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January 07, 1967 - Image 4

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The Michigan Daily, 1967-01-07

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

Viet Nam: Bombs and More Bombs Next Year

--

here Opinions Are Pree, 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, MicHx.
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.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 1967

NIGHT EDITOR: NEIL SHISTER

i

The Student Movement
That Never Existed

EVER. SINCE the decrease in attend-
ance at the teach-ins last semester
from four thousands to less than 500 stu-
dents, people have been wondering
whether exams, parents, parties and old
friends would destroy the "student move-
ment" that had been built up around the
issue of student power.
The fact is that there never was any
movement.
WHAT PASSED for a movement was
merely an uncoordinated mass of sev-
eral thousands students emotionally
aroused by what they considered a "her-
oic" act on the part of Student Govern-
ment Council-its break from the Office
of Student Affairs.,
Yet, the unfortunate fact remains that
even the majority of these supposedly
"active" students were indifferent to the
issue that triggered the conflict with the
administration in the first place-its re-
fusal to accept the results of the rank-
ing referendum as binding and to revoke
the illegally-made sit-in ban. This can be
seen by the widespread support for
Hatcher's proposed commissions, which
would, in fact, allow the administration
to neglect the students' demands, while
giving students the illusion that they
have a voice in University policy.
The reasons why the student movement
died before it began run deeper than the
threat of final exams; they are rooted in
the values that the majority of students
hold about what the role of the students
in this University should be, and, beyond
this, about the place that the University
should hold in society.
ASIDE FROM GRIEVANCES about the
way in which they are treated-the
poor quality of the quad food, women's
hours, the high cost of living, and the
impersonality of large classes-the ma-
jority of students seem to be content with
the University. Their primary goal is not
to get a liberal education, but to re-
ceive training as a "social technician"-
to get a degree that will enable them to
get a job in industry or government.
Most young people in our society have
been taught ,through years of socializa-
tion, to accept the dominant values of the
society. College merely provides them
with the skills necessary to live their life
according to these values, and to preserve
society in its present form for succeed-
ing generations.
THS TACIT ACCEPTANCE of the val-
ues propogated by the multiversity -
those of "responsibility," "cooperlation,"
and "acting in good faith"-is what pre-
ceded the building of a student power
movement. These were the values extolled
not only by the administration and fac-
ulty but also by the students as reasons
why the commissions are necessary if
anything is to be accomplished.
These people fail to realize that it is
these values of "responsibility" and "good
faith" which are the rationale for the

committing of atrocities in Viet Nam, and
for the subverting of education through
the use of students' performance in class-
es as criteria for the draft.
The real issue-what is wrong with our
society, and how this is reflected in the
educational process-is still ignored. It
will not be dealt with by commissions in
which the administration still has the de-
cision-making power and which are com-
posed of students who are afraid to "rock
the boat."
THIS CAMPUS NEEDS a true student
power movement - one which recog-
nizes the problems inherent in our edu-
cational system and understands how this
institution is shaped by the values of the
larger society. It needs one which is will-
ing to work to gain full power for stu-
dents to determine policy in questions
that affect the rilives as a means of even-
tually changing the society itself by turn-
ing out true critical thinkers rather than
social technicians.
In order to accomplish this, concerned
students will have to go into the dorms,
co-ops and the fraternities and sorori-
ties to appeal to the problems which di-
rectly affect these (such as the draft,
women's hours, high rents, etc.). They
must help them to see the relationships
between these problems and the more
serious problem of the University as an
instrument for maintaining the status
quo.
BUT EDUCATION is a long process, and
there are certain actions that must be
taken immediately.
First and foremost, the proposed com-
missions, and all other such conciliatory
measures will have to be thrown out and
replaced by student-controlled structures,
independent of the administration. These
student organizations should make deci-
sions on questions affecting Students'
lives that take action on the question of
the role of the students in the Univer-
sity, rather than merely talk about it.
Second, students must demand an equal
vote in the choice of a new President.
Finally, action must be taken to pro-
test the sesquicentennial celebration. De-
signed to enhance the prestige of the
University, the sesquicentennial symbol-
izes everything that is abhorrent in this
institution. The threat of another "Berke-
ley" during the sesquicentennial year
could continue to be a significant factor
in the students' favor, if we can convince
the administration that we are serious in
our demands, and will back them up with
direct action.
THESE NECESSARY actions could, when
coupled with an intensive program of
education, build concern for the real
problems confronting students, and make
it possible to mobilize a significant num-
ber of students around the issue of stu-
dent power.
-DAVID DUBOFF

By DAVID KNOKE
THE YEAR 1966 for North Viet
Nam could be called the Year
of the Bomb. And 1967 will be
the Year of More Bomb.
The number of United States
air strikes against targets in the
North seems certain to inch up-
ward as frustrations over the pro-
tracted ground war in the South
continue to mount. President
Johnson is likely to continue to
escalate "the cost of aggression"
by removing some of the present-
ly forbidden targets from the re-
stricted list: industry, power.
plants, dams and perhaps the MIG
airfields and Haiphong harbor.
SINCE THE DAILY sorties
against Northern supply routes be-
gan in February of 1965, the aver-
age 150 missions per day by one
to fiveplanes have comprised an
on-going air attack substantially
greater than any seen during the
Korean War.
General William Westmoreland,
the commander of the U.S. field
troops in the South, labelled the
air missions "a vital part" of the
battle against battalion-size North
Viet Nam troop movements.
But the original strategic ra-
tionale for the air attacks against
the North - that infiltration of
troops and supplies into the South
would be reduced-has not been
realized. American officials esti-
mate that basic supply flow has
dropped from 150 tons per day to
a barely-sustaining 75-90 tons. But,
North Vietnamese troop strength
in the South has jumped from
4500 per month in January, 1965,
to a current 7000 per month.
Northern troops in the South are
now near 50,000.
AMERICAN officials from West-
moreland to Dean Rusk to the
President now speak increasingly
of the bombings as a means of
breaking Hanoi's will to resist. But,
in fact, the price may be too
great for the U.S. effort to bear
under the present conditions.
Targets in the North are pres-
ently restricted to barges, bridges,
truck convoys and railroads, the
majority of them in the southern
30 miles of the North Viet Nam

panhandle where the military
buildup for the South is concen-
trated. Since 60-70 per cent of
the oil supply was destroyed in
the June and July raids on the
storage depots in the Hanoi area,
the remaining oil, supplemented
by Soviet imports through the off-
limits Haiphong harbor, has been
scattered and no longer forms an
explicit target.
An estimated 5000 trucks have
been destroyed, but rail lines and
bridges are usually repaired with-
in 48 hours.
(This, however, involves 230,-
000 to 300,000 laborers diverted
specifically for repair work.) This
record compares unfavorably with
the Korean air war. There, even
after destroying over 35,000 trans-
port vehicles, the U.S. was un-
able to reduce the flow of supplies
in the later stages of that war.
ALREADY North Vietnamese
anti-aircraft fire has downed 400
$2.5 million planes. The rate is
rising; a peak was hit in De-
cember when eight planes were

U.S. negotiating with the North
downed in one day, Shortages in
planes, pilots and maintenance
crewmen caused by the war have
appeared in other areas where U.S.
commands are located.
Figures for the plane losses in
1965 were two-thirds of one per
cent; those for 1966 are classified
but certainly are higher and
climbing as North Vietnamese ac-
curacy improves. According to Sam
Butz, technical editor of the Air
Force Digest, one per cent losses
are supportable. but three per cent
losses over a long period of time
are not.
Three per cent losses means
that on the average one plane
will be able to fly only 33 missions
before it is shot down or hope-
lessly crippled. Many military per-
sons think that at the value of
present targets, the military loss
would not be worth the gain from
bombing.
A FURTHER factor that may
confront the bombing policy in
1967 comes from the addition of
100 new Soviet-supplied MIG's,
more than doubling the North

Vietnamese air force. While MIG's
have downed only about a dozen
U.S. planes, increased enemy air
activity and the installation of
Soviet SA-3 missiles with great-
er effectiveness than the SAM mis-
siles could raise the kill rate of
U.S. aircraft decisively.
North Vietnamese airfields have
been off-limits in the past due to
sporadic, ineffective MIG activ-
ity; should they become a signif-
icant part of the air war, as it
seems they may, the fields may
be added to bombing lists. Then,
however, North Vietnamese planes
may begin using bases across the
border in Communist China, which
will complicate the war consid-
erably.
With the apparent inability of
the bombings to bring spectacular
crippling of the war effort by the
North, the U.S. rationale for con-
tinuing the raids rests primarily
on their ability to psychologically
break the will of Hanoi's leaders
to continue the war. The John-
son administration would like to
drive Ho Chi Minh to sue for

peace, but the diplomatic efforts
of UN Secretary-General U Thant
to arrange a negotiated peace
have shown the continuation of
the bombings to be a major rea-
son for Hanoi's refusal to bargain.
THE WAR IN 1967 will see a
gradual intensification of the
bombing. One aspect of the bomb-
ing policy which could conceiv-
ably tone it down is world opin-
ion. The swift denial of the Pen-
tagon that the damage to civilian
areas in North Viet Nanmreported
by New York Times correspondent
Harrison Salisbury, was an inten-
tional part of U.S. policy, shows
that the military is still respon-
sive to world political censure.
Rep. Mendel Rivers (D-SC) is
one of the few congressmen to
take an extreme position on the
bombing policy: "Let's smash
North Viet Nam back into the
Stone Age and let world opinion
go hang." But Washington special-
ists are speculating in the wake
of Salisbury's interview with North
Viet Nam Premier Pham Van
Dong that Hanoi may be willing
to enter into negotiations if the
U.S. were to unconditionally halt
the bombing.
Because the bombings have
neither substantially crippled
Northern infiltration of the South,
nor weakened Hanoi's will to re-
sist, the rationale for their con-
tinuation has worn thin. The cost
to the U.S., militarily and political-
ly, outweighs any favorable re-
sults from the raids.
THE BEST POLICY would be
for the Johnson administration to
taper off the raids and use this
move as leverage to begin nego-
tiations toward the end of the
war. However, the U.S. has shown
stubborn persistence in pursuing
obsolete policies in the past.
But the prospects are slim that
a prolonged cessation of the bomb-
ing will occur. The raids are like-
ly to remain under close White
House supervision, with continued
avoidance of Hanoi and Haiphong
city limits, the Chinese border strip
and Soviet ships unloading in Hai-
phong harbor.

49

*

Letters: The Reasons for the Student Movement

To the Editor:
BY NOW it is rather general
knowledge just, exactly what
was the major cause of student
discontent last semester.
In brief the reasons include the
administration's intractable posi-
tion on the bookstore issue last
year (for which 14,000 students
signed a petition). The reason for
the administration's position was
based on the way in which the
University was related to the out-
side community. This relationship
put restrictions on the freedom
of action of the students, the Uni-
versity and the administrators.
Similarly when the University
submitted the list of names to
HUAC earlier this fall it was be-
cause of outside forces on the
University, students and adminis-
tration. When the administration
complied by submitting the names,
it capitulated to the outside forc-
es and the outside system.
And once again in the case of
the ranking referendum we see
that the administration's action
was based upon a subserviant re-
lationship to an irrelevant part of
the outside community (not to
mention its lack of respect for
students' opinion and welfare).
WHY SHOULD the University
community go on letting the ad-
ministration restrict its function-
ing at the expense of our welfare?
There is no reason why we should,
but there are obvious reasons why
we should not. What can we do?
I agree that we should set up
investigative committees to study
the problem and to work out an
agreeable solution. But how much
sense does that make after we have
seen what makes the administra-
toin run? I ask, what can we do
to insure student power in making
decisions on policy which affect
the University community?

We must make the administra-
tion subservient to us the same
way it is subservient to Ann Arbor
merchants, HUAC and the Selec-
tive Service. How do we do this?
By looking at the behavior of the
University in the past we know
that what makes the administra-
tion run is its public relations and
press coverage.
IN FACT it is a fear of doing
the wrong thing in the eyes of
the public. It is a fear of disrup-
tive situations and it is upon
these reasons that such disruption
must be at the very least consid-
ered as a means to force the ad-
ministration to be subservient to
the University community and to
act in the interests of our wel-
fare.
It will be in this way that the
administration will be forced to
accept student-faculty-administra-
tion decision making processes as
being in the interests of the Uni-
versity welfare. And it is towards
this goal that we must strive us-
ing the most efficient, effective,
and meaningful tactics at our dis-
posal.
-Charles Cherney
Power
To the Editor:
POWER is the possession of con-
trol, authority, or influence
over others. In a democratic com-
munity power is derived from peo-
ple who are influenced toward a
common goal. This power is di-
rectly proportional to the number
of individuals involved in a move-
ment and as more individuals ac-
knowledge their support, power in-
creases.
It seems, though, that the stu-
dent-faculty movement at Michi-
gan is losing power because the

number of active participants is
dropping.
On Monday, November 21, 4000
students took part in the Student
Government Council's teach-in.
The faculty firmly supported the
students and helped the students
force the administration to grant
some concessions. The November
29 sit-in was also an expression
of student power, but only 1500
students participated and fewer
faculty members backed this ac-
tion.
Later, fewer students showed
support and the faculyt express-
ed concern that they were not be-
ing included in the movement; the
administration was not affected.
The trend that has developed dem-
onstrates the students inability to
increase their power or to even
hold the power that was once
theirs.
I HAVE one suggestion for
forming a strong base of power
from which to work, that could
lead to widespread student involve-
ment rather than following the
trend that has already begun.
This method involves personal
contact between members of SGC,
Voice, or the other organizations
actively participating in this move-
ment with small groups of stu-
dents who are vaguely aware but
are not clear on the underlying
factors of the movement.
With this idea in mind, I rec-
ommend that representatives from
these organizations go into every
fraternity, every sorority, and
every house in the dormitories to
explain the purposes and aims of
the movement so that students
might understand the movement
and have the opportunity to ex-
press their own views.
By causing discussion I do not
feel that the movement will out-
wardly change overnight, but at

least, the student body will be in-
formed and interested.,
-George E. Ladner, '70
A Thing of Value
To the Editor:
EARLIER this past term my
roommate and I decided that it
would be stylish and conducive to
studying to divide our room into
study and sleeping quarters. We
were fortunate -enough to acquire
the wheel from FIRSTOFALL (see
picture in Daily) to serve as a
divider. Having checked the hous-
ing contract and also with the
maid, it became apparent to us
that this was a legal addition to
our room furniture.
On returning this year, the men
of Lloyd house were shocked to
find that West Quad had author-
ized it to be, not only removed
and destroyed on the grounds that
our partition, stuck in the corner,
interferred with cleaning.
IN THEIR DEVOTION to clean-
liness, two (employes say four or
five) janitors labored 12, hours
cutting a 70-inch, two-inch thick
wheel which they could not get
out the door. This inefficiency is
appalling since two of us rolled
the wheel into the room in less
than five minutes! Surely West
Quad could have had the good
faith and common courtesy to ask
us to remove it ourselves. Instead
they clandestinely removed and de-
stroyed personal propert'y without
notice.
I have just received a bill for
$6 in labor charges at a time when
I am being urged to seek retribu-
tion from West Quad. Should they
decry the value, both cash and
sentimental, of the wheel then
let them replace it with a reason-
able facsimile. '
-John J. White, '70

Apathy Dies
To the Editor:
TwO MONTHS ago you would
have had to look far to find
a student any more apathetic than
myself. The events of the last
few weeks though, have made me
see things that I had never no-
ticed before. But the purpose of
this letter isn't to show how I
suddenly became involved or why,
but just to state the fact I did
become involved.
FOR THE FIRST TIME since
I came to the university I was
concerned about what was going
on. There's been a lot written
about whether the student move-
ment here is dead-I don't think
so and I don't know why, but I
feel I must say why I don't think
so. It is true that the fever has
died down but then I don't think
anyone can expect to maintain a
fever pitch indefinitely.
The reason I say that the
"movement" isn't dead is because
if those students are like me at
all, and I think they probably are,
then they won't be able to forget
that feeling quickly. When the
time comes again for students to
rally their support in a show of
strength on this problem, they
will remember the teach-in and
the sit-in.
WHAT IS NEEDED is a sense
of urgency. It is hard to keep fever
high when the desired goal seems
far off, but there are many of us
who still are concerned, who are
keeping up on developments and
who are still behind SGC.
The enthusiasm of four weeks
ago wasn't born to die so early
a death. It remains to be coaxed
out, ithat's all.
-Maureen DeLong, '69

'"

Adam Clayton Powell

RECENT CHARGES by some Negro lead-
ers that the investigation of Repre-
sentative Adam Clayton Powell (D-NY)
activities is a racist attack are totally ir-
responsible and represent a perversion of.
the civil rights ideology.
Since its inception, the civil rights
movement has worked for social and eco-
nomic equality for Negroes as a matter of
right. Even the "black power" advocates
have not deviated from this basic philos-
ophy by asking for Negro power as a
matter ofr ight. But the defenders of
Powell including such a distinguished
spokesman as A. Phillip Randolph seem to
be arguing that because the congressman
is a Negro, he has a special privilege to,
make a mockery of the law.
THE INVESTIGATION of Powell's use of
committee funds as chairman of the
House Committee on Labor and Education
and the moves to unseat the Harlem con-
gressman raise some serious questions. His
flaunting of the law in a New York libel
and subsequent contempt of court case
raise the question of Powell's fitness to
serve in Congress. The nepotism, on his

use cast serious doubts on Rep. Powell's
integrity.,
POWELL'S ABUSE of his public position
is probably no worse than that of any
number of senators and representatives.
The Congress is a tightly-knit organiza-
tion and generally highly tolerant of its
members breaches of ethics and public
trust.
Powell, however, has violated the folk-
ways of the House by being so blatant
in his offenses as to bring real embarass-
ment to the Congress as an institution.
Nepotism and junketeering are quite com-
mon in Congress, and Powell's activities
probably would have been quietly ignor-
ed had he not created a public spectacle
by being chased out of his home state by
process servesr attempting to arrest him
for criminal contempt.
YET THE "RACIST" charges by Ran-
dolph and others ignore the serious is-
sues by throwing in a red herring. Just
because Adam Clayton Powell is a Negro
and represents an overwhelmingly Negro
district, does not render him immune to
the laws of the country. Those who feel

*1

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