TRE
Summer Daily
SIimmlenr Edi/11 7of
TIlL MII( lIlG(AN DAILY
Edited and managed by students at the
University of Michigan
Thursday, May 31, 1973 News Phone 764-0552
Nixon won't talk
IN REFUSING to testify on Watergate, President Nixon
is showing the ultimate contempt for Congress, the
judicial system, and the citizens of the United States.
Ronald Ziegler, Nixon's Press Secretary, announced
yesterday that the President will not permit himself to
testify before any Congressional or judicial Watergate
panels. Furthermore, this ban will apply not only to
sworn testimony, but to informal statements and writ-
ten responses to written questions as well.
"We feel it would be constitutionally inappropriate,"
explained Ziegler. "It would do violence to the separa-
tion of powers.
The Constitution grants no immunity to a president.
He may be summoned to court.
B UT THE issue really isn't one of "separation of pow-
ers" as much as it is getting the truth out into the
open. How much did Nixon know? What was his part, if
any, in the cover-up?
It would seem that Nixon, as eager as he is to clear
his good name for the history books, would be anxious
to appear before an investigative committee, and clear
up the matter perhaps once and for all.
And yet, Nixon refuses, prefering instead to release
at his leisure carefully prepared and worded statements
about his role in Watergate. Unfortunately, most of his
statements so far have lead more to questions than to
answers.
sHE PRESIDENT, as leader of this nation, owes it to the
people of this nation to tell them the truth of his
personal involvement in Watergate.
Unfortunately, Nixon won't accept this. Instead, he
will sit comfortably in his White House office behind a
cloak of "national security," and remain secure in his
knowledge that he has the support of the POWs and
Julie Eisenhower.
Americans for Democratic Action:
Assuming new relevance
By JAMES WECHSLER
IN ORDINARY circumstances,
the adoption of a resolution
by a national convention of Amer-
icans for Democratic Action calling
for the resignation of Richard Nix-
on, explicitly accompanied by re-
jection of proposals for the simul-
n
IE
tt
le
J taneous retirement of Spiro Ag-
wanouhv efctos re fer
C) p os g S J s oe S new, would have been the target
of jest and incredulity. There
would have been facetious refer- cl
THE COMPREHENSIVE Health Planning Council of ences to the new "ADA-for-Ag-
Southeastern Michigan (CHPC) will meet next new' legions.
Wednesday to consider final approval for St. Joseph Mr. Nixon's political condition thatc
Mercy Hospital's proposed move to Superior Township. no such reaction has been evident. t
We urge the council to veto this proposal. While the ADA sessions held in e
It is quite apparent that St. Joseph has not consid- Washington a weekend ago revoked y
ered the needs of the general community in its decision no big headlines, neither did theye
to move. This is despite the fact that such a condition No press and TV reports I have b
was set forth by the CHPC, in conjunction with the seen suggested there was any- s
Greater Detroit Area Hospital Council, which has al- thing extraordinary about the mor- b
ready approved the move, ose reconciliation of this bloc d
It was requested by the two groups that the compo- on Agnew succession. t
w
sition of St. Joseph's Community Advisory Board be so LISTENING TO the debate that d
composed as "to reflect a cross-section of the people in preceded the vote, one hardly de- s
the service area." tected any surge of ardor for Ag-
However, we do not think that St. Joseph's advisory new. The view that decisively pre- th
board, consisting for the most part of bank presidents, vailed was that - on the record D
university presidents, physicians, and other such people already amassed - the case for c
tulry represdents , acro-scion, on thi commun . p Mr. Nixon's withdrawal was irresis- e
truly represents a cross-section of this community. tible. Indeed, the most serious di- c
SHOULD THE move of St. Joseph be approved, the aver- vision occurred between those who r
age Ann Arbor citizen may face a reduction in avail- heatedly urged the initiation of im- t
able ambulatory care services such as emergency room peachment proceedings and those
out-patient who were in effect calling for an d
treatment and diagnostic and therapeutic uexpression of no-confidence in the
services. Furthermore, moving costs may very well raise Chief Executive by both the coun-
medical costs at St. Joseph's. try and Congress, on the ground l
We oppose the move for these reasons, and hope that that he cannot retrieve the moral A
CHPC will do likewise. damage his leadership has suffer- la
ed. b
But the delegates were persuad- e
ed that no comparable indictment b
could be drawn against a Vie
President who, so far as anything
EDNESDAY, Canada announced that it will pull its now revealed, was luckily isolated
WEfrom a key role in the internal
troops from the International Commission of Con- operations, of Campaign '72.
trol and Supervision in Vietnam within 60 days. In so Mr. Nixon has shown no disposi-
doing, Canada has become the first country to own up tion to accept ADA's counsel on T
to the reality of the failure of Nixon's "peace with this or many other large matters
honor". (although his detente with Peking
Canada agreed to become a party of the post-war was prescribed in ADA resolutions
supervision panel, believing that the Vietnam war was aWhat edmathe dea te addeci
indeed over, as President Nixon has insisted so often. politically notable was the near-un- c
As a result, the Canadians have lost one of its soldiers animity of the judgment that the
in a helicopter crash, caused by "treaty-violators" in President's position has become t
South Vietnam. And most importantly, they have found untenable, conclusthoug ae tan
no peace to supervise. justment to the prospect of Ag-
It was also announced yesterday that Henry Kis-
singer and Le Duc Tho have agreed to a new peace plan James Wechsler is editorial di-
which will really end the war this time. rector for the New York Post.
And will the future bring a new, new, improved peace Copyright 1973, New York Post
plan, if this one doesn't work? Corporation.
new's elevation - and the probab-
e strengthening of his bid for the
976 nomination.
I FELT NO exuberance about
iasage of the resolution; my own
emptation would have been to
et events evolve further. But a
Fair report must acknowledge that
mine was a very solitary position,
and that the stand ultimately taken
learly reflected a compromise
with the no-impeachment group.
Nor could the intensity of the
entiment be ascribed to the an-
ient adversary relationship be-
ween Mr. Nixon and the ADA's
lder statemen. There have been
'ears, when ADA conventions re-
embled an alumni reunion of ve-
eran liberals, intellectuals and la-
orites rather than an activist as-
emblage. I was struck this year
by the presence of many younger
elegates who had grown up in
the political wars of the 60s, and,
rho in many instances, had been
rawn to ADA under the chairman-
hip of Allard Lowenstein.
It seemed equally clear w i t h
.he election of able, forthright Rep.
Son Fraser of Minnesota to suc-
eed Lowenstein, that ADA has
stablished itself as a major vehi-
le for carrying on the battle for
eform within the Democratic Par-
y. That is the cause with which.
Eraser, of course, has been most
ramatically identified.
IN THAT connection, one of the
ess-publicized actions of this 26th
DA convention was worthy of
arger notice. It was the adoption.
y a large majority - after spirit-
d discussion - of a resolution
asically challenging the current
intellectual backlash on equal
rights. It declared in part;
"To measure the success of af-
firmative action programs (to com-
bat discrimination), goals and time-
tables must be set. We support
preferential inclusion where sys-
tematic exclusion has occurred."
Thus ADA reaffirmed its ties
with such black leaders as t h e
NAACP's Roy Wilkins and t h e
Urban League's Vernon Jordan
who have warned that the "anti-
quota" cult has become a complac-
ent cover for retrogression and re-
treat in the civil rights battle. And
it was Rep. Andrew Young (D-
Ga.) longtime associate of Mar-
tin Luther King, who delivered the
convention's keynote address.
POLITICAL FORTUNES and
forecasts are more than ever sub-
ject to the hourly bulletins from
Washington. But ADA appeared to
be defining itself anew as a coali-
tion of resistance to the strategy
of respectability proclaimed by the
Coalition for a Democratic Major-
ity and its fellow-travelers.
Having survived the taunts of
the faded "New Left", it is con-
testing the politics of "moderate"
accommodation and creating new
bonds with the progressive insurg-
ents of labor. Mine Workers presi-
dent Arnold Miller was honored at
its dinner; UAW vice oresident
Doug Fraser and Jerry Wurf of
the State, County and, Municipal
Workers were among tiose on the
scene. So, too, incidentally, were
the two men who voted against the
Gulf of Tonkin resolution -- Wayne
Morse and Ernest Gruening.
ADA may not be the wave of
the future but it has assumed a
new relevance to the present.
Letters to The Daily
More 'NRZ support
'~o The Daily:
THlE KIDS AT the Children's
ommunity Center have been ask-
ing what happened to WRZ com-
munity radio. It is true they do
ot understand completely w h at
ommunity radio is, but they do
miss certain aspects of the pro-
ramming which directly affected
hem.
The Editorial Page of The
Michigan Daily is open to any-
one who w i s h e s to submit
articles. Generally speaking, all
articles should be less than 1,000
words.
Here are some statements from
the kids:;
I'm missing Bob Rudnick.
I miss getting to talk on the air.
It was fun to go out to the radio
station.
We miss hearing stuff on the ra-
dio about theaChildren's Commun-
ity Center.
As parents of the CCC, we col-
lectively miss the good news cov-
erage annoeicements. We are look-
ing forward to hearing community
radio back on the air. We hope we
don't have a long wait.
-Patricia Higgins
for the Children's
Community Center
May 11