carry forward the
critical examination of current

U.S. policy begun by the teach-in
movement by moving from the an-
alysis of the weakness and dan-
gers of the current policy to the
search for viable alternatives
through the development of new
perspectives not based on the as-
sumptions of the Cold War which
have led us into a dead end on
the issue of Viet Nam."
THE CONFERENCE plans t6'
produce a statement of principles
available in a 20-page booklet,
"Alternative Perspectives on Viet
Nam."
The conference itself will have
three segments. There will be In-
ternational Study Groups on
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thurs-
day. The conferees will meet in
small groups examining the Viet
Nam problem from a particular
new perspective.
An Open Session in Hill Audi-
torium on Friday will feature ad-
dresses by study group members
from all over the world. That eve-
ning there will be a teach-in in
Mason-Angell halls.
Finally on Saturday morning
there will be action workshops
where specific action projects ,n
local areas will be planned. This
session is also open to the public.
In addition the keynote session
at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday in Hill Audi-
torium is open to the public.
A BRIEF glance at the names
of the conference participants

suggests that it may be one of
the greatest meeting of the minds
ever held in Ann Arbor.
Hans Morgenthau, Robert Mos-
es, Irving Horowitz, and a host of
distinguished foreign guests will
be present, to name a few.
Their presence naturally lends
credence to the thought that by
far the greatest crisis in the world
today is tne war in Viet Nam.
Naturally there are those in
Ann Arbor and elsewhere who
wish that all the conferees would
stay home.
Their belief is that our nation
is doing a prudent job in running
the war in Viet Nam and that
private citizens actually are not
qualified to deal with such com-
plex problems as foreign policy.
HOWEVER, even the briefest
acquaintance with the Viet Nam
predicament indicates that no one
seems to have the answers.
That is no one has come up
with a way to end the war. In
fact no one can even get a peace
conference.
Because the issue is so pressing,
the predicament so perplexing,
and the need for a solution so
vital the conference would seem
to be in order.
If nothing else it will provide a
chance for the curious to learn
some of the suggestions of a wise
group of men toward solving the
apparently unsolvable war.

BEYOND ALL this, a most en-
couraging though occurs with re-
gard to the conference.
The very fact that the confer-
ence is taking place, that men may
freely come together to blast the
hell out of their government's
military and diplomatic policy is
a good thing.
Certainly this is in the best
tradition of a democratic nation,
and something that could never
occur in any totalitarian one.
As long as the issue is open to
debate there is still the hope that
someone will come up with a way
of solving the chaotic crisis in
Viet Nam
And so as the University pre-
pares to )lay host to a world-wide
conference on the world's worst
problem there can be a sense of
accomplishment among those who
launched 'the teach-in movement
here last March.
THE IDEA spawned at the Uni-
versity of Michigan has spread
across the nation.
Through the teach-in the aca-
demic world has at last emerged
from it's hermetic world and be-
come a viable force in molding
public policy.
It is good to see finely trained
minds give the most important
problem of our time a searching
examination. Hopefully they will
find the answers, first to this
question, and eventually to many
more.

4
4

Some W1o Will Participate in the Conference,

A m O N G T H E important
people-local, national and
international-who will parti-
cipate in some way in next
week's conference on Viet Nam
are the following:
University Vice-President for
Academic Affairs Alan Smith;
Jules Roy, French novelist
and winner of France's highest
literary award, who served in
Viet Nam in the French Air
Force;
American Pulitzer-prize-win-
ning novelist Arthur Miller;
Doudou Gueye, former vice-
president of Mali;
Lord Fenner Brockway, Labor
Member of Parliament, who
recently returned from conver-
sations in Moscow with rep-
resentatives of North Viet Nam

and the National Liberation
Front;
Eqbal Ahmat, Pakistani econ-
omist at Cornell University and
expert on guerrilla warfare;
Jean La Couture, French
writer and correspondent, bio-
grapher of- Ho Chi Minh and
author of a history of Viet Nam
from 1946 to the present;
Joseph Dobretsberger, Aus-
trian economist who has travel-
led in China, Asia and Eastern
Europe and is extremely knowl-
edgeable about economic af-
fairs in the Asian nations;
Ernst Winter, head of the
Diplomatic Academy in Vienna,
political science professor and
leading Catholic layman;
Rev. Jacques Placide Pernot,
abbot of a monastery in Moroc-

co and a key figure in past
French-Moroccan relations;
Makato Oda, a leading young
Japanese novelist and key fig-
ure in Japan'snon-Communist
peace movement;
Charles Piedoux, French psy-
chiatrist who has done exten-
sive research in Africa;
Agit Singh, Indian economist
at Cambride University, a
specialist in economic condi-
tions in underdeveloped areas
and chronicler of the Inter-
national Control Commission
(established in the 1954 Ge-
neva Accords ending the
French-Indochina war);
Yehoshua Bar-Hillel, leading
Israeli logician and philoso-
pher;
Prof. Robert Browne, econ-

omist at Farleigh Dickinson
University, who has spent over
six years in Viet Nam and
Cambodia with the Agency for
International Development and
who spoke at the University's
teach-in last March;
Morton Deutsch, Columbia
University social psychologist;
Stanley Millet, formerly a
teacher at the University of
Saigon and currently in his-
tory and political science at
Adelphi College;
Charles Osgood, key figure in
the U.S.'s peace movement and
a psychologist at the Univer-
sity of Illinois;
Otto Feinstein, professor of
i n t'e r n a t i o n a l relations at
Wayne State University;
Irving L. Horowitz, Latin
America expert, professor of

sociology at Washington Uni-
versity and one of the editors
of "Dissent";
Marshall Shalins of the an-
thropology department;
Anatol Rapoport of the biol-
ogy and mathematics depart-
ments;
Carl Oglesby, president of
Students for a Democratic So-
ciety and noted University
playwright;
Robert Moses of the student
Non-Violent Coordinating Com-
mittee;
Emil Mazey, secretary of the
United Auto Workers Union.
It is still unknown whether
Jean - Paul Sartre, famous
French existential philosopher,
and Carlos Fuentos, leading
young Mexicon novelist, will
participate.

I

4

Answering Violence with Violence Is No Solution

EDITOR'S NOTE: The fol-
lowing editorial is reprinted
from The Nation,
IS VIOLENCE un-American? If
it is, so is Old Glory. No nation
of modern times is more addicted
to violence, legal and illegal, than
the United States. But it cannot
take its violence straight. It pre-
fers violence mixed with moral
hypocrisy.
Los Angeles is a case in point.
The headlines provoked the usual
flood of editorials and preach-
ments about how much we abhor
violence, the senselessness of it,
how it never really benefits any-
one, and how we must have "or-
der"-meaning, in this context,
a return to the old disorder. Gen -
uine order, which must be based
on justice and magnanimity, is
like the heavenly saints-formally

revered but given short shrift in
practicar affairs.
Isn't it true that our foreign
policy has been under strong
Pentagon influence since 1945?
Who is the international whole-
saler of arms today? Who has
scattered military aircraft, tanks,
bombs, submarines, guns and
every variety of weapon through-
out Latin America and the Middle
East? Who has armed the Paki-
stanis and the Indians alike?
What nation has spent, in all his-
tory, what we have spent on arms
since 1945 - in what we are
pleased to call peacetime? What
nation has a reputation (and not
undeserved) for turning what are'
basically political questions into
military questions, to be settled
by violence?
BUT, IT may be objected, the

comparison is unfair. War is con-
ducted according to rules and as
a last resort in defense of national
interest. This is true only up to a
point. Was it according to the
rules when the United States
bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
or, for that matter, when it burn-
ed Tokyo from the air? Pearl Har-
bor was infamous enough, out the
attack was not directed against
civilians.
In Viet Nam today, we are
shown pictures of Viet Cong pris-
oners being tortured by Vietna-
mese government troops while
American "advisers" look on. This
most abominable form of violence
is sanctioned because the enemy
is Communist and therefore, in
our lexicon, subhuman. But this
is no more true than that all
Americans condone torture.
A U.S. sergeant has returned

after twenty months in Viet Cong
captivity to report that he re-
ceived the same food as his cap-
tors and was given medicine when
they had it; his complaints boil
down to forced labor, propaganda
lectures, and a bamboo bed with
one blanket.
LISTENING to the propaganda
chorus, one would think that the
quality of humanity belongs only
to us. We say that the casualties
in Viet Nam are not really ter-
rible. We compare our casualties
there with our highway fatalities
(our automobiles are built to con-
tain a considerable element of
violence), but the, Viet Cong
casualty figures are sweet to our
ears.
So far in 1965, U.S. and Viet-
namese pilots have killed more
than 15,000 Viet Cong in air
strikes alone. The kill ratio dur-
ing the week of the Vantuong
Peninsula battle was more than
12 to 1 in our favor.
We not only love violence but
the more killing we can do, at a
distance and with a minimum of
risk, the better we like it. The
tradition of violence is embedded
in American history. But anyone
who thinks that the violence of
technological warfare does not

feed back into the civilan popula-
tion must think that babies are
born without insemination.
THE FACT we must face is that
a large part of the Negro popula-
tion is without occupation, with-
out status, without hope. If in a
particular place like Watts these
pariahs decided that "Whitey"
could be made to listen to their
"manifesto" only if they;attacked
the police and property, they may
have been misguided but they
were certainly not un-American.
They were simply following the
American pattern as laid down in
war, labor disputes, race relations
in the deep South, electronic 'en-
tertainment, and much else sepa-
rated from the more'genteel as-
pects of American life.
The ratio of their casualties
was about the same as that in
Viet Nam, but they did aquarter
of a billion dollars' worth of prop-
erty damage that has attracted
attention. In that respect the
"manifesto" was successful.
IF IT IS not to be repeated, we
shall have to understand that
once again our own violence re-
coiled tn us. If we want peace,
whether at home or abroad, we
shall have to do a great deal more
than meet violence with violence.

_

.. _ .

i "
aA a
i
5
1
+11i
t
w. 41.
6iL

The Teach-In Notables

N

To the Editor:
I'M SURE college students all
over America will appreciate
the suggestion from Associate Pro-
fessor Ross Wilhelm that they
riot over the "injustices" and
"slave labor" of the draft. This
would not have occurred to many
students who now are in the good
professor's debt for his timely
suggestion.
The riots may serve a good
purpose, however. Jim Lucas,
Scripps-Howard writer with the
troops in Viet Nam, has pointed
out that theriots and demon-
strations against the war in Viet
Nam and against the draft have
given the fighting men an esprit
de corps for being the men who
are meeting the challenge.
Instead of exhibiting self-pity
for their lot, they are proud that
they are not like the cowering
demonstrators at home.
IS THE DRAFT "slave labor?"

Scholarships?
To the Editor:
IT HAS, no doubt, occurred te
everyone that an unusual num-
ber of parking tickets are being
issued these, days in the campus
area. This could be due to the
fact that parking places in this
area are patrolled approximately
four times as often as parking
places in the uptown area, but
let's not bother ourselves with the
reason. Look instead at the re-
sult of these tickets. There are
two sides to this coin: a) The
city is five bucks richer, or b) the
student is five bucks poorer.
This brings us to the point of
this letter. You personally can
support a $100. scholarship for
only two dollars per year. It can
be done in this manner. Carry a
few pennies in your pocket, and
when you see an expired meter,
drop on.- in. If luck is with you,

2.4
JY)I

I U -

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