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April 02, 1965 - Image 4

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Publication:
The Michigan Daily, 1965-04-02

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Seventy-Fifth Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS

TODAY AND TOMORROW:
The Viet Cong: Home-Grown'

UUJEEM7ITr

Where Opinions Are Free, 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, MICH.
Truth Will Prevail

,"r r 09-UMMOMMUMMUM

NEws PHONE: 764-0552

Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers,
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
FRIDAY, 2 APRIL 1965 NIGHT EDITOR: LAUREN BAHR
i
t he Universit Shouldn't Ignore
Its Young Cultural Talent

CULTURE, if it ever is to be a widespread
phenomenon, is certainly becoming
one now. The attention that has been
given to cultural activities and facilities
in the United States in recent years has
produced a massive awareness which has
transcended usual social and economic
barriers. President Johnson's bill to es-
tablish a National Foundation for the
Arts and Humanities illustrates the im-
pact of culture on the national mentality.
However, in the midst of the recent
growing recognition of cultural endeavors,
one aspect of culture has ben far too
often ignored-the developing creativity
of young minds.
ANN ARBOR has long proclaimed its
cultural assets, and with understand-
able pride. The University community
has provided this area with a range of
talent which belies its midwestern loca-
tion. Keeping abreast of the repertory
theatre movement, Ann Arbor takes
pride in such attractions as the Associa-
tion of Producing Artists and the Profes-
sional Theatre Program.
The Concert series annually brings out-
standing talent for Ann Arbor audiences,
and the May Festival is an attraction
which far transcends local appeal. In the
field of art, the University's Museum
Bliss: In Charge
YESTERDAY what may have been a
revolutionary change in American
party politics occurred at 1625 Eye Street,
Washington, D.C. Dean Burch's disruptive
reign as national chairman of the Re-
publican Party ended. Burch was re-
placed by Ray Bliss, the long-time state
chairman of Ohio.
The differences in leadership will be
marked. Burch encouraged citizens' or-
ganizations, autonomous running of cam-
paigns and ideological controversy. Bliss,
on the other hand, discourages voluntary
activity independent of the party, runs
campaigns from his desk and is non-
ideological.
Expectations are high that Bliss will
bring the Grand Old Party out of the
morass into which it was plunged by the
Goldwaterites last year. Bliss decries la-
bels of "miracle man" and similar char-
acterizations of what he will do.
THE QUESTION at this point is what
he will do.
Two changes will probably become ap-
parent by summer, 1966. First, campaign
activity will be funneled through the of-
ficial party organization. Thus, the Citi-
zens for Goldwater-Miller, encouraged so
much by Burch, will have to work within
the party or evoke the wrath of Bliss.
Second, Bliss will take a hand in choos-
ing Congressional candidates in all like-
lihood. Unheard of? Of course, but Bliss
has done it before with good results in
Ohio. There is little reason to believe he
will not do it in other states.
Bliss' preferences in Ohio have not
been capricious; they have been ground-
ed in scientific sampling techniques. By
polling a congressional district, Bliss has
matched candidate qualities with constit-
uency expectations and thus picked "his
man," the man who would do best in the
district.
Both of these changes indicate a cen-
tralizing trend in the GOP, citadel of in-
dividualism. How ironic.
BUT HAS the Republican party any
choice? When a party is at as low a
point as is the GOP it must innovate or

disintegrate. On with the centralization
of Bliss!
-CAL SKINNER, JR.
Acting Editorial Staff
ROBERT JOHNSTON, Editor
LAURENCE KIRSHBAUM JEF'FREY GOODMAN
Managing Editor Editorial Director
JUDITH WARREN ................ Personnel Director
THOMAS WEINBERG ...... .......... Sports Editor
LAUREN BARR . ........ Associate Managing Editor
SCOTT BLECH........... Assistant Managing Editor
ROBERT RIPPLER ...... Associate Editorial Director
GAIL BLUMBER0 ......:..,........ Magazine Editor
LLOYD GRAFF .............Associate Sports Editor
JAMES KESON..................Chief Photographer

introduces exhibitions of national note;
this year alone the Guggenheim exhibi-
tion, the prints of William Blake, and
100 Contemporary American Drawings
were available.
The spring has seen a series of festi-
vals, of which the Creative Arts Festival
is perhaps the most notable. Opportuni-
ties to see and hear such poets as Robert
Penn Warren, Robert Lowell, and John
Berryman are rewarding for many peo-
ple other than English majors.,
THIS INFLUX of professional talent
provides intellectual stimulation as
well as cultural inspiration. But a good
deal of its effectiveness is lost when cul-
tural awareness stops there.
In a university atmosphere it is in-
deed unfortunate that those who provide
its raison d'etre-the students-are neg-
lected. It is ironic that the University as
an educational institution neglects the
growing artist, the beginning enthusiast.
There is too often no way for the em-
bryonic talent to express itself, to expose
itself to a wider audience than friends
and family.
Two shows have been organized by stu-
dents this spring for the purpose of dis-
playing art work. The quality of the works
that have been displayed is not of primej
importance; the pertinent fact about the .
two shows is that they were organized
solely and independently by students. The
students worked against adverse condi-
tions in organizing the shows, for the
University has no permanent place where
students can display their works. In addi-
tion, it neither has or proposes plans for
facilities for frequent, temporary shows.
SIMILARLY, the student interested in
writing seldom finds a forum for dis-
cussion and development at the Univer-
sity. Creative writing classes may be
elected under the auspices of the English
department; however, a class of thirty
strangers held within the confines of An-
gell Hall is hardly conducive to a Ger-
trude Stein atmosphere.
And although literary magazines pro-
vide an opportunity for personal expres-
sion in print, their range is limited and
conservatively selective-often including
only Hopwood award winners and above.
The creation of "Offset" shows recogni-
tion of the void presently existing in for-
ums of student expression.
The creation of a discussion, reading
and writing group would be more valu-
able to a larger number of people, and
would be an experience of longer-lasting
validity.
Recently, the jazz scene has expanded
in Ann Arbor, as evidenced by the Sabo
Club and the Jazz Festival. But although
jazz interest has grown from its obscure
beginnings, the folk music perspective is
less encouraging since the demise of the
Golden Vanity. In a University which
consistently compares itself to Harvard,
the lack of a coffee house leaves a con-
spicuous void. Perhaps a liquor license
is necessary for the financial support of
genuine folksinging, or perhaps the cam-
pus community is satisfied with an an-
nual Limelighter concert as its folksing-
ing experience. But in a University of
this size it would seem that there would
be enough genuinely interested people to
support a more permanent establishment,
than that which the seasonal Folk Music
Festival provides.
THE UNIVERSITY prides itself on a
more cosmopolitan atmosphere than
afforded most Big Ten schools. Its facili-
ties are impressive and its influence ex-
tensive. However, in the field of culture

there is a definite lack of consideration
for students. Although a folk music cof-
fee house would have to be initiated by
independent commercial interests, a stu-
dent art show or a writers' forum would
not.
Since one of the main benefits of a
college education is that of personal
growth and development, it seems obvious
that the creation of a forum through
which students could express their inter-
ests and ideas before a critical audience
would be an important occurence.
ARTISTS ARE OFTEN seen as being
born with the qualities which will

By WALTER LIPPMANN
THE WAR in Viet Nam has
reached the point where the
President is wrestling with mo-
mentoustand fateful decisions. For
what has happened is that the
official theory of the war, as pro-
pounded by Gen. Maxwell Taylor
to President Kennedy and by De-
fense Secretary Robert McNamara
to President Johnson, has proved
to be unworkable.
The government in Saigon has
not been able to pacify South
Viet Nam even with the help of
American munitions, money and
25,000 military advisers. The cru-
cial fact today is that for all
practical purposes the Saigon gov-
ernment has lost control of the
countryside and its followers are
increasingly holed up in the cities.
The roads and the railroads
connecting the cities have been
cut by the Viet Cong. The cities
now have to be supplied in great
measure by air and by sea. This
condition of affairs has been well
reported by Richard Dudman in a
series of reports to the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch and his findings
are confirmed in all essentials,
though not yet publicly, in the
well-informed quarters in Wash-
ington.
THE SUREST evidence that
Dudm an's reports are substantially
correct is that in the Pentagon
and the State Department there
is mounting pressure for the com-
mitment to Southeast Asia of
American infantry. The current
estimate is that the President
should be prepared to send 350,000
American soldiers, even though
this would compel him to order a
mobilization of reservists and
draftees.
This call for American ground
forces is the logical and inevitable
consequence of the virtual collapse
of the Saigon government in the
villages. Having lost the country-
side, Saigon has lost the sources
of military manpower. This de-
prives it of the means for win-
ning the war.

The official estimates today are
that the Saigon government com-
mands forces superior to the Viet
Cong by a ratio of not quite five
to one. Experience showsethat no
guerrilla war has ever been sub-
dued with such a low ratio of
superiority.
It 4s estimated that in Malaya,
the British and the Malayans,
who were fighting the indigenous
Chinese guerrillas, reached a su-
periority of 50 to one. In Cyprus,
which they gave up, the British
had overwhelming force. In Al-
geria, though the French army
had unmistakable superiority, the
country became untenable. It is
the deficiency in South Vietnam-
ese military manpower which ex-
plains why the pressure is now on
to put in American to fill it.
AFTER two months of bombing
North Viet Nam, it has become
manifest also that the bombing
has not changed the course of the
war. As a result of this disappoint-
ment, the President is now under
pressure to extend the bombing to
the populated centers around
Hanoi and Haiphong.
There is no doubt that Ameri-
can air power can devastate North
Viet Nam and, if China intervened,
could do great damage in China,
But if we had an American army
of 350,000 meninhSouth Viet Nam,
and extended the war in the air,
we would have on our hands an
interminable war without the pros-
pect of a solution.
To talk about freedom and na-
tional independence amid such
violence and chaos would be to
talk nonsense.
In order to rationalize, that is
to sell, the wider war, we are being
told by Secretary McNamara and
others that this war is a decisive
test for the future. It will decide
the future of "wars of liberation."
THIS IS a profoundly and dan-
gerously false notion, and it shows
a lamentable lack of knowledge
and understanding of the revolu-
tionary upheavals of the epoch in
which we live. It assumes that

revolutionary uprisings against es-
tablished authority are manufac-
tured in Peking or in Moscow and
that they would not happen if they
were not instigated, supported and
directed from one of the capitals
of communism.
If this were true the revolu-
tionary movements could be sup-
pressed once and for all by knock-
ing out Peking or Moscow. They
little know the Hydra who think
that the Hydra has only one
head and that it can be cut off.
Experience shows that there is
no single central source of the
revolutionary upheavals of our
epoch. What is there that is com-
mon to the Irish rebellion, to the
Jewish uprising in Palestine, to
the civil war in Cuba, to the Arab
rebellion in Algeria, to the Huk
revolt in the Philippines? What
is common to them all is violent
discontent with the established
order and a willingness of a mi-
nority of the discontented to die
in the attempt to overthrow it.
What has confused many well-
meaning Americans is that in
some of these rebellions, though
not by any means in all of them,
Communists have become the
leaders of the rebellion. But that
does not mean that they have
owned the rebellion. The resistance
to the Nazis in France and Italy
contained a high proportion of
Communist among the active par-
tisans. But 20 years later it is
Gen. Charles de Gaulle who pre-
sides over France.
IT WOULD be well to abandon
the half-baked notion that the
war in Southeast Asia will be de-
cisive for the future of revolution-
ary upheavals in the world. Rev-
olution is a home-grown product,
and it could not be stamped out
decisively and once for all-sup-
posing we had such delusions of
grandeur-by stamping out Red
China. In Southeast Asia we have
entangled ourselves in one of the
many upheavals against the old
regime, and we shall not make
things any better by thrashing
around with ascending violence.

WizY Nou.Fz-
The Oversocialized
And the Discontented
Byi Jeffrey Goodmant
"One of these days there may be a student march somewhere
on some university administration building, ending in the dismem-
berment of every computer in the place, and then everything may
simply come to a stop, and provide time for re-examination."
-James Reston, News York Times, March 31
R ESTON IS talking metaphorically, of course; the anguish of those
who would stage such a march can hardly be blamed on the
computers per se. Machines are only symbols-of our universities and
our other socializing institutions.
But the general strike he talks about hardly seems possible here.
Hundreds of students have slept on cots in dormitory libraries;
realtors and local merchants charge atrocious prices for poor service;
too many classrooms are overcrowded with unstimulated students
and unstimulating teaching fellows; too many courses are irrelevant
and students are without recourse; students are hamstrung too often
by distribution requirements and pushed where they might not want
to go by grade points and exams; students are treated like
children by administrators, etc.
By and large no one cares much. The explanation most would
offer for this apathy is that there is still enough flexibility in the
system, that it still manages to do fairly well given its goals and
resources. That's true to an extent, but at the same time that very
proclamation points to the deeper problem, which is precisely that
no one cares much.
GETTING BACK to computers, everyone knows they have a
program and inputs and outputs. The program here is the world's
store of knowledge, categorized and set to be applied through developed
teaching techniques. The inputs are society's demands for educated
and trained personnel, plus the concepts of teachers and the general
public about what a man should and should not do with his life.
The program is the material used in solving the problem which
is put-in. Which means the form of the output is determined by the
input, that the limits of social needs and the. conceptions of propriety
become the limits within which the graduate thinks, feels and
operates. Education today does not simply transmit information or
even transmit the capacity to question, participate and decide: to
a large extent it shapes the very questions, the very means of par-
ticipation and the very decisions themselves.
In fact, it is exactly by this process that societies maintain them-
selves. By definition the function of socializing institutions is to
overcome the mortality of one generation by raising the next in its
image. An individual can still make a number of different moves, but
the rules of the game (indeed, the necessity of playing the game in
the first place) are established ahead of time, and he is taught them
so early he rarely has the ability to conceive of different rules or
different games.
FORTUNATELY the process never succeeds and there are always
those who somehow do not get socialized. Whether or not they later
come to realize that their isolation is a positive asset with which
to launch a campaign, they are an essential and healthy part of
society. For no matter how perfect the public may deem itself, almost
necessarily it is being fooled itself because it has missed whole
experiential worlds.
It is these other worlds which the misfits bring and the more
glaringly the better, for they are themselves creatures of the society
and a society should always be forced to look at what it has wrought.
This all leads back to our apathetic students, whose problem is
being oversocialized: they take the pressures and discomforts and
injustices as all part of an inevitable system which they can always
complain about, can perhaps improve but can never revolutionize.
The few random problems in modern education mentioned above
are not themselves the great issues. Rather, the issue is that they
exist and do harm and people either do not care or talC of the
practical exigencies of contemporary politics. Always the excuse is
that men and institutions must compromise with the given forces
because those forces exist and therefore have a claim somewhere;
few ask if the claims are legitimate, few ask if there is not a principle
here (like the ability of universities to do a respectable job of trans-
mitting respectable culture, which requires that universities manage
their financial and value inputs for themselves).
NO, MR. RESTON, there will not be a grand march at this
university: the inputs to our big computer have been made too well.
We can't even hope for some restrictions on political activities to
spark something. Unlike Messrs. Kerr and Strong, the men who watch
the blinking lights and whirring tapes here still think they have an
ideology to guide them, and this makes them just shrewd enough to
know how to keep most of us blissful.
Nor, unfortunately, is it always worthwhile for a few of the
unsocialized to suddenly stage that march on the administration
building themselves, for they are seldom taken seriously and too
easily shrugged off.
So if those who are discontent, being already too small a
minority, are to have any force, most of the hope lies in a very
gradual and very unspectacular corruption -of the majority. Protest
marches can provide emphasis and a few victories, but they begin

with conclusions instead of basic assumptions. Beyond the spoils
they provide, their value depends on a public receptivity virtually
impossible for minds which have rarely ranged beyond standard limits.
Desocialization can be successful only if the victories sought are
those which can be won, while at the same time the public is taken
through an extended, careful, intimate and profound process of
discovery. And this process requires an ideology be established at the
most fundamental levels of dialogue and experience.
UNFORTUNATELY, such an ideology for university reform does
not yet exist. (We heard Mario Savio here only briefly, and if the
Free Speech Movement has developed anything more comprehensive
and basic, not enough people know about it.) If Reston's naive
prophecy is to be fulfilled, the most important steps may be those
taken in ink.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
A rab-Israeli Controversy

To the Editor:
J OSHUA BARLEV'S recent ex-
amination of the Arab-Israeli
conflict was an excellent example
of the numerous innuendo-laden,
oversimplified and distorted edi-
torial diatribes that have been
so frequently provoked by this
issue. Not only is the editorial a
grave injustice to the Arab posi-
tion but it is also an affront to
any "objective onlooker" attempt-
ing to gain a clearer understand-
ing of the problem.
For example, the contention
that the conflict "revolves around
the urgent need of the Arab na-
tions to find some force which
would unify them by drawing con-
cern away from their own local
problems and directing it toward
one element" suggests the author's
ignorance of pertinent events
prior to 1948. The crux of the
problem is to be seen in the con-
frontation of Zionist efforts to
establish a homeland and the fact
that the area chosen to be the
homeland was already occupied
and cultivated by Palestinian
Arabs who considered it their
homeland. While it may be legiti-
mate to argue that recent Arab
unification movements are using
the conflict as a vehicle for pro-
moting Arab nationalism, it is
unfair to gloss over the back-
ground of this issue and to present
the problem in its most recent
phase and to assert that this
phase is the issue.
Furthermore, the view that Arab
nationalism is a convenient means
for ignoring internal problems is
both untrue and a complete mis-
understanding of the nationalistic
movement. Probably no one is
more aware of the overwhelming
problems of his country than is
the educated Arab himself, and
the Arab League's creation of an
Arab Common Market is just one

example of efforts to promote the
economic welfare of the individual
Arab states via concerted action.
I'M NOT SURE just what the
insertion regarding the Nazi per-
secution of Jews adds to the
author's position but I vehemently
protest the insidious implications
of such a statement. Too many
similar attempts have been made
to becloud the Arab-Israeli issue
by analogizing the situation to
that of the Nazis and the Jews
and, of course, attributing the
villainous qualities to the Arabs.
In regards to the author's com-
ments on the Sinai campaign of
1956. I am, tempted to simply
laugh off the assertion that the
Egyptian soldiers are not accus-
tomed to wearing boots! However,
the seriousness of the remarks
demands that I remind the author
that not only were boots dis-
carded but that also hundreds of
Egyptian lives were "discarded"
because of the Israeli attack, and
that, had it not been for the
British and French collaboration
in this attack (thus explaining
their veto votes in the UN on the
resolution regarding this attack),
Israel would no doubt have been
soundly condemned by the United
Nations for her methods at that
time.
Another example of the author's
distorted presentation of this con-
flict is to be seen in his labeling
of the Arab countries as over-
populated at one point (when it
goes well with poverty-stricken
and illiterate and serves to de-
grade these states) and as capable
of admitting the Palestinian
Arab refugees at another point
(when it serves to present the
Arab position as one of intran-
sigence and unreasonableness).
THERE ARE other controversial

statements in Mr. Barlev's edi-
torial, but I have cited the above
points in particular because they
exemplify the kind of foggy, banal
and intellectually dishonest think-
ing that has frequently been of-
fered on this issue.
Mr. Barley in his second para-
graph hinted that there might be
a legitimate difference of opinion
involved. Unfortunately, the clear
thinking that might havedbeen
hoped for and expected did not
follow.
-Nancy Badgero, '65
News'Policies
To the Editor:
AS WE SCANNED the March 19
Daily we were pleased to learn
about the faculty walkout on Wed-
nesday, which we have been hear-
ing about all week, and the delay
in the launching of a particular
University rocket because of ad-
verse weather conditions . . .
However, we noticed a little scrap
of news on the third page with
regard to a certain cosmonaut
who was the first human to walk
in space.
Does the fact that he happened
to be a Russian automatically de-
mote him to the third page, or
does The Daily really believe this
storyadid not warrant first page
coverage?
We feel The Daily has a respon-
sibility to its readers to use the
proper perspective in the report-
ing of articles of international im-
portance, whether they are favor-
able or not to American prestige.
If this is The Daily's policy, where
will we find the news of the first
lunar landing? In the want ads?
--Gary B. Brown, '68
Bruce W. Stark, '68
EDITOR'S NOTE: We blew it.
-LJK

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