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Eighty-Five Years of Editorial Freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
Cambodia: Rebirth
of
a
Friday, April 18, 1975
News Phone: 764-0552
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104
Go odmani for lop SGC post
UNKNOWN TO MOST students, Stu-
dent Government Council (SGC)
elections are upon us once again.
Breaking with tradition in the re-
cent past, The Daily has decided to
endorse a candidate for president of
that body.
Most students ignore SGC, and
mostly that's understandable; no
other collection of individuals on
campus has so assiduously cultivated
the appearance of incipient mad-
ness, and none has accomplished so
little.
Because we are so impressed
with her, and because a peculiar peril
threatens to insure that the final nail
will be slammed into SGC's partially
closed coffin, The Daily strongly en-
dorses Student Organizing; Commit-
tee candidate Debrah Goodman.
While not a particularly charisma-
tic candidate, we nevertheless find
that her politics most clearly mirror,
our own.
She's interested in keeping tuition
down, limiting the size of classes; and
day care, all concerns of our own.
She seems unlikely to engage in spit-
ting contests, brawls, or any of the
other nonsense that plagues SGC
meetings. Her presence is serious,
she's no bozo. Would that the same
could be said of more SGC mem-
bers.
WE ARE HOPEFUL that she and
her party, which appears com-
posed of responsible people who un-
derstand the issues, can transcend
SGC's limitations of the past and
transform the Council into a poten-
tial agent for change.
An equally compelling reason to
vote, and vote for Goodman in this
election is the presence of a uniquely
frightening party, and its thorough-
ly reprehensible candidate, MOVE's
J. Thomas Buck.
Don't let the acronym for Make
Our Votes Effective fool you. Move is
a fraternity and sorority party, and
the politics of their candidate, Buck
can only be charitably described as
antediluvian. Less kind observers
have suggested words like neo-fascist
and worse.
TODAY'S STAFF:
News: Gordon Atcheson, Barb Cornell,
Ann Marie Lipinski, Tom Preston,
Jeff Ristine, Curt Smith
Editorial Page: Peter Blaisdell, Paul
Haskins, Jo Marcotty, Steve Stojic
Arts Page: Jim Valk
Photo Technician: Steve Kagan
We'd be tempted to ignore this
slick, self-styled bright young man
on the make, except that a very real
possibility exists that Buck may win.
Behind Buck and his party are the
not inconsiderable resources of the
Greek system.
The son of an Air Force man, he
supports restoration of credit for
ROTC, a stand we find thoroughly
repugnant. Secondly, his party con-
tains no minorities, and has shown
no inclination to demonstrate con-
cern for this vital block of the Univer-
sity community.
When questioned about his com-
mitment to minority groups, in a
Daily interview, Buck responded with
a variation on the old "Some of my
best friends . . ." argument. Danger-
ous, very dangerous.
In addition, in the worst tradition
of petty tyrants, MOVE has shown
a disquieting penchant for secrecy.
Several party meetings to decide up-
on candidates were closed and held
at Buck's fraternity. At one, those in
attendance had to produce witnesses
who would attest that he/she belong-
ed to a Greek house.
THE LAST TIME fraternity parties
played a major role in SGC af-
fairs were the somnabulent Eisen-
hower years. To return control of
SGC, no matter how worthless a
body, to the Greeks now would in-
sure that virtually no student con-
cerns would be met in their tenure
of office.
The rest of the candidates were, to
greater or lesser degrees, unaccept-
able. Kevin Stiers, the Young Social-
ist Allliance, was remarkably elusive
in his interview and fell back far too
often on cant. Michale Foreman of
New Camelot seemed pleasant, but
neither overwhelmingly bright nor
particularly dynamic.
Gary Baker is well-v.ersed on the
issues, but we doubt whether he
could lead ants to a picnic. Candace
Massey has been around student poli-
tics a long time. Her behavior in the
past has been erratic. We suspect
her penchant for squabbling would
lend no dignity to Council.
So, in this very real choice be-
tween well-defined alternatives we
urge a vote for Debrah Goodman. It's
easy to understand why few students
bother to vote in elections, but fail-
ure to vote this time could allow a
harmless, do-nothing body become an
institution for the perpetuation of
regression into the 1950's.
By JOHN BURGESS
KHMER ROUGE insurgents
entered Phnom Penh from
four sides on Wednesday and"
ended Cambodia's savage five-
year war. News reports from
the city said that thousands of
people turned out into the
streets to celebrate the end of
the war which began in 1970
when an American-sponsored
coup d'etat upset the precarious-
neutrality of the peaceful and
prosperous kingdom and opened
one more terrifying chapter of
the Indo China war.
Cambodia's war began almost
overnight. Now it has ended
with what has seemed inevit-
able from .the beginning - de-
cisive victory for the highly dis-
ciplined and popularly based
Khmer Rouge Communists and
defeat for the parasitic regime
of Marshal Lon Nol.
The war was a classic appli-
cation of Maoist guerilla stra-
tegy. In five years a core of
Communist cadre built a peas-
ant army from scratch, seized
the countryside and isolated and
captured the cities.
The war left as many as a
million Cambodians dead or
wounded. About half of the
country's seven million people
were uprooted from their homes
by the war. Some fled because
they did not like the rigors of
life under Khmer Rouge, but ;he
great majority were trying to
escape the ground fighting and
day and night bombing by U.S.
warplanes. Phnom Penn, in
1970, a shady roomy city of half
a million people by 1975 had
swollen to three times t h a t
number. The refugees lived in
shantytowns that sprang up
around the city and toward the
end, many died of starvatiol.
President Nixon once called
his war in Cambodia "the Nix-
on Doctrine in its purest form."
And perhaps it was. Cambodia
offered to the world the most
extreme example yet of Amari-
can war by proxy, of a corrupt
and unpopular regime kept
breathing solely by the grace of
American guns, ammunitinn and
rice.
VERY FEW of the Cambod-
ian peasants who died in uiti-
form for Lon Nol had even
heard of the Nixon doctrine. To
them war was a misfartune
brought on bycosmic forces be-
yond control of ordinary people
like themselves. While t h e y
went reluctantly into battle
wearing tennis shoes and Bud-
dhist amulets to ward of bul-
lets, their commanding officers
in the rear got rich by pocket-
ing their wages and selling weA-
pons and medicine to the other
side.
Across the lines a few thous-
and Khmer Rouge Communists
with help from the Vietnamese
had built from scratch a new
army and way of life which re-
lied on popular support and
motivation to offset the super-
ior firepower of Phnom Penh's
forces.
Each dry season their offen-
sives drove Lon Nol's troops in-
to ever diminishing pockets of
land around Phnom Penh and
the other major cities. Unlike
neighboring Vietnam and Laos,
there were never serious nego-
tiations between the two sides.
Lon Nol was unwilling to offer
significant concessions and the
Khmer Rouge knew that they
could have military victory if
they kept up their pressure long
enough.
THAT VICTORY finally came.
As often happens in war, tfsse
people most responsible for the
devastation had escaped to safe-
ty. Lon Nol flew off to a palace
in Bali three weeks ago and the.
American ambassador and his
military advisors departed in
helicopters from a soccer field
in downtown Phnom Penh last
weekend.
One might say the wvar began
There is strong evidence that
he moved only after securing
promises of American assist-
ance. There followed mob et-
tacks on the NLF mission in
Phnom Penh and massacres of
Vietnamese living in Cambodia.
American and South Vietnamese
assistance to the new govern-
ment began immediately. In
April President Nixon sent U.S.
troops across the border to at-
tack NLF's staging areas.
It soon became clear, how-
ever, that the American plan
was a total failure. Sihanouk
quickly announced the forma-
tion of a United Front against
Don Nolaand parts of the army
and government defec;ed to join
him. The war forced Sihanouk to
ally with his old enemies the
Khmer Communists, whom he
had tried his hardest to destroy
during his years in office. Large-
ly dormant since 1954, the Kh-
mer Communists resurfaced
and with help from the Viet-
namese began to organize the
Cambodian peasantry into an
launched a mammoth operation
to retake the northern section. of
the coutnry. With poor leader-
ship the drive was rou*ed and
the soldiers fell back in dis-
array to the capital, losing great
new expanses of territory.
THE GOVERNMENT in
Phnom Penh came more and
more to resemble the other
American-financed regimes in
Indochina. The reforms promis-
ed in 1970 never came. The rich
continued to live the good life
while only miles away on the
highways leading out of the ciy,
rugged soldiers battled to nold
the Khmer Rouge at bay.
The American embassy grew
to over 200 people, with many
more commuting into the capi-
tal daily from Thailand and
South Vietnam. The embassy
coordinated American airstrikos
(in the summer of 1973 there
were as many as 200 fighter-
bomber and 40 B-52 strikes a
day); its military attahes trav-
eled to the front lines to advise
"President
N'ilxon
once called his war in
Cambodia "the Nixon
Doctrine in its purest
form." And perhaps it
was. Cambodia offer.
ar to the world the most
extreme example yet
ation
IN EARLY 1973, as the sup-
posed ceasefire got underway
in Vietnam, the Khmer Rouge
launched a new offensive t h a t
took them to within a few miles
of Phnom Penh. American war-
planes, free from operatrons in
Vietnam, concentrated t h e i r
full force on Cambodia. US.
Congress finally voted to per-
manently end the bombing Aug-
ust 15, 1973, and many people
predicted Phnom Penh would
collapse soon after tnat. But it
did not - the war raged on for
almost two years more.
Early this year the commun-
ists succeeded in cutting t h e
Mekong River, Phnom Penh's
lifeline to the outside world. The
U.S. commenced on airlift mito
the city, landing weapons, am-
munition and rice in hug: quan-
tities. Shelling and rocket at-
tacks on the airport forced tem-
porary suspensions.
In Washington, President Furd
sought $222 milion in supple-
mental aid for Cambodia and
was turned down by Congress.
The insurgents pushed closer to
Phnom Penh. People began to
starve and more Communist
rockets crashed at random into
the surrounded city. Finally,
with no hope of a new injec-
tion of American aid, Lo! Nol
left the country.
HE OSTENSIBLY was begin-
ning a previously scheduled
state visit to Indonesa, but
everyone knew he wouldn't
come back. When the U.S. em-
bassy packed up and left, it
was only a matter of days. "The
Americans are gone, why are
you still fighting?" the Khmer
Rouge asked the city's defend-
ers on the last day of resist-
ance. A few hours later they
weren't. White flags were drap-
ed over every major building i
downtown Phnom Penh and'th
insurgents marched in.
It is believed that Khieu Sam-
phan, Vice Premiere and min-
ister of defense of tne govern-
ment in exile, will head the new
administration in Phnomn Penh.
Sihanouk is expected to fiy
back to the capital to an honor-
ary function and perhaps to re-
tire from public life. Life will
be difficult there in the months
ahead. There will ae economic
hardships and the Khmer Rouge
will no doubt want to root out
supporters of the old regime
and deal with them as they see
fit. But the fighting 17 over and
most everyone in Cambodia w'll
be thankful for that.
John Burgess worked as a
journalist in Southeast Asia
from 1970 to 1974 in affila-
tion with the Washington Post
and Dispatch News Service. He
is now a student at the Univer-
sity,
of American
war by
prox ",
. . . . ...... .
in Washington. The U.S. wanted
a friendly government in Phnom
Penh that would heio the Amer-
ican war effort in Vietnam by
attacking the Nation.al Li be-a-
tion Front's (NLF) sanctuar es
in Cambodia. Under the auto-
cratic rule of Princ Norodomn
Sihanouk, Cambodia had resist-
ed American efforts *o incor-
porate into the line-un against
China and North Vietnam. Si-
hanouk maintained cordial rela-
tions with Peking and Hanoi,
threw out the Americaa a i d
mission and reluictantny allowzd
the Vietnamese Communists to
land supplies at Cambodian
ports and send them overland
to the forces fighting thc Amer-
icans in South Vie-nam.
SIHANOUK'S despotism fos-
tered increasing resentment
among the urban elite, middle
class and army. In 1970, when
he was away on a foreign toar,
Marshal Lon Nol seized power.
army.
SIHANUK WAS revered as a
demi-god by rural people and
they flocked to join him. With-
in a few months, they had con-
trol of half the country. The
ruins of Ankor Wat, the 12th
century stone city which was
the center of the ancient Kh-
mer empire, was taken by pro-
Sihanouk forces in late 19'0.
Lon Nol's response was to
launch a xenophobic holy war
in which he cast the enemy
as Vietnamese invaders who
were intent on destroying the
Khmer nation and the Bhud-
dist religion. At first, m a n y
Cambodians in Phnom Penh
responded to his call with en-
thusiasm. With new stocks of
American weapons and support
from American bombers, Lon
Nol's army went into oatde.
But it was a losing cause.
In late 1791, Phnom Penh
Cambodian field commanders;
and its political specasists
coached the government on dip-
lomatic matters. In five years
the U.S. channeled over a bil.
lion dollars of aid ca Lon Nol
and spent many times t h a t
sum on air operations.
As morale and competence
deteriorated on Lon Nol's. sde,
the Khmer Rouge were growing
by leaps and bounds. Ia actual
command were Frencn-educated
intellectuals, many of them
former members of Sihanouk's
government. Sihanouk stayed in
Peking as the leader of the
move.nent in name only. The
Communists organized at the
village level and mucn of their
initial support was apparently
rooted in Sihanouk's presence as
the man in charge. They carried
out programs of land reform
and collectivization, built an
army and proceeded to isolate
and starve out the cities.
" 1
Letters to The Daily
record you - the Michigan student
body - to show your dissatis-
To The Daily: faction with this type of behav.
R I D D L E D with scandal, ior is to get out and vote on
mass confusion, fixed elections, April 21 - 25.
and general ineffectiveness SGC It is obvious that SGC needs
seems to be dying. Even so, to undergo serious change. Peo-
there are some students who ple like Gary and myself 'a r e
feel that the basic concept of a ready and willing t put forth
student representative body s the time and effort that a com-
a good one. One of these stu- plete renovation of present SGC
dents is Gary Baker. Since policies and procedures will re-
Gary's first days on campus he quire. However, programs like
has been fighting for the ienefit student regents, pesonal pro-
of the students. perty insurance, fights against
As a member of the Housing tuition, and funding for minority,
Unit Committee, Gary appeared programs do not just happen;
and spoke before the Board of they need backing. Moreover,
Regents in an effort to halt a to institute these programs we
dorm rate increase. His efforts too need backing - YOUR'S.
h were successful. A campus re- So, remember in tne April 21-
r presentative to the University 25 election, if you want a new
Housing Council, Gary has party wih new ideas for a new
fought bitterly for housing for SGC and an end to SGC scan-
-:x all interested students. dal, vote for Gary and the New
As past Treasurer of LSA-Stu- Action Coalition.
dent Government and West -F. Scott Kellman
Quad Council, Gary managed April 17
both organization's financial af-
fairs with unparalled success.
Now Gary feels that it is time Stockwell
to turn his attention to that I AM PROTESTING the tone
student organizaion which needs of the article concerning Stock-
him most - SGC. Like anything well (April 16). The purpose of
else that Gary does, he is put- the petition and accompanying
ting extensive time and effort letters was to point out what we
into his campaign. Someone, consider serious shortcomings
however, obviously views Gary's present in Morris's administra-
efforts as a major threat to his tion. There is a lot of informa-
or her chances for SGC of- tion surrounding the issue which
fice. The result - more scandal you aren't aware of.
connected with SGC. On April Thus, I feel that your attempts
15, several large wooden cam- to portray the problem as sole-
paign signs promoting G a r y ly a racial one are unfair and
were suspended from trees and uninformed. I signed the peti-
poles to various strategic places tion - not because Morris is
around campus. Less than ten black and I am white, but be-
hours after the signs were put cause I feel that she is a poor
up all but one had been cut building director and should not
ments made by me were strictly
in jest and carried no racial
overtone.
I only hope that in the years
to come, Jews, Cacistians,
Blacks, Orientals, Chicanos and
the like will be able to laugh to-
gether at each other and at
themselves. The world will be
in a sad state if we can no
longer laugh at ourselves and
one-another.
-Jeff Weinfeld
April 17
gutless
To The Editor:
THE MICHIGAN Daily has
used a good deal of ink in at-
tacking the frailities, corruption
and dishonesty of the Student
Government Council for all of
the four years I have been at
this University. As a former
member of SGC, I also contri-
buted my energies toward fight-
ing these dangerous trends on
Council. But now, a staff mern-
ber of the Daily has employed
the same gutless techniques as
various SGC characters have
used to destroy that institu-
tion.
In interviewing Ms. D e b i
Goodman, S.O.C., candidate for
SGC President, Kate Spellman
asked her if it was true that
she was my roommate, pointing
out (in her macabre interprema-
tion of investigative journalism)
that I was a "staunch defender"
of Lee Gill, former PresidentO
of SGC.
This incredible display of Joe
McCarthy tactics was not ques-
tioned by any of the presumably
more responsible Daily s : a f f
present, and Ms. Goodman an-
'U' budget:
Economic
u r
educatilon
By SAM SILLS
"A GOAL OF the University of Michigan," reads a
financial aid leaflet, "is that no qualified Michigan
resident shall be denied an education because he or she
lacks the necessary funds."
If the University is reaching this goal, it is reasonable
to assume that the percentages of the national popula-
tion in each income group would be approximately re-
presented in the student population. In other words, since
17.5 per cent of the population earns from $0 to $4,000
(U.S. Bureau of the Census), we would expect about
17.5 per cent of University students to come from fam-
ilies earning this amount. But only 2.8 per cent come
from this income group. They are under-represented by
14.7 per cent.
This group has been under-
represented by this amount
since at least 1967. The Pro-
gram for Educational and Social
Change (PESC), a collective of
concerned professors and stu-
dents, did a study of income re-
presentation at the University
from 1967 to 1971. Representa-
tion of the poor had improved
slightly, but has again fallen. In
1967 families earning $25,000 or
more were over-represented by
14 per cent. Today, they are
over-represented by 31 per cent.
In this same period, the percent-
age of students at the Univer-
sity coming from families earn-
ing $15 to $25,000 plummeted
from 12.5 per cent to 1.7 per
cent.
THE INCOME information
was acquired by the American
Council on Education through a
survey given every year to in-
coming freshpeople. The figures
are not absolutely accurate.
Many students were not cer-
tain of their parent's income
and a lower percentage than us-
ual answered the questionnaire
in 1974. Also, since answering
is optional, it is possible t h a t
students who are proud of their
background are more likely to
answer the survey than others.
Nevertheles, data from the
Admissions office provides oth-
er evidence of the trend toward
inequality. Whereas applications
from Bay City, largely a blue
collar area, have fallen 23 to
30 per cent, applications from
Midland, a more upper class
area, have risen the same
amount. Furthermore, only 2
per cent of the student ponula-
tion comes from the Upper Pen-
insula, even though this middle
to lower income area makes up
4 per cent of the total Michigan
population.
AS ANOTHER part of their
study, PESC ranked Michigan's
10 postal zones in ord:er of
average family income. Ideally,
the report says, each d-cile
would send 10 per cent of the
total applications received by
the University. In 1967 nearly
all the deciles sent less than
10 per cent. However, the weal-
thiest decile sent 36 per cent.
In 1972, it was over 44 per cent.
Why are the numbers from
the lower and middle class
shrinking? Happily, there is no
evidence that the admissions
office prefers only wealthy slu-
dents. Yet the amount )f fin-
ancial aid awarded to accented
students is finite, and at what-
ever point it runs out the rest
of the student body must pay
its own way. Because this is be-
coming increasingly difficult,
the upper classes are beating
the middle and lower classes in
the competition for places.
The implications are extreme-
ly serious. First of all, the
University is federally and state
supported. It has a profound
obligation to all the people of
Michigan. Secondly, because a
solid education is prerequisite
to economic advancement, the
University becomes largely re-
sponsible for the continued im-
poverishment of the lower in-
come groups who are denied an
education.
CONSCIOUSLY or not, t i e
University becomes one of the
major agents of institutionalized
discrimination. Obviously, it is
not responsible for inflation and
other miscarriages in our "free
enterprise" system. But by do-
ing all it conceivably can to
help the poor overcome the in-
come barriers to education, it
can reform its collaborative role
in an inequitable economic or-
der.
Keeping tuition as low as pos-
sible while maintaining a large
financial aid program and a
strong opportunity program is
the University's primary ob
ligation. Although the adminis
tration blames the high cost o
tuition mostly on ever increas-
ing unionization and inflation,
we can only take their word that
tuition and housing costs are
as low as possible. The same
applies to the size of the fin-
ancial aid program.
Undeniably, the problem is a
complex one. It would require
a considerable amount of re-
shuffling to increase financial
aid and/or lower tuition. The re-
shuffling would create dicon-
tent among those offices of de
partments who would have t
sacrifice their money to need
students. The major obstacles,
then, are the deteriorating eco-
nomic condition and the sese
of priorities.
IN HIS latest economic status
address, President Fleming ex-
pressed concern over the ex-
pansion of the professional and
administrative ranks at tie ex-
pense of the faculty. "It is hard
to conceive of an analysis," he
said, "which would place the
faculty in other than the top
priority position within the Uni-
versity."
Where do the students fit in?
Although they pay huge sums
to live and learn in Ann Ar-
bor, they are given no detailed
accounts of how the University
distributes its money. The ad-
ministration has repeatedly re-
fused to open its accounting re-
cords. And with the books lock-
ed up, the administration can
explain its economic decisions
any way it wants to. How, then,
can we be certain it is not
unduly depriving Michigan resi-
dents of an education?
Sam Sills is an LSA sopho-
more.
so, perhaps realizing the ex-
tremely tenuous worthiness of
the doctrine of guilt-by-associa-
tion.
Ms. Spelman has, in fact, em-
ployed guilt-by-association twice
barbaric and antiquated?
Is Ms. Spelman attempting to
question candidates for SGC
in order to find the ones who
will most benefit students on
this campus? Or is she attempt-
Perhaps it is to be expected
that I should come to know
about one more of these inci-
dents before I graduate, but this
is certainly not one that I will
passively ignore!
for their own reporters.
Most importantly, I hope that
the general trend of the Daily's
coverage of the SGC camnaign
will be based upon much srong-
er madmuchmmrt-,,.1.vzn i