he firlygan Daily
Eighty years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
stained glass paper
In his heart. he knows he's right
by robert kralftowitz
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich..
News Phone: 764-0552
Editorials printed in The Michicon Doily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 1971
NIGHT EDITOR: HESTER PULLING
Who's to blame, for My Lai?
WILLIAM CALLEY, All-American boy,
a Vietnam veteran and a volunteer
too, has been found guilty by a military
jury of killing unarmed civilians ("Ori-
ental Human Beings") just three y e a r s
ago at the village of My Lai.
This might foster a sense of relief in
some Americans, whose guilt over the In-
dochina atrocity seems to have been vin-
dicated. But to the Vietnamese people,
the Calley verdict cannot be the source
of much comfort.
or not only are those who were gun-
n dd down by Charlie company unable to
return to their hutches simply because
of the jury's verdict, but the slaughter
of their fellow Vietnamese by the United
States military continues unabated de-
spite the trial.
Realistically, one would expect noth-
ing else, for Calley is after all only a
scapegoat for the conscience of a nation
unwilling to point the finger of guilt at
its government - which really perpetrat-
ed the crime.
In view of recent history, one wonders
why this nation should tolerate this de-
liberate judicial oversight so easily. For
were not the Americans in great part re-
sponsible for the Nuremburg trials which
set the precedent for the attribution of
war crimes to those ultimately responsi-
ble?
WITH THIS in mind, it makes consider-
able sense to suggest, as many have
already done, that the Calley trial be
abandoned in favor of a more far-reach-
ing confrontation - the trial of every
American president under whom the war
in Vietnam has been pursued.
Certainly the slaughter of literally mil-
lions of Vietnamese by the United States
in an undeclared war substantially mo-
tivated by imerialist ambitions is a crime
under the Nuremburg doctrine. Or at
least that would have been the opinion of
a U.S. military court which, following the
second world war, found the massacre of
unarmed civilians by a military unit to
be sufficient justification for the execu-
tion of commanding officers and a
Japanese general.
But there is no such trial in sight. In-
deed, even as Calley bears the burden of
guilt for the crimes of his bosses, the war
goes on. There is no evidence indicating
that the Calley trial has brought any sud-
den realizations to the minds of the
White House and Pentagon war officials.
Sports Staff
MORT NOVECK Sports Editor
! JIM KEVRA, Executive Sports Editor
RICK CORNFELD ... ...... Associate Sports Editor
TERRI FOUCHEY.. Contributing Sports Editor
BETSY MAHON ........ Senior Night Editor
SPORTS NIGHT EDITORS: Bill Alterman. Bob An-
drews, Sandi Genis, Joel Greer. Elliot Legow, John
Papanek, Randy Phillips, Al Shackelford.
Business Staff
JAMES M. STOREY,(Business Manager
RICHARD RADCLIFFE SUZANNE BOSCHAN
Advertising Manager Sales Manager
JANET ENGL .,................ Personnel Director
JOHN SOMMERS ....... ..Finance Manager
ANDY GOLDING . .. Circulation Manager
DEPARTMENT MANAGERS: Doug Buchanan, Beth
Greeley, Fran Hymen, Caryn Miller, Skip Woodward,
INSTEAD, THEY continually pursue a
wider war whose justification bears
shocking similarity to the second world
war. For example, many will remember
from the history of World War II that
Germany invaded Denmark, Poland, Bel-
gium and Holland in an act forbidden
by international law.
As a justification of those invasions,
Hitler gave many reasons with a familiar
ring for Americans who have followed
the war. For example, the invasion of
neutral western European nations was in
part attributed to the necessity of cut-
ting supply lines from Britain to the
continent.
Similar analogies hold for Lyndon
Johnson, who began his massive escala-
tion of the war on the pretext that North
Vietnamese gunboats had (unsuccess-
fully) attempted to sink two U.S. destroy-
ers in the Gulf of Tonkin.
This again is similar to Hitler's ex-
cuse for the invasion of Poland, which
was purportedly provoked by a mythical
assault by the Polish army on a German
border camp.
Thus, both Nixon and Johnson have
committed clear breaches of interna-
tional law. Yet they are both free, with-
out bond, and without even being charg-
ed with a crime. Knowing what surely
would have happened to Hitler had he
lived, one wonders why these men have
in no way had to answer for their ac-
tions. Why do they pay no penalty for
their part in these atrocities?
CALLEY OF COURSE will pay dearly
for his, but Americans should accept
even this fact cautiously. For though the
actions of Calley are inexcusable per se
(and his guilt thus implicit), the facts
of the situation which Calley faced at
My Lai are not.
Sent to Vietnam, willingly or not, with
orders to kill communists, Calley killed
civilians. He did so seeing that his men
were decimated by hidden Viet Cong in
every village, and booby trapped by child-
ren. And as his men died, Calley became
not just the unwilling tool of the Presi-
dent, but the unwitting one.
For when Calley led his men into My
Lai that day in early 1968 he had fresh
in his memory the recollections of sev-
eral of his friends being killed by invisi-
ble communists.
Calley says he was ordered to "waste"
everyone in the village. His superior den-
ies giving him that order but that is ir-
relevant.
Calley killed because he was frighten-
ed. A lieutenant for a mere six months,
a young man, confused, his men terri-
fied, he led Charlie company as it open-
ed fire and people died.
CALLEY FACES life imprisonment for
his crime; Nixon faces another elec-
tion and Johnson has retired to the Lone
Star State. But these discrepancies are
despicable. It must be a source of na-
tional shame that while Calley rots in
jail, the greater criminals go free.
-JONATHAN MILLER
THE NEXT MAYOR of Ann Arbor may be
a short, squat man who, basically,
would like us to live as he does.
"Be reasonable. Do it my way," implores
the inscription on the paperweight that sits
at the desk of Jack J. Garris, a conserva-
tive candidate in a Republican city which
has a Democratic mayor that Garris tells
me he is very scared of.
Laying his coat on the chair, he stops to
catch his breath and apologize for being
late, but he was at a debate with the in-
cumbent, Robert Harris, at Huron High
School. The debate had apparently not gone
well for Jack, who had drawn several
rounds of catcalls from a student audience
"driven to disrespect" by his unprincipled
opponent.
"He's impressing them with the idea that
their resistance to law and order is OK,"
Garris complains, "that the use of drugs is
not so bad." He lays his lunch on the desk.
"I am very worried." He is. I feel it. The
man is unbelievably sincere.
SO HE GOES ON, speaking with the im-
passioned rasp of a good citizen who has
found himself unable to cope with the threats
to his little America in Ann Arbor.
In two years, he says, Harris has allowed
the city to become a haven for revolutionary
elements, who have turned "our youth to
drugs, to violence and indiscriminate sex,
and sex in public, disrespect for parents,
teachers, police, and the establishment."
And while the city has watched quietly,
Garris continues, the University too has be-
come quite cancerous. Besides not kicking
out "the troublemakers seeking to destroy
their institution, the University is now ad-
mitting a "quota of minorities" which "will
reduce the caliber of the people it gradu-
ates."
"We all shudder to think that minority
people who aren't competent will be given
a license to practice medicine. Think of the
harm they can do to people and society in
general," Garris says.
"By giving someone a degree without his
meeting equal demands by society, it's a
disservice to that person.
community which the administration had
spawned.
The Panthers themselves have remained
Garris' most hated symbol, for he sees them
as representing the end of the path along
which Ann Arbor's youth have been moving
rapidly for the past two years.
The candidate explains how they have in-
fected the school system, and gives me a
copy of a White Panther statement which
was passed out in Ann Arbor's high schools.
Underlined on the statement are the words
which Garris is afraid the students may
have picked up when they read it.
The statement, Garris says, "was being
passed out to high school kids, and parents
were not getting it. It was having some ef-
fect on the kids. We showed it to the city
attorney. It was pornographic and damag-
ing to the city's youth. He said he did not
find it pornographic."
Appalled at this "permisiveness," by the
city, Garris stands determined to deal
promptly with the White Panthers and
"other allied radicals." Could he perhaps
be referring to the University?
"I think troublemakers on " campus dem-
onstrate that their prime purpose is to de-
stroy the institution itself. They should be
gotten out of there. It's the student that's
getting robbed and mugged and the coeds
raped.
HIS PLATFORM is himself, his own life
style. He is, to his supporters, the mold with
which they wish to shape Ann Arbor for the
next two years. And he is ready for the
task.
He will solve the drug problem by locking
up all marijuana sellers.
He will prevent campus disorders by "un-
leashing" the police, and trying to see that
the protesters are "evicted" from the Uni-
versity.
He will solve the race problem by making
sure blacks are given every opportunity to
fulfill their potential-as laborers.
He will save the city, and maybe the na-
tion, by destroying the White Panther Party.
I CLOSED my notebook, thanked hin,
and left.
-Daily-Jim Judkis
"He will meet with resistance. If he does
get hired, he will be doing a poor, unac-
ceptable job, even for the minorities."
THERE IS unmistakable concern in Gar-
ris' eyes. He sees the black community as
unnecessarily riled up by white people who
are trying to channel blacks into areas
which, Garris says, they may not be capable
to perform well in.
"Some of these Negro youth, they say
'this education doesn't relate to us' and
they're absolutely right: I believe the lower
sphere of education is (incorrectly) stress-
ing the preparation of everybody for higher
education. Thus, he explains, many black
students are being kept "from getting
enough skills to meet their way of life,
whether it be a plumber, a carpenter, a
ditch digger . ."
GARRIS NODS to me as he finishes this
last, and looks for recognition from his as-
sistant, Jim, a student in the law school. It
is becoming clearer and clearer that not
only am I not dealing with an intellectual
of any sort, but I am not dealing with a
politician either.
Confronting me instead is the gut of non-
University Ann Arbor, whose racism and
anti-intellectualism remains isolated to its
dinner tables until brought to respect-
ability by an electoral mandate.
A few, like Garris, become the voice for
the rest. Nearly two years ago, the Con-
cerned Citizens began the 6ampaign which
its chairman is taking to the polls next
week.
At that time, Mayor Harris and the Demo-
crats had been in office for three months,
and the Garrisites were directing their first
efforts toward stopping the summer rock
concerts. Sponsored by the White Panthers,
the Concerned Citizens saw the concerts as
the first step toward a degeneration of the
4r
Bringing peace to 'the Indochinese people
(Editor's Note: This article was
written by the Crazy Horse Tribe of
the People's Peace Collective).
AS REPORT after report re-
counts the stunning victory of
the Pathet Lao and Vietnamese
liberation forces in Laos. it be-
comes increasingly clear that the
Indochinese people will not give
up. Far from being defeated, they
have just completed the m o s t
complete rout of South Vietnam-
ese-American forces since the Tet
offensive in 1968.
Liberation forces have c a u s e d
a desperate retreat of South Viet-
namese government forces - and
the Nixon Administration lies to
the contrary are so blatant that
they are falling on deaf or un-
believing ears in this country.
Not too much comfort should be
taken from the results of the Laos
invasion, however, just because
it was the most dramatic defeat
handed Nixon-Thieu-Ky in the
last two years. Rather, the point
that should be taken is that the
invasion itself is just another in
a series of increasingly desperate
actions taken to try and salvage
a military victory, even if it
means the destruction of the
peoples of Indochina.
From the very beginning, when
the U.S. considered using tactical
nuclear weapons to save the
French at Bienbienphu in 1954,
the American government has
shown it has no scruples about
destroying Indochina in order to
"save" it. The tortures, the tiger
cages, the concentration c a m p s
(euphemistically called "New Life
Hamlets"), the bombings, the poi-
soning of the people and the en-
vironment, and the successive in-
vasions of South Vietnam, Cam-
bodia, and Laos all tell a clear
story. The bombing now equals
the tonnage of almost three Hiro-
shimas per week.
We nmust also understand that
because of herbicides and other
poisons being spread over the land
a tremendously high rate of birth
defects and starvation due to the
destruction of the land itself
itself threatens the very exist-
ence of the people. In fact, in
some places the chances of giving
birth to a deformed child is six
times as great as the mothers of
Hiroshima.
WE KNOW that the NLF has
infiltrated the government struc-
ture in the cities to the extent that
it could take back the cities fairly
easily. The fear on their part is
that this would cause the Ameri-
cans to employ nuclear weapons.
Henry Kissinger has stated that
such a development as the liber-
ation of the cities would be met
with massive retaliation. As much
an otherworldly myth as nuclear
weapons have been to us in our
lifetime, they are 4a very real al-
ternative to military minds backed
up against a wall.
If we cannot sit back and take
refuge in the thought that the
Vietnamese will win, neither must
we think that we can do nothing
to aid them. For the U.S. gov-
ernment will only go as far in this
case as it can, and this is where
the American people have a cer-
tain measure of control.
THE UPRISINGS following the
Cambodian invasion last M a y
proved this, as they did have a
real effect on Nixon's ability to
pursue the invasion. The various
liberal measures in the Congress
were a direct result of the upris-
ings.
But the movement last May
stopped short of effecting a total
withdrawal of U.S. troops and
material. And one of the reasons
for this was surely that the move-
ment was not the result of a long
range, conscious effort, but of a
spontaneous concentration of emo-
tional energy.
As a result, the movement had
no clear goals, and no effort
was made to direct the energy
that did exist toward goals.
Because the movement did not
push for imediate withdrawal, as
soon as the outcry stopped, Nixon
still had room to manipulate and
work around the Congressional
limitations placed on him. The
only way to prevent a continua-
tion of Nixon's policies is there-
fore to make new limitations so
total that Nixon is left =with a
complete inability to pursue the
war at all.
To do this, we must rebuild the
movement of a year ago; we must
begin to take the offensive against
the government. The movement
must be a national one; its main
thrust must be directed at the
national government, as that is
the branch of the power structure
that prosecutes the war. That is
not to say that the main actions
should not be on a local level, but
that local actions must have a
national context.
It must be clear that every-
thing that happens in the country
is united; in that way the whole
mokement has far greater effect
than the sum of all its local parts.
THE PEOPLE'S Peace Treaty
can provide that national context.
It makes clear the direct ties be-
tween the American and Vietnam-
ese people. Both peoples wan this
war ended and recognize that the
key to that is the complete re-
moval of American forces from
Southeast Asia.
In the short run it provides a
national context for all local ac-
tions that take place against the
war. It also allows for national ac-
tions directly against the govern-
ment, such as those being plan-
ned for the end of April and be-
ginning of May in Washington.
Of course, the important thing
about the treaty is not the docu-
ment itself but what is done with
it. The treaty should not be seen
as a panacea; the treaty is noth-
ing without its implementation on
all levels. It is not a petition or a
summons but rather a tool which
can be used to give a definite
context and spirit to the move-
ment that it has not had before.
The Peace Treaty also calls in-
to question the entire nature of
the U.S. government. By ratifying
the treaty we are saying that the
U.S. government, which claims to
represent "the people" and which
conducts wars in our name, is an
illegitimate government.
1
WE MUST continue the cam-
paign, and at the same time we
must see our actions in a wider
context. We must ratify the Peo-
ple's Peace Treaty on the SGC
ballot today as a statement of
mass support for the Vietnamese
people, We must then pour our
energies into the war research
campaign and other actions both
here and in Washington.
We must aid the Vietnamese in
any and all ways that we can.
Their fight is our fight, and time
grows short.
Letters to The Daily
Election recommendations
THEFOLLOWING recommendations
for the campus-wide elections today
were explained in Sunday's Daily:
Student Government
Council
President and
executive vice president
Recommended: Rebecca Schenk and
Jerry Rosenblatt.
Acceptable: Marty Scott and Tiburcio
Vasquez (Students are urged to indi-
cate this slate as second choice).
At-large seats
Recommended: Arlene Griffin, Barba-
ra Goldman, Tom Vernier, Bill Kand-
ler, Rebecca Schenk.
Acceptable: Louis Lessem, J a y Hack,
Joel Silverstein, Laurie Ellias, Shirley
Nickovich.
Also, students are urged to vote for
ratification of the People's Peace Trea-
ty, which calls for an immediate cease-
fire in Indochina, total withdrawal of
U.S. troops from the area, and demo-
cratic elections organized by a provis-
ion coalition government.
LSA Student
Government
Although the candidates for execu-
tive council seem to be poorly qualified
for the posts they seek, we believe the
most competent are Russ Bikoff, Bob
Black and Steve Weissman, and Bren-
da McGadney.
Rackham Student
Government
President and vice president
Recommended: Dan Fox and Bill Stout.
Daily endorsement
To The Daily:
THIS IS WITH your endorsement
(or the lack of endorsement in my
case) of candidates for the office
on the Board of Student Publica-
tions. The Daily has succeeded in
doing a good hachet job on my can-
didacy. Unfortunately for the vot-
ers, the Daily neglected to men-
tion certain significant things I
feel have a bearing on my candi-
dacy.
First, let me say that what I said
to the interviewers and what was
stated by the Daily was basically
trued but only basically. Yes, I was
asked by a friend to enter but if
it was a joke I wouldn't still be in
the race. I am serious and I do
want to be elected but just because
someone asked me to run doesn't
disqualify me.
Again it is true that I don't know
that much about the board's power
but since I'm the only freshman
running (a fact overlooked by the
Daily) it seems knowledge comes
with age. As to the charge that 1
know nothing of the operation of
the Daily, it is apparent that the
senior editors believe the sole pur-
pose of the paper is to make money.
The "operation" they menticn
is the business matters of the
Daily. I've had experience with the
money aspects of other papers
I've been associated with; but not,
I am sad to say, with the Daily. I
feel that the paper is more than
just money. I know the purpose of
the Daily which I believe is to in-
form the student population of this
university.
AS FOR WHY I'd be a valuable
to hear and repeat only segments
of what I said instead of the total
content. If they did, it would been
reported accurately. So I still ap-
peal to those of you who are going
to vote in the SGC election, don't
count me out. As for the senior edi-
tors, I repeat what I said in my
platform, "It (the Daily) is' a
paperfor the student, by the stu-
dent and that is the way it should
remain. Anyone who takes a dif-
ferent views is only kidding himself
and the voters." Nice joke!
-Charles Bloom '7
Candidate for Board of
Student Publications
Athletic department
To The Daily:
IN YOUR RECENT supplement
in which candidates in the up-
coming SGC elections presented
their platforms, y o u included
statements by students running
for a seat on the Board in Con-
trol of Intercollegiate Athletics.
Some of these students seem to
be laboring under mistaken in-
formation, or else are making un-
substantiated implications about
the Athletic Department. Which-
ever the case may be, I would like
to take the opportunity to clear
them up.
First; the $147,000 received an-
nually by the Athletic Department
(from General Funds) is pledged
to pay for the University's Chris-'
ler Arena. The Athletic Depart-
ment neither owns the building
nor uses the money to pay the
bonds on it. The money, by law,
cannot be reallocated or reduced,
and this is a "non-issue" in this
campaign.
Second; two candidates recoin-
Third; one of the candidates
maintains that t h e "program
Michigan participates in is by its
nature racist and sexist." T h l s
seems to be an "in" accusation to
make these days, but is one which
requires substantial documenta-
tion when used against the inter-
collegiate sports program at
Michigan. it would seem that this
candidate has a responsibility to
substantiate such an accusation,
and the Athletic Department could
only profit if she did.
Finally, two of the candidates
taintain that the student mem-
bers have traditionally been ath-
letes who do not represent the
student view. Indrecent years,
however, the student members
have been mostly non-athletes
(mostly Daily writers). Since the
early "60's", it is only in the last
two years that b o t h members
have been student-athletes. Fur-
ther, the charge that student-ath-
letes share the policy view "and
have submitted to the Athletic
Department's decisions" is un-
substantiated in the platforms.
The implication is that student-,
athletes on the Board are puppets
of thesadministration, and it seems
that such an indictment is irre-
sponsible and requires substantia-
tion in order to be justified.
The Athletic Department, how-
ever, does have responsibilities to
meet. It should (as, several can-
didates feel) pledge itself to im-
proving intramural facilities, most
notably regarding a new I.M.
building. It should also continue,
and if possible expand, itsrsum-
mer recreation program for un-'
derpriviledged children; it should
aid the Club Sports program as
much as possible; and it should
Pfnh1~C, h h*1-D1met-hods of rcom-.
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