T C, 0 91-01-1gan Bal-Ill I Viet Nam Week: Beans and Caviar Seventy-Sixth Year EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS I 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 19, 1965 NIGHT EDITOR: ROBERT MOORE The U.S. Is Slowly Killing the United Nations THE UNITED NATIONS is dying and the United States is killing it. World attention has, for approximate- ly the past year, been focused on Asia. It is felt that the future of the peoples of Asia will be a determining factor in the future of the whole of mankind. The key to world peace and prosperity rests in the Asian continent and the countrie who have direct interest there. In June, 1945, an international orga- nization was created to help the people of the world resolve differences peace- fully and promote the 'welfare of the world. The preamble to the Charter of the United Nations reads in part: WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNIT- ED NATIONS DETERMINED:... -To practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors, and -To unite our strength to main- tain international peace and secur- ity, and -To ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and -To employ international machin- ery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peo- ples. It is clear that these aims have not been maintained in such situations as the United States war in Viet Nam, the dispute between India and Pakistan, the bitterness between Indonesia and Ma- laysia, and the ever-present bad feelings between Russia, China and the United States. IN THE CASE of Viet Nam U.S. actions have served to handcuff the UN while escalating the war, through the invoca- tion of Article 19 of the UN charter. Ar- ticle 19 relates to the non-payment of financial obligations to the UN. The U.S. accused the Soviet Union of refusing to pay its share in UN peacekeeping activi- ties. The General Assembly has thus been prevented from voting since the spring of 1964, and the responsibility falls directly on the shoulders of the United States. The United States has, of course, kept the UN informed on its activities in Viet Nam, but only after a particular action had already taken place. No role was given the UN in the prosecution or ter- mination of the war. Perhaps the reason has been the unexpressed acknowledge- ment of the unjustifiable character of any outside intervention in Viet Nam. The UN could have provided for national free elections throughout both halves. The U.S. would perhaps have to face being labeled an aggressor by the UN and Amer- ican and Vietnamese war crimes would be exposed and condemned. Whatever the reason, the United States has stubbornly refused any mission, fact finding, peacekeeping or otherwise, from taking part in the solution of the Viet namese war. THE OFFICIAL U.S. attitude has con- sistently related the causes of the struggle to China and North Viet Nam, a position totally unsupported by facts. It is true aid has been received in the South from the North, but it is further true that the largest single arms sup- port received by the Viet Cong is from the United States through captured, stolen or sold weapons and ammunition. One of the more tragic aspects of the Vietnamese war is the example the Unit- ed States has set for the rest of the world. Since the world's greatest power feels it can ignore the duly authorized in- ternational organization, why then can- not anyone? The precedent has been set for Sukar- no to walk out of the UN and execute an invasion of Malaysia. The precedent has been set for India and Pakistan to pursue a full-scale war with each other over an issue already decided by the UN. The dispute over Kashmir and the im- minent entry of China into that dispute is clear subversion of the UN with the di- rect aid of the United States. THE WAR between India and Pakistan is being fought almost exclusively with American weapons. The weapons, includ- ing Sherman and Patton tanks, were sup- plied with the expressed intent of defense against any attempted "aggression" by China. Washington planners were evi- dently too short-sighted to see beyond their noses when the arms were given. It should have been evident the arms would have been used against each other before they were used against China because of the bitterness between the two nations since 1947. Both sides have rejected any UN settle- ment and even the peace mission con- ducted by Secretary-General U Thant could not convince the sides to negotiate under UN sanctions. The entry of China into the dispute apparently on the side of Pakistan has given the United States another chance to subvert the UN and ultimately itself. PRIOR TO THE ARRIVAL of China, the focal point of American fear, the U.S. remained neutral in the war, urging both sides to negotiate a settlement. China evidently saw in the India-Paki- stan conflict an opportunity to regain territory it claims traditionally belongs to China. Immediately, worldwide lines were drawn and what started as an internal dispute between two relatively minor powers may end as an international in- cident equaling Korea. Further subverting the UN, the State Department sent a diplomatic warning to China stating the consequences of any Chinese intervention in the Indian-Pak- istan war. According to columnists Row- land Evans and Robert Novak, "The exact wording of the diplomatic warning is secret. But it leaves little doubt in Mao Tse-tung's mind that he can expect in- stant retaliation from the United States if Chinese troops again invade India to take advantage of India's preoccupation with Pakistan." THE CONFLICT, without U.S. interfer- ence, could have been solved by the UN. Without the U.S. example in Viet Nam the war between India and Pakistan might never have occurred. Without U.S. arms the war could never have been fought. If China had made aggressive moves toward India that should also be handled by a legally authorized United Nations peacekeeping force. Further, if China had been a member of the United Nations Security Council as she rightfully should be she would have been bound by the same rules as the other nations in the organization. The United States has opposed the en- try of China into the Security Council or even the General Assembly since the gov- ernment of Chiang Kai-shek fell, short- ly after the founding of the UN. The U.S. clings stubbornly to a policy outdated and impractical. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS fell because no international organization could have existed without the participation of the United States. The same theory would hold true for China and the United Na- tions. A third of the earth's population cannot go unrepresented in any interna- tional organization. iWthout the partici- pation of China in the UN that organi- zation is doomed to failure. This, again, is another example of the United States' slow strangulation of the UN. If there is to be peace in the world in the foreseeable future the U.S. must dras- tically change its attitude toward the United Nations and to other nations in the world. Given the present situation there are a number of steps which must be taken by the U.S.: * Cessation of American bombings in the Vietnamese war and the stoppage of all active U.S. participation in Viet Nam. The removal of American troops from the battlefront back to the established bases also is required. The whole conduct of the war should then be turned directly over to the UN and elections and reunifi- cation of the country encouraged. * An immediate appeal to the UN to attiemnt to n fafn t a ttIamant ha THE TEACH-IN has come and gone-an experience of impor- tance-and I should like to de- vote the next few inches of type to speculation on the meaning of as much of that experience as pos- sible. Three questions-really all a part of one-are vivid. All arise out of our, America's, "fluid" sys- tem of values. We are never cer- tain of what is of value, what is of importance. We are never cer- tain that our abstract values are grounded in the reality of fact. Hence, we frequently chose chaff, frequently embrace the half-fact for the whole, the attractive lie for the plain truth. I am reminded of -a particularly apt analogy of the . contemporary situation. Appropriately, it is set in one of those chrome-plated, Arabian Nights supermarkets: a housewife wins a contest and, for her prize, is turned loose with 20 minutes to grab all she can. The question, of course, is what to choose? And, in the haste of determining value, in the rush with the cart and the shelves and the advertising, how to tell the beans from the caviar? This last week it was the Uni- versity community that was turn- ed loose, only in a vast intellectual supermarket. The serious intellec- tual was made to run through lec- ture and dialogue session like some mouse in a cleverly engineer- ed maze, piling as much truth in his cart as he could. In three crucial cases, the cases of my questions, beans were chos- en. And it is to our loss, though hopefully to our knowledge, that they were. AT THE UNIVERSITY, Voice and, more specifically, Stan Na- del, chose to beat the drums for Viet Nam, the Teach-In and Civ- il Rights by an obnoxious, though ironic, sign. To anyone familiar with campus politics, Nadel's ac- tions would have been dismissed with a polite, "So he posted a sign in the Fishbowl?" To the poli- tically naive, the - oxes and the mindless agitators, on the other hand, it was plain and simple: "a cause." But rather than stimulating dia- logue, Nadel succeeded in polar- izing questions into two impene- trable camps and erecting an iron curtain between-a curtain one yelled at but learned nothing from. The first question is directed to that sign. Not what it said, but what it did: Why was it allowed to become a cause? Nadel's sign was not a can of beans; rather,, it was an entire case. If the problem we are faced with as "intelligent individuals in a democracy" is one of seeking data and making judgments that can be apprehended by decision- makers wherever they may be, then the sign controversy is noth- ing less than the interjection of confusion. Where was its appeal? The guts. And how did it convince? By raw emotion. There was no dialogue, no opposed sides of learning, only emotion and hardened, harden- ing anger. I am reminded of a scene, one of dozens during the week, be- tween a spy Protestor and some fraternity Behemoth-sweatshirt and madras, low brow and bull neck, with a brother in Viet Nam. Points were scored not by intelli- gent discussion but by the crowd's registering, seismograph-fashion, the anger on Sweatshirt's face. The contest ended when the Pro- testor replied to what would he do if he were in Viet Nam - "Shoot Americans . . ."-and the Sweatshirt smothered him. Such encounters were nothing but ignorance-trading; they touch- ed surfaces but, like a rabid evan- gelist, made no lasting converts either way. LESS OBVIOUS, but more mis- erably a failure, another case of beans is apparent to anyone who has read The Daily during the week. The Daily, which has lived off a reputation as the Times of college newspapers for years, con- tinued to coast on laurels won by real newspapermen during the '30's, '40's and in the McCarthy era. There can be no other ex- planation. Nothing else will ab- solve the Daily of incredibly poor news judgment and editorial an- In Parenthesis By GEORGE ABBOTT WHITE alysis of the Viet Nam confer- ence. Rather than focus on the con- ference, on the issues, it chose the easier and "popular" path - it jumped on the ghost issue of the Fishbowl Sign, ala Berkeley Free Speech, with its expansive and sensationalistic coverage. Why? The Daily is perfectly willing it seems, to accept the advertising money of the Committee to End the War. But when it comes to hard reporting, to sorting and an- alyzing items of importance, in- terpreting and communicating, it is a host of administrators and petty bureaucrats who are more concerned with the mechanics of the fanfare about a 75th Anniver- sary than the performance of a social duty. That old Daily writer of the '30's, Arthur Miller, had it right in Hill Auditorium Friday night when he spoke about his aware- ness of "ghosts." If he had walk- ed into the Daily during the week or chanced to read a paper, he would have sensed yet another- he would have been convinced that the University and the grade point average had finally bureauc- ratized and brutalized crusading journalism at 420 Maynard into another ghost of the past. FINALLY, the grande finale at Hill Auditorium was half-beans, half-caviar. That afternoon I was passing through the seething, shouting, Fishbowl when a mem- ber of the committee came up to me and pointed at the mill- ing and argumentative crowd: "What the hell are they doing here; they should be over at Hill listening to the results of the study groups!" Some question! I thought the same thing, but shrugged my shoulders with a friend. At Hill, it was the old story of Big Guns and little fish. In ret- rospect, I think I would rather have been informed (if informa- tion I was after) by Frithjof Berg- mann, Carl Oglesby, or William Gamson on the details of the Viet Nam conflict than to have listened to patronizing remarks about Ann Arbor and its trees and the nostalgic University of Michigan. Let me dismiss the "candid" remarks of Lord Fenner-Brock- way as pompous and long-winded, considering the information and analysis he contributed. Somzone should tell him the Empire has fallen. And as for Makota Oda, I should have thought the com- mittee would spare an audience the difficulties of pidgin English. What did come through in his talk-between endless repetition- was so-so; we learned, as we had suspected, that other nations do not like to be forced to see real- ity on American terms, don't like to be treated like second-class citizens of the world, don't want to sit on their haunches while America ponders the details of ex- tinction on the basis of national honor and commitment. I felt like singing "Solidarity Forever" when UAW Emil Mazey finished. He must have felt good too, having spent the last few years bargaining with fat, stuffy executives. Miller began his speech by thanking Mazey for a "helluva speech." Both of them were part of a team-two men who had, as Mil- ler later said, sat in auditoriums around America in the '30's listen- ing to union speeches, speeches against fascism, speeches defend- ing the picket lines, support for the Loyalists, freedom of speech. Only then, unlike now, Hill echoed not cheers but silence. It was not "in" to be concerned then, not "cool" to be committed. Miller, too, succeeded in filling the cart with the goods. He was caviar all the way, even in Brook- lynese with ironic deferences to his profession-"I write, but the critics don't think so"-and his past at the University. He couldn't have been more clear and concise, and he was careful to limit his generaliza- tions. He was uneasy over Ameri- can policy not so much because of what he had read in the jour- nals or the newspapers, but be- cause "I have listened closely to what my leaders have said and it just doesn't ring." Like his Hopwood Lecture two years ago, Miller came prepared and earned his money. He ticked off the problems, cleared the air about them and spoke of viable alternatives. After all, alterna- tives were what we were after. Especially pertinent, but subor- dinate, was his reminder of the ghost of McCarthy and his barb that in those days "intellectuals had rolled over on their sides like a sick bug." His understatement was clear: the witch-hunt that bore down upon thousands who "questioned" could easily come again once American casualties rise in Viet Nam and anything less than unanimity becomes trea, son. He was careful to delineate real issues from false issues, careful to state that the duty was to learn and then to act, not to waste energy on ghosts of the past or fighting the shadows of "Free Speech." His conclusion was in- cisive and valuable-he accepted the responsibility for his own ac- tions, and II-S students should do likewise. SOME THINGS had been said. More were said in the seminars later that evening. More will come to light when the results of the study groups get into print. Yet somehow I couldn't shake off the story I had heard earlier in the day: An introductory political sci- ence recitation section spent its Friday "discussing" Viet Nam. Pre- dictably, the class was silent, all the grade-conscious students fell in behind their "expert" instruc- tor who supported the administra- tion and who admirably and con- clusively refuted Mr. Nadel's Fish- gowl sign by saying that "neither North nor South Viet Nam had been signers of the Nuremberg document." What Miller had said at Hill should have been obvious: "Ain't all men brothers?" 4 1 Viet Nam: when Will North Negotiate? Second of Two Parts By MARK R. KILLINGSWORTH "THE DESIRE of the United States for negotiations on Viet Nam has now been made very clear; the problem is to in- duce the North Vietnamese, who believe they are winning to talk about peace around a table," The New York Times declared edi- torially last month. And, as the war in Viet Nam continues this appears increasing- ly to be the correct analysis of the situation. The ultimate aim of the President's policy-which in- cludes three key elements: mili- tary, political and diplomatic-is negotiation. *MILITARY: As The Times noted, an important element of United States Viet Nam policy is. to convince the North Vietnamese that they cannot succeed in their attempt at enforcing their own conception of how the South Viet- namese should live. The U.S.has, therefore, bombed Northern staging centers and has significantly increased its military commitment in the South. It appears that, militarily at least, this strategy is beginning to work. THE REPEATED attacks on Zone D, a long-time Viet Cong sanctuary; the highly successful assault near Chulai which re- sulted in nearly 1000 Viet Cong casualties and the significant re- inforcement and material diffi- culties which the raids on the North have created for the Viet Cong willeeventually affect Viet Cong strength significantly. Al- ready the much-feared "summer offensive" of the Viet Cong has largely failed. Viet Cong prisoners and de- fectors-including a provincial political commissar-have report- ed shortages of ammunition, health problems, widespread fa- tigue and discouragement. The Viet Cong are also running out of Southern volunteers. Fully three-quarters of its new regular troops are North Vietnamese, and the 325th division of the North Vietnamese army has had to be infiltrated into the South. CONSIDERABLE speculation has surrounded the military issues concerning a possible peace con- ference. Hanoi's demands, contained in a four-point declaration by North- ern Premier Pham Van Dong on April 8, are withdrawal of troops from the South and a halt to air strikes on the North, agreement by North and South Viet Nam to pro- hibit foreign troops on their ter- ritories, agreement that the Viet Cong would have the decisive Yugoslav foreign secretary, told British foreign Secretary Michael Stewart that it was "unrealistic" for the North Vietnamese to de- mand the U.S. withdrawal as a condition for negotiations. On the other hand, Lord Fenner Brockway, chairman of the Brit- ish Council for Peace in Viet Nam and a participant in the inter- national conference on Viet Nam here, said North Vietnamese of- ficials had told him in late Aug- ust that Hanoi had never insisted on withdrawal of American forces as a necessity before negotiations could begin. Lord Brockway said the lack of insistence on withdrawal repre- sented a change from what had previously been reported in Hanoi and thereby "removed a major obstacle to peace." A similar report has come from Prof. Robert Brown of Fairleigh Dickinson University. And Senate majority leader Mike Mansfield (D-Mont) said on Sept. 1, in a speech acknowledged by the White House to reflect official policy, that among other goals, the U.S. sought "a withdrawal of all for- eign forces and bases throughout Viet Nam, North and South, pro- vided peace can be re-established and provided the arrangements for peace include adequate inter- national guarantees of noninter- ference, not only for Viet Nam but for Laos and for Cambodia as well." In short, the U.S. is already prepared for withdrawal of its forces-along with all other for- eign forces-from the South as the result of peace talks. HOPEFULLY, this question will be cleared up shortly. But in the other crucial military-diplomatic question-cessation of the raids on the North - the North has shown itself simply unwilling to act. Secretary of State Dean Rusk disclosed on July 4 that the U.S. had, in ceasing its attacks on North Viet Nam in mid-May for about six days, continually sound- ed out Hanoi to see if it was interested in negotiations or in reducing its own role in the war. The bombings were resumed, Rusk added, only after Hanoi re- plied in terms Rusk called "very harsh, very harsh." "We've asked the other side on more than one occasion what else would stop if we stopped the bombing. Are you going to stop sending those tens of thousands of men from North Viet Nam to South Viet Nam? Are you going to stop attacking those villages and killing off thousands of innocent civilians? What else will stop? And we've never had any reply," Rusk said. Indeed, North Vietnamese pre- mier Pham Van Dong has said significant obstacles to a settle- ment on Viet Nam. * POLITICAL: The political elements of the U.S. effort in South Viet Nam are, quite simply, to oppose the Viet Cong-North Vietnamese attempt to subvert the South Vietnamese government and to work with that government to provide security and elemental economic and social Justice. There is no evidence that in the long run the Viet Cong- whatever their slogans might be -pretend to offer much of a change. Viet Cong officials, The New York Times reported on July 23, have taken up to 20 per cent of some villages' incomes as "taxes." And for years the Viet Cong have relied -on terror and abduc- tions to help maintain, respective- ly, their dominance in the coun- tryside and their supply of mili- tary manpower. Both the terrorism and the kidnappings have in- creased since the U.S. successfully diffused the much-anticipated Viet Cong summer offensive. THE TIMES has noted, "As the Communist presence in the coun- try has expanded, there have been fewer attempts to win over the people politically." Indeed, Charles Mohr, a former Time reporter who resigned in protest against that magazine's overly-optimistic rewritings of his Viet Nam dispatches, wrote in The Times of August 4 that "care- fully conducted, mathematically valid surveys of peasant sentiment show some surprising trends. "The overwhelming concern of many peasants, the surveys show, is physical security. The studies show that many people have no real sense of loyalty or commit- ment to either side in this guer- rilla war." THERE ARE, of course, many South Vietnamese with grievances against the government. But as Prof. Robert Scalapino of Berkeley has said, the Buddhists, the Cath- olics, the Cao Dai and other groups-all of whom have griev- ances against the government- have voiced these grievances themselves and are not to any appreciable extent affiliated with the Viet Cong. But while the Viet Cong are clearly not the sole representatives of the South Vietnamese, they in- sist, as does Hanoi, that the U.S. must accept them as such before any peace conference can get un- derway. Not surprisingly, the U.S. says this is completely unacceptable- but, at the same time, indicates clearly that, as representatives of some of the South Vietnamese, the Viet Cong would certainly be given a voice at any peace talks. formed part of a North Viet- namese delegation to peace talks. In fact, Rusk said July 4 that direct talks could be held between the Viet Cong and the South Vietnamese. "They can walk into the capital tomorrow and say, 'We are pre- pared to be like other South Viet- namese and discuss the problems of South Viet Nam on a political basis rather than by arms.' They can do that tomorrow, and their voices undoubtedly would be heard as thevoices of other groups in Viet Nam are heard," Rusk said. In the face of U.S. offers to al- low the Viet Cong to participate in a peace settlement, it becomes evident that demands that the Viet Cong-a vocal minority, an armed minority, but still only a minority - be granted carte blanche to determine the future of the South Vietnamese are both unreasonable and a great obstacle to any settlement. IT IS NOT enough, however, to say that the Viet Cong offer no solution to the complex of prob- lems that beset the South Viet- namese and that their intransigent insistence that somehow they should determine the future of the country despite this is presump- tuous. If current actions in Viet Nam do not provide security to allow education, medical care, agricul- tural improvement, stabilization and democratization of the gov- ernment and all the other vital social improvements to take place, then social change is meaningless. But if military success at re- pulsing the Viet Cong attacks on the people and on the institutions which offer the most hope for meaningful change in the South is not accompanied by social change, it will be useless-and, since political change and mili- tary success are so inter-related, a lack of political progress im- pedes military efforts as well. Therefore, the U.S. must itself work with the South Vietnamese in attacking the problems which the Viet Cong cannot solve. Here, indeed, is the most important as- pect of theuentire war-and the most difficult. WE SOMETIMES have assum- ed, in ironic contradiction to our own beginnings as a nation, that bullets can somehow stop the march of ideas. Perhaps they can -briefly. The U.S. has, however, in many instances, proven itself the friend of progress and social change, in Viet Nam and elsewhere. The announcement that Edward G. Lansdale, a retired Air Force major general with some highly controversial ideas on how to fight that its leaders can pay attention to the future instead of the pro- tection of their own careers; -Help in the establishment of new political leaders and: parties, possibly with a role for them in an assembly of notables, having as one possible task the creation of committees toacheck on hamlets and villages and to certify them as ready for free elections of local officials; --Reshape its local aid program to provide rewards for stable con- ditions rather than to buy the loyalties, supplemented by political attention to the economic organ- izations of farmers and others that would develop from aid; and -Reorient military thinking to "make it the number one'priority for the military to protect and help the people." These, then, are some of the dimensions of the U.S. commit- ment to political, economic and social change in South Viet Nam. They, and other more familiar elements such as the new South- east Asian development plan the President proposed in his Johns Hopkins speech in April, are sig- nificant responses to an extremely difficult challenge. 0 DIPLOMATIC: So the war is being fought for the purpose of negotiating. But Premier Pham Van Dong, in fact, only recently repeated the Northern vow to go on fightingIfor 20 years to win the war-"the justifiable concern" of the coun- tries of the world notwithstand- ing. While the U.S. has shown def- inite interest in the April-.appeal of 17 neutral- nations to begin negotiations, all the Communist powers rejected it. When Ghana - hardly an im- perialist stooge-attempts to gain support for the Commonwealth peace mission and is rebuffed; when a concerned Gamal Abdel Nasser makes queries of the North Vietnamese and meets with an equally cold attitude, then it seems clear who has been willing to ne- gotiate and who is not. THUS FAR, North Viet Nam is uninterested in any discussions save on the most unrealistic of terms-and thus the U.S. must continue to fight, politically and militarily, until it has convinced the North that no other course is possible. And so the killing must con- tinue. It is not an attractive pros- pect, for this country as much as for the Vietnamese. But a change in the situation cannot come any, other way. It can only come slowly and peril- ously-but, in the end, it will come. For a fundamental lesson of the