Seventy-Sixth Year EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL or STUDENT PUBLICATIONS 420 MAINARD ST., ANN AP.BOR, MICH. NE\ws PvioNE: 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. 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" i ,,, ___-- ' 5 I t S i A'o PA U ~ Tab #M OFO4W" 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 i I