is T et a threat? Not so, U. S. o icers claim PLEIKU, Vietnam (P) - Hanoi's highly touted offensive in the Cen- tral Highlands has so far been so inoffensive, that many field offi- cers privately doubt the dire pre- dictions from Washington. "I don't know what they're say- ing in Saigon and Washington but I'm out here and I don't buy it," says a U.S. captain who has spent two years advising South Vietna- mese Rangers at isolated outposts along the Cambodian and Laotian borders. "This is the dry season. We al- ways have some fighting around Tet and they always call it an offensive. It might have added sig- nificance this year because of Pres- ident Nixon's trip to Peking. But from what I've seen of enemy movements out here, it won't be any bigger than last year." Another ranger adviser points out that the Communist command usually tries to overrun one out- post or fire base in the central highlands after the monsoon rains. It was Ben Het in 1969, Dak Seang in 1970 and Fire Base 6 in 1971. "They'll try for one again this year," he suys. "There'll be some headlines and some siege stories and I think they'll be satisfied with that. But it's 'nothing out of the ordinary." The apparent *non - offensive" this year is becoming an increas- ing source of embarrassment for U.S .officials. Since the beginning of December, U.S. bombers have been carrying a record number of missions against Communist indus- trial areas and supply routes in North Vietnam and Laos. Pentagon pundits, Nixon admin- istration officials and others have justified these increased bombings as necessary to counteract a major offensive. Even John Paul Vann, the highly respected senior Ameri- can advisor in South Vietnam's 2nd military region, had predicted that Hanoi would stage a Tet offensive with some 50,000 troops and would be prepared to take 10,000 casual- ties for "psychological effect." He has been echoed by cabinet members, the U.S. Army Chief of Staff, Gen. William Westmoreland; the U.S. Ambassador to Saigon, Ellsworth Bunker, and Ambassador William Porter, -chief American negotiator at the Paris peace talks. Apparently, however, the "major offensive" has not come, nor are there signs that it will occur at all. Vann concedes his predictions are based on the Communist coin- mand's intentions rather t h a n known capability, and he also con- cedes there is a "10 to 1 disparity ratio between what the enemy rays he will do and what he actually accomplishes." Buthe cites intelligence reports of unprecedented enemy activity, taken from captured documents, defectors, prisoners of war, agents and electronic sensors. Vann was one of the few rank- ing Americans to predict the Tet offensive in 1968. Some colonels at Pleiku head- quarters see the current lack of ground fighting as the "lull before the storm," but junior officers in the field contend the military situ- ation has been overdramatized. "The Montagnards are the best indicators of any offensive," said one ranger adviser at Duc Co, a smal loutpost in western Pleiku Province. "When they start leaving their villages and head for the cities we know there's going to be some tough fighting. "Look at them." He pointed to the stilt-houses of a neighboring Mcntagnard village. "They're still there. As long as they stay I know I'm going to be okay." Another officer questioned the validity of statements attributed to defectors and prisoners. "Maybe they're plants," he sug- gested. "Maybe Hanoi is telling them to say this. Maybe they're just saying yes to please us." Opinions vary on the quality of allied intelligence reports. Vann has conceded that Vietnamese esti- mates of the number of enemy tanks are far higher than Ameri- can estimates. One ranger captain said his intelligence was good but another officer 10 miles away call- ed his very bad. One reason for the disparity be- tween the combat reports and the Pentagon predictions is the rigid disciplinary system of the Army. Nearly all junior field officers prefer to remain anonymous when contradicting their superiors, and thus, their opinions and insight into Communist actions are often overshadowed by the publicity given high-ranking personages. The result has been poor cover- age of the war by the media. For example, one South Vietnamese Assemblyman accused American news agencies of "nurturing dark schemes through the overestimate of the strength of North Vietna- mese forces in the Central High- lands." In some cases, there have, been reports of attacks that never hap- pened. One news story recently told of Communist sappers attack- See OFFICERS, Page 8 Gen. Westmoreland PUBLISHING FACULTY SALARIES See Editorial Page C I 4c 5k 43Z :I3itF THE USUAL High=15 Low-5 Slight possibility of snow Vol. LXXXII, No. 100 Ann Arbor, Michigan-Tuesday, February 8, 1972 Ten Cents Ten Pages HRP selects ive or city council seats By DAVE BURHENN The Human Rights Party of Ann Arbor (HRP) ended its two weekend long convention Sunday night with the nomi- nation of candidates for five city council seats. Party nominees are: -First Ward: Jerry De Grieck, '72, former SGC executive 4 vice president and unsuccessful Radical Independent candi- date for the Second Ward council seat last spring; Second Ward: Nancy Wechsler, former party coordina- tor; -Third Ward: Genie Plamondon, wife of jailed radical leader Pun Plamondon and a member of the Rainbow Peo- ple's party; -Fourth Ward: David Black, a political science teaching fellow; -Fffth Ward: Nancy Romer SACUABurghardt, Grad. Plamondon was nominated by John Sinclair, founder and chair- man of the Rainbow People's par- orw ard s ty, after Sinclair said his party wanted to work with HRP in this spring's election. Plamondon de- n feated Phil Carroll for the nomi- union planI nation. David Black, wh(., :? r, ive By ROBERT BARKIN in the Fourth Ward, decided to The Senate Advisory Committee run for the seat in order to chal- on University Affairs (SACUA) lenge existing city wcd residency yesterday took action for the first laws for candidates. He was op- time on a controversial report call- posed by Dan Boothby. All the ing for "consultative negotiations" other candidates ran without op- as a' means of bargaining for the position. University's faculty. All candidates were required to The discussion centered on the face the audience of about 45 to Report of the Committee on Rights state possible disagreements with and Responsibilities of Faculty the party's platform and answer Members, also named the "Reed questions about their qualifica- Report" after committee chairman, tions and positions. law Prof. John Reed. Other provisions of the party SACUA voted to present the structure p 1 a n k adopted stip- section on consultative negotiations elate that "candidates are ex- to Senate Assembly, the faculty pected to be bound by the party representative body, at its Feb- platform," but that they will "be ruary meeting. allowed to state briefly and con- ruar meeing.cisely minority positions concern- The Reed committee was ap- pointed last February to report on ing the party platform in public." how the faculty could best increase In other party elections. Doug its role in financial andorganiza- Cornell, former RIP candidate for tional policies of the University. mayor.as tee passyncoodi- The controversial section of its nator and Steve Nissen campaigtn report isnconcerned with faculty manager. A new steering commit- compensation. The committee has tee was also selected, consisting of called for "consultative negotia- 5 men and 5 women. tions" which, according to the re- Party strategy for the upcom- port, "stops short of full collective ing April city elections was also bargaining but aims at fulfilling discussed at the convention. It was similar goals." decided that HRP should concen- The negotiations would, accord- Irate party resources primarily in ing to the report,' take place with th first. second, and third wards, the highest level of the adminis- where it is expected to garner the tration. If negotiations did not most votes. prove satisfactory, the ultimate HRP is expected to attract a option for the Senate Assembly large proportion of student voters would be a vote of censure on the many of whom will be voting for See SACUA, Page 8 See HRP, Page 8 'Day of disruption' N. Ireland -Associated Pres BELFAST youngsters aim a gun at a portrait of Britain's Queen Elizabeth yesterday (left), while British Prime Minister Edward Heath urges Catholic leaders to "think again" in the aftermath o the Iondonderry killings (right). 'SPIRIT OF '76' REVISITED: New bi centennial puts the rev in revolution set or BELFAST (R) - Bernadette Devlin and a Roman Catholic civil rights group promised y e s t e r d a y that tomorrow would be a "day of disruption" in Northern Ireland with sit- ins, sit-downs and all sorts of things," while other leaders of the Catholic minority spoke out against those plans and called instead for a 24-hour fast. The unofficial rival Ulster par- liament-formed last year when opposition members walked out of the provincial legislature-said it opposed the "D-Day of Disrup- tion" planned by the Civil Rights Association because it "did not want to risk the livelihood of any- one in the province." The assembly proposed a fast i starting at midnight Tuesday in Londonderry "Free Derry Corner." f That is the place where demon- strators clashed with British troops on Jan. 30 when 13 civil- ians were fatally shot. The rival parliament met in Belfast with the prospect that its members soon may find them- selves in jail. Police said they have taken out_ court summonses against 26 lead- ers of last Sunday's 20,000-strong anti-internment march in Newry, - which was illegal under the gov- go-ernment's Special Powers Act. IMarchers included the provincial parliament's entire opposition So- ge cial Democratic caucus. ed Devlin. the 24-year-old civil rights activist who sits in the Bri- ri- tish Parliament, said she would as lend a hand on the day of dis- m- ruption and promised the sit-ins ts and sit-downs. Detailed plans in- were kent secret. s ce Though the Newry march - an passed peacefully, the weekend 6 he produced four more dead. bring- er ing the toll of violence since Au- ho- gust 1969 to 239. i a Two members of the outlawed e il- IRA were blown to pieces while P olanting bombs in a sabotage op- ial eration on Lov-h Neavh. an inland t )c- sea 1est of Belfast. IRA leaders in p ls, Dublin. the canital of the Irish of reoublic, identified t h e m as .S. Charles McCann and Phelim a up Grant, both of a provisional unit. als The bodies were found in a sunken barve after a hand was i ad, spotted floating on the water. t on The IRA has sworn to kill 13 d ex- soldiers in revenge for 13 people d ct- shot dead in Londonderry when is- paratrooners moved against riotersp >gy See DAY, Page 8 By SUSAN BROWN Average American school chil- dren are rarely taught that Helen Keller was an avowed so- cialist. Or that Davy Crockett advocated the abolition of West Point, or that the'Boston Tea Party was America's first guer- rilla theater. These are facts of American history, however, that a new group of young radicals is try- ing to bring to light. Calling it- self the People's American Rev- olutionary Bi-Centennial Commis- sion, the group has a five-year plan to offset the celebrations of the government's American Revolution Bicentennial Commis- sion with its own view of U.S. history. Through emphasizing America's 200-year revolutionary heritage, the group hopes to win the aver- age American over to the left by proving that radicalism is as American as J. Edgar Hoover. A People's Commission spokes- man at its Washington head- quarters said the group is pre- senting "a new philosophical ap- proach to activism founded on American radical traditions." As a result, the group predicts that political, social, and economic reforms will be more easily achieved. The radical tradition, commis- sion literature explains, begins with the great revolutionaries at the time of the founding of the nation such as Thomas Paine and Sam Adams, extending from the Sons of Liberty to the aboli- tionists, the populists, through the women's suffrage movement, to the labor radicals of the 20th century. Along the way there were in- dividuals such as blind and deaf socialist Helen Keller, who wrote of liberals, "I don't give a damn about semi-radicals," and Davy Crockett, who as a Tennessee congressman in fear of a lar military esablishment, propos the abolition of West Point. To point out that the Ame can heritage is reactionary well as revolutionary, the co mission has dug up obscure fac such as when the first U.S.i tervention in Vietnam took pla -1845. At that time, America naval officer resulted from t outrage of a naval officer ov the death sentencing of a Cath lie bishop in Vietnam led to massacre of Vietnamese civ ians. The P e o p 1 e 's Bi-Centenn: Commission was formed in O tober, 1971, by several radica many of whom are veteransi the Citziens' Inquiry Into U War Crimes in Vietnam, a gro -which sponsored GI testimonia of U.S. atrocities. Proclaiming the New Left dea J e r e m y Rifkin, Washingt spokesman for the group,e plains it failed because it reje ed American revolutionary h tory and took on the ideolo and rhetoric of Asian, Europe and Third World revolutiona struggles. As a result, says Rifkin, t New Left alienated most mid Americans and make it eas: for itsenemies to label thesld as "subversives"' or "outside' elements. Rifkin believes his alternati for the left will allow patriotis to attract large sectors of t American populationmasksuppoi ens and perhaps make son changes. "The revolutionary herita must be used as a tactical wea on to isolate the existing insti tions and those in power by c stantly focusing public attenti on their inability to translate o revolutionary dreams into re -Associated Press A grin for gramps Democratic presidential hopeful George McGovern gets a chance to try out his baby tactics on his three-day-old grandsot at home in Washington yesterday. 20,000 NAMES SOUGH T: PIRGIM volunteers launch petitlion drive By DORIS WALTZ A campus-wide petition drive aimed at obtaining 20,000 student ignatures supporting the establishment of a student-funded and controlled consumer interest group was launched yesterday by over 00 university students. The idea for the organization, the Public Interest Research Group n Michigan (PIRGIM), became popular last spring when various state nvironmental groups heard Ralph Nader urge the establishment of PIRGS around the country. PIRGIM plans to fight for public concerns through the media, he legislature, government agencies and the courts. Expected areas of PIRGIM efforts are environmental quality, consumer protection, oc- cupational safety, race and sex discrimination, housing, and the oper- ation of public and private institutions in the state. Students who sign the petition will agree to pay a $3 persyear fee, which will be included in their fee assessment by the University, f approved by the Regents. If all students in the state participate in the organization, PIRGIM's budget will top $900,000 per year. Stu- dents not wishing to finance the group will be refunded the fee during the first two weeks of the semester, according to the PIRGIM plan. See PIRGIM, Page 8 NEW MANAGERS Daily business staff named The Senior Managers of the Michigan Daily Business Staff have announced theirssucces- sors. Andy Golding, a Roslyn, New York journalism and speech ma- jor and a sports broadcaster on WCBN, will be the new Business Manager. Golding is responsi- ble for the entire operation of the Daily as a student managed business. A new position, Associate Business Manager, will be filled and training of new business staff members. Appointed to the position of Advertising Manager is sopho- more Harry Hirsch, from Chica- go, Illinois. Hirsch, an anthro- pology major, will supervise the Daily's advertising departments is responsible for setting adver- tising guidelines and policies. Diane Carnevale and Paul Wenzloff are the new Sales and Promotions Managers. Carne- vale, a junior from Dearborn an ry he dle ier eft ve sm he )rt- me ge ap- tu- on- on ur al- Chicago 7 defendants' appeals begin, today after 2 year wait CHICAGO, Ill. (A) - A federal appeals court will begin hearing two days of oral arguments to- day on the complicated appeals of the Chicago 7 defendants whose stormy trial ended two years ago. But the arguments before three judges of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals were expected to contain little of the verbal ex- plosions which marked the trial complex that a ruling is expect- ed to take some time. The lawyers will argue tomor- row against the contempt sen- tences imposed at the end of the trial by Judge Julius Hoffman of U.S. District Court. The judge sentenced the seven defendants and two defense law- yers, William Kunstler of New York and Leonard Weinglass of Newark, N.J., to terms ranging I ~ WEE.':>> z:,?>"