I Eighty-two years of editorial freedom Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan Nixon avoids truth of amnesty issue 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich. News Phone: 764-0552 Editorials printed in The Michigan Doily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1973 By JAMES WECHSLER PRESIDENT NIXON'S latest news conference pronounce- ment dispelled any faint hope that the Vietnam peace agreement would induce him to modify his belligerency on the issue of am- nesty. Once again his response was couched in fighting words t h a t sounded as irretrievable as they were incendiary. On this occasion, as he has be- fore, he not only seemed resolved to exploit the country's darkest postwar passions. He resorted to what must be characterized as a deliberate, dishonorable falsehood when he described the problem os involving only "those few hundreds who went to Canada or someplace else, and chose to desert their country ..." Some Americans may still like to believe that it is only such a com- parative handful who chose, in one way or another, to resist participa- tion in the war. The President knows better. While there is no exact count available of the num- ber of young Americans whose liv- es are at stake in this debate, con- servative estimates place the fig- ure at more than 50,000 and it may well exceed 100,000. AS OF LAST December, the Jus- tice Dept. conceded that it had 2400 indictments outstanding at that time against youths accused of violating Selective Service regu- lations. Such indictments are sought and obtained, of course, in only a small fraction of cases. Jules Duscha, director of t h e Washington Journalism Center pointed out that more than 300,000 dishonorable discharges - m a n y of them related to war objection - had been handed out since 1965. Responsible church groups, he not- ed, estimated that as many as 60,000 young Americans had mi- grated to Canada in the last seven years, while more than 500 have gone to Sweden and thousands more are hiding "underground" in the U.S. In short, Mr. Nixon is wiltily and cynically trampling on, truth when he talks of "those hundreds" as if a small company of weird eccentrics or congenital cowards constituted the real story of Amer- ican defection from the war. If that were the situation, there might indeed be little ground for full- scale national reappraisal; it might be sufficient to urge quiet case-ly- case review. But plainly that is not the actual condition confronting us..What we are talking about is a significant segment of a generation. Yet Mr. Nixon's palpably dishonest numb- ers game evoked no further ques- tioning from the gentlemen a n d ladies of the press assembled for a rare press conference audience with him; they turned to o t h e r subjects, and his reference to "the few hundreds" was transmitted over many TV stations as an un- contested statement of fact. It is almost as if we have grown so accustomed to dissembling in high places that the repetition of a falsehood is now taken for grant- ed, or at least deemed upworthv of quarrel. (The Associated P? r e s s blandly carried Mr. Nixon's re- marks on amnesty without even a bracketed intimation that his fig- ures were, to put it generously, a subject of dispute.) THERE WAS a certain compul- sive logic in the President's vis- statement of the facts. It was stat- ed in the context of a lengthy ti- rade against critics of the w a r ("among the so-called better peo- ple, in the media and in the intel- lectual circles") and in praise of "the majority" who had somehow resisted the insidious doctrine "that this was an immoral war, that America should not be there, that they should not serve their country . ." It happens, of course, that a majority of Americans long ago expressed the view in numerous surveys that the U.S. involvement was unwarranted - whether t o r strategic, moral or other reasons, or a combination of them. But Mr. Nixon, determined to proclaim that he has proved some- thing by pursuing the war for four additional years, cannothtole.,ate any hard questions about the virtue of our position. ABOUT THREE years ago, the late Cardinal Cushing of Boston pleaded: "Would it be too much to suggest that we empty our jails of all the protesters - the guilty and the innocent - without judging them; call back from over the border and Around the world the young men who are called deserters; drop the cases that are still awaiting jurg- ment on our college youth? Could we not do all this in the name of life and with life, hope?" In this uneasy aftermath of a loathed, wretched war some com- parable declaration by an Ameri- can President would surely stir the conscience and humanity of much of the country. But Mr. Nixon has now made it tragically clear that we will not hear such words from him. Soon we will discover how many in Congress are prepared to display any greatness of spirit in the face of his angry call for re- venge and retribution. James Wechsler is the Editorial Page Editor of the New York Post. Copyright 197 3-New York Post Corporation. r A new secret plan for a united SGCI THE MlILXAIKEE JOURNAL P'ublishers-Hall Syndicate, 19723 I43 The Register and Tribune Svndicate t A new attack COn the media By ROBERT BARKIN Feature Editor THERE IS a natural frustration when a dynamic personality is forced to lead an ineffectual or- ganization. As President of Student Government Council, former stu- dent Bill Jacobs has been known to vent his frustration in violent threats such as the time he threat- ened to "bloody my face" while I was visiting the SGC office. But I never took him seriously until recently when I was wander- ing in my usual half-stupor through the third floor of the Union. My ears perked up immediately when I overheard a conversation between Jacobs, SGC Honcho and computer programmer John Koza, and SGC Treasurer David Schaper. My cas- sette recorded something like this: JACOBS: I feel so constricted by SGC. I want to do something more. Like rule the world. Schaper: What makes you think that-you can rule the world? You have enough problems with theose morons on council. Jacobs: I considered that pro})- len and I concludedthat I would be much more effective in the out- side world than in the University community. Schaper: You mean you don't have to think in the outside world? Jacobs: Something like that. You see, no one believes a bully in the University community. People just laugh at you when you threaten to break their nose. Koza: But, we'll show 'em, won't we Bill? Jacobs: Sure, John. As I was saying, no one takes a bully on campus seriously. But let me at the outside world where intimida- tion, violence, and brutality count, and I'll be