i i i n 4t argn Dail Seventy-Sixth Year EDrrED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSrTY OF MICHIGAN UNDER AUTHORrTY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS Interview With a Viet Nam Veteran ere Opinion, Are Free* Truth WM Pre"Ai 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, MICH. 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. THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 1967 NIGHT EDITOR: DANIEL OKRENT The Issues Before SGC. To Recognize Non-Students .. . THE RIGHT of students to associate with whomever they please is one which the University, Student Govern- ment Council, or anyone else cannot and should not deny. Under the current rules and regulations governing student orga- nizations, this right is limited to a cer- tain extent when non-students are pro- hibited from being voting members or officers of student organizations. At tonight's meeting SGC has an oppor- tunity to change this situation by pass- ing an amendment which would allow student organizations to include non-stu- dents as full members of their group if they so desire. If the proposed change were passed, recognized organizations would be requir- ed to have a membership of at least half students and of at least two-thirds stu- dents, alumni, or people recently enrolled in the University who have definite plans for re-enrolling. The proposal would also require that student groups have at least two student officers. THE UNIVERSITY is not such an exclu- sive club that it can deny that any- one who is not in, i.e., enrolled, has any- thing to offer as a member of a student group. Residents of Ann Arbor, people visiting the city or the University for extended periods of time, recent alumni who are aware of campus and student in- terests, and other non-students of these types could be very valuable members of organizations. Under the present regulations, non- students can only participate on a token basis. By being able to 'vote and hold some form of leadership positions, nonstudents would be encouraged to participate and offer contributions. A frequent objection to the change is the fear that non-students could take control of an organization and use it for their own purposes. However, no organi- zation would be required to accept non- student members. The change is in the form of a minimum standard which all organizations must meet. Organizations which prefer to retain students as the only voting members would have that op- portunity, by establishing their own more stringent membership requirements. Also, the requirements of half student membership and two student officers are designed to prevent any non-student take-overs. Unfortunately these provi- sions are not readily enforceable since there are no longer any membership lists to check and since taking a head count at a meeting to determine whether the organization is complying would be diffi- cult and perhaps inaccurate with regard to the yearly membership. In addition, the very idea of SGC offi- cials snooping at meetings and counting heads is repugnant to the concept of a university's student government. IN A SITUATION such as the non-stu- dent question, however, the intent of the change becomes more significant than feasibility of its enforcement, for the current regulations concerning non-stu- dent membership are not enforceable either. The change, ineffective as it may seem in regard to actual control, does recog- nize the value of non-students in the University community and should be ap- proved. -ROB BEATTIE This is the text of an inter- view with Hollis M. Peter, a 1964 graduate of the University, who has recently returned from army service in Vietnam. MR. PETER, what was your position while in Vietnam? I was an intelligence officer with the First Air Cavalry Divi- sion in the Central Highlands from January, 1966-January, 1967. S was an imagery interpreter, working with aerial photographs and electronic sensor imagery tak- en by the Aerial Surveillance and Target Acquisition (ASTA) pla- toon-fixed wing OV-1 Mohawks. What contact did you have with the Vietnamese peasant population? What incidents that you might know of demonstrate their loyalty to one side or the other? I had little contact with Viet- namese peasants and none with ARVN (the South Vietnamese Ar- my) officials other than Vietna- mese interpreters assigned to our Military Intelligence Detachment. Working in a technical field, I had limited opportunity to go out to the field on operations. When I did, I spent much of my off duty time visiting the towns, vil- lages, and, in one instance, a Montagnard hospital near Kon- tum. In An Khe, my only contacts were with those people catering to GI's-selling cokes, haircuts, shoe- shines, cheap trinkets, etc. In the field, I do remember driving through towns several times when I could see the elders watching the convoy blankly or with obvious dislike as the chil- dren begged for C-rations at the road's edge. The young kids often smiled and waved, but the old people stood silent and staring. The kids like GI's because we are soft-hearted and give them can- dy and cigarettes, but the people who are old enough to under- stand the war-if any of them do -feel no love for us. A full generation of Vietnamese children has never seen their country in peace and has grown up with war as a condition of existence. I remember a story told to me by a helicopter pilot when I first got to thecavalry. In the late summer and fall of 1965 when the cavalry first arrived, the peo- ple fromAn Khe were hired to work in what was to become our base camp, clearing timber and brush and washing the dust from helicopters. Soon after this practice was started choppers began to blow up mysteriously. An investigation revealed that the children who washed the choppers smuggled in hand grenades and dropped these into the gas tanks. When the primitive delay fuse was triggered, the grenades would explode and destroy the aircraft. Also, the ice cream and ice sold to GI's at first often contained slivers of glass designed toelaceraterone's stomach. These items were also sold by kids because they knew we would not suspect children of these acts. ONE INCIDENT to which I was a witness was an attack on the base camp in February, 1966. Our counter intelligence office report- ed that about one-third of An Khe was Viet Cong, either active or sympathetic, while the rest were uncommitted, but still eager for American money. After the at- tack we found out that the vil- lagers had been preparing for it for several weeks, digging mortar positions, laying down aiming stakes for automatic weapons, marking approach routes and fin- ally, on the night of the attack, actually leading the Viet Cong in- fantry to their assault positions. This was done in such complete secrecy that our agents in town knew nothing of it and the cav- alry was caught unprepared. All this gave me the definite impression that the people had been involved willingly as they had either helped or remained silent when there were ways to let us know had they wished. How do the GI's feel towar~d the Vietnamese-both the peas- ants and the government offi- cials? Most GI's feel ambivalence to- ward the Vietnamese. We pity them for their terrible poverty, hardships and idlenesses, but on the other hand, we despise them for their lack of initiative and in- credible apathy. We give candy and food to the kids because we feel sorry that anyone must starve and be unhappy. We also curse them for their filthy habits, such as throwing trash all over, defe- cating and urinating whenever and wherever the need arises, and letting everything around them become dirty, broken, and shabby. What many GI's do not realize is that the people have never had much, and when they do, it is taken for taxes, stolen, or destroy- ed by war. Whatever hygiene that might once have -been practiced has been discontinued as use- less, just as almost all other ac- tivities except marginal existence have been discarded. Bribery and corruption are wide- spread and are accepted as nor- mal in a land where one's con- science does not extend to anyone outside the immediate family. BLACK MARKET activities flourish everywhere, from Saigon down to An Khe. Army supplies unavailable through channels are often available on the black mar- ket, and "scrounging" is the only way to obtain certain items. home safely. They' have such a low regard for all things Vietna- mese that concern for the people is rarely felt. These statements will be chal- lenged by those who got more in- volved with civic reform programs, but my impressions came from men in the field, away from TV cameras who did not feel that they had to justify their presence there and did not feel very help- ful or benevolent. What did you find was the effect of the combat experience upon the soldiers? I have talked extensively to in- fantrymen, trying to get their im- pression of combat, and I found that almost universally they re- port fear and nervousness as over- powering emotions. It is almost impossible for me, who has not been through it, to understand the emotional state of a man creeping through the jungle brush toward a village from which his unit has been receiving hostile fire. He is scared and jumpy, espe- cially if some of his buddies have been hit recently. If anything moves, he shoots at it because it might be a Viet Cong. The over- whelming desire is to survive at any and all costs. GI's sometimes kill innocent people by mistake in their efforts to stay alive. MANY OF THE MEN I talked to had nightmares from killing women and children, but vowed they would do it again under the every living thing in it - men, women, children, and animals. We are shocked by this type of action, but their pacification programs work because the Vietnamese are afraid of them. The American Marines suppos- edly have many civic action pro- grams, but my experience with them was on an operation near the coast, when a battalion of Marines was attached to the cav- alry. I saw Marine choppers bring in "POW's" who had been tied up and beaten with rifle butts until they were unable to talk or move about. The prisoners included kids, old men and old women who had been taken without weapons, doc- uments or any other indications of hostile activity. Their treatment of prisoners got so bad that their commander was threatened with disciplinary action if the beatings continued. They stopped almost immediately-that time. THE ARVN troops are cruel and brutal to Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army prisoners, as well as the civilians in their oper- ational areas. One must remem- ber that the war deadens one's senses after a time and harsh measures are accepted with little comment, but the ARVN's seem to enjoy torture and are very in- genious at it. Atrocities are committed by both sides. North Vietnamese Army sol- diers skinned our wounded alive and hung them by their heels from trees in the Ia Drang Valley and have beheaded pilots, while we have taken scalps at Bong Son and mutilated prisoners with hatchets, but these occurrences are not common or widespread in the U.S. Army. In the South Vietnamese mili- tary, torture, mutilation, and slay- ing of POW's is relatively com- mon, especially in battle, away from advisors and reporters, who cannot be everywhere at once. What do you think of the South Vietnamese Army? How do they compare with the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese troops? I have an extremely low opin- ion of the South Vietnamese mil- itary. Except for elite units, they have no morale, no discipline, and are of dubious value as soldiers. I do not know much about how they are recruited, but there is a draft that affects almost everyone. One of our interpreters was a school teacher in Saigon. He had a two year hitch to serve and told me that he could hardly wait to get out and go back to his teaching job. He wanted no part of the army or the war and was not afraid to tell me so. On an operation, I drove through a complex of dirty, run- down buildings strewn with gar- bage, junk, and shabbily dressed men. I thought it was a refugee camp until I was told it was a basic training center. I was shock- ed. Compared to a U.S. center, it was horrible. Instead of being trained in hygiene, discipline and conduct, these men were lounging around like a pack of hobos. No wonder they have a terri- ble army. They have no will to fight, no leadership, and appear to be content to draw their pay and keep on living-an unsurprising desire in light of the fact that many of them are the sole support for large families and that death benefits and pensions for soldiers are limited. I HAVE little basis for evaluat- ing the ARVN soldiers' respect for the people, only having heard sec- ond hand of their poor behavior to civilians in combat areas, but the paramilitary national police are loathed by all for their cruelty, arrogance, and corruption. Employes of the government (army, police, and officials) be- lieve in the Ky government be- cause it is paying them. Ameri- can backing is the only reason Ky is still in power and the men in ranks know it, but they don't care who is in power as long as they keep getting paid. Some of the ARVN interpreters seemed to feel that Ky was better than Diem had been, but hastened to add that anybody was better than Diem. The North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong, on the other hand have a much deeper commitment to their cause. Both feel that they are fighting to free Vietnam from foreign control and to unite her under a free Vietnamese govern- ment, not one dominated by both the U.S. and rich, feudalistic Viet- namese who do not want to help all the people, but are mort in- terested in getting rich from the war. I TALKED at length to an American interrogator about the ideology of our prisoners and he said that almost none of them had ever heard the word "Com- munist" and that very few had any conception of politics, ideology or international relations. They had been recruited with slogans urging them to fight the foreign- ers and their puppets, to help unite Vietnam, and to end unfair government taxes. The Viet Cong fought for basic things, such as local autonomy, for they are mostly uneducated, unsophisticated peasants. I have less experience with North Vietna- mese but know they have better clothing, weapons, and discipline than the Viet Cong and are proud- er and better soldiers than most ARVN's. A captured rifleman stat- ed that man for man, his unit could beat any unit in the world except the Koreans and it was merely the overwhelming power of our artillery, airplanes, and logis- tics that kept them from pushing us into the sea. He was tired and scared, but proud - a surprising fact since he could only expect prison torture and death in the hands of the South Vietnamese. In light of the terrible conditions facing the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese, I have much respect for their ability to continue the war, knowing that militarily the chances of an early end to it are very slim. What do the South Vietna- mese people think of their gov- ernment and the Americans? Most civilians know very little about the government or indeed of Vietnam. The peasants are in- terested only in what occurs in their hamlet, village, or perhaps in their district. Most have almost no conception of Vietnam as a coun- try and those that do, want it united without foreign influence or dominance, regardless of our benevolent intentions. Their only khowledge of the South, Vietnam government comes, in many cases, from a tax collec- tor taking their goods in payment for government protection which often does not materialize and is usually not desired, or from, gov- ernment troops shooting up the town or shelling the area in at- tempts to get Viet Cong, who are often members of the community. Most peasants dislike their gov- ernment because it is a strange and alien organization that in- terferes with their lives (similarly to our hill people in the Appala- chians). THE SAME feeling applies to Americans, although we have the added disadvantage of being tall white (and black) foreigners who resemble the French in physical appearance and behavior. Most Vietnamese dislike all foreigners and we are no exception. While they are amused and' amazed at our lavish spending and attempts to aid them medically and with civic reform, they still see us as interlopers, and their weariness and disgust with war and soldiers overrides any good feeling they might. have for us as people trying to help them. We cannot hope to remake these people into capitalists, Chris- tians, or Westerners. Thei whole history has molded their ways of thought and behavior in a man- ner that is alien to ours; we seem to feel that we'll help them to love democracy western style, or kill them in the attempt. This is wrong. 4 ... To Eliminate Ex-Officio Seats Hollis M. Peter BORN OF THE 1954 Lang Report that established Student Government Coun- cil, the voting ex-officio seats now occu- pied by organizational heads have become as obsolete as the paternalistic report that fathered them. The Lang Report recommenced the in- clusion of ex-officios on the basis that they would provide moderation for an otherwise impotent body. It now seems that with the possibility of a sweeping change in SGC's structure coming out of the expected fall report of the Presi- dential Committee on Decision-making, the abolition of the ex-officios' vote would be a fitting first step toward pro- viding the University with an effective, representative student government. Currently, the ex-officios serve no oth- er purpose than to provide expertise in matters with which they have a first- hand familiarity. They either represent no one or they represent special student interest groups, and in the cases where they do have a constituency, those rep- resented have inordinate strength on the Council. PERHAPS THE EASIEST way to note the deficiency in the current system is to analyze the positions of each of the current organization presidents who serve on SGC: 0 Interfraternity Council and Panhel- lenic Association. These are the two or- ganizations that likely come closest to "representing" student opinion, albeit of special interest. However, when assert- ing that the IFC president is more in touch with his constituency than the at- 'large, elected member of SGC who as- sumes representation of 30,000 students, proponents of ex-officios fail to recog- nize that the IFC head more closely rep- resents the IFC as an institution than he does those students in fraternities. Apart from this, and perhaps more important, is the point that each fra- ternity or sorority member who is con- sidered represented by the organization's head' is also represented by the at-large members he-may vote for twice per year. Thus, fraternity and. sorority members' are in possession of dual representation, having one extra vote by virtue of their affiliation. r Inter-House Assembly. The grant- ing of a seat to the president of this has the double representation of the Greeks, but, in addition, deserves the in- equity even less, if one dares recognize degrees of inequality. The dormitory resident, more often than not, is not a resident of the sys- tem by choice; he or she is herded toward the large institutional living structures under the aegis of the University rule that requires supervised housing for all freshmen and for sophomore women. Dor- mitory residents do not generally choose their living positions, nor do they usually actively associate with the system or the unit. a UAC: This amalgam of the old Men's Union and the Women's League holds the most 'ludicrously assigned seat of the four ex-officios. UAC is, indeed, an activity and service organization; its executive board is self-perpetuating, ap- proved by a combination of previous ex- ecutive officers and the Union's Board of Governors. No student is a "member" of UAC; one may attend UAC sponsored concerts at Hill Auditorium, or one may work for the organization, but nobody "belongs" to it. To give a vote to the president of UAC is as ridiculous as to grant a vote to the College Republicans, Voice, or the Women's Athletic Asso- ciation. IT IS TRUE when the pro-ex-officio fac- tion argues that these organizations can provide expertise to SGC member- ship; but this "expertise" could readily be extended without giving the orga- nizations' heads a vote. Additionally, there is no reason why any apartment dweller should tolerate a situation whereby any freshman sor- ority pledge is represented by the same at-large council members as the former individual, and is also in the constituency of the IHA president and the head of Panhellenic. THERE IS NO REASON, then, that ex- officio seats should remain. There is no reason why, when a sorority issue is discussed, that the Panhel president should not be invited to provide expert testimony at that SGC meeting. And there is no reason why, as some cur- rently associated with SGC say, the ques- tion of ex-officios should be postponed until the Hatcher commission makes its fail 'rpnrt GI's hate the thievery and dis- honesty of Vietnamese, but con- tinue to support the system for its convenience and the profit they can make themselves if they engage in the black market. The South Vietnamese govern- ment was not much in evidence in the Highlands, as we rarely conducted operations with ARVN- troops. The most visible remind- ers of the government were the National Police, or "white mice" (because of their white uniforms), universally held in abysmally low repute by our troops for their ar- rogance, incompetence, and shod- dy discipline and appearance. Many GI's felt that the South Vietnamese government is full of corrupt men who are out to make the most of continuing the war since this means a steady influx of money into their pockets, but the GI's have very little good in- formation or interest in this sub- ject. They realize that graft is an accepted practice with both U.S. and Vietnamese officials, but see no way to do anything about it themselves and feel that it is not their job to say anything. Many feel the people are getting a raw deal from the government and that the war is not helping much either, but are mainly concerned with getting home themselves. GI's want more than anything else to get through their year and circumstances because bitter ex- perience had showed them that to hesitate or not shoot was often fatal. Besides many GI's feel that the lives of all of the Vietnamese are not worth that of a single American. They are hard and savage in battle, but often surprisingly hu- mane. Once we captured a Viet Cong lieutenant who later aided us in interrogation of prisoners- of-war because he saw our med- ics give aid under fire to three of his men, when the easiest thing would have been to just leave them or else shoot them. He decided we were not ogres as he had been told and was won over to our side.dThis story was told to me by the American in- terpreter who interrogated him. What is the extent of bru- tality practiced by both sides? I have no way of judging the brutality in other units, but I got a pretty good idea from ru- mors and reports from men work- ing with them. The cavalry has some brutality, but most of our units will usually take POW's and keep them alive for interroga- tion, for they know that the in- formation gained may save U.S. lives later. The Koreans are sav- age and are widely feared by Viet Cong and North Vietnamese for they rarely take prisoners and re- putedly clear an area by killing ', .. : r .r.....:::. : r.: "....... r....... .. 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". h........ "Y .. ....'ยง. 1.1.1:.'1 r:" :. "r ,JN:.. , l ,., ': iflf Y:::: ::'::: ::.ll . " 7-'I .......... ........... ".. " .................................................."r.................Y:..l.,..............,...,.,.. ".,......,...a..J...n.,.. "......, h.......... n.......... ., h..........nr".......lrn.,....,J.. n...............1....,.:. $J.f , ..",".:.i.}by., i.r.. n..afn.....,..<.l.,.Y /:.. ".a. h i,.{:.r. l.''.r.r.l..........., . "..0.,% b ri{ . Letters.* Answering the Maynard St- Questions, To the Editor: THE EDITORIAL, "Maynard Street Transactions . ," in yesterday's Daily, asks three ques- tions. Here are the answers to those parts of the questions di- rected to the University. (1) I did not allow Mr. Stege- man to withdraw his bid. Mr. Stegeman unilaterally withdrew his bid in les than 30 days and thereby forfeited his bid bond of $8,075, as stated in paragraph 6 of the University statement pub- lished in The Daily April 5. (A further question might be, why not accept Stegeman's bid and sue for the bid price of $161,500? Be- cause the bid was made by Stege- man, "not in his individual capa- city but on behalf of a corpora- tion to be formed." We were ad- vised that there was no personal second highest bid of $121,750 plus the forfeited bond brought the price for the property to about 30 per cent higher than the $100,000 appraised value. (3) In response to your third question, the minutes show that the Regents voted unanimously to sell the property and to accept the second highest bid after the first bid was withdrawn. --W. K. Pierpont Vice President and Chief Financial Officer A Week Lute To the Editor: A SALUTE to yesterday's front- page story, "Sky's No Limit in Ann Arbor Real Estate." I hold Mayor Hulcher and the two Republican professor - aldermen (Doug Crary R-2nd Ward, and Dark Suggestions To the Editor: THE STATEMENT in yesterday's editorial concerning the sale by the University of its Maynard street property that "The Univer- sity then allowed Stegeman to withdraw his bid, and the ques- tion posed in the same editorial, "Why did Pierpont allow Stege- man to withdraw?", create a mis- leading impression that the Uni- versity and Mr. Pierpont had open to them an alternative course of actionwhich they elected not to pursue. The fact is that under the cir- cumstances set forth in the edi- torial and accompanying news stories, the term "allowed" is to- tally meaningless. Withdrawal of the bid was a unilateral act of the V,;AA - T-- - - .-.n- if11- ,l +r whether to accept the second high- est bid or to reopen the bidding at the substantial risk of losing a sale at a price over 20 per cent in excess of ,the appraised value. The decision went in favor of the bird in the hand. It is difficult to find in these circumstances reasonable basis for questioning either the pro- priety or the economic justifica- tion of the decisions made by Mr. Pierpont and the University. The dark suggestions of "suspicion" and "doubt" made by the editorial seem quite uncalled for. -Luke K. Cooperrider Prfessor of Law Young Dents To the Editor: A S MEMBERS of the executive Through fear of being associated with the far-left, the Young Dem- ocrats have too often failed to take positive stands. As conscien- tious citizens we believe we can- not further abnegate our responsi- bility to provide rational leader- ship in the anti-war movement. -Janis L. Sorkin, '68 -Jared H. Becker, '67 -Cecily B. Simon, '67 -Martin W. Slobin, '69L -Dee R.Wernette, Grad Boorishness To the Editor: THE MOST STRIKING thing about the recent disrupting of the future University President's conference was the boorishness of the disrupters. If they i'eally have a cause it mitht befavrablr r e a