Seventy-Sixth Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL or STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
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Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
MDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1966
NIGHT EDITOR: CLARENCE FANTO
joint Presidential Selection
Panel Essential
'HE REGENTS deserve considerable
praise for their plan on selection of
the next President of the University.
Providing for separate student, faculty
land alumni committees, the Regents'
plan quite rightly recognizes that while
they alone have the final constitutional
responsibility to select the next Univer-
sity President, they also have an equal
responsibility to seek as many perspec-
tives as possible on the future of the Uni-
versity and the kind of man qualified to
guide it.s
the Regents can thus gain full insight
into the problems of the University only
by Insuring full participation of each
groulp of the University community at
each step of the selection process save
the ilast'--the Regents' final decision. Only
by insuring that each member of the
;University community can react to pro-
posals and candidates can the Regents be
sire of getting a full perspective so essen-
tial for such an important decision.
The three separate panels established
by the Regents' plan on presidential selec-
tion thus represent an important step
towards their full participation. It is par-
ticularly signifiant because the plan in-
cludes students in such a decision for
what appears to be one of the first times
in the history of American universities.
This aspect, like the entire plan itself, is
a convincing demonstration of the vision,
wisdom and innovation which have made
Acting Editorial Staff
MAK R. KILLINGSWRTH, Editor
BRUCE WASSERSTEIN, Executive Editor
CLARENCE PANTO HARVEY WASSERMAN
Managing Editor Editorial Director
JOHN MEREDITH :...... Associate Managing Editor
LEONARD PRATT.......Associate Managing Editor
BABETTE COHN..............Personnel Director
CHARLOTTE WOLTER .... Associate Editoral Director
ROBERT CARNEY.......Associate Editorial Director
ROBERT MOORE ...... ...........,Magazine Editor
CHARLES VETZNER...............Sports Editor
JAMES LaSOVAGE.........Associate Sports Editor
JAMES TINDALL......Associate Sports Editor
GIL SAMBERG............Assistant Sports Editor
SPORTS NIGHT EDITORS: Howard .Kohn, Dan
Orent, John Sutkus-
ASSISTANT DAY EDITORS: Richard Charin. Jane
Dreyfuss, Susan Elan, Shirley Rosick, Robert Shiller,
Alan Valusek.
Business Staff
CY WELLMAN Business Manager
ALAN UECKMAN.... Advertising Manager
SUSAN CRAWFORD.., Associate Business Manager
JOYCJS FEINBERGO.. Finance Manager
MANGERS: Harry Bloch, Bruce Hilman, Marline
Irelthau, Jeffrey Leeds,rGallLevin, Susan Perr-
stadt, Vic Ptasznik, Elizabeth Rhein, Ruth Segall,
Jill Tozer, Elizabeth Wisnan
ASSISTANT MANAGERS: Ann Braiker, Madelyn Jen-
sky, Erica Keeps, William Krauss, Steven Loewen-
thal, Jeanne Rosinski, Ellen Scheuer, Joseph Sil-
vian, Diane Smaller, Karen Snider.
The Daily is a member of the Associated Press and
Collegiate Press Service.
The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the
une of all news dispatches credited to it or otherwise
credited to the newspaper. All rights of re-publicaton
of all other matters here are also reserved.
Published daily Tuesday through Sunday morning.
Subscription rate- $4.50 semester oy carrier $5 by
mnail); $8 yearly by carrier 1$9 by masil.
Second class postage paid at Ann Arbor, Mich.
the University great, and we
the Regents for it.
commend
Some'
A SLOWLY FESTERING, per-.
vasive sickness is beginning to
course through the arteries of
American society - a sickness
which cannot be precisely meas-
ured or simply defined but is there
nevertheless.
A venomous cancer spreading
out of control, the disease can be
seen in vignettes of the contem-
porary scene.
In a turbulent Asian nation
struggling to assert its indepen-
dence and seek an outlet for a
strong strain of nationalism the
United States, the most powerful
nation in the world, finds it neces-
sary to destroy villages, wage an
undeclared jungle war against an
elusive "enemy," and kill thou-
sands of Americans and Vietnam-
ese in the process-all in the
name of freedom and democracy.
But these are political concepts
which have always been unknown
in Viet Nam and will probably
remain so.
WE PERSIST in our delusion
that the best way, to help the
world's unfortunates and protect
ourselves is to try to make a
nation over in our image - a
tarnished, often corrupt, even
more often hypocritical image at
that.
In a discordant echo of that
dirty war which neither side can
win and which can only bring ruin
to Viet Nam and shame to our own
country, an august body known as
the Michigan Legislature passes a
bill calling on state universities to
bar Communist speakers from
their campuses. The handsome,
corporation executive-type gov-
ernor, a possible Presidential can-
didate only two years from now,
BUT THE POTENTIAL of this plan must
be fulfilled. If the three committees
remain , separate structurally they will
very probably remain separate psycholog-
ically: lacking complete information on
the University and on candidates; direct-
ed towards their own particular aims
rather than offering their particular ef-
forts towards the common good; suspi-
cious of the other groups rather than
eager to work with them; and deprived of
the viewpoints of these other groups rath-
er than benefiting from continuous in-
teractions with them.-
Moreover, while there is always a possi-
bility that some candidates' names might
be prematurely disclosed, such an event is
no more likely than in a situation of mu-
tual suspicion. Public silence on the selec-
tion of the next president can be achieved
only by mutual confidence, and 'that is
possible only when all groups can work
together.
Two factors are thus essential: full in-
formation, and full interaction. Only
when each group has full access to infor-
mation can its participation be meaning-
ful. Only when each group can interact
with the others will it be fully and effec-
tively mobilized for the common good.
FOR THESE REASONS, we therefore
propose that the Regents invite each
separate committee to send not more than
one-third of its members to form a joint
committee to meet with the Regentalr
committee on presidential selection.
The Regents would name an outside
consulting group which would make a
detailed study of the University, its fu-
ture growth,,its possible sources of funds,
its faculty, student body and administra-
tors and its relations with the state and
the country.
Using this study as a basis for discus-
sion, the three separate committees would
offer their views on the University's. fu-
ture, recommend criteria by which presi-
dential candidates should be judged and
submit names of possible candidates.
With these recommendations in mind,
the joint committee of Regents, faculty,
students and alumni would then meet to
interview and evaluate candidates. Fin-
ally, the Regents would then make the
ultimate decision themselves, as they,
must.
SUCH A PROCEDURE would realize to
the fullest the exciting possibilities of
the Regents' plan. It would ensure that
all members of the community can offer
their unique perspectives on the Univer-
sity and interact with each other on a de-
cision crucial to the University's future.
It would foster commitment to and en-
thusiasm for the man the Regents select
to lead the University. We urge its care-
ful consideration and its swift adoption.
.,-THE ACTING SENIOR EDITORS
speedily chimes in with his stir-
ring support.
All the fuss is over a mild-
mannered Marxist theoretician
named Herbert Aptheker who
spoke on three major campuses,
including our own late last week.
What he had to say was un-
sensational, even boring, and cer-
tainly not surprising. It is doubt-
ful that he converted a single one
of his listeners to Communism.
YET HIS PRESENCE stirs a
storm of protest, and one of the
few things which make our way of
life superior (in our own view) to
that of the Soviets, Chinese or
North Vietnamese--freedom to ex-
press dissenting opinions - is
thrown out, all in the name of a
mindless crusade against an
enemy.
In that same week, a light-
hearted advertisement appears in
the Daily exhorting female stu-
dents to help out Viet Nam-bound
fellows by sacrificing their aca-
demic averages. In this way, more
men can escape from the draft
temporarily by maintaining a cer-
tain class standing, to be deter-
mined by that highly democratic
institution known as Selective
Service.
A Detroit television station-
which the previous week had pre-
sented a highly educational pre-
sentation called "The Truth About
Communism" with the gospel ac-
cording to Ronald Reagan-broad-
casts a scathing attack against
the Daily and the University,
charging that the taxpayers' good
money is being used to subvert
the minds of naive young all-
Americans by encouraging them to
avoid the privilege of military
service.
STILL IN THAT same week
(which perhaps represents a mi-
crocosmic kaleidoscope of the
United States in 1966), a beaming
President Johnson proudly pro-
claims the latest savior and arch-
champion of democracy for the
Vietnamese people, Air Marshal
General Ky! Having bestowed the
love and good wishes of America
upon this admirer of Hitler and
champion of the good life--for
himself and his upper-class Saigon
cronies-Johnson proceeds to tell
a nationwide television audience
that now, truly, we have found
the leader to bring the "Great
Society" to Viet Nam.
It is all sickening, And frighten-
ing, too, for in the same breath
he tells us that we will win a
total victory. Over what? Come on,
you should know the script by
now, loyal patriots. It's those dirty
VC who're trying to ruin our way
of life, friends, and we have to
show them once and for all that
no one, absolutely no one can
beat friendly Uncle Sam.
For here is our true enemy. Our-
selves. The highly idealistic image
of society which we have created
for ourselves in this land of plenty
has been propagated so widely, in
the mass media in the churches
SOUNI)
AND FURY
By CLARENCE FANTO
and in the schools that we actually
believe it!
WE BELIEVE that we are as
good, noble and pure as we profess
to be. We believe that our way
of life is the only right and true
one. We believe that any other
nation that differs with our con-
ception of Paradise on Earth de-
serves at best our cold shoulder
and at worst, our friendly GIs.
We believe that since we are God's
children, we have the "Manifest
destiny"' to make the world safe
for . . . what? Safe for free en-
terprise and the freedom to step
all over the other guy in our race
to the top.
The trouble is that our self
image has become more and more
removed from the reality and in
defense of our image-which we
know to be tarnished and in dan-
ger-we must react against those
who accuse us of being less than
100 per cent perfect and righteous.
Because of our insecurity no one
else must disagree with out inter-
pretation of what's right.
NOT THAT the Communist
system is any better than ours-t
in almost every way, as it is pres-
ently being practiced in China,
North Viet Nam and elsewhere,
it is exceedingly brutal, authori-
tarian and deadening to the hu-
man spirit. It has little to recom-
mend it except parts of its theory,
a theory which has never been
put into practice anywhere.
Ideological rigidityr is the sick-
ness which afflicts Communist
society and which is in danger of
ruining ours. Rigidity stultifies
the mind and emotions, numbs all
feeling and precipitates a drift
Thoughts on Our
Way of Life
away from rationality to the un-
certain seas of debilitating emo-
tional tides of hate for the "en-
eny." There are two major na-
tions which are suffering today
from this sickness of the spirit--
Communist China and, more and
more. the United States.
There is little of this sickness
in Western Europe, although crass
materialism and preoccupation
with financial success has worked
a transformation from the once
intellectually stimulating climate
of London. Paris and Rome to a
discouraging conformity and ster-
ility in the arts and literature.
BUT ANTI-COMMUNISM has
become the only way of life known
to most Americans. As an ideology,
it is surely crippling our country
mentally, emotionally and, most of
all, spiritually,
Our President and his top of-
ficials are tired old men whose
ideas are rapidly growing stale.
The administration is losing its
source of intellectual vigor-men
from the Kennedy era who left
private life to devote themselves
to public service and to a trans-
formation from anti-Communism
as a way of life to pro-whatever it
is that Kennedy was trying to
build in this country have re-
turned to private life.
RESPECT FOR the life of the
mind? Love for the arts? Toler-
ance for other political systems
and ways of life? All of these?
What can be done as America
helplessly drifts towards the shoals
of intellectual turpitude and spiri-
tual vacuum? Possible solutions
will be explored in an article next
week.
p
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Apihekers sNew Left' Weak,
To the Editor:
THE APPEARANCE on campus
of Mr. Aptheker was both dis-
appointing and in a sense reassur-
ing. On the one hand, there was
insufficient public notice of his
visit and no opportunity to en-
lighten him dr his audience. What
was hurriedly advertised as a de-
bate on the facts and issues of the
Viet Nam war turned out to be a
mutual admiration society of mis-
guided idealists. On the other
hand, our appellate courts can be
assured that there is freedon of
speech. In addition, the "New
Left" demonstrated once more
that it cannot seriously challenge
American policy in Asia.
As expected, Aptheker was prop-
aganaistic and appealed to emo-
tions. One half of his time was
spent relaying his impressions of
the peaceful Hanoi countryside, of
the children, women, old men, and
priests "with beards like Uncle
Ho." He "saw no fortifications or
armed police anywhere." He for-
got that the war is in South Viet
Nam and Ho's soldiers are down
there!
After attacking the syntax of
President Eisenhower, the humor
of Bob Hope and a Senate speech
President Johnson had given in
1949, Aptheler urged his audience
to continue fermenting an under-
current of dissent and suspicion
until the "New Left's" view of
reality prevails. When asked about
the Tonkin incident he replied,
"You don't really believe that the
tiny boats of little North Viet
Nam attacked the U.S. Navy, do
you?"
HE PRACTICES the subtle art
of public brainwashing by foster-
ing complete doubt and encour-
aging people to desregard what
they read or hear as true fact.
What seems emotionally and ra-
tionally Improbable does not exist.
The 15-year-old Viet Cong lieuten-
ant is a "poor child" against the
giant American man. This
"child's" insurgency is not agres-
sion.,
Aptheker wants us to ignore the
realities of guerrilla warfare, and
those are, anyone who can kill is
the enemy and anything that sus-
tains him the target. Improbable
as it may seem to us - because
our children mature late-a child
or woman mining a hotel in Sai-
gon is as deadly and impersonal
as a precisely dropped bomb on a
power plant near Haiphong. Fur-
thermore, there is a big difference
between killing sleeping men and
destroying a building to darken a-
city.
Having lost every debate so far,
the "New Left" must continue to
use subtle distortions of reality
and denial of facts and thereby
encourage unlearning, mistrust
and the equivocation of human
values. They have no absolutes
and few standards. They cannot
perceive the difference between
America and Nazi Germany. They
refuse to distinguish civil war
from externally fostered Commu-
nist insurgency.
LIKE MOST of those of the
"New Left," 'Aptheker has few
facts and even fewer arguments.
Furthermore, as a Communist, he
is in no position to talk about law
or morality. He is professionally
incompetent to speak on diploma-
cy and history or the economic
realities of life. This is true also
of their self appointed spokes-
men who feel they have a monop-
oly on human decency. Norman
Thomas never became president
and hopefully, neither will Dr
Spock.
They are so busy theorizing that
they do not perceive or wish to
ignore, the great energies devot-
ed to alleviating the misery of
poverty and hunger, and the in-
justice of ignorance and "sense-
less wars." But Viet Nam is not
a senseless war. It is an ideologi-
cal challenge by the Chinese-and
we shall meet it and prevail. Amer-
ica is the only country that can
get Viet Nam out of the "Stone
Age" and free it from the bungl-
ing theories and clutches of Com-
munism.
After two world wars and Ko-
rea, we helped resurrect human-
Pocket Knives
"NO MATTER what else we have
of offensive or defensive
weapons, without superior air
power America is a bound and
throttled giant; impotent and easy
prey to any yellow dwarf with a
pocket knife."
-Lyndon Johnson, March 15, 1948
Speech in the House of
Representatives
ity from defeated foes and friends
alike, No country can do more.
The Chinese cannot spare food
or factories. We can. Furthermore,
the American economic and poli-
tical .system is far superior to
Communistic theory or practice,
Mr. Aptheker, this is 1966. Marx,
Stalin and Nietzsche are dead!
--George Platsis, '67L
reen Berets
To the Editor:
OT THAT Wasserman's article
on the Ballad of the Green Be-
rets is of high enough caliber to
deserve any comment, but for
what it's worth, I found it to be
one of the most disgusting pieces
of trash I have ever read. If, as it
seems, he is trying to combine
his dislike of the recording and his
objection to the war into one cute
little editorial, he has failed mis-
erably and his insipid remarks are,
themselves, proof positive of this.
Granted that the recording is
perhaps of questionable duality,
that its subject is intended to cap-
italize on the current interest in
the Vietnamese war, and that it
deals more directly with actual
fighting than some other army
songs. But it is no worse in taste
than other recent "hits" which
have been recorded within hours
of Kennedy's assassination or the
sinking of the submarine Thresh-
er, and from what I understand,
the money from this album, at
least, is being turned over to wel-
fare agencies in South Viet Nam.
Finally, in ascribing the popu-
larity of this record to the dec-
adence of American morality or
the growing animalistic tenden-
cies in our civilization, he has
apparently forgotten or has yet
to 4(e exposed to a few of the very
popular songs making the rounds
of the London subways over 25
years ago during the blitz, con-
cerning the fate of a certain Mr.
Hitler if he was ever to fall into
British hands.
The fact that Wasserman ob-
viously opposes the high policy
decisions which have sent 200,000
of our troops to South Viet Nam
is not in question here since he
is entitled to his own opinions.
What is cheap, shallow, and ado-
lescent in his writing concerns
his inane and irrelevant comments
about the green beret itself, which
he calls a "beany," and his smug
contempt for the soldiers' battle
ribbons.
Such a confirmed cynic as he
should be the first to realize that
no one in his right mind, be he in
the special forces or not, would be
willing, voluntarily, to risk his own
life in that swampy Asian blood-
bath merely for the sadistic pleas-
ures of torturing some poor ignor-
ant peasants or blowing up a few
bridges,
If Wasserman believes that, he
is infinitely more naive than any
of the soldiers, he is attacking.
They obviously believe in some-
thing which they consider to be
Vrong
pretty important, something which
their beret and medals stand for,
something which may have a lot
to do with Wasserman's right to
sit back in that cozy little room
and publicly blast their uniform,
their idealism, and their purpose.
Maybe Johnson's wrong and the
troops should be withdrawn,
Wasserman apparently has no
faith in the President and his
advisors-but at least he could
have a little respect for the men
who are gambling with their lives
that Johnson's decisions are at-
tempts in the direction of world
peace, or at least feel a little pity
for the poor bastards who are get-
ting shot up out there in the muck.
-D. N. Harvey
AC
"Bob lope Is A Great Comedian, But By Golly,
I Think Old Barry Has Him Beat"
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U.S. Food Won't Solve India's Problem
I
{37
Prw";
By DAVID KNOKE
WHILE THE Viet Nam casual-
ties continue to mount, a less-
evident but no less disastrous
situation is shaping up in India.
It is well-publicized that India's
grain harvest this year will be
10 million tons short of what is
necessary to prevent a famine. It
is equally well publicized that the
United States is transporting vast
quantities of wheat from its sur-
plus grain in an attempt to stave
off mass starvation.
What is less well known, however,
is that all these efforts may be
futile. Dr. Roger Revelle, director
of the Harvard Center for Popu-
lation Studies, told the House
tributing the food once it reaches
India are pitifully inadequate. Not
only must the United States pay
for the 6.5 million tons of grain
President Johnson authorized for
shipment since last June, but the
port facilities, roads and other
supply routes at the destinations
are so poorly suited to meet the
sudden influx, that the United
States may end up spending an-
other quarter billion dollars just
to get the grain distributed in
time,
The distribution difficulties,
however, are peripheral problems
arising from larger failures in
India's long-range governmental
policies.
The stalemate in agriculture is
the greatest shortcoming in In-
dia's drive to improve her citizens'
standards of living. Farm methods
remain so primitive today that,
while 75 per cent of the people
are engaged in agricultural pur-
suits (against 10 per cent in the
United States), one American
farmer can raise as much as 20
Indian farmers.
Undoubtedly, industrial output
must be redirected at revolution-
izing agricultural methods-pro-
ducing the fertilizers, tractors, ir-
rigation systems, electrical power
and transportation roads necessary
if India is to raise her per-acre
crop yields.-
populus so suddenly that careful
measures were not taken to lower
the birth rates at the same time.
The result is a run-away popula-
tion which jumped from 300 mil-
lion in 1900 to 450 million today,
with the annual increase now at
5 million a year.
While India can ill afford her
present population, projections in-
to the future show a doubling of
the population to 900 million by
the end of the century. Even if in-
dustrial production and the latest
agricultural methods were mobiliz-
ed to tackle this problem, it is
estimated that the present popu-
lation would need 25 years to
achieve a standard of living
equivalent to that of some of the
nn nct'n .+atn t',rno na an finm
mendable generosity in trying to
feed her neighbors around the
world. But in a way this is a
short-sighted policy, for it only
prolongs the inevitable. United
Statges must, simultaneously with
her food shipments, cooperate with
the Indian government in bring-
ing to the people knowledge of
birth control methods.
Birth control is a touchy sub-
ject, especially when an eco-
nomically well-off nation tries to
give advice to an underdeveloped,
overpopulated country that might
be suspicious of the former's mo-
tives in offering to limit her popu-
lation. Yet a massive birth control
program must be undertaken in
India, for that country is only the
firvt of manv .to 'i, a .cisis in
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