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June 04, 1966 - Image 2

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Michigan Daily, 1966-06-04

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Seventy-Sixth Year
EDTED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
Where Opinions Are Free, 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, MicH. NEWS PHONE: 764-0552
Truth Will PrevailMCH WPON:7405
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the inidividual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.

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POWER (r1
and How tePaeCorps uldN o uatemala .
POETRY by MARK R. KILLINGSWORTH

SATURDAY, JUNE 4, 1966

NIGHT EDITOR: SHIRLEY ROSICK

The State Department Wants
Everyone To Sign An Oath!

WHAT IS DEMOCRACY? The question
is an elusive one that no one really
has the answer to, least of all the State
Department.
From the first moment a child can
read he reads about the values of his
country. In the United States one's read
ings are taken up with democracy and all
that this fine ideal stands for. The books
always stated what I thought a good case;
freedom of opinion, religion, the right to
dissent, freedom of the press, etc. Be-
cause the Constitution of the United
States proclaimed these values as its own
I believed it. I naturally assumed that
the government did too.
SOMEBODY IS ROCKING the boat. The
waters have been rough over the last
few years but now its getting dangerous.
The President has labeled dissenters
"nervous Nellies" and in his role as the
leader of the Democratic Party (which
ironically substitutes as the Nerveless
Ward) has prescribed a tranquilizer-the
congressional elections in the fall. With-
out presidential, i.e., strong party back-
ing, few candidates are going to enjoy a
victorious year. One could argue that
"this is politics," and politics everywhere
consists of similar subtle yet firm bar-
riers to the right of dissent. After all,
politics is the theatre of compromise and
a compromise, in the end, cannot con-
tain adamant dissent.
I question the compromise of ideals;
ideals such as the right to dissent, the
right to hold an opinion uniquely your
own. Maybe a line has to be drawn some-
where but, in a democracy, it cannot be
drawn across the throats of those who
merely disagree.
TrHESTATE DEPARTMENT, the insti-
tution which formulates the majority
of our policies overseas, has evidently
built a tight ring around the "virginity"
of the ideals of the United States. No one
may go around unless they have a pass-
port, and one cannot obtain a passport
unless he first sights the sacred loyalty
oath.
How does the State Department define
loyalty? Does a signature on a sheet of
paper classify one as a "loyal" citizen?
A girl from Brazil is cautious about
discussing the internal policies of her
country with an American student. A
boy from Formosa becomes anxious when
a letter discussing Formosa politics,
which he did not write, is printed with
his name attached as the author. Both
students are wary because, upon enter-
Subscription rate:$4.50 semester by carrier ($5 by
mail); $8 two semesters by carrier ($9 by mail).
The Daily is a member of the Associated Press and
Collegiate Press Service,
Second class postage paid at Ann Arbor. Mich.
Published daily Tuesday through Saturday morning.

ing this country they first had to sign a
loyalty oath which stated that they would
not discuss the mechanics of their coun-
try's regime. Signing the oath is a re-
quirement of the United States State De-
partment, it is not a pre-requisite of the
country they are leaving.
WHAT EXACTLY are Dean Rusk and
his cohorts afraid of? Do they trem-
ble at the thought that foreign students
will draft Americans into revolutionary
schemes against their native country?
Are they guarding against unfavorable
propaganda abroad when they require an
American to sign a loyalty oath before he
leaves the country?
The Dominican crisis illuminated the
fact that the State Department is per-
fectly capable of entering the revolution
of another country on its own steam. It
merely requires a report that American
citizens are endangered to enter fully
armed into the heart of the battle.
It is of little consequence that the re-
ports may have been exaggerated, as
they were in this incident. If the Com-
munists are in it, then by God, we'll be
in it too. The interdependence of nations
all over the world gives support to the
motto of the State Department that a
civil war in any strategic part of the
world is our civil war too.
THE STATE DEPARTMENT is also per-
fectly well equipped to spread its own
unfavorable propaganda without putting
one word down on paper, without send-
ing one wave length over Radio Free Eu-
rope. Actions are enough and some of
ours are reaping bushels of hate every
time we install a base full of unwanted
soldiers.
So what are they afraid of? Are sheets
of paper really necessary to insure the
loyalty of a country's citizens? Shouldn't
high ideals and honorable actions com-
mand loyalty in themselves? Is dissent,
or a difference of opinion really a form,
of treachery?
DON'T THINK SO. Dissent merely
raises questions which must be answer-
ed. The State Department should not
tremble in a corner when its actions are
questioned if the actions have been hon-
orable. It is loyalty to the ideals of this
country which prompts dissent at this
time and all other times like it.
Too many people are of the opinion
that it is the government who is dis-
loyal through interventions which are
grounded on shaky premises; premises
formulated by the State Department as
a matter of fact.
D THE ASTRONAUTS sign loyalty
oaths?
-PAT O'DONOHUE

Special To The Daily
GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala
-Some join the Peace Corps
to put into action an idealistic
commitment to the betterment of
mankind. Some sign up to duck
the draft. Some want to help de-
velop underdeveloped countries.
WHY DID Brian Walsh, 23, join
the Peace Corps?
"I know it sounds corny," says
Walsh, "but I volunteered for the
Army and was told I was 4-F. So
I decided to join the Peace Corps
instead."
Any noble sentiments about good
will towards men?
Frankly, this is a job. The
United States government hired
me, and the Guatemalan govern-
ment signed a contract with them
to put me to work here. That
sounds like a job to me."
And his job as a Peace Corps-
man here is about as surprising
as his views on the Peace Corps.
WALSH-23 credits shy of a
BA in political science at Iona
College in New Rochelle, N.Y.-
arrived here in October, having
requested assignment to . Latin
America due to some previous ex-
perience with Spanish.
But, although he has been here
less than nine months, he is al-
ready in charge of the Peace
Corps/Guatemala school-to-school
program. "They didn't want to
take anyone with agricultural ex-
perience away from the country-
side to run the program, so I
was it," says Walsh, who comes
from the Bronx.
In the school-to-school pro-
gram, an American school district
teams up with a Guatemalan vil-
lage which needs a school build-
ing. Both communities raise the
money for the new school, and

Walsh and his Peace Corps Gua-
temala colleagues help spread the
word about the program, draw up
plans for proposed schools and
then help put the plans into bricks
and mortar-or, more often, ado-
be.
When the program works, it
works well. Canton Choqui - a
subdivision of Quetzaltenango, the
second-largest city in the' country
-is a case in point.
BARTOLOME MENDOZA, chair-
man of the village's Committee
for Local Improvement, heard
about the school-to-school pro-
gram from Bill Dewey, a corpsman
working as an agricultural exten-
sion agent, and in January asked
to start plans for a school under
the program.
Walsh started work at once,
and by February 11 had sent the
final plans to the Peace Corps
Washington office-which han-
dles contributions from American
communities for the program.
On March 9, Canton Choqui re-
ceived a check for $331.40-about
half the cost of its school-rep-
resenting donations from elemen-
tary and school children in the
George Robinson School of San-
turce, Puerto Rico.
Having raised the rest of the
cost of the plan themselves, the
residents of Canton Choqui were
ready to start building their new
school building less than three
months after their committee
chairman started working with
Walsh and the Peace Corps.
WHILE CANTON Choqui's resi-
dents raised money for the school
through special contributions,
however, other villages have taken
other-and sometimes novel-ap-
proaches.
One community, for example,

persuaded the governor of its state
to allow the levying of a special
tax for its school. Another vil-
lage held raffles; another held a
dance. Terrero, in the western
state of Huehuetenango, rented
a movie of the famous Latin com-
ic Cantinflas and charged admis-
sion.
Andgwhile the community is busy
raising money, Walsh is busy cut-
ting costs. A contact Walsh has
in the National Committee for
School Construction helps him get
a 12 per cent discount on some
construction items. By substitut-
ing a synthetic material for the
commonly-used tin sheets, Walsh
saves over $50 for roofing a two-
room schoolhouse with teacher's
residence.
In one school, such cost-cut-
ting forays pared the actual cost
of the project down $244.40 from
the plan's estimate of $900-and
Walsh is hoping the savings will
help finance still another school
building.
All in all, Walsh says, the Peace
Corps has in about a year helped
build 16 schools from start to
finish-and has given some as-
sistance to 26 other schools,
BUT WHILE the school-to-
school program has successes, it
also has problems.
Some are unusual-even bizarre.
The April-to-November rainy sea-
son, for example, often impedes
construction. And when a volcano
close to one village in the program
began rumbling, over 20 families
moved away-taking with them a
sizable part of the village's school-
age population.
Political rumblings have also
presented problems for the pro-
gram. One important official try-
ing to steal credit for construction
of a school antagonized a number

of villagers working on their proj-
ect, and as a result slowed it up
considerably.
THE MOST significant of all
the Peace Corps' problems, how-
ever, is the difficulty in convinc-
ing a community that it can, in-
deed, have a school-and the dan-
ger that the program might turn
into a Peace Corps program for
the community but not with it,
that the volunteers will build new
schools but not the new values
which must come along with them.
Walsh readily concedes that ex-
isting local groups like Canton
Choqui's are rare. Another Peace
Corps volunteer who went to dis-
cuss the program with a commu-
nity found only a few skeptical
souls waiting to meet with him.
"The village couldn't believe it was
possible to get a school," he says.
"They all thought it was a joke."
But Walsh is most emphatic -
and most eloquent - about such
problems. "The program has a
very tangible result - a school
building. But there are other re-
sults which are intangible," he
says.
"For probably the first time, a
group of men has sat down to
work on a community problem,"
he emphasizes. "For probably the
first time, they have worked-and
succeeded-at getting something
from the government, even if it's
only a slip of paper saying, 'Give
this man some tools.' And the
community is never the same aft-
er the experience.'
WALSH POINTS proudly to one
village. One alcalde (mayor)
rashly pledged $90 worth of roof-
ing, which his treasury couldn't
afford, for a new school-"a top-
of-his-head promise he thought

he wouldn't have to keep because
he was leaving office shortly,"
Walsh says.
But when the villagers working
on the school needed the roofing
and discovered the official was
about tocrenege on his promise,
Walsh continues, they besieged
him with such force and persist-
ence that he finally dug up $50.
"The chances are the next al-
calde won't make such promises,"
Walsh adds, "or else he'll deliver
on the ones he makes."
THE SCHOOL-to-school pro-
gram is one of a host of relatively
modest efforts the Peace Corps is
working on here. And, as Walsh is
quick to admit, the program is
far from the final answer to the
country's problems.
The most urgent educational
need in Guatemala, aid officials
suggest, is not more schools but,
more qualified teachers: the best
estimates suggest that the "stu-
dent-teacher ratio" here is some-
thing like 80 to one, the "one"
often being a teacher scarcely
more educated than some of his
students.
But there are presently enough
school buildings in the country to
seat only half its primary school-
age population (about three-
fourths of the total population is
illiterate), and, more than some
other Latin American countries,
Guatemala is plagued by a system
of government by sinecure, inac-
tion and inefficiency.
IN ITS SMALL but impressive
way, the school-to-school program
builds not only schools, but values
-and, in a sense, democracy. It's
nice to have the schools. And it's
nice to have the things that come
with them.

"4

The Press and the "Good" of Society*

IN THE COURSE of its daily,
often tedious work, the press
has been confronted on occasion
with unexpectedly awesome au-
thority. Occasions like this give it
a chance, not only to exercise its
considerable power, but also to do
some serious thinking about the
philosophy and role of the press
in all aspects of society.
Getting a scoop on an important
story is one of the most exciting
experiences in journalism. In ear-
lier days when competition be-
tween newspapers, particularly the
metropolitan dailies, was keener
than in these monopoly press
times, the scoop was all-important
and a career could be made or
ended on the reporter or editor's
ability to come up with that story.
BUT THE EXCITEMENT is only
half the story. What happens
when a newspaper, the most in-
fluential and respected newspaper
in the country, has a story whose
publication c o u l d drastically
change national policy and en-
danger the lives of several hun-
dred men? More important, what
questions will influence the men
who make the decision to publish
or not to publish the story?
Shortly before the United States
launched the Bay of Pigs inva-
sion, the New York Times had
complete information, and a story
ready to run, describing the inva-
sion plans. The conflicts and the
considerations that went into the
editor's decision on that story were
finally revealed by the present
managing editor at the recent

MacAlester College World Press
Institute forum honoring Pulitzer
Prize'winners.
In an Associated Press story
Managing Editor of the Times
Clifton Daniels describes the
events of that night after pub-
lisher Orvil Dryfoos ordered that
the story be printed but "toned
down" and given a less important
position on the front page.
"AFTER THE DUMMY for
the front page was changed,
Ted Bernstein, who was the as-
sistant managing editor on night
duty at the Times, and Lew
Jordan, the news editor, sat in
Mr. Bernstein's office fretting
about it. They believed a colos-
sal mistake was being made and
together they went into Mr.
Catledge's (then the managing
editor and now executive edi-
tor) office to appeal for recon-
sideration.
"Mr. Catledge recalls that Mr.
Jordan's face was dead white
and he was quivering with emo-
tion. He and Mr. Bernstein told
the managing editor that never
before had the front page play
of the New York Times been
changed for reasons of policy.
They said they would like to
hear from the publisher himself
the reasons for the change.
"Lew Jordan later recalled
that Mr. Catledge was 'flaming
mad' at this. However, he turn-
ed around in his big swivel chair,
picked up the telephone and
asked Mr. Dryfoos to come
downstairs. By the time he ar-

The Associates
by carney an(I wolter
rived, Mr. Bernstein had gone
to dinner, but Mr. Dryfoos spent
10 minutes patiently explaining
to Mr. Jordan his reasons for
wanting the story played down.
"His reasons were those of
national security, national in-
terest and, above all, concern
for the safety of the men who
were preparing to offer their
lives on the beaches of Cuba."
OBVIOUSLY, a decision of this
magnitude was not made upon
these reasons alone, without the
consideration of many other con-
tingencies. James Reston, when
consulted in the decision, favored
a tonedown because he felt print-
ing the story would not change
the administration's policy, would
not halt the invasion, and, there-
fore, could only increase the dan-
ger of the whole project.
Ironically, as Daniel related last
week, President Kennedy later
told Mr. Catledge, "If you had
printed more about the opera-
tion, you would have saved us
from a colossal mistake." Kennedy
also told Mr. Dryfoos, "I wish
you had run everything on Cuba.
I am just sorry you didn't tell
it at the time."
While most newspapers do not
have to make decisions of this

magnitude (lacking the prestige,
influence and contacts that the
Times has) and be forced to live
with the consequences of that de-
cision, similar situations come up
every day for newspapers. In every
case, several men, acquainted with
the business of running a news-
paper and with the issues that are
in question, sit down and try to
look into the future. They must
try to gauge what social scien-
tists and historians have not been
able to determine-the effect of
their action on the future of their
country, state or city.
THE NEW YORK TIMES, in
making its decision also made
some fundamental determination
of its place in American society.
It decided that it was beyond its
authority to make a moral deci-
sion on the rightfulness of the
invasion, that, as a major insti-
tution in American history, it had
an obligation to use its power to
protect that society. Therefore,
the decision was made on the bas-
is of national interest and secur-
ity. Undoubtedly many of the
Times executives disagreed with
the methods and the objectives of
the invasion, but they could not
bring themselves to expose it in
the face of more important con-
siderations.
The Times had to make a sim-
ilar decision in the Cuban missile
crisis, and chose, this time, with
more gratifying results, to sup-
press this story too. However, in
this instance, there was closer con-

tact with the administration, to
aid them in making the decision.
THE DAILY has often been fac-
ed with this kind of decision. In
this situation, the first priority is
the good of the University. How-
ever, the difficulty comes when
one tries to determine which
course of action is ultimately for
the "good" of the University. And,
this difficulty is compounded when
10 senior editors must come to
an agreement on a complicated
issue.
A situation in the University
that might confront The Daily
with a difficult decision is the
release of the budget. Suppose we
may have some indication of the
exact amount of the University's
budget before it is officially re-
ported out of committee. The
question in this case is whether or
not publishing the proposed budg-
et figures would move legislators to
change (more specifically, lower)
that amount. In this instance it
has been determined that for the
good of the University, budget
stories will usually follow only of-
ficial reports.
DESPITE THESE precautions
and the care taken in making
every decision, there are bound
to be mistakes, as in the Cuban
invasion story.
At times like this one can pon-
der "What might have been," but
regret does not help. One can
learn and wait and hope that next
time he will still be sure of his
decision in the morning.

.'r

4

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i FC M . 1 1 .L

"The Proud Tower": The Uses of Power

By DAVID KNOKE
The Proud Tower
Barbara Tuchman, MacMillan,
1966
'THE UNITED STATES finds
itself in possession of enor-
mous power and is eager to use
it in brutal fashion, against any-
one who comes along, without
knowing how to do so and is
therefore constantly on the brink
of some frightful catastrophe."
J. W. Fulbright speaking on
the arrogance of power? Staugh-
ton Lynd on U.S. in Viet Nam?
Not at all. E. L. Godkin, editor
of the "Nation" some 71 years
ago confided these fears to a
friend on the eve of the Spanish-
American War.
BARBARA W. TUCHMAN, fol-
lowing her successful "Guns of
August," chose as her subject that
era of world history across which
"the Great War of 1914-18 lies
like a band of scorched earth di-
viding that time from ours. In
wiping out so many lives which
would have been operative on
the years that followed, in de-
stroying beliefs, changing ideas,
and leaving incurable wounds of
disillusion, it created a physical
as well as psychological gulf be-
tween two epochs."
Yet, in many ways that lost

The corruption of the French
military establishment, in which
the choice of support between
Dreyfus or the Army, pitched to
a point of honor, split the nation.
American jingoism, annexing Ha-
waii as an act of "manifest des-
tiny" and suppressing a genuine
Filipino war of national libera-
tion, was futilely opposed by
Charles Eliot, president of Har-
vard and the Anti-Imperialism
League,
On the continent, Richard
Strauss was astounding the cul-
turati with slick tone-poems and
neo-Wagnerian operas, while an
undercurrent of anarchism and
socialism stirred radical dissidents
with a spectrum of philosophies-
some violent, some conciliatory--
to bring the millenium to
this dread shape humanity be-
trayed. Plundered, profaned and
disinherited ...
MISS TUCHMAN confines her
attention to a limited part of the
world 20 years before La Grande
Guerre; yet her unique sense of
the dramatic situation selected
from a backdrop of chaotic events
gives her work a feeling of his-
tory as narrative.
The result of mixing Blenheim
Palace with Homestead lockout,
of Mahan, Victoria and Czar
Nicholas with Kropotkin, Juares
and Reed is a pronortionate blend

perspective or the strong style
with which Miss Tuchman writes,
however. She writes to revive the
era, not exhaust it.
Her ability to leap oceans,
transcend class lines, relate sta-
tistics to individual anguish, con-
trast foppishness to desperation
shows once again that history
immersed in detailings can still
emerge with a vision of the pur-
poseful interactions of people.
Few other writers possessed this
vision; Toynbee is certainly one,
as is Prescott and perhaps the
Durants.
THE PROBLEM for any histor-
ian beyond the technical accum-
ulation of facts is their assembl-
age into coherent, meaningful re-
lationship.

Of all man's studies, history
mal indeed teach him nothing
more than that he learns nothing
from history. Human beings cer-
tainly do not independently per-
form the myriad individual daily
tasks with the prior intention of
"making history"; the philosoph-
ical historian who tries to fore-
cast the future from the past too
often winds up off base like Marx
or Spengler.
On the other hand, singular at-
tention to key "great men" or
traumatic events may likewise
overlook the extent to which so-
ciological hidden currents play a
deterministic part.
AT BEST it remains doubtful
that any historian can write about
a time or event and say he has

captured the atmosphere, inter-
actions or implications as they
really were. Yet man will always
remain curious about his origins;
to know the full sum of his dis-
parate influences, he must look
beyond the dogged chroniclers of
battles and treaties, the official
biographers, and philosophizers of
grand but irrelevant theory.
Miss Tuchman has created such
a viable, but valid accounting of
the past. She can pinpoint the
automobile and the discovery of
the unconscious potent forces in
future social change, yet not be-
labor the point for they had little
impact on the temper of the time.
"The Proud Tower" is, in ef-
fect, a readable, relevant history,
entertaining, which is in itself
admirable.

A- ~ '~a

REVIEW:
The Luck of Ginger Coffey'

By ANDREW LUGG
lRVIN KERSHNER'S "The Luck
of Ginger Coffey" is a small
masterpiece. Seldom does a di-
rector seem so involved in and
excited by his subject. Nothing
distracts Kershner from Ginger

boat fare back to Dublin. Like a
dahma-doll, with blarney par ex-
cellence he sets out to work. We
see why he has never been able to
keep down a job. He angles for
uhe world, but throws away ever v
opportunity which presents itself.
He ia brash. but as they say.

the husband, and in that order!
Done before, but who cares?
The plot is redeemed by Shaw's
superb acting together with
Kershner's thoughtful direction.
Kershner sets the film in a sim-
ple, quiet tone. Action filled, the
film moves only slowly-the gen-

4

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