by Ioua eheioi
94 e Sifigran Daily
Seventy-eight years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan
T hat was the week that was no exception
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.
Editorials printed in The Michigan [
or the edifors. T
TUESDAY, MAY 27, 1969
News Phone: 764-0552
Doily express the individual opinions of staff writers
*his must be noted in all reprints.
NIGHT EDITOR: HAROLD ROSENTHAL
Thieu's new front:
A political hoax
PRESIDENT THIEU'S newly formed Na-
tional Social Democratic Front is
nothing but a hoax.
General Thieu's reasons for forming the
National Social Democratic Front are not
totally clear. But most logically Thieu is
making another attempt to camouflage a
repressive oligarchy in the garb of repre-
sentative government.
This is nothing new for t hie military
elite. The elections and constitutional
convention of 1967 were also an attempt
to convince his countrymen and the
American public t h a t this government
had the interests of the nation at heart.
In the 1967 election, Thieu screened out
neutralist candidates or candidates fav-
oring formation of a coalition govern-
ment. He harrassed some of the remain-
ing candidates and despite all these ma-
nipulations won only,34 per cent of the
vote.
After t h e election Truong Dinh Dzu,
Thieu's leading opponent at the polls, was
promptly jailed for advocating a coalition
with the' NLF.-Dzu was charged with "ac-
tions that weakened the will of the people
and the army of South Vietnam to fight
against the Communists." The American
embassy registered a mild protest.
O COUNTER the recent NLF proposal
for removal of the Thieu regime and
institution ofa provisional coalition gov-
ernment to oversee elections, T h i e u is
again throwing up smokescreens.
In reality his political gambit merely
extends formal recognition as partners
to groups and persons w h o have either
Editorial Staf
MARCIA ABRAMSON .......... ... Co-Editor
JIM HECK.......................... Co-Editor
MARTIN HIRSCHMAN .. Summer Supplement Editor
JIM FORRESTER .............Summer Sports Editor
PHIL HERTZ ......Associate Summer Sports Editor
ERIC PERGEAUX, JAY CASSIDY ..... Photo Editor
NIGHT EDITORS: Joel Black, Nadine Cohodas, Harold
Rosenthal, Judy Sarasohn.
ASSISTANT NIGHT EDITORS: Lorna Cherot, Erika
HofftScott Mixer, Sharon Weiner.
Sports Staff
JOEL BLOCK, Sports Editor
ANDY BARBAS, Executive Sports Editor
BILL CUSUMANO ..........Associate Sports Editor
JIM FORRESTER............Associate Sports Editor
ROBIN WRIGHT ...........Associate Sports Editor
JOE MARKER ................... Contributing Editor
supported him personally or most of his
policies in the past.
The alliance excludes the powerful An
Quang Buddhist faction and the newly
formed Progressive National party. It al-
so excludes General Duong Van M i n h,
who overthrew Diem and has recently re-
turned from exile in Bangkok.
(The Greater Union Force is perhaps
the strongest element in Thieu's n e w
front. It is significant that the force is
composed of Catholic refugees from the
north, who were prominent under Diem.
Thieu and Ky are Catholics, and Ky is al-
so a Northern refugee.)
To its credit the alliance includes rem-
nants of old-line parties "which fought the
French. However, these parties are of the
reactionary Chinese Kuomintang variety,
nationalists and oligarchs both.
THE PEOPLE'S ALLIANCE of Social
Revolution, despite its deceptive name,
is another pro-government bloc, which
makes it almost ipso facto reactionary. ,
All of these crypto-progressive parties
combined won only 48 per cent of the vote
in the 1967 election, an election which
wasn't representative in the first place.
Yet an American diplomat hailed the
new alliance. "Its a great achievement, in
a way. Two years ago it would have been
impossible to get all these people under
the same roof."
Actually this comment is very damn-
ing. If it took Thieu two years to widen
his political base to include these reac-
tionaries, how long will it take him to in-
corporate neutralits, socialists, militant
and all other major non-Communists in
his Front?
F PEACE IN Vietnam is leftup to Thieu
it will be a long way off. He can't even
construct a bona-fide coalition 'of the na-
tion's anti-Communists 1 e t alone relin-
quish his power in a n e w coalition in-
cluding the NLF.
Clearly Western-style'democracy means
nothing to Thieu. To the wily old warlord
its only a window dressing to disguise the
actual workings of his government and
hopefully to deceive the gullible.
Every week tli e r e are events which
strike me as distortions or ironic twists
of law - whether they be natur'Ia, s
ence, jurisprudence or those that iov-
ern human decency. Take last week for
example.
I AST WEEK was a manilesaion f
white power ranging on a scale rom
indi'fference to blatant racism-
Indiana Attorney General, Th(odo-re
Sendak, charged Mayor Richard Hatcher
with instigating a n d aggravating racial
tensions in Gary. Sendak claimed t h a
Hatcher hired 150 demonstrators to upset
a testimonial dinner held in Governor Ed-
gar Whitcomb's honor at the Gary Nation-
al Armory. It was reported that the pro-
testers ate $1000 worth of food.
Sendak has asked the FBI to inestigate
charges that Hatcher's "hacks" are «'lti-
dating white officials of Gary City Hall,
and the police feel inhibited in performing
their duty.
Sendak's statement is ludicrous cnough
and his course of action insulting. But tihe
ultimate affront to blacks was made by
Los Angeles' Mayor Sam Yorty.
YORTY, A MAVERICK Democrat, is
seeking reelection for his third ;term. Yor-
ty's campaign is an obvious appeal to white
racists and is playing on the fears of an
alarmed white community.
Yorty, desperate and fighting for his po-
litical life; has latched onto the Indiana
Attorney General's complaint and is lit-
erally saying 'Look what happens when a
nigger gets some power. They all go ber-
serk like a bunch of zombies.'
Yorty ran a dismal second in the Los
Angeles mayoral primary. His opponent- is
Tom Bradley, who, incidentally, is black.
Yorty is claiming that Bradley's election
- ill produce a o Wher Watts, and constantly
tminds the voters how marvelously he
handd ,Ii e Watts riots of 1966. Yorty
Ss Bradley is backed by student anarch-
it. hatec mongering black militants and
onim unists-namned no less- Consequently
Yorty ha .joined the "law and order" band-
wagen.
To compare Los Angeles with Gary is an
absurdity. Gary has never rioted to a de-
grce comparable to that of Watts. Gary's
black population is three times that of Los
Ai eles - 60 iper cent in Gary and 20 per
cent in Los Angeles. Hatcher, like Yorty is
a maverick democrat. But the white coun-
rilmen and police fear Hatcher because he
is cleaning up local graft, an issue Bradley
is basing his campaign on. Y o r t y has
many European junket tours to explain).
Under Hatcher's administration Gary has
>iphoned more federal funds t h a n any
previous administration where white of-
. cMals did their Negro thing.
BESIDES, GARY'S racial problems did-
i all ol a sudden appear when Hatcher
became mayor. The greatest majority of
blacks are located in the inner city, while
he whites {with a few blacks sprinkled
here and there) reside in the suburb of
Lhidwood outside the city proper. The city
and the suburb are geographically as well
as morally and psychology separated by a
river.
If anything has caused tensions to flare
it is a movement in Lindwood Park to su-
cede from Gary. Anyone for any reason is
invited to j o i n the movement - which
stands as an open invitation to all racists.
Lindwxood residents have offered every
excuse but the obvious and honest one -
they don't want to be governed by a black
man who is concerned with the inner city.
Hatcher has made it quite clear that his
interest in keeping Lindwood within city
limits is because its property tax provides a
broad revenue base.
Lindwood is worse off than New York
City in t h e amount of money it receives
from the city government for every t a x
dollar it puts out. But Hatcher's reasoning
is Lindwood doesn't n e e d the money -
Gary does. So Lindwood comes 1 a s t in
Hatcher's concern, and to say that the once
elitist ruling group of Lindwood is ticked
would be putting it very mildly.
ALTHOUGH Detroit Mayor Jerome Cav-
anagh admitted that he was not certain
about what transgressed in the B e t h e l
Church incident, somehow he has come to
the conclusion that the police acted prop-
erly when they went shooting first into a
church where women and children were
and rounded up the whole lot and dragged
them down to police headquarters.
Cavanagh declined to comment on the
Tenure Committee's findings concerning
Judge George Crockett's handling of the
Bethel incident - which were favorable.
He said the committees report w as not
clear and that he wished the press would
forget about it. Is that anyway to quell rac-
ial strife inDetroit?
K* *
OINK-OINK Harvey has hired oink-oink
Wagner as a deputy oink-oink. They're go-
ing to grovel in the mire together.
Throughout the whole incident there was
one brilliant statement. It was made by
Police Chief Walter Krasny- He said," A
hit in the face does not constitute a beat-
ing." My proposal is everyday, once a day,
have a member of the Ann Arbor oink-oink
force hit Krasny in the mouth and we'll
see at what point he changes his mind.
RHODESIA is getting liberal. Ian Smith's
government has issued a referendum which
will extend voting privileges to the blacks.
only if they agree to pay more taxes. But
that's not all! Smith will reserve 45 mil-
lion acres for blacks only: while the whites
get only 44 million acres. There are 45
million blacks and 250.000 whites,
I can see it in the history books now: Ian
Smith promises one acre and a vote. Well
Lincoln's 40 acres and a mule wasn't much
better - which by the way blacks never
received.
LAST WEEK was Armed Forces Week.
Mrs. Willete was informed by the Army
that her son had been killed, He was sta-
tioned in Vietnam. But he was not killed
by enemy fire but by his own sergeant.
Last week the sergeant,bBernardo ,Rod-
riguez, was to stand trial before the make-
shift military court in Cuchee South Viet-
nam. Mrs. Willete asked the Pentagon if
she could go to South Vietnam to attend
the trial in an effort to find out why her
son was shot. The Pentagon told her they
could not guarantee her safety.
But Mrs. Willete was insistent and went
at her own cost. No one from the military
or from her son's command met her when
she arrived.
At the brief hearing, character witnesses
told what a bad soldier Mrs. Willete's son
was - he smoked grass and all that - and
what an excellent soldier Rodriguez was.
Then Rodriguez was found guilty. He will
be dismissed f r o m the Army and could
serve a prison term up to 10 years.
But Mrs. Willete later learned that the
Pentagon paid all the expenses for Rodri-
guez's father to attend the trial. Other than
that Mrs. Willete learned nothing and still
doesanot know why Rodriguez shot her son.
By the way Mrs. Willete is black.
*1
MI
"could ask for popular vote on the issue
and threaten to resign if it failed ...T
Defending student radicals
by I. F. Stone
t
t
/
w
1
1fj
', :'
;x~,i' .
R ¢ 1
" ' Yi
. 1 cg. Q . .c,. ..: t,
> iT.
x
t
' n
®'r+a.es+rko KS-n.aSS. t9
::
;
,
.,f
V 'I
!
o r .s
t i ¢ f E 5 R
~g Ilk-
./ a ,:
t
-TOBE LEY
Amsterdam, too.0..
(Editor's note: The following dis-
patch was sent Friday from Am-
sterdam).l
By NICK JANKOWSKI
College Press Service.
A MSTERDAM (CPS) - On Fri-
day, May 16, 700 students oc-
cupied the administration ibuilding
of the University of Amsterdam.
This action came after months of
debaee and discussion with the
Minister of Education, administra-
tion officials, and professors. It
also came on the wave of student
unrest sweeping Holland. The oc-
cupation continues at this mo-
mentu
The Dutch student takeover has
been accomplished with Provo
flare. Banners drape colorfully
from the drab concrete window
frames. Posters of Lenin, Che, and
Ho have replaced the paintings of
university presidents. The admin-
istration's stencil machines are
now being tested for endurance.
The ingenious Dutch have set
up their own radio transmitter,
combining revolutionary rock with
minute-by-minute information and
analysis. Their station is powerful
enough to reach all Amsterdam
and some of the outlying suburbs.
After students occupied the
building, they barricaded the one
entrance with aluminum scaffold-
ing fixtures and modern lounge
chairs. They have boarded up the,
windows, making a police rush
virtually impossible. Should a rush
occur, however, the students say
they will remain nonviolent, let-
ting the police be responsible for
any damage to property.
OUTSIDE, THE police have
sealed off the normally busy
street in front of the building.
Police mounted on horseback,
fingering their three-foo4 leather
battons, guard the area. They oc-
sasionally pace their horses into
the crowds of bystanders, telling
them to "Move along."
Plainclothesmen, looking more
like Dutch farmers than detectives,
walk around with Doberman
window of a 17th century univer-
sity owned-church, across a build-
ing supply depot, up ladders
scaling walls; and finally, with a
gulp and lots of courage, across
a ladder bridge between the library
and the administration building.
This student-made suspension
bridge sways in the wind two
stories above the crowds in the
street below.
THE PRESIDENT of the uni-
versity calls the occupation "un-
just." He feels the university has
been accomplishing education re-
form, The occupiers disagree, they
point to one of the secret docu-
ments they discovered while
xbrowsing through the university
files. Thisadministration memo
asserts that, yes, students must be
given some decision-making op-
portunities, "but it must be kept
within controllable limits." Stu-
dentsmust not, it continues, have
the chance to get 'majority repre-
sentation on decision-making com-
mittees.
The students' primary demand
is for power to make the decisions
affecting their education. They
have adapted the American judi-
cial slogan, "One Man-One Vote"
as a symbol of the meaning of
their demand. One student said he
felt the time was past when pro-
fessors and administrators should
constitue a voting majority on
committees.
It is on this very point that the
students appear to be losing fac-
ulty support. At' a recent meeting
of the university staff, strong op-
position was expressed to "One
Man-One Vote," at least in the
context of the university. For this
reason, compromise between the
occupiers, the faculty, and the ad-
ministration seems difficult.
It is not easy to assess the opin-
ion of the 18,000 other students of
the University. There is no cen-
tralized campus for strikes or
counter-strikes. University build-
(Editor's note: The following article appeared in
the May 19 issue of I. F. Stone's Weekly. The
Editorial Directors are grateful to Mr. Stone for
permission to reprint it.)
HATE TO WRITE on subjects about which
I know no more than the conventional
wisdom of the moment. One of these subjects
is the campus revolt. My credentials as an
expert are slim. I always loved learning and
hated school. I wanted to go to Harvard, but
I couldn't get in because I had graduated
49th in a class of 52 from a small-town high
school. I went to college at the University
of Pennsylvar.a which was obligated-this
sounds like an echo of a familiar black de-
mand today-to take graduates of high
schools in neighboring communities no mat-
ter how ill-fitted. My boyhood idol was the
saintly anarchist Kropotkin. I looked down
on college degrees and felt that a man should
do only what was sincere and true and with-
out thought of mundane advancement. This
provided lofty reasons for not doing home-
work.
I majored in philosophy with the vague
thought of teaching it but though I revered
two of my professors I disliked the smell of
a college faculty. I dropped out in my third
year to go back to newspaper work. Those
were the twenties ands I was a pre-depression
radical. So I might be described I suppose as a
premature New Leftist, though I never had
the urge to burn anything down.
In MICROCOSM, the Weekly and I have
become typical of our society. The war and
the military have taken up so much of our
energies that we have neglected the blacks,
the poor and the students. Seen from afar,
the turmoil and the deepening division appear
to be a familiar tragedy, like watching a friend
drink himself to death. Everybody knows what
needs to be done, but the will is lacking.
We have to break the habit. There is no
excuse for poverty in a society which can
spend $80 billion a year on its war machine.
If national security comes first, as the spokes-
men for the Pentagon tell us, then we can only
reply that the clearest danger to the national
security lies in the rising revolt of our black
population. Our own country is becoming a
Vietnam. As if in retribution for the suffering
we' have imposed, we are confronted by the
same choices: either to satisfy the aspirations
of the oppressed or to try and crush them
by force. The former would be costly, but the
latter will be disastrous.
This is what the campus rebels are trying
to tell us, in the only way which seems to
get attention. I do not like much of what
they are saying and doing. I do not like to
hear opponents shouted down, much less
beaten up. I do not like to hear any one
group or class, including policemen, called
pigs. I do not think four letter words are
arguments. I hate hate intolerance and vio-
lence. I see them as man's most ancient and
enduring enemies and I hate to see them
welling up on my side. But I feel about the
rebels as Erasmus did about Luther. Erasmus
helped inspire the Reformation but was re-
pelled by the man who brought it to fruition.
He saw that Luther was as intolerant and
as dogmatic as the Church. "From argument,"
as Erasmus saw it, "there would be a quick
resort to the sword, and the 'whole world
would be full of fury and madness." Two
centuries of religious wars without parallel
for blood-lust were soon to prove how right
degenerating into a dogma, and fresh
thoughts freezing into lifeless party line.
Those who set out nobly to be their brother's
keeper sometimes end up by becoming his
jailer. Every emancipation has in it the seeds
of a new slavery, and every truth easily be-
comes a lie. But these perspectives, which
seem so irrefutably clear from a pillar in the
desert, are worthless to those enmeshed in
the crowded struggle. They are no better than
mystical nonsense to the humane student
who has to face his draft board, the dissident
soldier who is determined not to fight, the
black who sees his people doomed by shackles
stronger than slavery to racial humiliation
and decay.
The business of the moment is to end the
war, to break the growing dominance of the
military in our society, to liberate the blacks,
the Mexican-American, the Puerto Rican and
the Indian from injustice. This is the business
of our best youth. However confused and
chaotic, their ;unwillingness to submit any
longer is our one hope.
THERE IS A WONDERFUL story of a
delegation which came here to see Franklin
D. Roosevelt on some reform or other. When
they were finished the President said, "Okay,
you've convinced me. Now go on out and bring
pressure on me." Every thoughtful official
knows how hard it is to get anything done if
someone isn't making it uncomfortable not to.
Just imagine how helpless .the better people
in government would be if the rebels, black
and white, suddenly fell silent. The war
might smolder on forever, the ghettoes attract
as little attention as a refuse dump.
It is a painful business extricating our-
selves from the stupidity of the Vietnamese
war; we will only do so if it becomes more
painful not to. It will be costly rebuilding the
ghettoes, but if the black revolt goes on, it will
be costlier not to. In the workings of a free
society, the revolutionist provides the moder-
ate with the clinching argument. And a little
un-reason does wonders, like a condiment, in
reinvigorating a discussion which has grown
pointless and flat.
We ought to welcome the revolt as the one
way to prod us into a better America. To meet
it with cries of "law and order" and "con-
spiracy" would be to relapse into the sterile
monologue which precedes all revolutions.
Rather than change old habits, those in power
always prefer to fall back on the theory that
all would be well but for a few malevolent
conspirators. It is painful to see academia
disrupted, but under the-surface were shams
and horrors that need cleansing. The dis-
ruption is worth the prize of awakening us.
The student rebels are proving right in the
daring idea that they could revolutionize
American society by attacking the universities
as its soft underbelly. But I would also remind
the students that the three evils they fight-,
war', racism and bureaucracy are universal.
Awl
I 4d
4
THE MARXISM-LENINISM some of the
rebels cling to has brought into power a
bureaucracy more suffocating than any under
capitalism; the students demonstrate every-
where on our side but are stifled on the other.
War and imperialism have not been eliminated
in the relations between Communist States.
Black Africa, at least half-freed from the
white man, is hardly a model of fraternity
The growing student revolution is spreading throughout the
world in scenes much like this one (t Berkeley a week ago.