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Eighty years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
Military grows lean, stays
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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, SEPTEMBER 4, 1970 NIGHT EDITOR: STEVE KOPPMAN
a4
FIVE YEARS of spiralling opposition to the war in
Vietnam are finally having their effect on the U.S.
military establishment. But the changes that are taking
place are frustratingly small, and they foreshadow plans
not to disengage from the corpsemanship of the Indo-
china Theatre, but to ensure that the war goes on in-
definitely.
Total armed forces personnel are being reduced from a
peak of 3.3 million to probably about 2.4 million by next
May.
Coupled with future reforms in the military pay
scales, this troop reduction will presumably allow the
Pentagon to comfortably accept an all-volunteer Army
in time for the 1972 elections - a step which militarists
hope will mollify anti-war sentiment among both old
and young.
The troop reduction will, of course include the con-
tinuing withdrawal of U.S. troops from Indochina, but
it seems highly unlikely that South Vietnamese forces will
ever be able to maintain control of their rebellious coun-
try without American assistance. And given President
Nixon's preoccupation with not becoming the first man
to preside over a U.S. military defeat, the continued pre-
sence of tens of thousands of troops in Indochina seems,
likely.
EVEN WHILE U.S. ground forces are leaving the area,
our bombers continue to devastate the South Vietnamese
countryside, to make numerous "retaliatory strikes" over
North Vietnam and to fly increasing numbers of combat
support missions for the forces of Cambodia's dictator
Laon Nol.
Thus, while communist and nationalist forces maintain
control of the Indochinese countryside, U.S. bombers
provide what at times approaches a no-man's land of
devastation around the government headquarters in
Phnom Penh and Saigon. In Cambodia, as in South
Vietnam in the past, defoliation of the countryside,
forced urbanization of the rural population and the use
of "free-fire zones" are likely to be employed as a
means of terror-laden repression. A
On the whole, the military establishment, despite the
surface changes induced by the anti-war movement, re-
mains ubiquitous, omnipotent and seemingly immutable.
Vast programs of troop support (e.g. our 63,000-man
force in S. Korea) and military aid to a slew of un-
popular regimes in the underdeveloped world seem un-
changed in recent years and continue to define the basic
thrust of U.S. foreign policy - repression of left-wing
opposition groups in favor of friendly, proto-fascist gov-
ernments.
Yet American public opinion remains relatively mute.
Even disclosures of atrocities by the military draw little
attention. For example, in July the prestigious Interna-
hungry
martin hirschman
tional Commission of Jurists reported that U.S. personnel
were aiding the Brazilian government in instituting a
virtual Inquisition against opposition forces including
the widespread use of torture. The report went
almost unnoticed.
FOR THE AMERICAN LEFT, the continued strength
of the military -- as well as the business interestsathat
benefit from the maintenance of friendly, stable rela-
tions with dictators in the underdeveloped world - is
both frustrating and compelling.
Years of confrontation with the military have pro-
duced a small show of retreat designed only to numb the
American people to the real repression, bloodshed and
destruction that continues unabated.
But at the same time, left-wing nationalist groups in
many nations are putting up staunch resistance to the
tyranny of their U.S.-supported governments, and per-
sisting in struggles that offer the only real source of
hope for the neglected, poverty-stricken masses of the
Third World.
These courageous struggles, by groups like the Tupe-
mero in Uruguay, the Viet Cong and Cambodian nation-
alist groups, deserve the support of the American
people.. They provide us with an undeniable call for
renewed action, compelling us to build a massive anti-
imperialist movement which can hasten the demise of
our blood-and-iron approach to foreign policy.
Games we can play while,
slowly choking to death
Violence 1 1111politics:
A three-sided dilemma
DEFENSE SECRETARY Melvin Laird's
suggestion Wednesday - that federal
research facilities which are becoming
targets of violent action may have to be
built elsewhere than on the campus -
gives great hope to those determined to
cleanse the universities of this country
of their affiliation with the Pentagon.
Yet at the same time it is genuinely de-
pressing to realize that only through
years of continued violence, capped by
the blast at the University of Wisconsin
which killed one and injured four others,
was. Laird moved to his conclusion.
Depressing because increasingly, in the
past year, it has become nearly impos-
sible to refute the argument that violent
tactics are the most effective means of
change and persuasion on the campus
and in the nation. Experiences in Ann
Arbor - the bookstore sit-in, the Par-
sons sit-in, the Black Action Movement
class strike and trashing, the pressure
on ROTC - where such tactics have been
extraordinarily successful after requests,
petitions, demands and cold logic have
failed, give strong support to those who
believe that political efficacy is greatest
in the streets.
Thus it becomes increasingly impos-
sible to condemn those on the left who
choose -violence as a tactic unless one is
willing to abandon the belief that ending
repression and 'militarism are key factors
in the building of a better American
society.
And yet violence remains an uneasy al-
ternative to many, especially when it
leads to the death or injury of innocent
humans. The dilemma posed by this con-
flict involving tactics and efficacy recalls
the reaction of a local radical to the
Weatherman bombings in Manhattan last
winter. "I can't condemn those people.
That's their analysis of the situation. I
don't agree with it, I won't contribute to
it, but I can't bring myself to say they
are totally wrong."
AT THE University of Wisconsin, history
will be the eventual judge of the ef-
fect of the Nev Year's Gang bombing.
in the meantime, the Army Mathematics
Research Center is disfunctional, and
those who would condemn violence as a
tactic -across the board can only look on
that accomplishment as a testimonial
to the impotence of their own philosophy.
The Wisconsin bombing, of course, has
not "solved" anything on a lamge scale.
Even if the Pentagon decides to build
its war. machine elsewhere the war ma-
chine still exists. Yet if the universities
can someday free themselves of their ties
with the military and the corporate pow-
er structure, then perhaps they can re-
establish themselves as a strong moral
force in this society. In that light, the
recent retreat of ROTC from the campus,
coupled with Laird's announcement yes-
terday is encouraging.
Meanwhile, we can wait for something
to happen that will make our elected and
appointed officials change their perspec-
tive, and take steps to dismantle the war
machine and throttle back the corporate
power structure. But that is pointless, and
begs the entire question of this dilemma.
That sort of change can only c o m e
through action. Action can be non-violent
or violent. The three-sided dilemma of
efficacy and conscience and impotence
continues.
-JIM NEUBACHER-
Editorial Page Editor
(EDITOR'S NOTE: This article ap-
peared in the Aug. 29 issue of the New
Republic.)
By DANIEL ZWERDLING
Daily Magazine Editor
Smog, water pollution and rac-
ism all have new social purpose:
they're making some game manu-
facturers a bundle of money. The
newest games on the market
which teach us that social con-
cern can be fun are SMOG and
Dirty Water, companion b o a r d
games which pit the player, as an
elected pollution control manager,
against conflicting demands by
big business, .government, voters,
and the dying environment.
Players hop around a Decision
Tree where they must confront
suchymatters as industrial a n d
family growth, zoning, public
transportation systems, pollution
control schemes and public rela-
tions campaigns. Whoever balanc-
es the different demands b e s t
w i n s; astute players soon learn
that a dollar or two in the pock-
et brings them a lot closer to vic-
tory than making small improve-
ments in the air.
Outrageous Fortune Cards com-
plicate the 90-minute g a m e by
making it unpredictable: the wind
direction m a y suddenly change,
blowing your industries' smoke ov-
er nearby homes (you lose votes),
or the legislature may propose
outlawing the internal combustion
engine (you lose votes but gain
good air points if you support
the bill; if you oppose it the air
gets worse but Detroit sends you
$500).
Youngsters who find SMOG dif-
ficult to understand (many adults
have found the rules obscure and
tedious, as well) may enjoy Dirty
Water. The object is to stock your
lake first with a nicely balanced
supply of bass, sunfish, algae, ro-
tifers and copepods. DDT, phos-
phates and herbicides will thwart
nature (and the player) at every
step.
SMOG and Dirty Water come
from a Cambridge consultant firm,
Urban Systems Assoc., manned by
former Boston mayor John Col-
lins and a slew of Harvard-MIT
graduates. Their clients include
large corporations who want to
see about cutting down on their
own pollution, presumably at cut-
rates. The game's chief developer
and company president, Richard
Rosen, says he invented SMOG to
set straight frustrated youths who
are dedicated to cleaning up the
environment, but too naive to cope
with political realities. According
to SMOG's instructions, "While
the most important sources of air
pollution are automobiles 'and the
smoke emitted by industries which
burn sulfur-containing fuels, the
players soon find that it is neith-
er wise nor possible to indiscrim-
inately restrict industry." Rosen
thinks SMOG and Dirty Water
will also change the thinking of
big businesses which don't realize
that fighting pollution can often
increase their profits in the long
run (by making workers happier,
increasing t h e i r productivity,
slowing dispoilment of valuable
natural resources) and parochial
government technicians who nev-
er see the Big Picture.
All the education that SMOG
and Dirty Water offer comes for
$10, about 25 per cent more than
P r o g r a m m e d discriminations
thwart the "black" players at ev-
ery move. For example, "blacks"
start with $10,000 and "whites"
get $1 million. "We rejected one
version of the game in which it
was impossible for "blacks" to
win," says David Popoff, who de-
veloped the game in two months
for the March issue of Psychology
Today magazine. "Black players
got so frustrated by the middle of
the game that t h e y wanted to
quit."
Popoff thinks his game enables
white players to transcend an in-
tellectual understanding of the
Fighting the tide
as time hurries On
By RICK PERLOFF
The scruffy blue jeans with their streaks of fading pallor; waves
of falling hair nestled around the forehead shagging beyond the neck;
eyes marching ahead, glancing about, quietly absorbing the mood of
Ann Arbor.
Well, the campus looks pretty much the same after the summer:
the students are back, coloring the streets in tattered appearance,
weary understanding and with a smile here, a nod there, it's kind of
nice to be back in Ann'Arbor.
The summer away blends easygoing misadventures, travelling, or
loafing, with the hassles of reality - parents, -employment, society's
straights, and now that it's over, it's over, with a shrug of what-do-
you-expect indifference and curious'anticipation for the, fall.
Another year here; well, it could be worse. Ann Arbor is tucked
away from the grimy depressions of life in the cities, hidden from the
tired routine of rural towns, and their people's sleepy cynicism and
hostility to outsiders' diversity.
There are few flashy billboards or greedy office buildings,.and the
skyscrapers here are so out-of-place to be anything but absurd.
It's all quite pleasant, particularly those interim days before
classes begin, that period ,of unresponsibility, encountering friends,
grabbing ice cream and walking about campus. One almost wishes
these days never ended and it is tempting to behgve as if they didn't
and assume schools exists in name only.
It is tempting for it appears that many of us belong to that na-
tionwide middle class chain, linking summer camps, suburbs, parental
friends and all- the people we met here and there, and, well, it seems
that we are all related, in some way.
You know Joan; she knows Paul from a high school student lead-
ership conference, and Paul is rooming with Doug who sits next to you
in your 10 o'clock. As it turns out, Doug used to work for UAC and met
Gary who, the way these things work, probably knew Joan from that
conference too.
After the first months of freshmaninity, it is difficult to conceive
of the place any longer as a "Big University." It' becomes friends,
friends of friends or members of the chain strumming the guitar on
the Diag, so why not join them? It is fun and there'll probably be some-
one strumming who went to Europe, felt guilty when he returned and
saw what system his money maintains.
So it goes.
The idea of college ending is a disconcerting thought; it will some-
day be time to face up and declare the moratorium over,/and make a
living in the "real world," where people are rumored to work all day
and worry about such things as mortgages.
Well, perhaps it's only a rumor. Perhaps we can avoid the future
hassles and evade adulthood. Maybe we can become Peter Pan and live
in blue jeans forever.
How nice it would be too, maintaining this idyllic existence - how
nice for a while.
After a while, "the student thing should become a drag," in cur-
rent lingo, and reassuringly so. It would be dreadfully boring to per-
sist exclusively among one's socio-economic peers, restricting one's ac-
tivities to' plodding around campus, continuing the Diag culture.
Those of us who sometimes yearn for a permanent haven in stf-
dentdom would, for all the pleasure and freedom from hassle, be de-
nying the fulfillment in confronting and conquering the problems of
adjustment to. changes in our life-style and ourselves. We would be
missing the new experiences that come with questioning, juggling and
perhaps altering aspects of our self-concept, for in our kingdom of stu-
dentdom we would only be continuing what we, did as youth, while
denying what we could do as adults.
This doesn't mean settling down as nice middle-class hyprocrites;
it simply means not restricting our self-development exclusively to this
town or this culture or believing our development stops when we have
found our niche as students.
It continues, college ends, our eyes march ahead once again.
'
most games on the market, which
are less sensitive to social prob-
lems. "That's because we made
the game j u s t beautifully," de-
clares developer Rosen, who ap-
parently has never grappled with
SMOG's plastic industry pegs and
snap-on plastic smoke plumes.
"Most games have instruction
bookletsmade out of toilet paper,
the pieces don't fit, and the
boards are flimsy. We hope peo-
ple will play our game at least six
or eight times."
By far the hottest social game
seller is Blacks and Whites, a Psy-
chology Today game which claims
to give middle class white players
a taste of the frustration t h a t
comes with being poor, black, and
in the ghetto. Players divide
themselves into "blacks" a n d
"whites" (always more "whites"
than "blacks") and then move to
the roll of dice around a property
board, trying to purchase as many
neighborhoods as possible. The in-
structions urge "blacks" to devel-
op wild strategies and grab every
opportunity 'to buy their way in-
to white areas. The game looks
like an au courant Monopoly -
instead of Boardwalk the board
has Shaker Heights, and when/ a
player goes to jail it's because Ma-
yor Daley's cops have run him in.
ghetto and actually experience it.
The game sells Ii k e hot-cakes.
Half a million were snapped up in
the magazine version, thousands
more have been purchased in box
form and the publishers are 15,000
orders behind. "There's a tremen-
dous interest on the part of peo-
ple to participate rather than ob-
serve,"declares Popoff. You can
buy Blacks and Whites in such
fashionable stores as Lord a n d
Taylor and Woodward and Loth-
rop. It's not for ghetto blacks any-
way. "The game is happening on
the street," Popoff says.
SMOG, Dirty Water and Blacks
and Whites are only forerunners
of more social crisis games slated
to hit the mass market this fall.
Urban Systems will soon distrib-
ute Ecology and Population; who-
ever makes the biggest per capita
income in the face of ecological
odds, wins. Psychology Today has
almost completed Man and Wo-
man, a game about the potentials
and hazards of human relation-
ships. The goal is to achieve "Per-
sonhood" first. The game won't
stick to traditional views of men
and women, says designer Popoff.
"Were allowing a lot of leeway
for women's liberation."
I i
1
Letters to the Editor
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Vice President
To the Editor:
AS MEMBERS of the student-
faculty search committee which
nominated candidates for vice
president for student services,
we noted with interest the re-
cent appointment of Law Prof.
Robert Knauss to that posi-
tion. This appointment officially
ends the bizarre 16-month poli-
tical struggle surrounding the
vice presidency which followed
the establishment of our com-
mittee in March, 1969. Finally,
it appears, President Fleming
has achieved what he has for
the past year anal a half rather
crudely sought - he has, rail-
Fleming with five candidates,
all of whom we felt were out-
standing prospects for the posi-
tion. The recommendations were
the unanimous opinion of the
four faculty members and three
students who made up our com-
mittee. And they were the result
of many months of careful re-
search and interviews.
Fleming, nevertheless, either
ignored or insulted each of
these candidates while, in an
amazingly sudden shift, main-
tained that he couldn't decide
from among the nominees until
students, faculty, and admin-
istration could agree on the
exact nature and responsibilities
of the post.,As the months roll-
Fleming obfuscated the p ol 1 c y
board issue and refused to con-
sider making' the appointment
until the Student Government
Council could be blackmailed
into accepting Fleming's ver-
sion of how the Office of Stu-
dent Services should operate.
The president adamantly refus-
ed to consider appointing a per-
manent vice president until
SGC agreed to permit the pro-
posed policy board to occupy a
subordinate role in the office.
Thus, in order to set the re-
cord straight, we wish to point
out what must be obvious: no
one so highly visible as Prof.
Knauss was ignored in t h e
search committee's interviewing
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