Seventy-Sixth Year
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Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the inidividual opinions of staff writers
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ATURDAY, JUNE 11, 1966 NIGHT EDITOR: SUSAN SCHNEPP
But Now We Ask,
Is Man Dead?'
Did I murmur of flowers and sunlight,
Of the earth's simple things and the
joys?
Or did I moan of the slaughter and war,
The unspeakable horrors we've seen?
OUR CENTURY, we like to be told, is
the century of the great scientific
breakthrough. Atoms and genes are yield-
ing their secrets, and the firmament has
been staled out as the territory of man.
The neo-evolutionists assert that the
race now contains its destiny.
Their theory is persuasive, but their
optimism less so. They assume that as
men of the scientific age, we will act in.
accord with wisdom. Yet much of our
research stems from inordinate fear, and
sometimes science seems the ultimate in
Russian roulette. What if we make the
moon into the biggest of all missile pads?
CAN THIS BE precluded in a century
which, whatever its eventual scientif-
ic achievements, already has been made
into the bloodiest-and, so, the most cruel
--in history? Some may believe that at
least in its opening years were "golden."
But Rupert Brooks in 1912 asked:
Say, is there Beauty yet to find?
And Certainly? and Quiet kind?
Less than three years later Brooks was
dead and buried on Scyros, having "pour-
ed out the red, sweet wine of youth."
The grim work of extermination was un-
der way on the slaughter-fields of Brab-
ant, Picardy and Champagne. For a few
hundred feet of shard-churned soil, Eu-
rope's great powers were bleeding them-
selves white.
WITH MILLIONS DEAD, the killing end-
ed not in peace, but in exhaustion.
The path was open for Hitler in Ger-
many, for Mussolini in Italy and for "the
grave-diggers" of the nation" in France.
In Russia there was a new regime still
regarded by many as a threat to the
world. The rifles were not stacked for
long. Japan invaded China. Mussolini
sent his troops into Africa, and France
brought his Moors out of Africa into
Editorial Staff
CLARENCE FANTO .... . .......... .. .. Co-Editor
CHARILOTTE WOLTER..................Co-Editer
BUD WILKINSON. .. .. .......... ,,. sports Editor
BETSY COHN................Supplement Manager
NIGHT EDITORS; Meredith Eiker, Michael Heffer,
Shirley Rosick, Susan Schnepp, Martha Wolfgang.
Business Staff
SUSAN PERLSTADT .... . . B..CBusiness Manager
LEONARD PRATT ......,....... Circulation manager.
JEANNE ROSINSKI.............Advertising Manager
RANDY RISSMAN ............ Supplement Manager
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Published daily Tuesday through Saturday morning.
Spain. There was a rehearsal for a second
world war bloodier than the first.
When the war came, the killing was
not confined to the trenches. This time
the bombers* took off for London, then
for the target cities of the continent,
and eventually for those of Asia. The con-
cept of "total" war took on a meaning as
women and children died in the fire-
storms. The survivors, as one of them told
Dorothy Thompson, had "a boxseat in
hell."
IT IS NOT A QUESTION of what should
have been done and what should not
have been done. War has its own im-
peratives. By now it should be clear that
the scale of warfare is not proportionate
td the issues which may divide govern-
ments, but to the weaponry at their com-
mand-even if, so far, the big bombs
have maintained peace by terror.
The twentieth century's bloodletting,
however, goes on. We are just becoming
aware of the extent of the current fever
of extermination in Indonesia. Yet it
may move us no more than the fighting
in the Congo, the killing of Moslems and
Hindus in India, France's "dirty war" in
Algeria and that other French war in
Viet Nam which we have taken over.
JUSTIFICATIONS for carrying on come
to mind more readily than do ap-
proaches to peace. We have become a
hardened, generation. We discuss .the
political purposes of warfare and ignore
its immediate objective, death. We seem
not to realize that the deepest tragedy
may be the sacrifice of many, many such
as Rupert Brooks who might have helped
us out of the bog of pointless death.
A reminder of this is Louis Aragon'sn
letter, telling friends of the death of
Peter Rhodes who wrote the lines at the
head of this column. As an American
newspaperman, Rhodes was caught up in
the Spanish civil war and much of what
followed. Aragon could only hope that
the unpublished fragments of his friend's
writings will "testify to what Peter might
have been, to what he might have done
had this century been different."
AS STATESMEN talk of containment
and escalation and score their debat-
ing points, one does not ask that they
abandon legitimate objectives. But cer-
tainly they should deeply consider wheth-
er their means are suited to bringing the
fruits of the Great Society to all the
world.
While some theologians are proclaim-
ing that "God is dead," statesmen-and
the rest of us, too-ought toask whether
Erich Fromm is not more nearly right in
saying that "man is dead," at least the
kind of man able to build the Great So-
cie-ty.
-THlE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
THE MICHIGAN State Univer-
sity campus certainly has been
enjoying a finals' week more in-
teresting than most. The unusual
flurry of activity has also pro-
duced a strange contrast - the
release of a faculty committee re-
port on student freedom at Michi-
gan State containing many lib-
eral proposals with the riot-panty
raids of the past few days.
The report of the faculty com-
mittee called for a definite change
in the attitude of faculty and
administration toward student
rights. In the past, though it has
been constantly denied by most
iniversity officials, events at Mich-
ikan State had shown that the
administration felt it had the
right to do what it pleased to
students with little regard for due
process or any other similar cour-
tesies. The Paul Schiff case of last
fall is an ample illustration of
this.
THE COMMITTEE'S recommen-
dations included 1) the establish-
ment of a student-faculty com-
mittee on academic rights and re-
sponsibilities. of students, 2)ra
student-faculty judiciary which
could, among other things, con-
sider a student's application for
readmission after it had been re-
fused by an administration offi-
cial, 3) a review of the structure
and power of the student gov-
ernment, 4) a change in the struc-
ture of the Michigan State News
to place editorial responsibility
with the student editors, and 5)
the creation of the office of Om-
budsman, an official who would
process and consider complaints
from students.
It was reported that the rec-
ommendations of the committee
had the enthusiastic approval of
many student leaders. This is not
surprising in the light of their
past frustrating experiences with
the administration. But, what
about many of the other 40,000
students at Michigan State?
WELL, for the last few days,
seemingly oblivious to the events
of the past week which promise
to give them more freedom than
they have ever enjoyed at State,
they have been engaged in mas-
sive rock-throwing riots that were
conspicuously directedat that ma-
ligned symbol of authority, the
campus police.
The riots, of course, were de-
scribed by the administration as
"a little letting off of steam"
doubtlessly due to the tensions of
finals week. They were confi-
dent that the riots would subdue
as the finals terms ended, as they
probably will because school will
then be over and the students
will be gone.
however, other sources attribute
the riots to general dissatisfaction
with MSU on the part of the stu-
dents, partly resulting from the
damning article in Ramparts
The Associ
by carney and w
magazine on the univer.
volvement with the CIAa
ly from student concern
poor quality of undergrad
ucation. Indeed, the facu
mittee reported that muc
advice it received from
was on the upgradingo
academic quality.
STILL, ONE wonders wi
spark riots, not on oner
on three, among students
just received what amour
release from the Middl
that is, unless they were
of it which is entirely poss
sidering the low repute
student paper at this time
Many administrators w
too ready to assume that
son is that students re
not capable of managing'
affairs, let alone having
in the administration of
versity. But the causes
riots, which certainly h
occurred at most other s
such a degree just becaus
als, must go deeper than V
THEREFORE, we are
assume that something
wrong at Michigan State
sity. That something smells is evi-
dent from the Ramparts article
7tes and other events, but, without a
responsible campus newspaper
voiter that is truly run by the students
and that can voice their views,
who can tell what lies beneath
the calm surface depicted in ad-
asd In ministration handouts.
and part- In fact, no one knows exactly
over the what the students at MSU think,
duate ed- and numerous jokes assert that
ilty com- they don't. But, what else can
ch of the one say when the society of an
students educational institution is as clos-
ed as that in East Lansing? There
is one voice for the institution
hat would and that emanates from the of-
night but fice of President John Hannah.
wiht but If the problem is truly one of
nho a communication, of anomie and
e tgo-- a frustration in the forbidding
[e Ages-- enormity of MSU, then the fac-
unaware ulty committee's recommendations
sible con- will help give the students a feel-
. oing of involvement in their univer-
e. sity.
will be all
the rea- BUT INVOLVEMENT of the
Bally are students and recognition of their
their own right to a voice in making the
a voice policies that govern them is only
the uni- half of the task at hand. Anoth-
of such er equally important considera-
have not tion is the respect the students
chools to accord to the leadership of the
se of fin- school-lack of respect for cam-
that. pus authority was shockingly obvi-
ous in last week's rioting.
forced to To accomplish this more will
else is have to change than the amount
Univer- of student participation in the de-
cision - making processes of the
university, which will necessarily
involve a limited number. The
important criterion here is the
general mood of the campus --
its image, so to speak-and the
students' attitude toward that im-
age. If they have no loyalty or
respect for their institution, or if
they are not given any reason to
feel loyalty even among them-
selves, then Michigan State can
expect more riots.
The alternative, an open cam-
pus community, seems too advan-
tageous and rewarding to neglect,
but the past history of State in-
dicates that this is what may be
done. If this proves to be the
case, the new power given stu-
dents through the joint commit-
tees recommended in the faculty
report enables them to launch
the fight for a more open com-
munity at MSU-for once through
the "proper channels."
THIS SORT of a fight, as stu-
dents at this University have
learned, can be tedious and frus-
trating, but, against a determined
administration unsure of its own
students, this is the only way they
can "show their worth."
Unfortunate? Of course, but,
then, the situation in Mississippi
is unfortunate also-to use aft ad-
mittedly extreme comparison-and
it has taken over 100 years to
change anything there.
4-
In Mexico City,
When in Doubt-Strike
By KAYE NORTHCOTT
Collegiate Press Service
MEXICO CITY-Nothing but an
occasional snow storm or flash
flood stops the American univer-
sity student from carrying out his
appointed round of lectures, quiz-
zes and finals on an orderly aca-
demic timetable. And if a student
doesn't like the way his Univer-
sity is run, he can start a petition,
write a letter to the student paper,
or form a committee and try to
get things changed.
Such an orderly process seems
a bit stodgy to Latn American stu-
dents, for they have more dra-
matic ways of expressing their
views. They strike.
IN THE PAST three weeks a
strike by 7,000 students closed the
National University of Mexico and
most of the other educational in-
stitutions in Mexico City.
This student revolt has been
treated by the Mexican press as
everything from an ersatz panty
raid to an international commu-
nist conspiracy. It has been treat-
ed hardly at all by journalists in
this country.
A history of the strike may shed
some light on its nature.
ALMOST TWO months ago, a
law school dean at the National
University announced that no
more make-up tests would be giv-
en to suspended students. A num-
ber of those affected by the de-
cision asked to use the school's
auditorium to denounce the law
school Dean Cesar Sepulveda.
When they were turned down,
they reacted by handing out leaf-
lets protesting the denial.
Sepulveda charged that the leaf-
lets were undermining his author-
ity, and he suspended students
for distributing this "subversive
propaganda." The press inter-
preted "subversive" to mean "com-
munist,' and so the red label im-
mediately became attached to the
disgruntled students.
Approximately 2,000 of the uni-
versity's 7,000 law students began
a strike in reaction to the suspen-
sions. They took over the law
building, barring the doors with
stacks of chairs, and barbed wire,
and hijacked city buses.
NUMEROUS members of the
law school faculty supported the
strike, and soon it was Joined by
studentsnin the schools ofneco-
nomics and political science. The
latter two schools soon abandoned
their strikes and the law school
students continued alone until two
weeks ago on the forty-first day
of the strike. On that day, a group
of law students approached Dr.
Ignacio Chaves, the university
rector, with a list of demands.
During the interview in Chaves'
office, two students were beaten
by members of the campus secur-
ity force.
When the students, bruised and
bleeding, withdrew from the ad-
ministration building, a group of
students waiting outside became
enraged. They marched on the
building, breaking windows and
beating down doors. Chaves was
held captive for six hours until
he and some faculty members
tendered their resignations.
The law students were again
joined by students from the
schools of economics, political
science, and by, others including
philosophy and letters and medi-
cine. They took control of the
power plant and buildings of the
university, forcing all university
schools and many others through-
out the city to close.
Violence raged in the university
area for three days, but relative
calm was restored by the weekend,
as the students settled down to
guarding their captured buildings.
FROM THE FIRST demands for
reexaminations grew long lists
of university reforms. And from a
small rebellion, the strike grew
into an academic revolution. A
majority of striking schools and
the faculties of law and philosophy
and letters have asked for the
complete revision of the rules of
the university. Their demands in-
clude:
-Abolition of the campus se-,
curity force;
-Cessation of administrative
intervention in student organiza-
tions;
-Student participation in re-
organization of curriculum and in
the selection of rector and other
top administrators;
-University residences for stu-
dents (There are none on cam-
pus); and
-Free medical services for stu-
dents and workers.
Besides university-wide reforms,
students are writing and rewriting
particular demands for each
school.
THE "FUNTA del Gobierno,"
governing body of the university,
has yet to appoint a successor to
Chaves. Few are anxious to accept
the job.
Striking students have composed
about 12 per cent of the massive
student body at the National Uni-
versity. Naturally, a great number
of nonstriking students are anxious
to return to school while another
portion of the easy-going student
population shrugs off the delay
in its education with a casual, "No
importa."
Some Mexico City newspapers
are predicting that the strike will
die because of dissension among
student leaders and reluctance to
lose more class time. (Law stu-
dents may surrender a full semes-
ter of credit.) Yet, strike leaders
insist that they will maintain pos-
session of the schools' buildings
until a new rector is named and
they are assured reforms will be
instituted.
THE CAPITULATION of Dr.
Chaves is in many ways unfor-
tunate. Striking students described
him as aloof, exceedingly strict,
and inaccessible. Many Mexican
journalists, however, see him as a
perfectionist, uninterested in pop-
ularity but very efficient.
Chaves had survived numerous;
student revolts since his appoint-
ment by the "Junta" in 1961. Soon
after he took the tumultuous job
of presiding over the largest uni-
versity in Latin America, students
seized the administration building,
stoned his home, and declared a
general strike in opposition to his
policies. A' similar strike occured
in 1964.
His unpopularity can be attri-
buted to his severe personality and
his strong policies as rector. When
he became rector, the National
University, built to handle 30,000
students, had an enrollment of
60,000. Today, it holds more than
80,000. Chaves tried to eliminate
the student loafers by easing out
those who never attended classes
and by instituting entrance re-
quirements for the first time. He
also tried to upgrade the faculty
by setting higher teaching stan-
dards and reducing the salaries of
the inferior, and at times ama-
teur, members of the 15,000-man
faculty.
CHAVES, it has been charged,
did not try to stop the strike. He
"could have resolved the conflict
in the beginning with a little
cleverness and conciliatory spirit,
but he, far from having known or
wanting to find a solution, threw
more fuel on the fire every day,"
a columnist for El Sol wrote last
weekaChavesheartily supported
the law school dean, Sepulveda,
and both were forced to resign.
In the past 35 years, students
have forced two other rectors to
quit. Until 20 years ago, students
themselves elected the rector, and
they still think they should have
a vote in the selection of admin-
istrators.
IT HAS BEEN charged by some
Mexican newspapers and by the
attorney general of Mexico that
communists strongly influenced
the strikers. Many of the student
leaders are Marxists or Trotskyists,
but the strikers emphasize that
their complaints are academic
rather than political. Strikers are
of both the right and the left.
Mexico's President Diaz Ordaz
has been quoted as saying that he
does not believe the strike is com-
munist inspired or led.
A reporter for the Associated
Press explained that the attorney
general linked the students to a
communist conspiracy for political
reasons. If the situation should
become more tense and Diaz Ordaz
decided to send in troops, com-
munist infiltration could be used
as an excuse for violating the
sanctuary of the university, the
reporter said.
The National University sup-
posedly is autonomous. Members
of the "Junta" are chosen for life
by other members of the self-
perpetuating body. Since 1929
police have been banned from the
campus. Chaves, according to a
report in The News, an English
language newspaper in Mexico
City, talked of bringing in the
police, but he realized that to do
so, to flaunt the "autonomia" of
the university, would trigger a
national student uprising. Striking
students insist that the university
is not truly autonomous, and they
believe that their reforms would
make it so.
THE "HUELGA" has disrupted
the schooling of thousands of
Mexican students and has rocked
an already volatile city. By stan-
dards in this country, both the
students and the administration
have gone ridiculously far in a
disagreement that might have
been settled by reasoning and con-
ciliation. But most of the student
demands are just, and neither the
students, the faculty, the admin-
istration, nor the citizens of Mexi-
co City seem greatly disturbed by
the extremist tactics in this aca-
demic revolution.
(Miss Northcott is editor of
the Daily Texan. She and'other
members of her staff have been
covering the Mexican strike for
CPS).
is
'41
Viet Nam: Light, Not Heat, Needed Now
By DAVID KNOKE
Vietnam: Between Two Truces, by
Jean Lacouture, Random house,
1966
IF THE WAR in Viet Nam has
done anything constructive at
all, it has been to focus world at-
tention upon that formerly ob-
scure Asian nation to such a de-
gree that the publishing world is
being inundated with scores of
books, articles and essays on the
history, sociology and diplomacy
of the divided nation.
Much of this material has been
inadequate. The torrent that flows
through daily newspapers and
newsmagazines and the terse edi-
torials advocating one stand or
another concern themselves with
fragmentary, piecemeal slices of
a complex question. This condition
seems to be aleviated somewhat,
however, by recent publications of
scholarly research into the his-
tory, origins and trends of the
current conflict.
The steady search of Sen. J. W.
Fulbright to bring the light of
reason to foreign policy can have
vantage point. Lacouture is one of
France's outstanding journalists
and knows the leading figures in
the wars, which he has been re-
porting since 1945. The book covers
the period from the Diem regime
to the April 7, 1965, offer of Presi-
dent Johnson for unconditional
negotiations and a billion dollar
aid program for Southwest Asia.
While his chronicle is still too
brief to deal with and fully docu-
Cold War
The blue sky greyed and shut
away the sun.
A snowflake, then another, one
'by one.
The cold crept in and chilled
the battleground,
And whirling, blinding, snowy
wind cut down.
We both began to build a wall of
snow
Between us two, and then an-
other low
And snowy fence encircling each
alone
With snowballs piled up high--
ment the nuances of Vietnamese
revolution and counter revolution,
his staying force is in piecing to-
gether a feel for the conflict in
terms of individuals involved as
well as groups. He reprints inter-
views with National Liberation
Front leaders, exerpts from a cap-
tured Viet Cong's diary, the fas-
cinating lethalness of the Ngo
family before Diem and Nhu were
assassinated.
LACOUTURE RECALLS an in-
terview with a triumphant Nguyen
Cap Ky after that air general's
planes helped topple the rule of
General Khanh. Ky was just as
impetuous then as now and his
words of two years ago carry a
haunting insincerity:
Q: Are you sincerely in favor
of returning power to the politi-
cians?
A: Of course. Its their job,
not ours. We are here to run the
war.
Q: You have been quoted as
favoring military action against
the North. Is that true?
A: Absolutely, and some action
has 2red taken nace.
one who rid the country of for-
eigners.
Lacouture goes right back to the
abrogation of the Geneva Agree-
ment of 1954 by Diem ("an Asiatic
Phillip II"), especially the refusal
of national elections and solicita-
tion of forbidden military alliences
with the Americans.
Diem's rigid Catholicism and
anti-Communism were to mount
in an oppressive "witch hunt"
forcing genuine nationalists into
the NLF and culminating in the
Buddhist self immolations that
turned away world opinion and
lead to a palace uprising that has
placed Saigon's government under
military rule ever since.
Lacouture stresses throughout
the factual narrative the idigenous
nature of the NLF and Viet Cong
movement. Definition of the North
as an "outside" aggressor through
support and supply of the NLF
has been a bone of contention and
a major stumbling block to nego-
tiations.
LACOUTURE ARGUES from a
Frenchman's viewpoint - with
France's former control of Indo-
china ann Gaulle's interest in
but to break up Viet Nam's eco-
nomic unity was to attempt the
irrational.
He goes on to argue that Ameri-
can military buildup 'seemed to
block off possibilities for eventual
reunification of the two sections,
and as a consequence, Ho Chi
Minh was willing to support
Southern rebels after five fruitless
years of abiding by the Geneva
Argeements Diem would not keep.
IN VIEW of the historical as-
sociation of all of Indochina-
which may be superficial Gaullist
thinking in terms of Cambodia's
intense xenophobia for her neigh-
bors-Lacouture proposes a self
determination of internal South
Vietnamese politics including the
NLF; establishment of economic
ties between Hanoi and Saigon
with eventual reunification; and
a neutralization of all of former
Indochina, insured by the Great
Powers in the area.
Lacouture's "Viet Nam: Between
Two Truces" has its shortcomings
of scholarship and personal bias,
but is one of the first attempts to
4j.
W - M 7,40-10- 10111-- 1