Page 2-Friday, march 24, 1978-The Michigan Daily Activists assess anti-war effort By MARTY LEVINE The anti-Vietnam war movement of the 60s and early 70s was instrumental in dampening and ending the war, ac- cording to speakers who assessed "The Movement" at last night's final Viet- nam Teach-in panel. ' Bob Ross, one of the founders of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), said "the anti-war movement did not make a revolution, and it did not end the war, but it blunted the viciousness of the war, and made im- possible the kind of military effort that would have extended the war." ACCORDING TO Ross, popular op- position to the Vietnam War in the United States frightened the various administrations, and the movement was "critical" in not letting them gain "totalitarian" rule. Ross said he saw evidence that (former Secretary of state) Henry Kissinger had considered using nuclear bombs on Vietnam in 1969, but Ross feels the movement, prevented such an occurenpe. The anti-war movement had a "major part in ending the war and preventing other wars" according to Barbara Murphy, who was involved with early SDS activities and now works with Vietnam veterans in Affir- mative Action at the University. Both Murphy and Marilyn Katz, a founder of the Chicago Women's Liberation Union and a former SDS member, said they felt feminism and many other current movements are inexorably linked to the anti-war effort. "You couldn't put off one revolution in the hopes of having another one," Mur- phy said. She added that a "terrible conflict" arose out of the anti-war groups. "WE HAD OUR own hard choices to make about the extent of joining a movement which really oppressed us on a day to day basis; you know-"Af- ter the revolution you'll be okay, honey."' In the years when the men made the speeches and the women ran the mimeograph machines, as Katz characterized it, Murphy said she feels "a kind of personal consciousness developed that was very clearly political." Katz contens that the germ for today's major feminist, anti-racist, and other movements was the student movement against Vietnam. This "in- ternationalism" that the movement embraced is the basis for today's world consciousness, she said. "The major difference (being in the movement made) for me was that it allowed all of us to be alive t6 the world that existed, not just a cog. . . . History was not over-we were making it," she said. "WE FELT LIKE winners," she said. "We were the moral authority, we had no hesitation . . . (we were) learning that we could change the world and change ourselves." Ross holds that it is "demonstrably v of false to say that student participation in the anti-war movement was due solely to the draft." Ross holds that the end of the movement from 1969 to 1972 came when those involved made a number of inaccurate conclusions. He said they thought increased militancy would bring them victories and then became disappointed at its failure to do so. He also said that terrorism, such as that done by the Weathermen, caused frac- tures in the movement. Ross summed up the hopes of last night's audience best when he said "the movement, in it's own way, was a deterrent to some of the more crazy notions in the minds of the American policy makers" during the Vietnam' era. J /1. * / -.. - 4. . /. k / / f f #/ q/ 9/ - _--- STAY COOL THIS SUMMER Enjoy our air conditioned luxury and heated swimming pool at our greatly reduced summer rates and 2-4 month leases. And in addition we offer you an atmosphere con- ducive to your college life whether it be partying or studying. Stop by or call. UNIVERSITY TOWERS 536 South Forest 761-2680 ff,$ WORKSHOP ON MEDITATION AND HEALING e SATURDAY, APRIL 1st, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. led by STERN MORGAN, psyhic healer j Fundamentals of meditative techniques which enable people to go down to a quiet level or meditative state where they can heal themselves and/or others. $5 optional donation. Will be held at Canterbury House, 218 N. 1 Division Street; corner of Catherine and division. ADVANCE ENROLLMENT NECESSARY. CALL 665-0606. 1 iiiiii* iiiiU"iiiiiiisi iii antique Chinese rings circa 1800 of handwrought silver baobab baobab ay Daily Photo by ANDY FREEBERG Bob Ross, a founders of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), assessed the value of the anti-war movement in bringing about disinvolvement in the war at last night's final panel of the Vietnam Teach-in. Vietnam novels called inaccurate views By MARTY LEVINE The recent spate of novels written about the Vietnam war do not tell the whole truth about the era but only some individual's feelings about his ex- perience, according to University Asst. Professor Norman Owen. Owen, who spoke at the Vietnam Teach-in panel on "American Images in Vietnam" yesterday, said "Not a single novel that has come out of the 123 W Washington, Ann Arbor Monday - Saturd U W %#a - I .,,rl,,A ':', ,.: $: ,,ky. Viz:<4;, .r...... ' iry :}. l'f :.: ' 1':." rr r r / s: a } , 4, 1 J t >;:, 't r .. $ f ...- A .. .fir .:.>; ; ' / / '. V.', t ;' s .. . , ~ ;.. : .j :: .: 3 ,r. . ;' : . s: .y .?tj' # . .. r ; F "V Ready, set, go., .with Levi's® Juniors terry sportswear, for the active life. OPEN THURSDAY AND FRIDAY EVENINGS UNTIL 9:00 ,; 9, war" captures Vietnam as it really was. He characterizes several of the major war novels as "badly written and full of ugly stereotypes." OWEN FEELS that Vietnam lovels' written by the soldiers themselves present the best views of the war. "A lot of these are honest accounts of what particular GIs felt," he said, "though none sold well because no one wanted to know what was going on." Part of being in the midst of the fighting in Vietnam meant being con- fused, Owen said. He found that most soldiers' novels do embody the cons fusion of being there. But "where are the Vietnamese characters?" Owen asked. "Across the board," he emphasized, "Vietnam novels have failed to portray the Viet- namese reality." Owen disdains the portrayal of the Vietnamese as "the faceless enemy" in most novels. OWEN FOUND that in those few works with Vietnamese characters they were mostly passive, mysterious, women, never to be understood by the west, and largely apolitical. These characters, he said, only have a choice between old English colonialism and the new American colonialism, as ex- pressed in Graham Green's 1950's Viet- nam tome, or between two types of Americans. "It is never suggested that the character has a choice to reject both options." "In order to get a correct view" of the Vietnamese opinion, he said, "you have to read Vietnamese fiction." According to Prof. Marilyn Young, the good war novels have succeeded in "transcending the war experience and writing about the experience of the Americans. . . that's all any of the war novels are -about, the American issues." YOUNG IS troubled by the tendency of Vietnam war book reviews to con- cern themselves with the ideologies ex- pressed in the works. "A tremendous urge to re-shape how we think about the war and how we remember it is found in all the reviews," she said. Young cited a reviewer's anger at Gloria Emerson's Winners and Losers for demanding that people continue to respond to Vietnam. The major accomplishment of the many war novels Young said, "is to capture the pain of frustration, the really mind-blowing frustration," of the Vietnam soldier for the American people. 1 nnrnAnr rnn. £dni.. d ry., '. °. , V. . N' .. /4 4 w/ i 'V ~ ~V~V*~. lg.;/ y "f.