Seventy-Sixth Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the inidividual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
SATURDAY, MARCH 12, 1966
NIGHT EDITOR: HARVEY WASSERMAN
U.S. Should Eliminate
Chinese Nuclear Threat
"AMENDING THE Constitution
is a step to be taken only
when the need is compelling and
when other alternatives are not
open." So Attorney General Kat-
zenbach told the House Commit-
tee on the Judiciary in the course
of his testimony supporting Pres-
ident Johnson's proposal that the
Constitution be amended to in-
crease the term of members of
the House of Representatives
from two to four years. But the
quoted sentence is a remarkably
concise and sufficient refutation
of the Attorney General's case for
amendment. The asserted need
is not compelling. To the extent
that there is a need, other and
better alternatives are open to
the Congress.
The asserted need is to free
members of the House of reelec-
tion worries at midterm so that
they will have a greater oppor-
tunity to learn both the substance
of issues and the ways of the
House, thus becoming more useful
congressmen and making the
House itself a more effective in-
stitution. Mr. Katzenbach stresses
also the financial burden of re-
peated campaigns, which are be-
coming nearly insupportable. It
is an acute problem, but irrele-
vant.
Everyone would like to have
better informed, more effective
congressmen..Even in the Senate,
however, the experience has not
been that members begin to shine
during their first four years in
office. And if many senators -are
more effective sooner than many
members of the House, the essen-
tial cause is to be found not in the
different length of terms, but in
the natures and procedures of the
two institutions.
THE HOUSE is what it is be-
cause it is large, because it is at
once fragmented and unified by
very powerful leadership, and be-
cause-in consequence of the first
two factors-it is, as a whole,
scarcely a deliberative body, and
certainly no debating forum. And
so it submerges its back-benchers,
and would do so if they had a
four-year term as well.
The House, moreover, does not
really represent the American
people in their nationhood; it
mirrors rather our people's variety,
their disparate interests and
groupings. This nature of the in-
stitution, which is decisive of the
kind of function is can perform,
follows not from the length of
term of its members, but from the
character of their constituencies.
We have a powerful President
who answers to a national con-
stituency, and a Senate which has
increasingly come to do so. In a
federal union of this size and di-
versity, it is a good thing that one
institution of our government
should represent and stress our
differences and varieties, on which
the common interest should not be
simply imposed, but from which it
must be fashioned.
THERE ARE THOSE who wish
it were otherwise, and who give
voice to a recurrent hankering for
the British system, in which the
legislature and the executive are
one. Such a system might work
with us for a while, but it would
never satisfy in the long run.
Members of the House now suf-
fer under certain disabilities, for
which the four-year term is hardly
the cure. If the average congress-
man has become too much of an
errand boy for his constituency
then he should be given much
more staff. As for the problem of
campaign expenditures, it is a
general one, affecting not only
the House, and can be dealt with
in other ways.
The two-year term, on the other
hand, does have advantages. It
enables a President to come in,
if he has that sort of strength,
with the House and some portion
of one-third of the Senate com-
mitted to his program. But it then
allows for electoral expression
after two years of office.
ONE NEED NOT overestimate
the importance of elections as a
means of controlling government
in order to favor the opportunity
for a midterm review. Moreover, it
is at this midterm election that
the House becomes most plainly
what it is, and what in our judg-
ment it should be-namely, the
register of the varieties and con-
trarieties of hundreds of districts.
More than once in our history
-1910, 1930, 1958-the midterm
election has provided a preview of
the shift in power that the presi-
dential election two years later
would confirm. Thus the people
are given an opportunity to test
the readiness of the opposition for
power, and the opposition is given
the opportunity to prepare the
way, and ready itself, for its as-
sumption of power.
That this is not just a mystical
construct imposed on the accidents
of history was demonstrated in
1946, when the Republicans won
the midterm election, failed to
perform to the satisfaction of iri-
Terms
portant groups in the society, and
instead of preparing their own
way to power, enabled Harry Tru-
man to win against them. The
episode demonstrates that the
electorate took a chance on the
opposition, and then had the
chance to express a second
thought.
We shall know before too long
how much weight the Congress
gives such reservations as those
expressed here. The House Judi-
ciary Committee last week con-
cluded its hearings on the matter;
in the Senate a subcommittee of
Judiciary chaired bytBirch Bayh
(D-Ind) is moving toward con-
sideration of the four-year terms,
as soon as it has disposed of an-
other constitutional question-re-
form of the electoral college.
IN THE FORTHCOMING delib-
erations, the Congress will doubt-
less examine with some skepticism
the Attorney General's argument
that, after all, whatever function
the midterm elections used to per-
form in a more primitive society,
polls now perform, at least in part,
as well or better. We Must men-
tioned Harry Truman and 1948.
Enough said.
-The New Republic
THE CHINESE government is a govern-
ment determined on war. If they had
nuclear, weapons, the result would be a
more dangerous situation than any we've
faced since the end of the Second World
War. Therefore, before they become a
full-fledged nuclear power . . . we would
like to take some steps now that would
lessen that prospect.. ." This quotation
by President Kennedy, made at a press
conference a few weeks before his death,
illustrates the seriousness with which he'
viewed the prospect of nuclear weapons
in Chinese hands.
Since then, China has developed the
atomic bomb and is expected to explode a
hydrogen bomb within the next few years.
Experts now foresee their having a de-
livery system capable of hitting the Unit-
ed States within the next 10 to 15 years.
THE DANGER OF CHINA is not that she
has eight hundred million people.
Rather, the danger is that as China de-
velops her nuclear arsenal she will feel'
increasingly confident in using this power
to pursue her avowedly aggressive poli-
cies.
More than two years have passed since
President Kennedy decided in principle
that "China must be prevented by what-
ever means necessary from becoming a
nuclear power." Stewart Alsop reports
that Kennedy had even ordered an offi-
cial to draw up plans of "taking out the
plants," a tactic which included the use,
of "high explosives short of nuclear weap-
ons."
Hmmmm
"SAIGON (M-Ten of the generals who
rule South Viet Nam voted yesterday
to purge the 11th, Lt. Gen. Nguyen Chanh
Thi.
"American'officials felt that the ouster
was a favorable step against 'warlord-
ism', an informed source said."
Hmmmmm....
-DAVID DUBOFF
Acting Editorial Staff
MARK R. KILLINGSWORTH, Editor
BRUCE WASSERSTEIN, Executive Editor
CLARENCE FANTO 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
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THE QUESTION now is: what steps has
our present government taken to cope
with the long range threat to our own na-
tional welfare, and the more immediate
one to China's Asian neighbors. For the
day is fast approaching when we will not
only have to worry about the Chinese
hordes, but also about modern Chinese
instruments of mass destruction.
Given the present Chinese leadership's
doctrine and intransigence such a situa-
tion borders on the intolerable.
SOME ARGUE if we abandoned South-
east Asia and turned Formosa over to
the Communists, Chinese hostility would
be less total. But in the rightful ab-
sence of such concessions, our govern-
ment should seriously consider the Ken-
nedy option of "taking out" the Chinese
nuclear installations.
-RANDY FROST
Must Consider,
All Is sues
UST A NOTE on campus politics. A
spokesman from REACH political par-
ty has recently contended that student
government should limit itself exclusive-
ly to "the problems of the University"
and should therefore avoid such areas of
concern as "the war in Viet Nam and fed-
eral domestic programs when they do not
apply to the University of Michigan."
Although it may definitely be true that,
as the spokesman felt, REACH is not,
"equipped to offer responsible action in
these areas," the Viet Nam war neverthe-
less remains THE most talked-about and
important issue among the constituents
of student government.
It is not at all difficult to understand
why many conversations nowadays seem
to drift to such "non-University" sub-
jects as the draft and escalation; these
are matters of life and death to the stu-
dent body and unhappily they will not go
away even if SGC sticks its head in the
sand.
To ignore completely the current Asian
war is to make a mockery of the repre-
sentative function of student govern-
ment, for an SGC that is oblivious to this
conflict is in effect oblivious to the most
important concern of its constituents.
REACH SHOULD either equip itself with
a more viable perspective on student
problems or refrain from calling itself
a representative student political party.
-JOSEPH LITVEN
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
US. Must Remain in
Viet Nam
To the Editor:
AMERICAN PRESENCE in Viet
Nam has come under criticism
for being "immoral" on several
grounds, among them, 1) that
Viet Nam is a pawn of U.S. am-
bitions, 2) that the people of
Viet Nam are not being allowed
to choose their own government
because of U.S. presence, 3) that
U.S. action constitutes violation
of the Geneva Agreements, and
4) that U.S.action violates the
UN Charter. I shall attempt to
answer these criticsms beginning
with the last and proceeding to
the first.
Prof. Rapoport states that the
UN Charter "expressly prohibits
military action" except in "clear
and urgent instances" of self de-
fense and that the U.S. is violat-
ing the charter, implying that
there is no clear and urgent in-
stance for U.S. action. I submit
that there is, indeed.
In 1962 the International Com-
mission for Supervision and Con-
trol (ICC), charged with executing
the Geneva Agreements, found
that North Viet Nam had com-
mitted aggression against the
south and had allowed its terri-
tory to be used for activities aimed
at the overthrow of the adminis-
tration in the south. These aggres-
sive acts have been supported by
expansionist Red China.
In event of the loss of South
Viet Nam, the whole Southeast
Asian peninsula would be threat-
ened, Chinese power enhanced,
and the Chinese appetite whetted.
Chinese attacks against India and
Thailand are evidence of Chinese
ambitions for hegemony over
Southeast Asia. In view of Chinese
aims, the U.S. would be disregard-
ing the lessons of World Wars I
and II if it were not to consider
the Vietnamese war a "clear and
urgent" call for self defense.
IN ANSWER to the criticism
that American action constitutes
violation of the Geneva Agree-
ments, let me remind the critics
of the ICC's finding that North
Viet Nam violated the agreements
itself as a signatory of the same,
but that the U.S. was not a sig-
natory of the agreements. There-
fore, the U.S. is not violating any
treaty commitments and is in fact
defending South Viet Nam against
acts which North Viet Nam has
undertaken in violation of the
agreements it signed.
It is conceded that the U.S. pres-
ence in South Viet Nam consti-
tutes violation of the agreements,
but such presence is not in vio-
lation of any American commit-
ment and furthermore, though
unfortunately in violation of the
agreements, is justified by the
grave threat posed by North Viet-
namese violations and wider Com-
munist ambitions.
As to the criticism that the U.S.
is preventing the people of Viet
Nam from choosing their own gov-
ernment, it would be foolish to
feel that the North Vietnamese
would be exercising a free choice
in deciding what kind of govern-
ment they would like in an event
of reunification of the two Viet
Nams.
IT IS CONCEIVABLE, however,
that the U.S. would not allow an
election at this time even if the
North Vietnamese people had a
free choice because of its fears
that Viet Nam would go Com-
munist, and this leads into the
last criticism-that Viet Nam is
a pawn of U.S. ambitions.
Let us remember thatsthe U.S.
can make only the best moral
namese aggression does not justify
U.S. presence in Viet Nam and
Viet Nam's becoming a pawn-
but more pragmatic and thought-
ful moral analysts of the situation
will perhaps agree that given an
either-or situation, the maximiza-
tion of values should be our guide,
i.e., the U.S. should be willing to
sacrifice one value for a higher
value.
IN CONCRETE TERMS, should
the U.S. sacrifice South Viet-
namese autonomy for defense
against the Communist threat?
Does the Communist threat to the
Southeast Asian peninsula justify
America's temporary intrusion of
South Viet Nam's "sovereignty?"
I believe the answers to both these
questions is yes.
In the international sphere, the
U.S. is seeking to establish a world
order which is based on principles
of accommodation, compromise,
and live and let live. But the
Communist world rejects com-
promise-it sees forces as opposing
one another in a dialectical pro-
cess in which one inevitably tri-
umphsover the other. Its ideology
rejects the possibility of a peace-
ful world while the "capitalist-
imperialist" powers exist.
In short, the Communist ideol-
ogy rejects the very world order
for which the U.S. and Western
civilization stands and lives. Thus,
the U.S. cannot afford to allow
Communist ascendancy to lead to
the prevention of the American
establishment of a liberal, plural-
istic, accommodative international
society. I believe that the value
of U.S. furtherance of a liberal
international order justifies tem-
porary U.S. presence in South Viet
Nam to prevent Chinese Com-
munist expansion, which threatens
that order.
TO PARAPHRASE Prof. Ed-
ward Carr: A new international
order and harmony can be built
up only on the basis of an as-
cendancy which is generally ac-
cepted as tolerant and unoppres-
sive or, at any rate, as preferable
to any practicable alternative. To
create these conditions is the
moral task of the ascendant
power.
THE MOST EFFECTIVE moral
argument which could be used in
farour of American rather than
Sino-Soviet hegemony of the world
is that the U.S., profiting by a
long tradition of liberalism, plur-
alism, and compromise, has on the
whole learned more successfully
than the Communist world the
importance of this task.
-Eugene Won, '66
Business Library
To the Editor:
IN A RECENT LETTER to the
editor (Feb. 27, 1966), Mr. Don-
ald E. Nelson complained about
the Business Administration Li-
brary's closed stack policy. Ap-
parently Mr. Nelson feels he is
greatly inconvenienced because he
has to obtain the books he wants
from the desk instead of being
able to go into the stacks himself.
I would strongly oppose an open
stack policy in the Business Ad-
ministration library. It is clearly
demonstrable that an open stack
policy significantly lowers the
probability of finding a particular
book. Why? Because students and
others steal, hide, and misplace
books when they are given free
reign. The worst students are
rnaIn utstudents who annarently
ulty and Ph.D. students, and they
pay the long run price.
I HAVE USED the Business Ad-
ministration library, along with
all other libraries on the campus,
on a daily basis for over 14 years
as both a' student and a faculty
member. I have always found the
Business Administration librarians
to be highly efficient and com-
petent.
-Ross Wilhelm
Assoc. Prof. of Bus. Econ.
DuBois
To the Editor:
OVER THE WEEKEND the fol-
lowing telegram went out from
the fifth national convention of
the Young Socialist Alliance: "We
unconditionally support the W.E.B.
Dubois clubs in their fight against
Atty. Gen. Katzenbach's demand
that they register under the Mc-
Carran Act, and urge all Ameri-
cans to fight for their right of
political dissent." Voice Political
Party sent the same telegram this
morning.
I would urge that as many such
telegrams reach the DuBois Clubs
and Mr. Katzenbach as possible,
as the invocation of the McCarran
Act is of appalling significance
for the right of free speech and
for democracy. The Dubois clubs
can be reached through the ad-
dress of their late headquarters at
MacAllister St. in San Francisco.
-Linda Belisle,
Young Socialist Alliance
Wolves
SO HUMPHREY THINKS admit-
ting the Viet Cong to negotia-
tions would be comparable to
"putting a wolf in the chicken
coop!" I think it would be more
like adding one more wolf to the
pack fighting over a scrawny piece
of flesh.
-A. T. McElellan, '65
LETTERS
A11 letters to The Daily must be
typewritten and double-spaced, and
should be no longer than 300 words
long.
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Schutze.:Pentagon Sees Red
9
A SPOKESMAN for the Penta-
gon recently announced that
the American Negro soldier in Viet
Nam, "has shown himself at least
as worthy a fighter as the next
man. (By "next man," "caucasian"
is intended.)
The statement praised Negro
battle valor because Negroes have
suffered 18.3 per cent of total
casualties incurred so far while
comprising in number only 14.8
per cent of the military force in
use there.
wars: their death is our own
survival.
IN THE SECOND PLACE, Ne-
gro death in Viet Nam means a
lower crime rate in the United
States. For instance, efforts are
underway right now in Watts to
draft off the troublemaking ele-
ment which caused those wretch-
ed riots a while ago. A similar
strategy should be employed in
all ghetto neighborhoods.
After all the Viet Nam war has
where the number of Negro vol-
unteers is high." Challenge their
masculinity. That way, one doesn't
even have to single them out forc-
ibly for hazardous duty, as Gen-
eral Earle G. Wheeler explained
recently to inquiring Southern
senators.
This way they're actively help-
ing us along the road to a final
resolution of both the war on
poverty and the Negro Question.
Slap them on the back and urge
them nnt n higher and hikher
0