THE Summer Daily Simmer Volitionof Till MICIflGAN DAILY Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan Wednesday, May 23, 1973 News Phone: 764-0552 GOP anti-dope drive begins MAYOR JAMES Stephenson and his emerging Repub- lican majority on city council took yet another step Monday night in their gradually unfolding crusade to drag the city back several decades, setting into motion the machinery to dismantle the $5 marijuana ordinance. The stage for Monday night's action was set in the mayor's first speech to council-a sort of opening shot in which he declared total war on marijuana dealers whom he described as "social poison." The GOP is basing their assault on the liberal dope ordinance on the incredible fantasy that all or at least a major part of the city's drug problems date from its passage. It is apparently unthinkable to these guardians of Nixonian morality that "their city" should be referred to as the "Dope Capital of the Midwest." And with the sim- plistic obtuseness which has become characteristic of the city's GOP, they argue that progressive legislation is in fact cause of the problem it sought to deal with. HE $5 MARIJUANA fine, far from being an idealistic permissive Resture was based on a coldly rational as- sessment of the realities of the Ann Arbor community. Ann Arbor was the "Dope Capital of the Midwest" long before the ordinance was enacted andit will remain so' after it is renealed. This is a liberal, youth-oriented city, like most cities which host large Universities, drug use (and hence. drug trafficking,) is inevitable here. Even an old hard-nosed cop like Walter Krasny has enough sense to realize that. The city's Republicans, however, have never been accused of acknowledging reality if it conflicts with their own soecial assessment of the world. HRP's First Ward Councilman Jerry DeGrieck has warned the Republicans that before the repeal is finally voted (probably around June 4) they can expect to be inundated by Ann Arborites who do not share their back- wards views on drugs. We hope this will be the case, but doubt it will do much good. Despite the fact that they were elected by a minority (about 47 per cent) of Ann Arbor voters, the Republicans are acting like politicians with a sweeping mandate to impose their reactionary programs on the city. The almost overbearing arrogance the GOP has demonstrated to that segment of the city which does not support them has been a truly incredible spectacle. WE CAN ONLY be thankful that the slogan "four more years" has no relevance to Ann Arbor. With any luck the city will rid itself of this crew next April. The world press views Watergate By The Associated Press FOREIGN PRESS commentary continued last week to be critical of the Watergate affair, expressing a loss of faith in the Nixon administration. The English-language Japan Times said that the Japanese have up until most recently been "largely disinterested" in Water- gate, "but now that it has raised the specter of political es- pionage and sabotage in the world's greatest democracy, the interest of people in many parts of the world has been aroused." Because of Nixon's efforts to improve relations in recent years with the world's superpowers, the paper continued, "the undoing of the American president's influence and prestige . . . would be most unfortunate not only for the United States but for the world at large." TWO EGYPTIAN newspapers, often hostile toward the Unit- ed States, said Watergate had led to an international loss of faith in Washington. "If the top echelon of authority in the United States bugs American nationals and accepts bribery to spend it on electioneer- ing, how can it make decisions on matters of war and peace in the world," Cairo's Al Gomhouria said. The newspaper Al Akhbar added that Watergate "shows to what extent corruption, cheating, deception and the loss of all moral values have struck into the roots of American society and U.S. policy." The French-language newspaper Trois-Rivieres le Nouveliste in Canada concluded, "Fundamentally, the. Watergate affair has thrown the fragility of political institutions right in our faces .. . But we have been given no assurance that everything will be done to avoid repetition of such incidents." Communists feel vested interest in Nixon's political survival By JAMES WECHSLER ALTHOUGH LEONID Brezhnev's journey to Washington is still a month distant, President Nixon must have already begun counting the hours. For the eight days of the Soviet leader's visit, the Pres- ident can look forward to headlines emphasizing his role as world statesman rather than top man in iat Administration irretrievably stained by the dreariest evidence of moral scandal and facing neW, un- predictable blows each day. It is, of couse, the ultimate irony of Mr. Nixon's career that he must turn to the Communist leaders in gloscow and Peking for a measure if solace during his worst crisis, and that they show sign of eager- ness to ease his anguish. Thus both the controlled Russian and Chinese newspapers have been devoting minimal spateto Water- gate and related matters. In ano- ther era these disclosures would have been joyously heralded as proof of the internal decay of the citadel of 'capitalist imperialism"; one can only feel a certain sympa- thy for the frustrated journalists in the Comunist capitals who have been told to play down the story. But Mr. Nixon has no more die- hard loyalists than the chieftains of the two major - and warring - Comunist powers. Clearly they feel a vested interest in his political survival. Their fidelity, as Mr. Nixon must know, is a precarious thing, but it is the brightest sight on his bleak horizon. It is unlike- ly to provide the theme for a des- perate counterattack on his do- mestic critics in the coming weeks. THE TONE CAN be easily an- ticipated. There will be growing pleas for home-front silence lest Mr. Nixon's hand be undermined in his approaching rendezvous. In- deed, a hint of things to come could be discerned in a recent James Reston's column in which he implored the Senate to hold off on any final anti-war vote until after Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho have conducted their new negotia- tions on Vietnam. In fact the "rally, around t h e F-g" argument is asrstrategically spuriots as it is morally shallow. Nothing said - or not said - in the coning weeks can conceal from the Communists the nature of Mr. Nixon's predicament. He crit- ically needs some event that can be advertised as a triumph of his world diplomacy. Whether any cheerfilddevelopmentonethe inter- national stage can rescue him from the unfolding Watergate story is Far from clear. But the fact that his plight carries out for some dip- lomatic distraction is inescapable. So, in a sense, he is at the mercy of his Communist friends. Their bargaining power is enhanced not by any words henceforth spoken in Congress or published on an edi- torial page but by the momentum of circumstances Mr. Nixon can no longer control. There are some morbid Nixon watchers who believe he might pre- fer a hostile confrontation rather than some new steps toward de- tente. It is a measure of the coun- try's sense of remoteness from the man that so many Americans have begun nervous speculation about "what he might do" in a frantic attempt to change the dominant subject of national conversation. In a time that has produced so long a series of startling revela- tions, virtually nothing can be deemed impossible. There are already ugly intima- tionsthat the Administration is lay- ing the groundword for the charge that Congress is responsible for the threatened collapse of the bank- rupt Lon Nol regime in Cambodia.. NEVERTHELESS, beyond -ict- nam, the larger probability is that Mr. Nixon will be seeking in his talks with Brezhnev to reesteb- lish his credentials as "man of peace rather than risk the accu- sation that he has been a f= ture abroad even while things w e r e falling apart at home. There are also abundant indi- cations that the Soviet leader needs at least the appearance of a fruit- Leonid Brezhnev ful summit to appease his o w n critics at home. While neither Pravda nor Izvestia would damn him if something went very wrong in his Nixon sessions, he, too, has a dramatic political battle on his hands. One thing may be regarded as certain about the Brezhnev-Nixon talks. Neither man will be disposed to express any concern about the impending trials of labor leaders in' Franco Spain, or the mounting ruthlessness of the Greek despot- ism. Those who fight for freedom in those countries are expendable; Leonid Brezhnev and Richard Nix- on are men for whom ideology long ago ceased to be a crucial matter. Their own troubles transcend oll the ancient conflicts of faiths. Janes Wchsler is the editorial director for the New York Post. Copyright 1973, New York Post C orporation. With TWA it pays to be young.i Armed with just a pack on your back and a TWA Youth Passport' in your hand, you can see a lot more of the U.S. for a lot less with TWA. Here are some ways we help. Overnite Pass. TWA's terrific new money saver. 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