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-. S4 'p :. f s V °,~ I' I I