Seventy-Sixth Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
June 1: Play
That One Again, John
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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.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 1966
NIGHT EDITOR: MEREDITH EIKER
i
The War: A Plague
On Both Your Houses'
DESPITE SOME SIGNS that South Viet
Nam's Buddhist monks may now be
seeking a temporary agreement with Pre-
mier Nguyen Cao Ky's military regime,
the political turmoil in that war-battered
nation seems destined to persist.
The warnings of many critics of admin-
istration policy-that the Viet Nam war
must be solved primarily by political
rather than military means-have been
proved correct.
But President Johnson and his advisers
continue to pursue an elusive battlefield
victory which presumably would turn
back "the tide of Asian Communism"
while assuring freedom and independence
to South Viet Nam. Those who disagree
with the administration's methods and
means of achieving this laudable goal are
branded "nervous Nellies" by the Presi-
dent himself.
At the same time, Arthur Sylvester,
public-relations whitewash man for the
Pentagon, assails the truthful reporting
of U.S. correspondents in Viet Nam be-
cause these dispatches so often contradict
the administration's official propaganda
line-
''HEMYTH that U.S. policy in Viet Nam
is founded upon a desire to "preserve
freedom and independence in that nation
has been proved to be a deceitful evasion
of the truth. There is no freedom or in-
dependence to preserve in that fragile
society of conflicting minorities, uncer-
tain religious groups, and war-weary
peasants, students and soldiers.
The fragmented world of South Viet-
namese politics offer no fertile ground
for "free elections" in the Western sense
of the term, since it seems evident that
whichever power is in control in Saigon
at the time of the elections will win.
ADMINISTRATION PLANS to continue
escalating the war have not been
changed by the past month of political
unrest. At least 400,000 troops are likely
to be in Viet Nam by the end of the year.
The tonnage of bombs dropped on North
Viet Nam each month exceeds the total
monthly tonnage in the European theater
of World War II, and the intensity of the
bombing is steadily increasing.
The administration seems intent upon
forcing North Viet Nam to its knees,
thinking that this will solve the problem
of Saigon's lack of political leadership
and refusal to allow the South Vietnamese
people to effectively participate in repre-
sentative government.
ON THE HOME FRONT, confusion has
mounted with advocates of a hard-
line policy and critics of administration
policy drawing increasing numbers of
converts to their respective camps. Ameri-
cans are rightly asking why their sons
and husbands must be sent to a war which
the U.S. is fighting essentially without al-
lied support (except for token contribu-
tions from Australia, New Zealand and
South Korea), a war which is to a great
extent a civil conflict aided by the north-
ern segment of a culturally and histor-
ically united land, a war which causes
untold death and destruction to those
Vietnamese civilians we have taken upon
ourselves to save from the clutches of
Ho Chi Minh and Mao Tze-tung.
No one has asked the South Vietna-
mese whether they welcome the Ameri-
can presence in the war. Given a chance
to reply, they would probably say to the
U.S. and Viet Cong "a plague on both your
houses" and would opt for a peaceful
settlement with some Viet Cong partici-
pation in a coalition government.
THIS WAR OF FUTILITY thus will drag
on, evidently for an indefinite period
of time. Last week there were nearly 1000
U.S. war casualties (146 dead, 826 wound-
ed). The number of Vietnamese civilians
killed or maimed either in combat zones
or in U.S. bombing raids is unknown, but
probably even higher. U.S. entry into the
war has thus transformed a guerrilla
conflict (undeniably one which caused
misery to many South Vietnamese) into a
modern theater of war with infinitely
greater hardships for the South Vietna-
mese.
U.S. officials measure .their success in
the war by the number of "V.C." killed
each week. Evidently, our hope is to end
the war by killing every V.C. in the land,
but somehow more of them keep on com-
ing. Most of our allies look in dismay as
we sink deeper into the morass of escala-
tion and futility.t The unprecedented op-
portunity for new agreements with Rus-
sia goes down the drain, and while Viet
Nam burns, serious problems in Europe
and Latin America receive inadequate at-
tention from the tired group of officials
conducting our foreign policy.
WHAT TO DO? The U.S. should cease
unconditionally its useless bombing of
North Viet Nam, offer to open negotia-
tions with North Viet Nam and repre-
sentatives of the Viet Cong, work behind
the scenes through Russia and Eastern
Europe intermediaries to reopen commu-
nication with Hanoi, and redouble its
efforts to enable Communist China to
join the family of nations through UN
membership and diplomatic relations with
the U.S.
The chances are that these steps will
not be attempted and the slaughter will
continue. There is too much sterility and
rigidity at high levels of U.S. decision-
making to allow bold new steps to at-
tempt to end the war. But this country
will pay a severe price for persisting in
its relentless, often mindless anti-Com-
munist worldwide crusade.
That price will be loss of prestige, re-
spect and cooperation with its allies, and
the enmity of the world's uncommitted,
underdeveloped nations. Even more im-
portant, the stain on America's national
consciousness and self-respect will be
difficult to erase for years to come.
-CLARENCE FANTO
-CHARLOTTE WOLTER
Co-Editors
By LEONARD PRATT
"THERE ARE FEW things quite
as unnerving," runs a line from
a short story, "as finding out that
your best girl is a prostitute."
The nation's academic circles
suffered just this kind of shock
when revelations of Central In-
telligence Agency involvement with
a/Michigan State University mis-
sion to the Vietnamese government
of Ngo Dinh Diem came to light.
Suddenly the homilies about aca-
demic independence and respon-
sibility that everyone likes to think
still mean some thing were shat-
tered by the frightening prox-
imity of an every-day world of
hasty self interest.
IT IS SHOCKING in the same
sense, but to a profoundly greater
degree, to discover both that there
is a good deal more to the involve-
ment story than has been or, prob-
ably, will be printed and that most
of it stands an excellent chance of
being hushed up by the Legisa-
ture's investigation of the affair.
It should be admitted that there
are times when a writer's ignor-
ance is his most powerful weapon
and that this is the case now. I
do not know the full story of the
MSU-CIA involvement and stand
no chance of ever knowing it. But
talks with many people, who are
in a position to know parts of
that story, lead to no other con-
clusion than that MSU is in up to
its ears and that the Legislature,
by attempting to cover up that
fact, is adding chapters to one of
the most shameful stories of our
time.
If a more significant comment
on those times than what has
already been brought to light of
this affair is needed, it is surely
that there is even more there to
be brought out and that the pub-
lic officials responsible for bring-
ing it out are shirking their duty.
IN THE FIRST PLACE it is
clear from many sources that the
Legislature is in the process of
burying the damning evidence it
has found, to issue only a non-
committal report that will ensure
that the issue will be soon for-
gotten. As one state reporter put
it, "John Hannah has friends."
Rep. Vincent Petitpren (D-
Wayne) has evidently been one of
the more crucial pawns in this
game. He has been angry for a
long time at Rep. Jack Faxon (D-
Detroit), who was holding the
rump-session hearings on the case.
Faxon stepped on his toes last fall
in ignoring legislative protocol
and going over the head of Petit-
pren's Committee on Colleges and
Universities to investigate the
University's tuition hike. All Petit-
pren needed was the suggestion,
for he had certainly had the
power all along, to take the rec-
ords of Faxon's investigation away
from him, thus taking from him
the little authority he did have
over the affair.
There is a good deal of evidence
to suggest that partisans, if not
always employes, of MSU were the
little birds that put the idea in
Petitpren's ear.
THAT THE HIGHEST officials
of the House suddenly cared more
for Legislative protocol than for
academic ethics is an interesting
phenomenon. There are clearly
times when doing nothing is doing
everything, and these officials
have done nothing to salvage the
MSU investigation.
This is certainly not an al-
together conscious conspiracy on
the part of all involved to save
what is left of MSU's reputation.
Yet even those who are not fully
aware of what they are doing must
surely be faulted for great negli-
gence.
What makes this all the worse
is the great likelihood that there
are important facts left unknown
about just how bad things were
in the good old days in Viet Nam.
The record here is less clear than
in the Legislature's case, but it is
still evident that there are a great
many things which need clearing
up.
ARE THE SALARIES which the
professors in Viet Nam were paid
their only reward for teaching
there? What other privileges did
they have?
Were so many MSU personnel
on the scene as incredibly ignorant
of a fairly good-sized CIA con-
tingent in their midst, as their
testimony would indicate?
Was MSU President Hannah
really unaware of the CIA con-
nections with the mission? If so,
why are the project's key officials
still occupying important positions
at MSU?
How free were those professors
to print what they felt about the
project and its effects?
Above all, what was the relation
between the assuredly rosey re-
ports from the MSU and CIA mis-
sions to the State Department and
the policies which the depart-
ment finally put into motion re-
garding Viet Nam? The reports
must clearly have been in error.
What of the policies based upon
them? And what of the respon-
sibilities of the men who wrote the
erroneous reports?
A GREAT DEAL of this is
spilled milk. The real danger lies
in a related area which the Legis-
lature is evidently similarly hesi-
tant to touch. Where are the Viet
Nam-project men now? No one
much cares about the errors they
may have made in Viet Nam. But
where might they be making
errors today?
MSU, for example, currently has
a Project Nigeria. Nigeria will be
one of the most important nations
in Africa in 15 years and clearly
what influences its government
now is molding that nation of 15
years hence. How closely linked
are the administrations of the two
projects? What is being done to
ensure that Nigeria does not be-
come another Viet Nam?
These are the real questions at
issue, but the Legislature is re-
fusing even to acknowledge their
existence.
IT IS HORRIBLE that Ameri-
can soldiers may be dying par-
tially because of MSU. It is even
more horrible that those who
could at least ensure that history
does not repeat itself do not care
enough about those deaths to
shake themselves out of their in-
tellectual lethargy.
As was noted above, I know little
of this for a fact. But I do have
excellent reasons for suspecting
all of it.
SO I AM LOOKING for some-
one with political authority who
both realizes the gravity of the
situation and cares to do some-
thing about it. I am looking for
someone who will ask these ques-
tions and be able to demand
answers.
I am looking for someone who,
when asked if he cares to leave the
finest ideals of education and
government in the muck in which
they evidently rest in Michigan,
will echo Sargent Shriver's answer
to a request that Peace Corps
workers be used to infiltrate the
rural areas of the Dominican Re-
public during the intervention
there: "Not only no, but hell no!"
4
-
The Cold War Veterans Lose Europe
WE ARE SEEING brisk activity
in European affairs. It has
been aroused by Gen. Charles de
Gaulle's decision to evict the
NATO military establishment from
France and to withdraw the
French troops in Germany from
the integrated command and by
his impending visit to the Soviet
Union.
All this can be viewed as the
beginning of a systematic cam-
paign to abrogate American lead-
ership in Europe and to reduce
drastically American influence in
European affairs. Gen. de Gaulle
himself has frequently said that
this is one of his purposes.
BUT THERE IS another way of
viewing the situation, and it is, I
believe, more realistic and might
lead to more constructive conclu-
sions. It is that while Gen. de
Gaulle does indeed have the ini-
tiative today he has it by default.
He has the initiative by virtue
of American inability and unreadi-
ness and unwillingness to exercise
leadership in Europe, now that the
postwar era is ending. Only when
we look at the situation in this
perspective can we understand
how France, which is not a very
great power by contemporary
standards, has such political pre-
dominance in - the Western alli-
ance.
THE CENTRAL purpose of the
Gaullist enterprise is to make an
opening to the East and to bring
about a relief of tension, an in-
crease of economic and cultural in-
tercourse and an end to the cold
war between the Soviet Union and
Western Europe. The moral influ-
ence of Gen. de Gaulle in Europe
is far greater than France's mili-
tary and economic power, and the
reason for this is that the general
has identified himself with what,
for the rising generation of Euro-
peans, is the wave of the future.
They do not like or agree with
all of his ideas, his tactics or his
monners, and there is very wide-
spread opposition to a too-power-
ful France. But Gen. de Gaulle is
going in the direction in which
the Europeans want to go, and
which they believe is the way to
peace in Europe, to expanding
trade and prosperity and to the
elimination of the most dangerous
I~
Today
and(
Tomorrow
By WALTER LIPPMANN
situation in Europe-the parti-
tion of Germany.
ALTHOUGH our officials would
in theory agree with most of these
European aspirations, the Ameri-
can government is not, for a varie-
ty of reasons, identified with the
European feeling that the time
has come to bring the postwar
era to an end.
It is a fact that the men who
have shaped and are shaping U.S.
policy in Europe are the veterans,
many of them the distinguished
veterans, of the cold war. They
do not speak convincingly to the
rising generation of Europeans
who have no memories of the
world war and its aftermath. In
many critical circumstances they
cannot even speak with their con-
temporaries in Western Europe.
This is an intellectual default
which makes us unable to exercise
leadership in Europe today. But
there is another reason, a more
obstinate reason, why American
influence in Europe has fallen so
low. It is that the Vietnamese war
has made us unable to act in Eu-
rope by negotiating with the other
great power, the Soviet Union. If
it were not for the Vietnamese
entanglement, more precisely if we
were not attacking North Viet
Nam, the United States could play
its natural role of counterpart to
the Soviet Union in the great ne-
gotiations which Europeans now
desire.
WE CAN BE reasonably certain
that without the United States
playing the part which it ought to
be playing, there can be no really
far-reaching and permanent set-
tlement of European problems. For
that, the participation of the Unit-
ed States as well as the U.S.S.R.
is necessary. But for the time be-
ing we are not really present in
Europe, and we are not able to
talk with the Soviet Union.
By failing to grasp the intel-
lectual and moral changes that
have come with the end of the
postwar era and the departure of
the war generations, we have shut
down our corpmunication with
contemporary Europe. Because of
our military preoccupation with
Southeast Asia we cannot fulfill
our indispensable role in the Eu-
ropean settlement, which is to be
in the West the counterpart of the
Soviet Union in the East.
We have, moreover, confirmed
by our actions, by the character
and scope of our military deploy-
ment in Southeast Asia, one of
Gen. de Gaulle's prime arguments
which is that the United States is
no longer vitally interested in Eu-
rope and that our vital interests
now lie in the other continents.
HOW LONG it will take to bring
the Vietnamese entanglement to
an end, and how long it will take
before our European policy is in
the hands of new men with fresh
minds, it is impossible to guess.
But we can be certain that our
political influence in Europe is
greatly diminished today and that
more and more the Europeans are
trying to act accordingly.
(c), 1966, The Washington Post Co.
.4-
.4
Viet Nam: Fallacies Come Home To Roost
Slaughter on the Spaceways
ONE OF THE GEMINI 9 astronauts re-
portedly replied "oh shucks" when in-
formed of the scrapping of the first
planned launch due to the loss of the
Agena rendezvous rocket. True or not,
this incident hints that, lulled by many
successes, space officials are becoming
over-confident and complacent.
Manned space exploration is no less
dangerous than it was four years ago.
The flights are still experiments and
much of the equipment is redesigned after
each mission, and is far from infallible.
MORE THAN the expensive equipment is
at stake when one of these vehicles
is launched, two human lives are depend-
ent upon the excellence of the prepara-
tions. The scientists responsible for these
preparations smile and make assurances
that nothing can go wrong. Yet things
are going wrong with frightening repeti-
tion.
-The failure of one small piece of the
Agena, most likely not properly inspected,
cost $13 million and set the space pro-
gram back two weeks.
-The Agena replacement has been de-
.nriai ac "Maracif ad 0111 s Q ah1 i
tank destroyed a $3 million stage of the
Saturn rocket, the manned moon rocket,
injuring five. Blamed on faulty design or
hasty workmanship, the incident brought
the comment "I think it is a major thing,
it will mangle the schedule of landing on
the moon by 1969," from a space official
(who made no mention of costs or steps
taken to correct the failure was made).
FOUR YEARS AGO these events would
have prompted concern and argument
from a number of space scientists fear-
ing the consequences of seeking speed
over safety. We were content to pursue
quality and leave the "spectaculars" to
the Soviet Union.
This week, however, we have planned
not only a manned flight complete with
spacewalk and rendezvaus; but we will
also try to soft land a camera on the
moon's surface. We have developed a
strong compulsion to outdo the Russians
in space technology.
But many mishaps have already given
warning that perhaps our speed is more
costly than its benefits. Unfortunately, we
will not heed such warnings until a tragic
event such as the loss of an astronaut
By DAVID KNOKE
Special To The Daily
EVEN AS THE pro-American
candidate was winning in Ore-
gon, the latestapublic opinion poll
showed that approval of John-
son's handling of the Viet Nam
war had fallen below 50 per cent
for the first time.
In Da Nang, a marine officer
in the South Vietnamese military
questioned a captive rebel soldier,
then shot him point-blank in the
face.
Reporter Richard Critchfield
wrote of his ordeal along with 40
other journalists as hostages in
a Buddhist pagoda. The monks,
he said, had dragged persons
wounded elsewhere into the pago-
da so the press "would fix the
blame on Mr. Ky's forces and not
themselves."
AT PRINCETON University, the
President called his harshest crit-
ics "nervous Nellies," then asked
them to back his policies to the
hilt.
While Nguyen Cao Ky flatly
disregardedgconsultation with
Americans before flying troops to
crush the Da Nang revolt, Dean
Rusk, seemingly for the hundredth
time, said we will continue to as-
sist free nations of Southeast Asia
"who are struggling for their sur-
vival against armed minorities di-
rected, supplied and supported
from without."
WHEN MONTHS AGO a few
clergymen, columnists and ordi-
nary citizens protested what they
called an "immoral war," they
were scorned or ignored by the
political and military establish-
ment backing American interven-
tion in Viet Nam.
Today only a superpatriotic fool
would not see that the futility
and senselessness of the war which
could not be exposed through mor-
al indignation has suddenly been
laid bare as a material and politi-
cal fiasco by the events of the last
two months.
If intervention in a civil war,
napalm bombing of villages, de-
foliation of crops, and illegal pros-
ecution of a undeclared war did
not show the American adventure
lose the honor of the United States
than a plane load of bombs can
win it before Asian eyes.
-There is no exterior aggres-
sion nor can legal treaty require-
ments be invoked to give U.S. in-
tervention a leg to stand upon.
Neither the United Nations, SEA-
TO nor Senate-ratified treaties
with the legal South Vietnamese
government give atprecedent. In
the confused legal chronology of
the two Viet Nams, it would be
impossible before a world law body
to differentiate between "aggres-
sor," civil war, rebels and invad-
ers; the majority of the North
Vietnamese troops were commit-
ted after a similar U.S. build-up.
-THERE IS NO "freedom lov-
ing" government or peoples in
South Viet Nam whom we pro-
tect. Ky and his junta are pirates,
perpetuators of the war lord ban-
ditry which thrives off black mar-
kets, caste favoritism, graft and
vice dollars flowing from the anti-
Communist American commit-
ment.
'T-ruth'
TRUTH, as U Thant once ob-
1- served, is one of the first vic-
tims of war. His words were con-
firmed once again this weekas
Secretary of State Rusk and Vice-
President Humphrey once again
proclaimed the administration's
dedication to the search for peace
in Viet Nam.
Mr. Rusk repeated his offer to
go to Geneva whenever anybody
was there to negotiate with. Mr.
Humphrey detailed anew the var-
ious peace; offensives of the past
and devoutly adopted U Thant's
"prayer and wish" for peace as
our own.
WHAT IS the simple truth? It
is that the administration spurned
peace talk feelers repeatedly in
1964 and 1965. It is that U Thant's
own efforts to arrange talks have
been repeatedly and roughly re-
jected. It is that while publicly
taking no sides in South Viet
NAcm'rn' rmlitiral fril d+.,n oa Aumin
The United States does not want
free-read "uncontrolled" - elec-
tions nor will Ky's regime permit
them. Any election would be mean-
ingless with 50 per cent of the
population not under Saigon con-
trol being allowed to vote, any-
how. Buddhists on the other hand
are just as ruthless a minority in
disregarding universal civil liber-
ties as the Catholics or military
minorities. But the Buddhists are
unamenable to U.S. control and too
likely to negotiate a settlement di-
rectly with the Viet Cong for the
United States to permit them to
gain control.
-The ".domino theory" of the
defense of Southeast Asia is a fig-
ment of the imagination that has
become reality only because so
many people act as though it were
true. The theater of the war is
being steadily enlarged, with the
"no sanctuary" policy for any ene-
my aircraft, sorties across the Lao-
tian and Cambodian borders, and
preparation of Thailand as a
second line of defense.
Thailand-land of the free - is
another myth in the debacle. The
country is no freer than the two
Viet Nams; the military clique
that rules the country has stam-
peded American dollars by pro-
moting banditry in the northeast
as "Communist infiltration."
DESPITE CLAIMS that internal
dissent does not hamper the war
effort, the U.S. finds it increas-
ingly harder to project plans for
an end to the war. Saigon's troops
begin to fight among themselves
and were always incapable of hold-
ing territory cleared by the U.S.
U.S. manpower commitments
call for upwards of 600,000 for a
five to 10-year war. Dollars, flow-
ing now at over a billion a month,
and permanent installation con-
struction, approaching $1 billion
by mid-1967 attest to the deter-
mination of the U.S. not to de-
escalate in the foreseeable future.
The back-lash from such a pro-
longed effort can only create do-
mestic complications. Creeping in-
flation is now trotting. A tax in-
crease before the election date is
imminent. Republican leaders have
already begun to exploit the un-
effect as a psychological demor-
alizer; but the. military establish-
ment of this country favors air
power. It perilizes the world politi-
cal situation much more than a
ground war (generals, like oth-
ers, want job security), and gives
a new generation of bomber pilots
practice under real war conditions.
The military would like to call
up the reserves and be given a free
strategic hand in Viet Nam. The
argument goes, if you're in a war,
you might as well turn its man-
agement over to someone who
knows how to win one. This argu-
ment finds civilian backers among
men like song-and-dance Senator
George Murphy, who wants the
military to take control from Mc-
Namara and carry on operations
"without regard for political con-
sequence."
But the political consequences
from the Viet Nam imbroglio
are unforeseeable and therefore
likely to be dangerous. But a war
with Red China, sure to be short
and devastating, may be exactly
what the "contain China" advo-
cates would like to provoke by
mining Haiphong harbor or blast-
ing Hanoi's oil depots.
CHINA at this time is extremely
cautious in risking its infant atom-
ic power to destruction by U.S.
bombers. There may be more than
a few five-star generals who share
Barry Goldwater's conviction that
it would be a good thing if China
made an aggressive move so we
could do just that.
In terms of the possibilities of
World War III, or of diplomatic
isolation from the rest of the
world, Johnson cannot afford to
give in to the military's bid for a
free hand in Viet 1Nam just be-
cause of their naivete about "po-
litical consequences.
MEANWHILE, the individual
soldiers confront each other in
the brakes and across the pad-
dies. The shooting and the dying
goes on; 20 years of someone's
love and devotion and worry be-
comes a nameless statistic on the
balance sheet, while the politi-
cians and generals play their
games.
.A
"Why, Next Thing People Might Even Wonder
About The FBI-Or Batman And Robin"
Ifm
4
i I