Thursday, May 2,1968
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Thursday, May 2, 1968 THE MICHIGAN DAILY
SEE SOVIET INFLUENCE:
Laotian offensive halted
Committee agrees
on budget reductions
Rocky
wins
Mass.
VIENTIANE, Laos (A) - Com-
munist forces in Laos have called
a halt to their massive drive
against the neutralist government
of Premier Souvanna Phouma,
Western military sources said yes-
terday.
Attacks on government posi-
tions by North Vietnamese and
Pathet Lao forces, while still
heavier than for many years, have
dropped off significantly from the
high level which coincided with
the Viet Cong's lunar new year
offensive in Vietnam, the inform-
ants said.
A spokesman of the royal Lao-
tian army said it was possible the
Communists were regrouping for
a new onslaught, but some West-
ern diplomats believe discreet
pressure from the Soviet Union
toned down the divided kingdom's
shadowy jungle war.
Clashes and Communist mortar
attacks are reported almost daily
by government .otposts in disput-
* ed areas. But casualties are now
numbered in twos and threes in-
stead of in hundreds.
There is no more talk of North
Vietnam's "general o f f e n s i v e
against the Laotian Kingdom."
Communist military activity has
centered largely on an area the
Communists lost to government
forces in the years following the
1962 Geneva treaty on the neu-
trality and independence of Laos.
The area of Communist control
covers almost all the eastern
highlands along the 1,00-mile-
long border with North and South
Vietnam.
South of the 17th Parallel, it in-
cludes the numerous jungle tracks
of Communist infiltration into
South Vietnam which are known
collectively as the Ho Chi Minhi
trail.
The 75,000 troops supporting
the government receive U.S. mili-
tary aid running at more than $10
million a year.
They are backed by regular
bomb attacks on Communist
forces in Laos by American planes
based in neighboring Thailand.
The United States maintains ra-
dar sites inside Laos to guide
American bombers and reconnais-
sance planes to North Vietnam
and to Communist targets in this
country.
These sites, often protected by
loyal tribesmen, are manned by
American civilians.
Western diplomats believe there
are hopeful signs that the Com-
munists do not intend to overrun
the fertile, densely populated Me-
kong plains facing Thailand.
"They could come down to the
Mekong any day they wanted to,,
one Western military source said.
"The really significant thing is
that they are not exploiting their
obvious military advantage."
Several Western diplomats here
attribute this apparent restraint
to the influence of the Soviet
Union, apparently anxious to
block any Communist initiative
in the area which could place
new obstacles on the difficult
road to peace in Vietnam.
The Russians, ignoring a flow
of abuse from Peking, continue to
recognize and help finance the
three-nation International Con-
trol Commission setup for Laos
under the 1962 treaty.
The commission, comprising
Poland, Canada and India, has
been paralyzed for years by East-
West disagreements. But its con-
tinued existence with Russian
support has led many Western ob-
servers to the conclusion that the
Soviet Union wants Laos to re-
turn to the neutrality and co-
alition regime promised by the
1962 treaty as soon as the Viet-
nam war has ended.
WASHINGTON (R') - President
Johnson's campaign for a $10-bil-
lion tax increase was blasted out
of deadlock yesterday when the
House Appropriations Committee
agreed on an $18 billion total long
and short range appropriations
cut.
The administration promptly
accepted the proposed formula.
The committee specified that
the reduction must include an ac-
See related story, Page 8
tual spending cut of not less than
$4 billion during the year begin-!
ning July 1.
The committee action, adoption
of a resolution setting out its in-
tentions, does not guarantee that
the tax-economy bill will be pass-
ed, or even that it will be submitt-
ed in the form outlined.
But the committee resolution
specified that the 1969 appropria-
tions cuts should not be applied
to special Vietnam costs, trust
funds such as those for Social
Security, and other "relatively un-
controllable" items.
This is how the Appropriations
Committee resolution would parcel
out the cuts:'f
1. In acting on the appropria-
tions bills now before it, for the
year starting July 1, Congress
would reduce Johnson's budget re-
quests for that year by not lessN
than $10 billion. BOSTON ( P) - Gov. Nelson A. I about 1,000
election
0 votes on the same day
2. It would provide that at least
$4 billion of the reduction must
actually be reflected in reduced
Treasury outlays during the com-
ing year. The rest of the $10-bil-
lion slash could come out of ap-
propriations voted now, but involv-
ing spending in the future.
3. Appropriations carried over
from previous years but as yet un-
spent, estimated to total about
$222 billion, would be reduced by
$8 billion. The administration
would be given a chance to allocate
this reduction when it makes its
budget recommendations in Janu-
ary.
CONTROVERSY
The $4 billion actual spending
reduction for fiscal year 1969 im-
mediately emerged as the most
controversial part of the package.
The Senate has voted a $6-bil-
lion cut. Rep. Wilbur D. Mills (D-
Ark), chairman both of the tax-
writing Ways and Means Commit-
tee and of the Senate-House con-
ference on the bill, is known to
believe that a $4 billion reduction,
combined with a $10-billion in-
crease in revenues, is not enough.
a.. v wf m v~a v.- ..wv " a vaeaFa im i M~w.G i V ,
Rockefeller of New York won a
surprise victory on the Republi-
can ballot in the Massachusetts
primary on write-in support that
developed with the announcement
of his presidential candidacy.
Gov. John A. Volpe, running
unopposed as a favorite son, had
been expected to win, but the
tabulation of returns showed yes-
terday that Rockefeller won by
that he entered the race.
Sen. Eugene J. McCarthy of
Minnesota, the only candidate on
the Democratic ballot, received
slightly more than 50 per cent of
his party's vote. Sen. Robert F.
Kennedy (D-N.Y.), ran second,
outdistancing Vice President Hu-
bert H. Humphrey by a 3-2 mar-
gin in write-ins.
Former Vice President Richard
Rockefeller suggests
U.S.-C inese rapport
I
By The Associated Press
Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller call-
ed yesterday for closer contacts
with Communist China and the
de-"Americanization" of the war
in Vietnam.
"We should encourage contact
and communication for the good
of us both," he said. "This could
significantly affect the whole fu-
raiiipaign
t 68
ture of our /relations with the
Communist world."
Rockefeller made the statement
in a full dress review of American
foreign policy and problems in a
speech before the World Affairs
Council of Philadelphia.
On the Vietnamese war, he said,
a "purely military solution" can-
I
not be achieved, and he added,'
"The 'Americanization' of the ef-
fort, military and civilian, should
be reversed."
It was Rockefeller's first day of
formal campaigning since an-
nouncing he is challenging Rich-
ard M. Nixon for the Republican
nomination for president.
Rockefeller's central theme was
that events in the past two decades
have outstripped American'policy,
that American diplomatic, n ili-
tary and economic concepts are
out of date.
"Neither our ideas nor our goals
nor our policies have kept pace
with the speed of a revolutionary
age," Rockefeller said. "We are
thus approaching the 1970's with
the ideas and devices of the 1940's
and 1950's."
VC IN GOVERNMENT
Without spelling out his exact
meaning, Rockefeller appeared to
favor a role in South Vietnamese
"political life" for the National
Liberation Front-the Viet Cong.
As to peace negotiations, he
said, "We have nothing to fear
-and all to gain-from the care-
ful and responsible quest for a
negotiated settlement."
Globally, Rockefeller said, the
U.S. does not see eye-to eye with
the rest of the world.
In Washington Vice President
Hubert H. Humphrey wooed busi-
nessmen yesterday as more pro-
gressive than politicians and told
them "the war on poverty is you."
LIBERAL HUBERT
Humphrey told the luncheon of
the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
that some businessmen have even
"out liberaled Hubert Humphrey."
Humphrey said the problems of
the slums are beyond speech-
making and demogogery.
He warned against violence,
looting and arson, saying, "In our
desire for change we must not
abandon or destroy the institutions
and the principles that have pro-
vided so much for so many." .
M. Nixon was third in the Repub-
lican column, about 5,000 votes
behind Rockefeller, and McCarthy
was fourth, gaining write-in votes
on almost 10 per cent of the
G.O.P. ballots.
Rockefeller will get the state's
34 votes on the first ballot at the
Republican National Convention,
and McCarthy sewed up the
state's 72 first ballot votes at the
Democratic convention. A new
state law requires convention
delegates to vote on the first bal-
lot for their party's preference
winner.
Rockefeller had no campaign
organization in the state, al-
though there had been latent sup-
port for him, and Sen. Edward W.
Brooke (R-Mass), was in the
forefront of Republicans who
urged him to run.
As late as mid-April, Brooke
had said he expected Vdlpe to win
the primary, but thought that
Rockefeller would receive most of
the state's' votes on subsequent
ballots at the Republican con-
vention.
World news
roundup
By The Associated Press
JERUSALEM -Israel put up
roadblocks around Jerusalem yes-
terday and border troops wearing
green berets patrolled the city to
maintain strict security for today's
huge military parade marking Is-
rael's 20th anniversary.
Preparations for the parade
have touched off a barrage of de-
nunciation from Arab capitals.
President Gamal Abdel Nasser of
Egypt and the leaders of Syria,
Algeria and Iraq have told their
people to prepare for new fighting-
against Israel.
* * *
WASHINGTON-Negotiators in
the two-week old nationwide tele-
phone strike reportedly have vir-
tually wrapped up a wage settle-
ment and are close to an over all
contract agreement that could
come as early as today.
* a
SAIGON-U.S. marines were
locked in battle late yesterday with
North Vietnamese in the north-
east, where the enemy appears to
have shifted forces to menace the
marine base at Dong Ha.
It was the third straigbt day of
fighting in this sector, and the
U.S. Command received few de-
tails. But it reported battles. in
this area cost the enemy 616 dead
Monday and Tuesday.
The new fighting broke out two
miles northeast of Dong Ha and
about nine miles south of the de-
militarized zone dividing Vietnam.
1968 DINNER"-FILM SERIES
May 3 THE CARDINAL
May 10 NOTH ING BUT A MAN
May 17 THE THREE FACES OF EVE
May 24 THE PAWNBROKER
May 31 THE BURMESE HARP
June 7 BILLY BUDD
June 14 FAIL SAFE
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